iLounge

Company: ezGear

Website: www.ezGear4u.com

Model: ezCharge Shuffle

Price: $19.98

Compatible: iPod shuffle

ezGear ezCharge for iPod shuffle

By Jeremy Horwitz

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Thursday, June 9, 2005
Category: Car Power Chargers, Kits and Adapters - iPod

Pros: Simple iPod shuffle car charger that performs as promised, adequately matches color of shuffle, affordable.

Cons: No-frills looks, doesn’t do anything other than charge the shuffle in a car.

If you need an simple way to recharge your iPod shuffle in the car, ezGear’s ezCharge for iPod shuffle ($19.98) will meet your needs. It’s a generic-looking white plastic car charger with a coiled cord in the center and a female USB port at the end, matched only vaguely to the iPod shuffle’s look and feel.

You plug the car adapter bulb into your vehicle’s cigarette lighter, and a small green/yellow LED light illuminates to show that power’s running through the unit. In bright sunlight, the LED isn’t especially visible, but then it’s not really necessary: once you plug in your iPod shuffle, the shuffle’s own rear battery indicator light turns yellow and remains on while charging. (Our photograph below was taken in a garage with extended exposure to show the light.)

ezCharge worked properly in our test charging of an iPod shuffle, and although it’s not advertised as such, it also works to recharge iPod 4G, photo, and mini models on the go - assuming you connect the USB-to-Dock Connector cables that they were packaged with. However, our test iPod 3G wouldn’t recharge using the USB cable, freezing up when we tried it, so we wouldn’t advise others to try the same test. In the unlikely event of a power surge, ezGear notes that the charger includes a replaceable fuse that will blow before your shuffle is overloaded, a nice idea.

Overall, ezCharge for the iPod shuffle is roughly equivalent to Griffin’s PowerPod (iLounge rating: B): a no-frills car charger that does what it promises but nothing more. It’s limited in functionality by comparison with certain full-sized iPod chargers we’ve seen, some of which include audio outputs, and it’s not as attractively designed visually as many of the accessories we review. However, as the first-of-its-kind dedicated car charger for the iPod shuffle, it’s recommendable because it’s affordable and works properly. We’ve yet to see a better valued alternative.