The IDAPT universal power charger sets out to provide the convenience of one power charging station that does it all. Imagine being able to plug in four devices simply on a nice organized pad without needing four separate brick chargers hogging all the outlet or power strip space. The IDAPT i4 does that for four devices at a time, but, as with many all-in-one ideas, there are trade-offs.

The IDAPT itself is a nicely designed square that comes in black, red, white, blue, pink and lime green. It comes with six chargers covering major formats, some of which are likely to be useless to the individual user. Mine came with adaptors for Sony Erickson, Samsung, and Nokia phones, as well as plugs for an iPhone/iPad, mini and micro USB. Many people will have one of the three phones, but likely not use at least a few of the included adaptors.
Power tip adaptors for the IDAPT, compatible to over 4000 devices, are available on Amazon for about $10 each.

The adaptor is simple to plug in and out of the IDAPT with a simple click. In testing, however, with our point and shoot camera, a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FX9,, the power port is set up in a way that the mini-USB adaptor won’t fit. Another Sony camera had a unique power socket that would have required ordering another adaptor.

We like the concept of a dock to organize all of our gear and cables, where gadgets sit charging peacefully until they are used, and precious wall sockets aren’t monopolized by clumsy power bricks. The IDAPT is a good, clean solution to this, but our advice to get maximum value is to check whether your devices are covered by those already in the starter set of six adaptors. Otherwise, the MSRP will be increased $10 for each additional plug you’ll need.

The IDAPT 4 is $59.99 on Amazon.

Product specs

Here are a few father’s day consumables for the dad who has everything and wants nothing left on the shelf, or on the plate. Get him something to eat!

1. Cookies from Sweet Sally’s Bakeshop (www.Sweetsallys.com). Owner Sally Minier makes homebaked cookies and sends them anywhere in the world. These are just like homemade or church bake sale, made with butter and sugar and apparently a flood of memories. We especially liked the Wellesley cookie, kind of like a 7-Layer bar in cookie form, made of coconut and chocolate (but minus the nuts, sadly). These won’t keep forever, but will likely be gone before they go bad.

2. New York Times Wine Club (www.nytwineclub.com)- Personally, I don’t know why I persist in trying to magically find wine based on label graphics at my weekly grocery store. It never tastes as good as the wine recommended to me in a restaurant, or the wine served by a friend who actually knows what he is doing. So why not a wine merchant who actually needs to make sure you are satisfied each time with the choices or you won’t come back again? Now God only knows what the NYT is doing in this business, but I guess they have to pay for those far-flung correspondents somehow. Maybe the reporters are doubling as wine testers and buyers when things are slow on the international beat. For Father’s Day 2011, use promo code FATHER for an extra gift.

3. La Cense Beef (www.lacensebeef.com)- I’ve cut down my meat consumption just so I can feel okay about eating a steak every few weeks. And since I’m eating salads all the time, when I eat meat, I want good meat, not just anything red. La Cense is a specialized meat packer that is miles above the leader in the mail order meat category (you know who I’m talking about, Omaha!). Their cows not only are grass fed, they are “grass-finished” which means they are fed naturally even during their last trip to the slaughterhouse, when most cows are fed corn and poorly treated. The meat has more flavor and it also has more Omega-3s. Perhaps not enough to prevent a heart attack, but used in moderation, beef is not a bad thing. You’ll pay more, but you can get any cut including roasts and hot dogs and dad is sure to appreciate the thought.

4. Bake Me A Wish cakes by mail. Did you know you can even send a cake to someone, including someone in the military. Cakes are usually for birthdays, but who says you can’t send one for Father’s Day, especially if dad is a long ways off, and you know he LOVES cake. We tried a chocolate cake from Bake Me A Wish and it was very good. Expect a cake similar in quality to one you would find freshly baked at Whole Foods, with all-natural ingredients and plenty of frosting. The cake was very very moist, perhaps because it had to travel. My wife found it too “wet,” but I enjoyed it. Bake Me a Wish cakes come in 20 plus flavors and can be shipped overnight to any place in the United States, including military addresses. Bake Me a Wish also gives 5% off all proceeds to send birthday cakes to soldiers overseas.

