Sure, they all plug into the same outlet in the wall, but every rechargeable gadget uses its own proprietary cable. If you need to charge your phone in an emergency, the world can seem full of cables made for every phone other than your own. A Nokia cable won’t work with a Motorola phone, an iPhone cable won’t work with a BlackBerry. How insidious. Duracell’s myGrid is the latest attempt to create one system to charge them all. It’s a metal pad that plugs into an outlet and can charge up to four different gadgets, from different brands, at the same time, no cables needed. Sounds wonderful, but of course there’s a rather complicated catch.

The myGrid pad uses a new technology called inductive charging and can only charge devices that have the same technology built into them. Unfortunately, no such gadgets exist. It’s expensive technology and companies like Apple, RIM, Nokia, Motorola, and the others aren’t ready for it.

It’s wonderful technology, don’t get me wrong. When two items designed with inductive charging built into them “touch” they create an electromagnetic field that allows electricity to flow between them. The results seem magical. You simply drop your phone onto the pad, the same as you would on a kitchen counter or coffee table and it charges just as fast as usual. The same pad can be used with any gadget.

The trick is to add the technology to your existing devices and Duracell has two complicated solutions to offer:

If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch you can purchase a special protective rubber case (sold separately) called the “Power Sleeve”. It has the technology built into it, but isn’t terribly stylish. Its rubber, with holes cut out to allow access to the iPhone’s controls. Honestly, it’s not a case you’d buy normally for protection and I have to admit that, after carrying it around for a few days on my own iPhone, I was a bit embarrassed by it. It is, however, the easiest way to the use the myGrid pad.

If you own a Motorola, Nokia, LG, or BlackBerry phone the myGrid kit includes a system of adaptors. These plug into the charge ports on your phone and there’s five to cover each of the major styles of connections amongst those brands. Now, these adaptors do not contain the inductive charging technology, instead they have magnetic clips that let you add a special accessory called the “Power Clip” which does. The Power Clip is a teardrop-shaped piece of plastic that fits onto your phone by both connecting to the adaptor with a magnetic snap and through a double-sided adhesive.

The kit includes only one Power Clip, so the idea is to stick it onto your phone with the adhesive, permanently. All the added plastic means that your phone will no longer rest flat on a table, fit into your pocket smoothly, or even feel natural in your hand when you hold it. With some phone designs, the Power Clip won’t fit the surface of the phone.

To get around this, you can simply leave the adaptor and Power Clip to sit next to the myGrid pad, attaching it only when you need to charge and then removing it right after, but at that point it would be easier to simply go back to using the original charge cable.

While the Power Clip and adaptors can be used for some non-cell phone devices like e-book readers or game systems (those that use USB) I found that, more often than not, the design of the component meant having to lie my gadgets face down, making it hard to see the battery icons on their screens.

The most attractive part of the system is the MyGrid pad itself, an eight inch long surface composed of metal strips. Each Power Sleeve and Power Clip has three, tiny metallic connector pins and when you drop a gadget onto the pad there’s the click click sound like a dog walking on plastic, that’s fun to hear.

While the myGrid box may advertise that it can charge four devices at the same time, that’s only if you invest in buying additional Power Clip or Power Sleeve accessories. Just buying the basic kit gives you only the components needed to charge one phone only.

Duracell isn’t the first to come out with an induction charging station. Last year saw the release of the Powermat system which can only charge three gadgets, but includes an indicator light for one, adaptors for all devices including e-book readers and game systems, and a storage system to keep track of all the little components. The Powermat has it’s issues, but it works.

With Duracell taking a crack at the technology my hope was that they would overcome the issues already introduced by Powermat, instead they’ve simply come up with a more awkward version and at $90 for the pad, $40 for the Power Sleeves, a more expensive one too.