By Andrew Liszewski
Normally my eyes tend to glaze over when it comes to the hundreds of accessories available for the iPod or the iPhone, but this relatively compact USB dongle from Macally seems to be pretty useful. On one end you’ll find a standard USB connection but on the other there’s the 30 pin connector used by the iPhone and the various iPod’s for charging and syncing. I guess the primary use of the PowerLink is as an emergency backup battery to extend the life of your device if you happen to be away from a power source. Unfortunately there’s no details on the Macally site as to how much longer you can expect a device to run with the PowerLink attached, but given its size I don’t think we’re talking hours and hours.
The PowerLink can also be used as a substitute sync cable between your PC and iPod/iPhone if you’ve forgotten or chose not to carry the standard cable. Given the fact that it’s not flexible like the cable though, it might be a bit awkward to use if you don’t have a table or flat surface to put the devices on. But as an added bonus Macally has also crammed 2GB of flash memory in there so it’s even useful as just a USB flash drive. While it’s still listed as ‘Coming Soon’ on the Macally website, when it is available the PowerLink will sell for $49.99.
[ Macally PowerLink ] VIA [ Everything USB ]
I’m assuming the flash memory will only be accessible from my PC? it’s a shame they didn’t give the iPod any kind of external storage options.
This is an excellent little product. However, if they really want it to sell on mass, then they really need to find a way of getting the price down a bit. However, for the hard core ipod / iphone user, then the price may not outweigh the benefits.