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Simple charging that’s green and keen

EcoCHARGE Energy-Efficient Wall ChargerDilemma: I have no love of bards that include all caps, but I I admire when companies bring thoughtful touches to workaday products. The latter outweighs the former for the EcoCHARGE from the nearly palindronic Ventev. I met with the company at the MobileFocus event at CTIA.

This environmentally conscious charger includes a TI chip to prevent so-called “vampire power” consumption, but is loaded with many nice touches, such as a form factor that won’t cover other outlets in a typical power strip, a large but not overbearingly bright white charging indicator light, a hinge for adjusting the angle of the cord, and an extra, covered USB port. Even the arc of the grip on the plug side of device was explicitly designed to help remove the device from the wall. The only extra Id like to see would be a retractable cable so that the whole charger is more compact, because I plan to take it everywhere I travel, and perhaps support of USB 3.0 for faster charging.

At least two other companies with more ambitious charging systems had a presence at CTIA. The Gadgeteer has a good review of the iDAPT system, and Powermat, the magnetic induction charging system making a big push at Best Buy and Target that I’ll be writing more about.