I used to be able to turn my macbook air on, plug in an android phone, then close the lid and the phone would keep charging. Note, this was not the same as charge-and-sleep, which works all the time (like on ThinkPads). There is a link to someone describing this process here:
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/07/23/why-i-love-yellow-usb-ports-sleep-and-charge/
But, this doesn't work for me anymore. I've managed to replicate this with a friend's android phone on his macbook pro. He's running snow leopard, I'm running lion.
I'm guessing at some point Apple disabled this. Any ideas how to re-enable it?
I'd also be curious to hear about people's success with different platforms (i.e., iPhone, etc.)
Best Answer
I wish I had a how to but I have a 2010 MBA upgraded to Lion. Connected my work phone, droid incredible, with the machine on and closed the lid and went to sleep and woke and the droid was charged. So it is possible just don't know where to tell you to go to make it happen. Also, meant to plug the MBA into power but forgot to connect the magsafe, so maybe try it without connecting the magsafe see if that was the trick.