Apple Thoughts: The Scosche passPORT Charging Adapter

The Scosche passPORT Charging Adapter for iPod touch 2G, 3G; iPod nano 4G; iPhone 3G (Black)is something I just picked up, wondering if I could actually put to use some of the old charging cables that are currently gathering dust in one of my drawers. Is this the fix-all that I was hoping for? Well, not quite, but read on.

I debated wether or not to buy this, since I could get a charging cable cheaper than this device. Granted it was only a few dollars more than a good charging cable but I have several cables for various iPods and iPhones sitting in a drawer and wanted to know how well this device would work. I also was curious to see if this would work on a couple of FM transmitter cables I used to use on my iPods to play music through my car stereo. The Passport worked on almost all of the cables, so I wasn't met with that annoying "this device isn't made to work" message when I plugged in my iPhone, and it started charging right away. On two of the cables (I have several from a variety of companies) I did get the message, but once I unplugged it and plugged it back in, the message went away and the iPhone began charging.

Now it was on to the FM transmitter cable, and it did charge with the Passport. However it did nothing to stop the annoying interference that sometimes comes through the radio from the iPhone, but I didn't really expect that to end since this is more of a shielding on the cable issue than a connector. So it was only a partial success here for what I "wanted" to happen but a success based on what the Passport said it would do.

So should you buy one? If you have several charging cables or FM transmitter cables sitting around that won't work for your newer iPod or iPhone, and you want to have a cable in each of your cars, then you should definitely consider this handy device. It is all I have to carry if I am going to be in one of our vehicles. However, if you don't have the cable population I have, you are probably better off just getting a new cable, and especially true if you need the FM transmitter option as this will do nothing to stop the interference.