5. Spoonful of Comfort offers Chicken Soup by mail. For the dad who has everything, except a way to satiate his craving for real and simple homemade chicken soup, this is a special gift. At $34 plus a minimum of $13.95 shipping for 4-6 servings, it’s not a cheap half gallon of soup, but we were impressed by the simple ingredient list, the hearty stock and lots of real chicken and fresh noodles. The soup arrives mostly frozen with 2-3 day delivery, ready to heat up and eat. A special fathers day pack also includes 6 homemade chocolate chip cookies, 6 Parker House rolls, and a bright red “Kiss the Cook” apron for $50.

GreatDad.com Review Policy: Bake Me a Wish, La Cense, Spoonful of Comfort and Sweet Sally’s provided samples for the sole purpose of product testing. We do not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about products. We only review products that we have personally tested and used in our own homes, and all opinions expressed are our own.

For a lot of fathers, the Sunday of Father’s Day means taking time to be away from the kids to play golf. This, I find, is more than a littte sad. Of all the loves I had before kids, golf was probably the hardest to give up in order to spend time with my family, but I’ve never mourned it enough to spend more than a few Sundays away. Six to eight hours out of a weekend was something I could no longer afford to be without even in the pursuit of par.

Still, golf is very connected to fatherhood in my own life. My own father was gone about 100% of my childhood years, having moved away when I was about 4 years old. We only really got a chance to connect on the golf course after I had reached adulthood. So, for me, I’d rather see golf connected to involved fatherhood. As for now, I’m still waiting patiently for my 7-year old to pick up the game.

For the golfing dad in your life, here are four golf books I’ve enjoyed that make for good gifts for dad.

1. Golf Dreams – John Updike, the great chronicler of late 20th century American life, was a life-long hacker. He was a tall man and I’m sure he could stroker the ball well, yet had the same yips and slices of the rest of us. Golf Dreams is a collection of stories, extracts (from the Rabbit series), and essays, many from the New Yorker. They can be read in pieces or as a collection and make a fine prize for any dad who enjoys golf, and a well-turned phrase.

2. Moment of Glory – John Feinstein, best-selling author and frequent NPR contributor catalogs the golf year 2003 when Tiger lost his swing and four relative unknowns won each of the majors. Mike Weir won the Masters, Jim Furyk won the US Open, Ben Curtis won the British Open, and Shaun Micheel took the PGA. Feinstein is a fantastic sports writer and for any golf fan who lived that year (the year he stayed home to help with the baby?), it’s a good read.

3. Bad Lies – Bad Lies is a “Field Guide to lost balls, missing links, and other golf mishaps.” It’s a coffee table-style book with glossy photos of all the horrible things that happen on the course and the funny names that have been given to them, from Zinger to Dunch to Mulligan. This is a fun book to page through with a Heineken in one hand and the TV remote in the other. All golfers will enjoy the photos and humor.

4. Golf with Dad – David Barrett wrote this collection of the stories of fourteen tour pros, and the role golf played in their relationships with their fathers. From Phil to Jack to Arnie (Tiger is conspicuously absent), there are heartwarming stories aplenty. Barrett is a pro golf writer so has the chops to write both an accurate and inspiring collection of tales. You can’t find a better title for a book for a golfing dad.

All these books make for perfect gifts, especially if inscribed appropriately and given at the 19th hole.

For a lot of fathers, the Sunday of Father’s Day means taking time to be away from the kids to play golf. This, I find, is more than a litte sad. Of all the loves I had before kids, golf was probably the hardest to give up in order to spend time with my family, but I’ve never mourned it enough to spend more than a few Sundays away. Six to eight hours out of a weekend was something I could no longer afford to be without even in the pursuit of par.

Still, golf is very connected to fatherhood in my own life. My own father was gone about 100% of my childhood years, having moved away when I was about 4 years old. We only really got a chance to connect on the golf course after I had reached adulthood. So, for me, I’d rather see golf connected to involved fatherhood. As for now, I’m still waiting patiently for my 7-year old to pick up the game.

For the golfing dad in your life, here are four golf books I’ve enjoyed that make for good gifts for dad.

Imagine the scene: A warm Spring evening. Good French wine and an authentic steak-frites. Talk of Edith Wharton, Kurt Vonnegut and Ernest Hemingway. Are we in Paris? No, I’m with my 7 and 11 year old son and daughter in a local restaurant and we’re playing a new card game,
Notable Novelists of the 20th Century while waiting for dessert.

For a book lover who would be pleased to have his kids grow up scanning the New York Review, this was heaven; my son carefully trying to pronounce “Hemingway” and my daughter asking if I have a F. Scott Fitzgerald author card. I have to say I was strangely proud as fellow diners listened to my kids’ recitation of a pantheon of literary greats of the last century.

