If you’re an Apple Watch and iPhone owner, there’s a good chance you suffer from cluttered-nightstand syndrome. There’s only so much surface space on your standard bedside table, and plugging in multiple devices for overnight charging can mean a tangle of wires and general disarray.
The Belkin PowerHouse charging dock, which juices up an iPhone and an Apple Watch at the same time, will cure you instantly of this 21st-century malady.
When you’ve got more than one iDevice to keep charged, it can result in a tangled mess of wires and screens. To prevent leaving your desk looking like a droid lost its lunch there, Avantree built a dock that keeps up to four of your USB-charged devices humming, while keeping your desk uncluttered.
Winner of the 2014 Red Dot Design Award, this is a great solution for any home or office. And right now you can get one for just $35.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.
If there’s a single iPhone and iPad accessory I consider myself to be the most picky about, it would be charging docks and stands. While there isn’t a shortage of options, let’s be honest, most of them aren’t that great. They either don’t dock securely or they’re obsolete when a new iPhone or iPad form factor comes out.
That’s why I’ve narrowed down my vote for best iPhone and iPad charging docks to only two candidates. Yep, just two. Here’s what they are and why I think they’re better than most:
We’re bound to see some innovative new Apple Watch charging docks at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, and kicking things off is accessory maker Actionproof’s cute “Bozon” Apple Watch charging dock.
Am I the only one who thinks this looks like a little Pixar cartoon alien?
I have a gadget-friendly family. We’ve all got an iPhone, a few of us have iPads, and I’ve got an Apple Watch. All of these devices require charging, and all of them need a place to hang out when they’re not being used.
The AllDock is a gorgeous wooden universal charging station that lets me store and charge all the family devices in one location with ease, making it simple to grab any device and use it at a moment’s notice.
Apple Watch stand makers are responding to watchOS 2’s Nightstand mode feature, which will turn your wearable into a makeshift alarm clock and display the time in landscape mode when it’s charging on its side. New Apple Watch docks are starting to appear to accommodate this feature ahead of the software update coming this fall.
After spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on your new Apple Watch, it’s hard to justify tossing the device on the table to charge like discarded jewelry. If you’ve got a 3-D printer, it’s easy to class things up by printing out an Apple Watch stand.
These 3-D-printed Apple Watch stands will protect your high-tech timepiece from scratches and, more importantly, provide a platform to show off your new smartwatch to friends and family — even when you aren’t using it.
A variety of 3-D printing files are available to download completely free of charge, and they get the job done just fine. Take a look at some of the best designs out there — all of which cost nothing to download.
Why does Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” buzz through my head when I look at the Griffin PowerDock 5? Because the five-port docking station reminds me of one of those old roadside gas stations out on the desert highway.
Get all five of your motors running.
Here’s how you know you’re a nerd: a charging station gets you excited. Yeah, I’ll say it: the IDAPT i4+ Universal Charger ($60) excites me. And yes, I’ve known the touch of a woman.
Before you judge me any further, let me explain how the i4+ works; you might start getting a tingly sensation too.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 – Wandering the showfloor of CES as a juiced-out gadget writer, charging solutions can take on a bizarrely exotic appeal. That external battery pack you passed over the press release for with a yawn months ago can suddenly become this season’s must-have gadget, all because your MacBook’s battery icon is blinking red, all the outlets are taken in the press room and you’ve got three stories to file.
As such, it’s hard to tell if I like iLuv’s DreamTraveler so much because I’ve got a desert wanderer’s thirst for electricity or because it’s genuinely a sexy, useful product. Certainly the Cult of Mac team could have used one in the press room this week. But I’m definitely leaning toward ‘sexy’ and ‘useful’, because the DreamTraveler isn’t just a good looking power strip, it’s also a dock that can charge six Apple gadgets at a time from just one outlet.
