Gizmodo: gomadic

Lightning Round: Gomadic's QuadCharge Universal Charging Station

Jason Chen — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:20:26 EDT

The Gadget: Gomadic's QuadCharge Universal Charging Station, which charges your phones, MP3 players, Bluetooth headsets and various USB devices all in one place. It saves space, plus organizes cables neatly with only one cord running out into the wall.

The Verdict: Sturdy build (slip-proof surface) and lots of charging tips allows you not to have to sacrifice quality for convenience. Oh, and it's reasonably priced too, which makes this a definite buy if you've got multiple gadgets to charge.

The Catch:

You still have to buy individual charging tips, which are sold separately. It's also somewhat bulky, but considering that it's four chargers in one, it's quite reasonable.

The Performance: It charged our phones and MP3 players in just about the same time as it would take with a standard charger. Most devices fit neatly onto the slip-proof tray, but large devices such as Nintendo DS Lite may require some arrangement.

The Price: $49.95 for the base unit, $5.95 for each charger tip.

The Recommendation: If you have a lot of stuff to charge (phones, MP3 players, DS Lite, whatever), get one of these. At $49 + $24 (for four tips), you'll save lots of space and have a nice station for all your electronics to boot. It doesn't charge quite as many devices at once as the Chargepod charge station, but each tip only costs $5.95 instead of $9.95.

[Gomadic]

Gomadic Charging Station Hides Shame, Displays Gadgets

Jason Chen — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:40:05 EDT

We're no strangers to charging stations, having reviewed a couple before, but these Gomadic charging stations seem to be a little different. Instead of hiding a power strip inside the station, as we saw in the Kangaroom units, Gomadic has only one AC connection to the wall.

How do they do it?

Well, the charging station combines a cable organizer/hider with exchangeable tips. This way you can swap in and out tips depending on what stuff you're charging (no points for finding obscure ones they don't support) so you can keep your original chargers at work or elsewhere.

Gomadic's claim is that keeping a power strip and AC adapters hidden is a bad idea because it may lead to the universe imploding. Or fires. We didn't read very carefully. In any case, this charger seems like a neat idea if you have gadgets that are supported by Gomadic's tips. – Jason Chen

Sneak Peek [Gomadic via Digital Media Thoughts via Uber Gizmo]

Made For iPhone (Or Any Other Phone You May Own)

www.gizmodo.com — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:20:00 EDT

It happened. "For the iPhone" has become a sales catchphrase. And in these first instances, when nary a third-party manufacturer is likely to have his hands on anything like an iPhone, the use of the term is fairly lame. Amazon is selling a Gomadic Wireless Bluetooth Headset for the Apple iPhone. If you read the fine print, it says it started shipping in November 2006. Either Gomadic has a swimming pool full of pre-cogs somewhere, or Gomadic is simply one of the many makers of Bluetooth headsets that will work with the standard-friendly Bluetooth-enabled iPhone. Visit Gomadic's website, and you'll see a lot of other headsets, specialized, it would seem, for every Bluetooth phone imaginable. They all look strangely like the one made for iPhone.

One wonders how long "For the iPhone" will be used by marketers before it is institutionalized by Apple, with a cute logo and a nominal surcharge.–Wilson Rothman

Wireless Bluetooth Headset for the Apple iPhone via MobileWhack