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JAVOedge Mobile Power Kit

June 17, 2005

I love mobile electronics— they’re fun, they keep me organized, and they’re a lot more functional than my old Franklin Planner (do you remember those big binders full of paper forms and tabs?) Unfortunately, mobile electronics also need to be “fed” on a regular basis, which means charging them up with their included AC adapter, or perhaps a retractable sync and charge cable. But what happens when you go on the road for business or personal travel? If you don’t pack along a laptop computer, those cables are worthless, which means lugging a variety of power bricks. I’ve often though there had to be a better way, and it turns out that now there is.

JAVOedge Mobile Power Kit

The JAVOedge Mobile Power Kit includes several parts designed to charge almost any mobile device, be it a PDA, a cell phone, or the Sony PSP. For $48.75 you receive the following:

Three USB Wall Adapters— US, UK, and European
USB Car Charger Adapter
USB DC 3-way Adapter with 2.5, 3.5, and 4.0 mm plugs
Retractable USB male/female Cable
Black Nylon Zipper Bag

That may seem like a lot of money at first, but when you figure out everything you can do with this kit, you start realizing the value. For instance, you can be assured of power any time you’re in a car or have access to a wall plug anywhere in the US or in Europe. If you have the right retractable sync cable (available separately for almost any handheld), you can charge any of your mobile electronics— all you have to do is plug in the right sync-charge cable for your device and then attach the USB end to the appropriate adapter.

I’ve personally tested it with all of my devices, and found that it works with the palmOne LifeDrive, the Kyocera 7135 smartphone, the Sony PSP, and a Nokia 3300 series phone. The phones didn’t need a special cable, as the 3-way adapter included with the kit worked for both. The only things I’ve found that don’t work with the components included with the kit are the Tapwave Zodiac and the Apple iPod— they both require more power than the wall adapter can handle.

For a “freebie” the included travel bag is very nice. It has plenty of room to store all of the adapters, and there are mesh pockets on both sides of the bag to help keep things organized. It has a dual zipper closure, so you can pull them to the top of the bag and then just open it a bit to make sure nothing falls out; there’s also a carry handle on one end. Once I discarded the UK and European plug adapters, I found there was plenty of room for all of my mobile gear— the wall charger, 3-way adapter, retractable charge and sync cables for the LifeDrive and Sony PSP, and some extra stuff like UMD movies and games for the PSP, a full size stylus, etc.

The JAVOedge Mobile Power Kit is a good investment for any mobile device enthusiast who travels frequently and would like to make their journeys easier. It has everything you need in one kit, aside from the device-specific retractable cables, and I think the price is reasonable at $48.75. Even if you’re not a regular road warrior, you can still purchase the parts you want individually at the JAVOedge web site; the USB wall charger alone is $13.95, for example— just use it with your sync cable when you’re at home on the weekends, instead of crawling under your desk at work to unplug the AC adapter that came with your device. You’ll probably wonder how you never lived without it.