PhoneSuit’s no stranger to the reload-and-refuel arena, and just months after ushering out the Primo Battery Cube, along comes this: the Primo Power Core. For all intents and purposes, this is an iPhone-sized battery pack, and it just so happens to be fully capable of charging your iPhone or iPod touch. Unlike the vast majority of alternatives, however, this 8200mAh pack can also rejuvenate an iPad, not to mention a wealth of Android smartphones, your mom’s BlackBerry, a couple of unnamed netbooks (yeah, seriously!) and practically any other handheld gadget that can be juiced via USB. The company throws in a cornucopia of tips for a range of “popular” devices, though high-drain devices like netbooks will need to make use of the 12V port. There’s an external LED charge meter to keep you abreast of how much power remains, and it can be headed to a stocking near you in exchange for $99.95.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve got more gadgets than you can keep track of. Unfortunately, almost all of them require a battery of some sort to function. This means you need a lot of free outlets to keep them all full of juice. Thankfully the people at IDAPT have a great solution.
Updating their Universal Desktop Charger, the company has released the i4. This time around you can charge up to four devices, instead of three. You still only have the three docks, but they have added on a USB port to the side for charging another gadget. The three docks have interchangeable tips, which can be used to charge everything from your digital camera, to your portable gaming device or even your phone. If you’re looking to cut down on the clutter while keeping your gadgets in one place, this definitely looks worth the $60 price.
For extended trips away from an outlet (or “mains,” for the British among us), the iPhone instills far less confidence than some of its rivals for two simple reasons: one, you can’t carry a second battery even if you want to; and two, the ubiquitous, dime-a-dozen micro-USB cables that you find everywhere simply aren’t going to do you any good in the event you want to jack in to your laptop’s USB for a quick charge. Sure, your local Apple Store is happy to rob you blind of $20 for an extra iPod cable… but we digress.
Naturally, the iPhone’s ginormous accessory industry has come to the rescue in a pretty big way. Mophie’s Juice Pack Air series (and products like it) are the most integrated solution: you trade in some of your phone’s slimness and sexiness in exchange for a combination case and extended battery. Unless you’re taking your phone to the backwoods and you don’t plan to reemerge for a few days, it’s theoretically going to have you covered — you just need to be willing to carry around some extra girth. Another option, though, is to simply carry around an external battery pack. Doesn’t sound very appealing at first, but consider the advantages: your iPhone still looks like an iPhone, you can use the designer case of your choosing, and if you’re in a situation where you don’t think you’re going to need it, you just don’t bring it with you. No muss, no fuss.
That, of course, is where the Juice Pack Boost comes into play. Does it deliver on the promise? Let’s find out.
For extended trips away from an outlet (or “mains,” for the British among us), the iPhone instills far less confidence than some of its rivals for two simple reasons: one, you can’t carry a second battery even if you want to; and two, the ubiquitous, dime-a-dozen micro-USB cables that you find everywhere simply aren’t going to do you any good in the event you want to jack in to your laptop’s USB for a quick charge. