G1 Docking Cradle / Dual Battery Charger

**Jaxidian** · 01-02-2009, 11:26 AM

"Moving" this thread to here since I placed it in the wrong forum! :-)

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So a friend of mine pointed out a Gizmodo article about a docking cradle that I had to check out. Turns out, I'm really glad he did! I have been wanting a docking cradle since the first week I got my phone and have had a second battery since the third week and this thing turned out to be perfect!

I'm not gonna bother with any pics since there isn't much to see with it that those sites haven't already bothered to show.

So obviously you can dock your phone into this thing as well as having a second battery charging at the same time. What's not so obvious is that there are two different power sources. Permanently connected is a USB cord which powers the docked port. Then there is a removable AC/DC adapter-to-mini-USB (note: this was a 2A adapter which means it should charge much more quickly than some of the crappy AD/DC-to-mini-USB adapters you find out in the wild) which powers the spare battery charging. At first this sounds like strange but thinking about it, this makes sense. Powering the docked port via USB also allows you to have a PC connected to your G1 for whatever reasons (copying music, etc. to it) in addition to the charging of the battery. And the second power source being an AC/DC adapter makes sense because this will charge that batter much faster than USB will (and obviously the first USB connection can't reasonably power both batteries charging). So thumbs up to whoever it is that created this thing!

Speaking of whoever created this thing, I honestly don't know. It's obviously a Chinese company. Well, it's obvious to me because it came in a hand-addressed bubble envelope from Hong Kong. The return address was a person's name. So I really don't know WHO made this thing. :-P

The only other thing I have to comment on the thing is the actual docking of the phone into it. Obviously our phones' USB port has the little plastic/rubber thing to keep the port from getting all dirty and gummed up with crap. And this thing is more-or-less permanently attached. Well, this cradle was designed with this in mind and has a little area for that cover to go into when you dock your phone. It works pretty well but sometimes I have to try a couple times because the cover gets in the way or doesn't perfectly fit into the hole. It's not bad at all, just ever-so-slightly annoying sometimes. Also, when your phone is docked, it is not at the angle I would have liked for it to be. I would have liked the screen to be at a 15-30 degree angle but instead it's nearly perpendicular to the desktop where the cradle sits.

Overall, I would have to say that the viewing angle of the screen when docked is really the most significant beef I have with the device. I've had it now for about a month and it has met my needs quite well! And for anybody who has a second battery for their G1, I STRONGLY recommend this! $17 is a great price that I don't think will ever be beat!

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I hope this helps somebody! :-)

-Jax

**scrannel** · 01-02-2009, 11:36 AM

OK, if you have one, the AC adapter is universal, I presume? In other words, not just USA 110AC?

**Jaxidian** · 01-02-2009, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by scrannel

OK, if you have one, the AC adapter is universal, I presume? In other words, not just USA 110AC?

Sorry, no. The AC adapter is an American one, 110V. BUT you could easily just use a second standard USB-to-mini-USB cable to power that second port. Of course it doesn't come with it but the port that powers that is standard mini-USB.

**agentaaron** · 01-02-2009, 11:47 AM

Is it possible to plug the headphone adapter and a pair of speakers into the USB port on the back and use it for audio instead of power?

If so...im sold

**Jaxidian** · 01-02-2009, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by agentaaron

Is it possible to plug the headphone adapter and a pair of speakers into the USB port on the back and use it for audio instead of power?

If so...im sold

On the back side is a standard, full-size USB connecter (the male end that you would plug into a computer). If you can connect that to speakers somehow, then I don't see why this wouldn't work. But I can't promise anything. The headphone adapter will most certainly not work since it plugs directly into the phone. You'd have to have some other adapter to get it to work, I'd think. I've yet to use any speaker/headphone connection physically to the phone. I don't use it for music, ever.

**scrannel** · 01-02-2009, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by Jaxidian

Sorry, no. The AC adapter is an American one, 110V. BUT you could easily just use a second standard USB-to-mini-USB cable to power that second port. Of course it doesn't come with it but the port that powers that is standard mini-USB.

No thanks... I'll check back in a year.