Ask Tii - Chargers for iPad.

Hi Rob,

Is there any easy way to tell which wall and car chargers will work with iPods, iPhones, and iPads?

I know I have a few older devices (for my old iPod), which came out BEFORE the iPhone, that won't work on an iPhone or an iPad, so I have buried them deep in my old computer hardware closet.

But recently I purchased a charger for my car outlet, which works fine on my iPhone, but when I plug in my iPad on the road the device specifically tells me "not charging." Similarly, the real small wall charger from Apple (the model they recalled a couple years ago) seems to be able to charge the iPhone but not the iPad, while somewhat larger plug the cord into the charger at one end and into the iDevice at the other end doohickeys will work on both (this may be a simple case of size matters).

Also, the connecting cords themselves seem to vary quite a bit. Of course, they vary in length, but that's not all. Some of these have thicker wires, others thinner; some have release buttons on the sides of the large end, others don't. Almost all (but not all) have a USB icon on the USB end and an icon of a thin rectangle with a line in the middle at the large end.

On eBay and sites that sell accessories and gadgets, sometimes they say specifically what their charger and connector will charge, other times they don't.

I'm a pathologist by profession, so I make my living looking at stuff (admittedly most of the time through a microscope) and predicting how it will act, but on this subject I'm not a good prognosticator. Can you help me improve my diagnostic skills.

Thanks,

Gil

 

 

Hi Gil,

For the usb charger to work with the iPad's - you need to have a 10W USB charger.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC359LL/A

And by work - what I mean is it will charge the iPad while it is being used.

When you see the message "not charging" that really means it is not charging while it is running.

It will still charge the iPad when it is asleep - albeit at a much slower rate than the iPad's own 10W charger.

Regards,

Rob W