When I opened my iPhone 3GS, I was surprised to find that the power adapter was nothing but a little 2-prong AC plug (I live in the US) that allowed you to plug in the standard USB to 30-pin connector to charge the phone.

I wanted to get a spare; checking online told me that the Apple Store wanted US$29 for the little plug, which just seemed like too much for too little, so I went shopping.

On eBay I found a bunch of auctions based in Hong Kong selling what looked like the exact same thing for anywhere from under around $2-4, and they often included the USB cable to boot.

I ordered four from a vendor and after a few weeks received them. They looked perfect, right down to the little green dot -- but none of them worked. They might start charging, but after a few minutes the iPhone would beep a few times and I would be informed that "this accessory is not compatible." And so it went for all four pieces. After sending some pictures back and forth and reading a few emails containing a combination of surprise and amazement from the vendor, my money was refunded.

Undaunted, or maybe just dumb, I went back to eBay and found another vendor that claimed to be selling, "100% Brand New Original OEM Charger and Original OEM USB Cable for iPhone/iPod" for around US$4. I just checked eBay and found this same vendor raising the price to US$10 in one auction and lowering it to $US.01 in another.

When you think about the 3rd generation iPod shuffle, you probably don't think about getting a case for it. After all, the little music box is less than 2 inches long, .7 inches wide, and .3 inches thick, and it comes with a clip.

The designers at Scosche Industries realized that some shuffle owners might like a way of keeping their devices from getting scratched or wet, as well as having a way of using any earphones with the shuffle and still be able to control it.

The tapSTICK comes in white or black polycarbonate plastic, and slides over the outside of the shuffle. It has three buttons on it that allow you to control play, adjust volume, navigate playlists, and even activate the VoiceOver feature on your iPod shuffle. It also comes with a 3 foot audio cable that connects to most audio systems, including those in cars:

While nobody at TUAW had a 3rd generation shuffle to try out the tapSTICK on, the good folks at Scosche did make one available for a giveaway to some lucky TUAW reader / shuffle owner. To enter, just leave a comment telling us how many times you've misplaced your 3rd generation iPod shuffle. Here's the scoop:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment telling us how many times you've misplaced your 3rd generation shuffle.
• The comment must be left before Friday, October 9, 2009, 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes: One Schosche tapSTICK in black (Value: US$29.99)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Good luck!

We reported the Infectious "Cut to the Core" design contest a while back, but the winners have just been announced and their designs are truly gorgeous. I rarely sticker my computers, but the Infectious skins are vinyl and won't leave a mess behind when you remove them. These designs are created to work around the glowing Apple logo on the top half of your notebook computers, and the winners really hit the mark.

Congratulations to Jun Nuñez who takes home first prize of $1000 for his vision of the Apple logo as the pulsing heart of a robot with ReCharged. Kudos as well to Aren Vandenburgh and his design "Creative Workflow, Dimo Trifonov and his old-school rainbow striped Back to Basics and to Jamal Issawi and his arcade game-inspired Mac Man.

You can buy the winners' designs directly from Infectious for your 13", 15" and 17" Mac laptops. Skins cost $29.99 each. Check out the winners in the gallery, below.

iMac or Cinema Display owners with limited desktop space have a new way of keeping Time Machine hard disks, USB hubs, and other space hogs off the desk and out of the way.

Twelve South, a Mac-only accessory design house located in Charleston, South Carolina, has just introduced the BackPack (US$29.99 or US$149.99 for six), a small adjustable shelf that uses friction and gravity to stay in place on the aluminum arm that holds up the body of the iMac and Cinema Display. BackPacks adjust to the width of the arm, so you can install two of them if desired.

While most Mac users will probably opt for hiding a hard disk, Twelve South shows BackPacks being used to display action figures and hold a flower vase (water in the vase is not recommended). My personal favorite in the BackPack gallery is a Mac mini perched behind a Cinema Display.

BackPack is a clever and well-designed product, and is available either at Apple Stores or through the Twelve South website.

ZGrip iPhone from Steve Weiss, Zacuto USA on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago, I shot a video of myself riding a bike around. The result was a bit jumpy, as you might imagine, so I used iMovie 8's stabilization feature to eliminate the shakiness. The result is nice and smooth, but also artifical looking. I assure you, I was not moving that slowly. If only there was a steady cam-like apparatus for the iPhone.

