Yuhnke Commentary: One place to charge all of your gadgets

PHOENIX - In a world of gadgets, there’s one thing that never seems to change; the need for a good charge. Our smartphones need it, our iPods need it and our tablets need it too.

If you’re anything like me, you have a spot in your home that looks more like a rat’s nest than a tabletop. A convoluted mess of cables setup as a home base for all of your electronics to sip on some electric juice. Perhaps the PowerSlice is the answer to this problem?

The PowerSlice, from Fuse , is a circular base station that uses “slices” for each of your devices. Up to three slices can be locked in. They’re available for micro USB, mini USB, iPhone/iPod, Samsung standard connector and LG standard connector. The base station doesn’t come with any slices. The idea is, you buy the base and then buy the slices that you need. The demo unit I received included two micro USB slices and an iPhone/iPod slice. Putting the PowerSlice together took no time. Simply slide in the slices in until they click. Plug the unit into the wall and press the power button in the middle.

There’s also a standard USB plug (5V) on the back that can be used as an extra port to charge an additional device like a tablet. You will need to bring your own USB cable for that.  I’m glad they added this extra plug but I’d avoid it since it begins to defeat the entire purpose of the PowerSlice in the first place if you start plugging in extra stuff.  After all, the whole idea here is to clean up the clutter.

I really like the idea of the PowerSlice. One cable from the unit to the wall and that’s it! It displays your electrics in a cool way while keeping them juiced up. The price isn’t bad at all. $40 for the base and $10 for each slice. I do have a few concerns though. You’ll need to be gentle when plugging and unplugging your smartphones or music players. The entire thing is essentially being supported by the plug. Apple designs their devices with a sturdy dock connector and it shows, the iPod I tested was stable in the PowerSlice. My Samsung Nexus S was a different story. It felt a bit wobbly. While I don’t think it would be an immediate issue, I worry that over time it may start to put too much stress on the phone’s micro USB port. It’s hard to say since that’s something that could take months to happen if it even happens at all. This isn’t as much a criticism of the PowerSlice as it is of the sturdiness of USB ports on today’s gadgets. My advice; just be gentle.

The other issue with the PowerSlice is that it looks cool and slick with smartphones and music players that have their charging port on the bottom but other phones may look sloppy. Some phones have their USB port slapped on the side somewhere which means that you would have to charge it sideways on the PowerSlice. This isn’t a huge issue but depending on your devices it may not look like the uber clean, futuristic charging halo that you see in my photo above.

Despite those concerns, I can easily say that I really like the PowerSlice. It does what many existing iPod dock charging stations already do but with the flexibility to befriend your non-Apple gadgets too. If you have a couple of iPods and smartphones in your home, this could be the perfect way to create a clean, simple docking station that everyone can share. It may also be the perfect holiday gift for the gadget geek in your life.

The Fuse PowerSlice base station sells for $39.99. Slices are not included and cost $9.99 each. If you know ahead of time that two of those slices will be used for Apple products, you can get the bundle and save $9.99.

How do you organize your gadgets at home? Continue the conversation on Twitter and Facebook .