Because you need to charge an iPhone and iPad almost every day, the power adapter and cable that came with your device is probably the most-used iPhone/iPad accessory that you own. Nice, Inc. created CableKeeps to improve upon that accessory. At home, CableKeeps can keep the extra cord out of your way. When traveling, CableKeeps can keep everything together. And best of all, CableKeeps has personality, which makes it fun to use and helps to identify your power adapter from the many others that might be, for example, plugged into a power strip in a conference room or into an outlet at an airport. They cost $16 each, and Nice sent me free samples to review for iPhone J.D. — two for the iPad charger and one for the iPhone charger.
Each CableKeeps is made of stiff rubber and resembles some sort of aquatic animal. The “face” of the CableKeeps holds your power adapter, with the prong coming out of the nose. The back of each CableKeeps has fins, around which you can wrap your cord while it is plugged in to the adapter. Wrap the cord all the way if you are traveling, or wrap the cord part of the way if you are just trying to shorten the cord and use a CableKeeps for cord management.
Each CableKeeps comes in six different colors: light blue, dark blue, red, green, purple and orange.
iPhone: Goldie
The CableKeeps designed for the iPhone charger is called Goldie, and it resembles a goldfish. The sample sent to me is light blue, but I suspect that the orange one looks even more like a goldfish. To use it, just slide the iPhone power adapter into the front of the CableKeeps.
Plug your USB cord into the back of the power adapter, and then wrap it around the fins as needed.
The Goldie CableKeeps for the iPhone advertises one unique advantage: you can also use it as a stand for the iPhone. If you are in a hotel room and using a power outlet on the wall, this means that you can keep your iPhone propped up on the CableKeeps instead of sitting on your floor, where you might step on the iPhone by accident — which has almost happened to me on more than one occasion. The CableKeeps website shows an iPhone 4S in portrait mode orientation on top of a CableKeeps. With the taller iPhone 5/5s, that seems slightly unstable to me, but putting the iPhone on its side works well.
iPad: Nibbles
There are two CableKeeps that work with the U.S. version of the iPad power adapter. First, there is Nibbles, which reminds me of a piranha.
Just like the iPhone version, you can wrap your cord around the fins.
iPad: Gulp
The other CableKeeps that works with the U.S. version of the iPad power adapter is Gulp. It looks like a whale, especially if you get the light or dark blue ones.
The Gulp model offers one advantage over Nibbles: the Gulp is advertised to work with the international adapters found in Apple’s World Travel Adapter kit. I don’t own any of those international plugs so I wasn’t able to test the claim, but based on the design of the Glup I have no doubt that it works.
Speaking of non-U.S. chargers, Nice also makes Spike for the European iPhone charger and Ink for the U.K. charger.
As noted above, all of the CableKeeps come in six different colors. If you have multiple iPhone and iPad chargers in your house, you could use different colors to prevent disputes over which charger belongs to which person.
CableKeeps has been around for a while — they were originally funded in a Kickstarter campaign back in 2011 — but they are new to me, and I really like them. They add very little extra bulk to an iPhone or iPad power adapter, and they give you a way to wrap your cable during travel so that it doesn’t cause chaos in your briefcase, plus they keep your power adapter and your cable together. And I also like the way that CableKeeps takes a boring power adapter and gives it a little personality — which is useful when you need to know which of many power adapters is yours, and just plain fun the rest of the time.
Some of the models and colors are available on Amazon, but to get the full selection, order directly from Nice.