Check out the Zgrip iPhone PRO by Zacuto. The fully articulated arm holds the iPhone in place and several adjustable pivot points allow you to get interesting angles. We haven't played with one, but it sure looks pretty cool. Before you scoff, check out what some people have done with video on the 3GS. The Zgrip iPhone PRO is available now and costs $295US (a low-cost consumer version is forthcoming).

[Via Coudal Partners]

Do you have Pre-envy due to the Touchstone and wireless charging capabilities? Well, good news then. A company called WildCharge has stepped in to give you similar charging capabilities with your original iPhone or iPod touch. The bundle is just shy of $80 and includes the charging pad and a gel skin that needs to be attached to your phone. Once installed, just lay your phone on the pad and get your charge on.

The skin unfortunately adds an unsightly hump at the base where the dock connector is, but that may be a small price to pay if you really need your iPhone charged sans wires.

The iPod touch version is available now with the iPhone version coming next month.

iPhone 3G and 3G S owners now have an attractive, lightweight, and functional way to provide extra juice to their power-hungry devices -- the Mophie Juice Pack Air. Available in black, white, and purple, the Juice Pack Air is a slightly more svelte version of Mophie's Juice Pack. Compared to the original Juice Pack, the Juice Pack Air is .1" (2.54 mm) thinner and a full third of an ounce (9.44 grams) lighter.

I had a chance to try out the Juice Pack Air, and my impressions are quite positive, albeit with one exception. Read on for a TUAW road test of Mophie's latest battery pack.

I have a MacBook Air. Although I can get about 5 hours of mobile use out of it by dimming the screen, turning off all wireless, and only running one app at a time, there are times I'd love to be able to stay unplugged for much longer. I could always get a solar charger, but that won't work well when it's dark out.

QuickerTek has announced the MacBook Air External Battery, a US$350 external box designed to let you run your MBA for up to 16 hours before plugging in. It's relatively small (7" x 3.5" x 1" -- 17.8 cm x 8.9 cm x 2.5 cm) and adds 1.2 pounds to the weight you'll have to lug around.

In order to connect the external battery to your MacBook Air, you'll either have to send your existing MagSafe cable in to be converted for use (US$25) or buy a modified cable from QuickerTek (US$100). The final bill for the MacBook Air External Battery and the cable is almost as pricey as that solar-powered charger, but it's going to give your MacBook Air much longer battery life. Now if QuickerTek could just come out with a battery to let me play Monopoly (click opens iTunes) on my iPhone for 10 hours straight...

It's pretty wild to have seen the iControlPad go from idea to concept to production, and here's the final step straight from Engadget: video of the device working just as planned. ZodTTD is playing quake4iphone on it, and while the naysayers will probably still have some nays to say, I'm convinced. If Apple is as serious as it seems about turning the iPhone and the iPod touch into serious gaming devices, it would be worth selling something like this as an official accessory. It's fine and good to say that the multitouch screen works even for traditional controls, but so far, we haven't seen a developer that's been able to put "buttons" on the screen and still be able to make worthwhile use of screen space.

As Engadget says, there's still no price or release date on the iControlPad, and given that it's working on jailbroken games right now, there's no sign yet that we'll have any official App Store support. But it's an idea for which the time, in my humble opinion, has come.

Last night, some eagle-eyed readers noticed that Apple has changed the shipping status for the LED Cinema Displays. Previously, the status said "Coming Soon," but as of last night it says "Ships in 7-10 Business Days." However, the option to buy is still not available on the Apple Store page.

I talked with an Apple Store representative and they told me that there is still no set release date, but when you are able to purchase the displays, there will be an initial 7-10 day wait for shipping. These new Cinema Displays are the first Apple has shipped with LED backlighting and glossy LCD screens. The displays are marketed towards new MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro buyers who want a desktop experience, but notebook portability. In fact, these laptop users are the only ones able to take advantage of the new DisplayPort-enabled Cinema Displays -- older DVI-equipped machines can't drive them until a DVI-DisplayPort adapter comes along.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Mother's day is just around the corner. Why buy roses when you can pick up a limited edition pink hoody iPod speaker for a mere 120 bucks? It's practically the same color as that old Mother's Day standby red geraniums, but it's way cuter. Unfortunately, when I say "limited" it means that they are only selling about thirty of these things. Also, I can't tell from the picture which kinds of iPods are supported. Still, it's exactly the sort of present to please and surprise a Mac Geek Mom on Mother's day.

