Macenstein

This year anyone looking for the perfect Father’s Day gift for the tech obsessed Dad need look no further than the iDapt I3 charging station. Well, MY kids at least need look no further (and yeah, I suppose there might be a geeky Mom or two out there who would love it as well).

The I3 is available in “Manly Pink”, as well as 8 other colors.

Designed to minimize the cable clutter and outlet overload of today’s kitchens, the I3 get’s its name from the three separate charging “tips” you can pop into the available openings which will allow you to charge pretty much any handheld device known to geeks. Each I3 comes with tips for the iPhone/iPod, as well as phones from Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, and both a miniUSB and a microUSB tip, pretty much assuring that you can charge anything from a GPS or digital camera to an iPhone external battery from the likes of Mophie, Mili, or Novothink.

Awww… it’s like they’re getting a couple’s massage…

Swapping tips is easy, simply press on the two raised pressure buttons on either side of a tip to lift it up, and snap in a new one.

The I3 ships with a nice assortment of popular tips, or you can order your own.

While odds are the I3 will meet all your charging needs out of the box, you can order additional tips on a tip-by-tip basis if you’d like. For example, being a 2-iPhone, 2-iPod house, I figured I needed 3 iPhone tips. IDAPT sells tips covering most mobile phones, as well as other gadgets like the Nintendo DS, and it even has an adapter for charging rechargeable batteries. Extra tips are sold in packs of 4, 6 or 10, and the four pack allows you to choose any 4 tips you’d like, while the 6 and 10 packs come in specific sets.

If, like me, you are a multi-iPhone/iPod house, you can load the I3 up with iPod tips.

Issues
I haven’t really run into any issues with the I3, and I found it to be a much appreciated addition to our kitchen area where we previously had a tangled mess of charging cables and USB adapters that were being plugged and unplugged to make way to waffle makers and such. The only thing I might point out is that none of the adapters come with any sort of backing support or cradle, meaning your devices are being held upright solely by their connectors. Assuming you’re reasonably careful in inserting your devices you should be fine, but if you have smal kids who may be trying to charge their game devices or such, you may need to teach them to be careful. Also, this lack of support also means you aren’t going to want to try to charge your iPad on it.
🙂

Conclusion

The I3 comes in 9 colors, and aside from a power switch on the back of the I3, there are really no other features or settings. There’s really nothing much else to write about the thing except that’s it’s awesome, and you should get it. It costs about $50-$60 on Amazon. Whether you’re looking for a gift your dad will love, or a gift that YOU’LL love that you can give him, pretending it’s for him, but secretly hoping he’ll never use it and then eventually give to you… the IDAPT I3 is my go to suggestion this year.

Price: $50-$60 depending on color (on Amazon)
Pros: Can charge a huge array of the most popular gadgets, including phones, cameras, GPS units, battery packs, iPods and iPhones, and the Nintendo DS, manages cord clutter and desktop space, comes in 9 colors
Cons: None significant