Sometimes all it takes is a tweak to a standard product design to make a product that is more useful than the standard. Chargepod is such a product. It enhances the standard design for AC power supplies, making it easier to charge your mobile phones -- at least if you're part of a typical family with many phones in a single house.

At one end of the wire, Chargepod looks typical, with a transformer block and two prongs that plug into a wall outlet. But the other end is its hockey puck shaped hub surrounded by ports along the outer edge. That's one main difference between Chargepod and a standard charger -- allowing Chargepod to charge up to six devices on one transformer. So if you and the members of your family want to charge your cell phones out of the same A/C outlet, you might save electricity.

For the most part, it doesn't matter what types of cell phones you use -- from Motorola to LG to Samsung to Nokia -- because each of the ports on the Chargepod can be attached to your phone using a two inch cord having the appropriate connector for your phone. You also can connect an iPod, Zune or Sansa music player and since iPods don't come with chargers, Chargepod can save you the expense of a separate iPod charger. If you use a hands-free headset, such as Plantronics or Jabra, you also can attach it for charging.

I had a BlackBerry, a Samsung phone and an iPod nano attached to the Chargepod simultaneously. Colored LED lights showed which device was charging; and they all sat concurrently without having to use up multiple outlets on my wall.

One of my pet peeves about electronic devices is that the vendors keep changing the size or shape of the ports that attach to the wall or PC -- or that they use proprietary nonstandard ports. BlackBerry, for instance, just changed from one type of USB (mini) to the new micro USB. Chargepod adapts to both.

If you don't have the appropriate native adapter cable for your phone or music device, you may even be able to trick it. I wanted to charge three BlackBerry phones simultaneously, but had only two BlackBerry adapter cables. So I attached one of them to a computer USB cable, then used the Chargepod adapter cable with a PC USB port on the end. It was just like plugging one of the phones into my PC -- only I didn't need the PC to charge it.

Another advantage of Chargepod is that you can either get your charge from a standard wall outlet, or connect to a Chargepod car charger (which doesn't really charge your car, but gets current from your car battery). Since most cars have only one power outlet (still known to some adults as a cigarette lighter plug), the Chargepod actually lets you charge multiple phones while driving -- something you normally would not be able to do.

Not everything about the Chargepod is terrific, though. For some reason, the Chargepod that I received had a large transformer block at the wall outlet end. So if you plug it into a strip of A/C outlets, you'll obstruct three outlets with one Chargepod. The transformer block pictured in the user manual looks like it would not obstruct the adjacent outlets. But this shouldn't be a problem for all users.

The Chargepod base unit retails for $39, with each adapter an additional $10 at callpod.com. The car charger is an additional $19.