Customer Reviews

Retractable Hotsysnc & Charging USB Data Cable + USB Car Charger + USB Home Travel Charger for Apple Iphone 3G 2nd Generation Smartphone

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

SHIPPER: Very fast shipping; I'm happy
PRODUCT: The wall charger is larger than the factory one and has a power-on LED. Nice to see if there is any "connection issue"...which there has not been.

The retractable cable is great for traveling; just enough length for mobile use. IT DOES SYNC.

The car charger charges.

CONCLUSION: I'm happy, IPhone 3g is happy, so.....?

UPDATE January 2009/ This unit charges my iPhone 3g at home, but at my sister's house it doesn't work. It might be that the voltage at her place is lower or higher and somehow affecting the device. Also, the retractable cable mechanism broke, so I just unscrewed it and took out the cable. It is not retractable any more, but it still works.
/UPDATE

This was well worth the risk. The chargers do look a bit cheap, but hey, for this price you can't expect a lifetime warranty with gold-plated connectors. The cable looks sturdy enough and unlike the default 3G sync cable this one locks into place and you need to press the button on the plug to release and disconnect it from the iPhone.

When I first connected my iPhone 3G to this charger and cable, it displayed the icon like it was already charged, although the battery was half full. However, then I tried connecting this cable to Apple's original charger and it worked. After that I tried connecting Apple's cable to this charger and that worked too. After that I reconnected the cables to their original chargers and weeks later everything is still working fine.

Although the AC power supply is rated at 1 A, I don't think it has that value because it seems to take more time to charge my iPhone than with Apple's original 1 A charger.

Both chargers have the USB outlet and the same cable has to be used with either one of them, or you can use the original Apple cable as well. It would have been nice to have two identical cables so I could keep one in the car. The car charger works just fine, with the red LED being quite bright.

Bottomline: It works and it's very affordable. Go for it, unless you don't like saving a greater portion of the price of Apple's accessories and feeling cheap.

Fairly cheaply made. Not exactly the quality I was looking for.

Also when I have my Iphone plugged into my computer, my other USB devices have issues including my mouse and keyboard. My mouse powered off and my keyboard seems to be picking up interference. By removing the cable the issues go away. Not good at all.

From what I've experienced, the other reviewers are correct: this product is either not designed to charge an iPhone 3G from a wall outlet (the most likely case since the Firewire pinouts were removed for the 3G), or else has such quality control problems that only a minority of wall units sold (judging from the reviews) actually work. The presentation on my iPhone is that the status icon on the top of the iPhone switches to the charging icon, and the full screen image with the green battery bar graph appears. But the unit doesn't really charge. And when you try to "slide to unlock" when connected to the wall charger, the arrow button never slides, and you cannot get to the Home screen (or the Enter Passcode screen if you have a passcode).

There are several online reports to the effect that several generic third-party iPod/iPhone chargers no longer work with the iPhone 3G. That seems to be true here, despite the claims to 3G-compatibilty.

The USB cable should work fine, though you can purchase it very cheaply by itself. I've not tried the car charger, and honestly wasn't in a big hurry to do so since I've traditionally had bad experiences with such devices (although I must admit that today's rechargeable batteries are much more resilient than the NiCads and lead acid gel contraptions that us greybeards started out with in the 1980s).

So your experience may be better, and it's not a major purchase, but since it's claimed that this is iPhone 3G compatible, I'm giving it one star and suggesting you look elsewhere.

this was great...until it broke. it lasted about 5 months. then the retractable piece fell apart. it still works, but it's now just a 2 foot cable.

YGWYPF The 12V adapter broke fairly quickly out of the box and the data link never worked properly. The pieces are much larger than the original Apple stuff and very lightweight. They are not easy to keep together. If the data cable had worked properly, I would buy the retractable cable individually but it may be the flexible cable that makes the data link not reliable. At the price paid, not even worth returning. A throw away so stay away...

This is a very low cost standby option for me. Not sure of effects due to long term use on the IPhone

Difficult to believe the price on this. I'd have happily paid $15, maybe $20. It's compact, and it works.

the wall adapter does not charge my iPhone 3g or iPod 2g. The car adapter went bad after 1 charge and is useless. do not buy.

Previous reviews were mixed, but I am very happy. Very quick shipping -- received 2 days after order placed.

I have the iPhone 3G with the latest software (2.2.1) and all three components work fine.

Agree that the plastic is kind of cheap and it's probably not durable --- but at this price, I can't complain.