Expert's Rating
Pros
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Our Verdict
Car charger for iPod shuffle
There’s not much to say about ezGear’s ezCharge for iPod shuffle. It’s a coiled, white cable with a USB port at one end and a car “accessory” (a.k.a., cigarette lighter) plug at the other. When plugged into your car’s accessory jack, it powers (and charges, if needed) a connected iPod shuffle. A yellow LED indicates that the ezCharge is providing power, and a replaceable fuse protects your shuffle from power surges. In our testing, the ezCharge worked as advertised, charging a less-than-fully-charged iPod shuffle and providing power to a fully charged model to keep it from draining its battery.
The ezCharge doesn’t provide some of the additional features — for example, an audio output jack — found in some competing products, but at only $20 it’s also less expensive than those products. If you’re just looking for a way to charge/power your iPod shuffle in the car, the ezCharge is a solid product at a good price.
(You can also use the ezCharge for iPod shuffle to charge 4G and later iPods, as well as iPod mini models, via Apple’s USB dock connector cable.)–Dan Frakes