The game isn’t as intellectual as the authors it salutes, however. It can be played by anyone who can, or almost, can read. All it requires is being able to organize cards into sets containing a bio card, an author card, and a library card for each author. And that’s the genius actually. Adults wouldn’t have the interest to play a game this simple – basically a literary version of Go Fish, but kids like these games and will soak up facts and titles as they play. The cards themselves have old New Yorker-style graphics and some basic and some esoteric facts about the authors, which will also entertain adult players. But the best part is feeling that your kids might actually grow up to read the same books that formed us as we grew up.

Playing this game was a fun and nostalgic way to close out another good evening with my kids.

Notable Novelists – $10.99 on Amazon. Makes a good gift for the book-loving dad too.

My 5 year old son bought a version of these magnets “with his own money” at the SFMOMA two years ago and they were a hit at our house. Evidently, the ones we bought, Bucky Balls, weren’t in any way protected and the 2011 New York Toy Fair was filled with versions of them including a major display of NanoDots.

As with Lego displays, they even showed how you could create huge magnetic sculptures:

Here is a fun video for NeoCube that shows just how tactily addictive these little magnets are. They come in packs of 216 magnet balls for about $30. It’s a fairly high price for a small package, but guaranteed to keep little or big hands busy.

I spoke with a NanoDots representative about whether the little magnets could ruin credit card, phones, or even computer hard drives, and he confidently stuck his phone and a credit card on the little magnets to show how well protected modern devices are from magnetic forces. Good to know.

NOTE: GreatDad did not receive samples of this product for review.

My son bought a version of these magnets “with his own money” at the SFMOMA two years ago and they were a hit at our house. Evidently, the ones we bought, Bucky Balls, weren’t in any way protected and the 2011 New York Toy Fair was filled with versions of them including a major display of NanoDots.

Just in time for camping season, comes the new Rogue 2 flashlight from Icon. I had not seen these ultra-cool flashlights, but imagine carrying what looks to be a light saber in your hand that emits a very strong 100 lumen beam out of just a few LEDs. I supposed it depends on your battery choice, but packaging says 72 hours of run life on one set of batteries (at low light) for this flashlight which may be due to the efficient LEDs. Icon says that LED’s are super-efficient so runtimes are multiplied typically ten times compared to the old bulb lights on the same batteries. And, since they are solid state electronics and not a glass bulb with a fragile filament, the bulbs can’t burn out orbreak. The life expectancy of an LED is in the thousands of hours.

My kids just love the styling. It’s also waterproof down to one meter (3 feet) so perfect for my genetically challenged butter-fingered children.

The flashlight also allows for 10 lumen output as well by double clicking the on/off button, which thrills my 7 year old to no end. I just have to make sure he’s not pointing it at anyone when he kicks it up a notch, since 100 lumens (what is a lumen anyway?) is pretty darn blinding, or at last shocking.

This is sure to be a big challenger to the Mag Light, which has held the title of “most solid” and best styled premium flashlight for 20 years. Only drawbacks, the airy frame design wastes and then doesn’t provide any natural place to tie the included lanyard to the flashlight. On the other hand, you could argue that you can tie 30 or 40 things onto the frame.  

About $49 at Amazon. Not cheap, but you can add it to the earthquake/tornado/hurricane/flood/other end-of-the-world disaster kit and be pretty sure it will keep working. Or a good gift for Father’s Day (which is coming up after we get the moms out of the way).

Maybe you think you have it all figured out, but any of the following items are on your list, you’re probably only going to get a fake smile from your dad when he opens it. Unless, of course, you’re the favorite daughter, in which case you’ll get a nice pat on the head, even if you’re 40 years old.

1. Stuff you want. Nothing shows how little you care like buying a gift for yourself and wrapping it up for someone else to open and then share with you. This includes chocolate or wine that you expect will get opened and passed after all the gifts are opened. It also includes CDs or DVDs that you want to “introduce” your spouse or dad to, but which you secretly want to rip to your own machine.

2. Exercise class. Giving a gift certificate to the gym is just a more complicated way to say “fatty.” Of course, you want it to say that you care, but maybe it’s something you should agree to do together after the holiday.

3. Anything from header displays near the cash register at the drug store. This includes singing fish, and items that say they are for the “hard to buy for.”

4. Anything that reminds the big guy of household chores to do. New garbage cans would fit into this category. A delivery of a palette of roof shingles to finally redo the garage would be another.

