USB Sync Cable with On/OFF Charging Control

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by Judie Hughes

November 11, 2003

Product Requirements:
Palm m500 series. Palm Tungsten T series, Palm Zire 71, CLIÉ T/NR/SL/SJ/NX/NZ/TG/TJ series, CLIÉ N/S series, iPAQ 1910/221x/38xx/39xx/54xx/55xx series, ASUS A620, MiTAC Mio 338/528, Viewsonic V35, O2xda/xda2

One of the first things many people do when they get a new PDA is buy an extra cradle so that they can sync and charge when at work. Of course, the average cradle can cost upwards of $50, plus there is the fact that they take up so much room!

If gearbag, or even your desktop space is at a premium, then you might want to take a look at two new sync and charge cables available from Brando Workshop and Surplus PDA. From end to end, the Brando cable is 56.5" long (143.5cm), and the Surplus PDA cable is 65" (163cm). Otherwise, there are no differences between the two.

The beauty of these sync cables is that they operate in a fashion quite similar to a cradle. Just as a cradle will light up when a PDA is charging, and just as some will light up when syncing, these sync cables have glowing LED lights to let you know what functions the cable is performing. A red light will glow for battery charging, and a blue light will glow when data is being synchronized.

The Palm OS versions of these sync cables include a hot-sync button which corrects a major design flaw of other lesser cables. When there is no hot-sync button, the user has to enter the function from the screen, which depending on their set up can involve multiple layers of taps.

This isn't really an issue with a Pocket PC's sync cable, since Active Sync will generally start on it's own (depending on your settings) as new data is added.

One last feature of these cables is that there is a slider which can be adjusted to turn the battery charging capability on or off. I am almost obsessive/compulsive about keeping my PDAs charged, so this isn't really a function that I will use.

For those of you that need the portability of a cable, or that don't want the expense of a second cradle, these USB Sync Cables are a perfect solution.

This USB Sync Cable is avaiable from Brando Workshop and Surplus PDA.

Price: $16.99 - 19.90

Pros:
Fair price
Portable
LED lights tell you what function is running
Hot Sync button on Palm OS models
You can turn off the power charging feature

Cons:
None