Reddit mentions of FRiEQ® Hi-Speed Extra Long (6 Ft/1.8m) Nylon Braided Tangle-Free USB 2.0 Micro USB Charging/Sync Cable For Samsung Galaxy S4, S3, Note 2, HTC, Motorola, LG, PS4, Xbox one (Black/Rose Pink)

I could use this phone charger! The one I'm using has started going wonky. I think my cat tried to eat it. Smh, cats. -_-

Thanks for the contest! ♥

I've got one of theses, they're nice because they're cloth jacketed, http://amzn.com/B00HZXYYQ6.

This have become my go to cable though, they're awesome, I have a ton of them, and not one failure,
http://amzn.com/B00F2OP9V4

I don't know about any old USB cable, but I bought this one, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HZXYYQ6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1, and it works fantastic! Charges really fast for both the N6 and HTC M8. And it's 6ft long which is nice.

Yup, sounds confusing, but the hub supplies the Pi with power, and a few extra ports. You will need a powered hub (with it's power cord), whatever cord comes with the hub to hook it up to a computer with and a USB to Micro USB cable to power the Pi with. Hub into wall, any USB port into Pi power, one of the Pi USB data ports into the hub's uplink port. If you get a decent quality powered hub you'll have no issues powering the Pi and any keyboards, mice, thumb drives or small hard drives and only take up one power outlet. Note, this only works reliably with later revisions of the Pi (B, B+, and onward), the first Pi's had issues with this kind of setup. If you use a wifi dongle you can easily run a small headless server with just one cord.

I splurged and picked up a AmazonBasics 7 port hub ($20) and this FRiEQ usb cable ($8) and can say they both work well and are small. I have a wifi dongle, logitech universal receiver for keyboard and mouse, a bluetooth dongle, a 16G sandisk thumbdrive attached and have used a 500G external usb HD all with this setup.

For your grandparents this could make a small media-center setup, certainly.

Yep.

But make sure you buy good quality usb cord that has thick gauge wires. I did some testing and I found these three cables to be of sufficient gauge to charge the OPO as fast as the stock cable(~1.8amp).

Link Depot 6ft cable - 22 awg -$7

FriEQ nylon braided cable - $7

Kopi 1m - 20 gauge - $6

Buy a quality one that is threaded like https://www.amazon.com/Hi-Speed-Braided-Tangle-Free-Charging-Motorola/dp/B00HZXYYQ6
My brother got one of these a few months back and hasn't had a single issue with it since.