5. More items for his “collection.” My grandmother once bought three little ceramic bunnies. After that, when anyone didn’t know what to buy, they’d get her a bunny. Her friends and family brought her bunnies from their travels all over the world. She had bunnies made out of wood, plastic, silver, in every shade of the rainbow, ranging from super-realistic to completely figurative. She hated those bunnies, her collection expanded like, well, bunnies. Unless your dad has a specific missing coin or baseball or memento, look elsewhere for the perfect gift.

So, there you have it. It’s not a list to save you any time this time around, but it will save you from giving dad something no one wants: a forced smile.

I hope we can all be inspired by Obama’s message about the importance of dads in the lives of their kids. Some men take their own personal experience and triumph over adversity as an example of how all kids should pull themselves up despite the lack of the same advantages most of us take for granted. I like the fact that Obama speaks plainly about how the pain of going without a present father and that he was lucky to overcome it.   

Obama says prime goal was ‘to be a good father’
President tells East Room audience of his absent dad’s impact

“I decided that if I could be one thing in life, it would be to be a good father,” he told a White House audience, after saying that his father’s decision to walk away from his family had left “a hole in a child’s heart” that couldn’t be filled.

Obama spoke after five men, including a former addict from Baltimore, described their own struggles. The president said there was “no rule that says that you have to repeat your father’s mistakes.”

Adults who were deserted by a parent “have an obligation to break the cycle” and “do better than they did, with your own children,” he said.

[From Obama says prime goal was 'to be a good father' - baltimoresun.com]

Stories like his are often used to teach us a moral lesson that adversity creates greatness. I tend to think greatness evolves despite adversity. While Horatio Alger stories always make better news stories, most people who are “successful” come from homes with supportive, loving and involved parents.

A recent survey by Jockey brand underwear survey (Insert PR accolades here) names the following dads as intensely viewable in their underwear. This is not me talking, but rather 1000 “people” 18 or over in a random telephone survey. And the winners are:

Brad Pitt – 29%

Matthew McConaughey – 24%

Hug Jackman 16%

Will Smith – 16%

Barack Obama – 13%

The survey also actually queried whether people thought Obama would want boxers, boxer briefs or briefs as a gift for Fathers Day. I won’t titillate you with what style underwear most Americans fantasize our president wears.

I actually don’t recall getting the nomination form for this survey, which may explain why the list is so full of “non-surprises.” I gotta say, though, that since Bill Clinton, made the question “boxers or briefs” so important to the country’s future, I really don’t want to ponder Mr. Obama in anything other than a blue suit and rep tie.

TREAT HER LIKE YOUR BOSS

No matter how tired or fed up you are with how things are going at the office or store or school, or wherever you might work, if the person who signs your paycheck walks in, somehow there is a little reserve of goodwill saved up, just for him or her.

From out of thin air comes a smile or a sudden lilt in the voice, or a very optimistic assessment of the absolute disaster staring everyone in the face. This good-natured version of you is like a can of emergency survival instinct, always there somewhere, just waiting to be used.

This is the source to which you might consider turning when you are completely fed up with your daughter, when she has found your last nerve and is standing on it, when you realize you have memorized the phone number of the private military academy over in the next county.

But instead of raising your voice to her, instead of saying some things you may regret later, instead of reminding her that you brought her into this world, instead of embarrassing her in front of the entire family, even though that is precisely what she deserves, just imagine . . .
What would you do if your boss suddenly walked into the room? Hmmm. Would you pull him by the earlobe? Would you stick your finger in his face and hiss like a snake? Would you ask him the same question over and over? Would you ask him the same question over and over? Would you call him a name? Would you call him by his full name in a loud voice with lots of extra pronunciation on all the consonants?

Probably not. Not if you wanted to keep your job.

To your boss you would show complete respect and consideration. To your boss you would give the benefit of the doubt. There is no concession you could not make, and no compromise that could not be reached.

Your daughter should get the same respect, if not more. Why not let her meet the kind and considerate you hiding there behind the angry and frustrated version? Why not introduce her to the resilient spirit who always finds a reason to laugh at a situation, regardless of how dire?

Let her say hello to the forgiving optimist who makes a self- deprecating remark to lighten the mood, and makes the whole room laugh. Let her hang out with the practical gamer who always finds a way to look at the bright side of things.

Treat her like your boss.
Excerpt from Parking Lot Rules & 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children by Tom Sturges