Power Cord Set works but needs to adap

The concept for the first product being reviewed below great, but I fear if the company behind WildCharge doesn't quickly release more adapters, this useful item could face Power Cord Set. As for the second set of products, well, they are practical gadgets with an unusual source of power - you. Just crank it up and off you go. WildCharge is simple and ingenious: It's a charging pad on which you place your gadgets to power up. Using an adapter, your device charges by contact - "wire free," as the company likes to say - and it can handle multiple gadgets at the same time. It is a very cool concept. Plus it looks nifty on your desk. I've been using it to charge a Motorola Razr and an iPod Touch. To make it work with the Razr, you remove the phone's rear cover and replace it with an adapter from WildCharge. The adapter then doubles as a rear cover. So when you come home after a long day of chatting, place the Razr on the WildCharge pad and the phone's battery charges. No plugs are needed, just the one that powers WildCharge. With the iPod Touch, the charging adapter is built into a gel-type case, which doubles as protection for the iPod, and charges the same way. While it works exceptionally well, the WildCharge is not ready for prime time. The big issue is that the device works only with the Razr. The iPod Touch case I've been testing is a sample expected to ship in May. An iPhone case also will be available. In June, WildCharge is expected to work with three BlackBerry models: the Curve, the Pearl and the 8800. But the biggest advancement could come when a universal adapter ships by the third quarter, Chief Executive Izhar Matzkevich said. If these goals are reached, this would be a great product for the holiday season. But I'm skeptical. Previously, the firm said more adapters already would be available. For now, you can buy the WildCharge pad, which sells for $60, and the Razr adapter for $35 at WildCharge.com. "It took us longer than we thought it would," Matzkevich said. "But what we have now is better than what we have demonstrated publicly before. We decided it would be better if it took a little longer." By the holidays, he said, the WildCharge should be able to handle more than 80 percent of the mobile phones sold today, most MP3 players (think Apple) and even some laptops when a more powerful and bigger version of the WildCharge is offered. But the company needs to hustle. Already there are several competing products that charge a multitude of gadgets, even if each approach is different. The Powerstick, for example, which gets its charge from a USB port, costs $70 and ships with adapters to power nine different gadgets. And the Chargepod, which can power up to six devices at once, has multiple price points, starting at $50, depending on how many gadgets you want to connect. Both have adapters for practically any hand-held gadget, even cameras. (Reviews of both these items can be found at the Eric 2.0 blog, chicagotribune.com/eric.) Crank it up: Another power play is hand-cranked gadgets. I've been testing two versions of a combination gadget from a company called Life+Gear. Both are considered "personal safety devices" and are ideal for keeping in your car, for camping trips or for home use when the power goes out. They are durable too. So if you want to turn off all the lights and have an adventure with, say, a 4-year-old, this is what you want. One is the 6-in-1 Safety Light ($35), which includes a bright LED flashlight that doubles as a flasher, a siren, compass, radio for emergency reports and cell phone charging cable. Go to Life GearCompany.com for the appropriate, and free, phone charger. It ships with a Nokia universal charging cord. The other is the 6-in-1 NOAA, on sale for $30. The acronym is for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA.gov), which runs the weather band included on this device. It also has an AM/FM radio, siren, flashlight (with emergency flashers) and free phone charging cable. I like the second one better because of the full-function radio, but the flashlight on the Safety Light is much brighter. The best part: No batteries are required. Just crank for 30 seconds and you have power for an hour. These 6-in-1 gadgets aren't the coolest tools I've ever used, but they sure are handy.