Last week we brought you details of the wiDock, a new iPod accessory from Silex Technology that answers the call of many an iPod owner: it brings wireless syncing of an iTunes library for both Mac and PC, and it contains A/V outputs to play nicely with your stereo and TV. Plugging your iPod into your entertainment center - and leaving it there - is finally looking to be a possibility.

This week, we had a chance to interview Keith Sugawara, VP of Network Division for Silex Technology on some of the finer points of this highly anticipated accessory. Read on for some details on what's shaping up to be quite the cable-cutting dock, just in time for the 2006 holidays:

TUAW: Considering that you're first to market with a long-requested iPod accessory, the wiDock seems to be quite a first-time splash for Silex Technology. How long have you been working on it?

Keith: We have been working on wiDock for 6 months now. It utilizes the same technology that is found in our other device server products. We have leverage our core technology and have adapted it to fit the iPod market.

Can you give us an overview of the wiDock's feature set?

In addition to the big wireless syncing feature everyone's hearing about, here's a summary of everything else the wiDock can do:

• Charge your iPod battery
• Control your iPod using the Apple remote
• Connects to 802.11b/g wireless networks
• Wireless security includes WEP, WPA and WPA2
• Connects to 10/100 networks
• 3.5mm audio output
• S-Video output

I know the iCurve isn't exactly at the top of the rumor mongering lists, but reader GillyGill noticed that Amazon has - again - leaked details on yet another unreleased product: Griffin Technology's iCurve 2 (either someone is really screwing up over there, or Amazon has launched a new We Leak™ marketing service). Since customer affinity for these stands can sometimes match (at least by ratio) Mac users' love for their machines, I figured this slip was worth a post, especially since Griffin's site mentions nothing other than the original version is out of stock.

Amazon says the iCurve 2 should be available October 1st, but *something* is telling me that didn't quite happen; maybe it's just the lack of any kind of 'buy now' button and that it's already the 6th. I guess iCurve lovers will have to wait for everyone to get on the same page.

iPod: $79 - $349
MacBook to sync said iPod: $1099
Making an iPod dock out of a cardboard box and some tape: priceless

Sorry, but I couldn't resist, this is just too classic: Flickr user flickrflick151, stating "When you can't afford the real thing, you improvise" on his photoset, decided to create his own iPod dock from an AirPort Express card box (bonus points) and some tape. The oversized "iPod Dock" label (accessory makers - take note) tops off an altogether clever solution to a dockless iPod. Check out the Flickr set for more pics if you're looking to roll your own.

[via Engadget]

I recently came upon owning a car again (a '99 Chevy Astro baby!), so what do you think is the first thing I needed to do? Why, figure out how to play my iPod through it, of course! It has a cassette deck, but my wife's new Toyota Matrix doesn't, so I moseyed (yes, moseyed) on over to my local Apple Store to see how the recent crop of FM transmitter accessories match up. In the name of saving money, I decided to try the Griffin iTrip (it was the cheapest).

In the words of that old dude from the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: I chose "poorly". It's a cute little transmitter, but - at least in my van - my radio couldn't pick up a clear signal unless I manually held the iTrip up against the face of my radio (and yes, before you ask: I tried nearly every frequency up and down the dial before giving the iTrip the i-boot). I decided that maybe I needed to spend a little more money and exchanged the iTrip for Belkin's TuneBase. Since it has an adjustable arm and base, I figured I could position it exactly where it needed to be for a more reliable signal.

The TuneBase proved to be a better choice mainly for that radio proximity factor, but using an FM transmitter in general proved to have too many quirks for me. For one, neither of these units pumped out a strong enough signal, so I always had to crank the volume on my stereo to reach a proper jamming audio experience. But if I switch to the radio, or simply skip a track on the iPod without manually adjusting the volume, blaring static pours through the speakers until the FM transmission kicks back in with a new song from the iPod. Ultimately: it just felt like too quirky of a device and too much of a compromise to pay $50 (iTrip) or $80 (TuneBase), so I settled for a good ol' fashioned $15 (non-iPod branded) cassette tape adapter from Best Buy for now.

But what about you, music-loving TUAW readers? Are you happy with your iPod FM transmitters? Which one are you using, and did you need to get creative with any workarounds? I wish I could find a solution for both the Astro and the Matrix (especially since the Matrix's gas mileage is killer), but so far my efforts have failed. Share your thoughts and teach me (and hopefully others) your ways!