are iPod charger cables the same as iPhone ones?

Depends. Different generation iPods need different voltages to charge. Current speculation says using ones that are too old will overload the battery.

I asked the Genuis about this very thing when I had to replace my original phone. He said that the cable is alright to use, but the wall adapter/charger portion might give you issues (If you have one of the larger wall plugs). But if you buy a newer smaller plug, then you shouldn't have the problem. If you have doubts, I would suggest going to the Apple store near you they'll get you with the right equipment.

The iPods have used the 30 pin dock connector for a long long while now. You could never eye-ball and differences.

Stick with cables for the 5g or later. You will be safe with those.

And you should definately be able to buy the newer smaller wall plug portion at the Best Buy. As I understoof it from the Genius, that's the important part of the connection. The older larger ones, might put out more power then the 5 volts they claim.

Exactly. The older ones put out up to 12v.

My understanding is that the 5th gen iPods used the 5v chargers.

I don't know for sure. I had a larger older (around 2 years old) wall plug, and it said 5 volts as the output. But the Genius said that even in some of those cases, you could get a bad one. He just reccomended that I only use the one that cam with the phone, or buy a new one as it would work too. He said though, that any 30 point iPod cable would be ok.

Ansuz82 wrote:
Exactly. The older ones put out up to 12v.

There's so much misinformation around! The older USB chargers were 5 volts. Only the Firewire chargers were 12 volts, but USB cables will not fit into a Firewire charger. The size of the adapter doesn't matter, as long as it is USB. All USB adapters, from any manufacturer, put out 5 volts. It's a world-wide standard.

According to the Apple support site you can use a Firewire charger with a iPhone also (regardless of what a Genius says). However, there is enough anecdotal information around that it might cause the phone to overheat, so I won't try it.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Seems like we don't have much to worry about then.

I use my iPod photo cable, so I don't have to unplug the dock, to sync my iPhone to my laptop. I don't use the iPod photo charger, though. The iPod cable is just laying around as of late-I use it as my back up for my music and some files and sometimes to fall asleep to. So, maybe, if you don't have an extra laying around, you could get one cheap if you search for it. Then you just have to buy an extra iPhone (small) plug.

P.S. I hope I helped a little even though I don't know all the volts and wattage's.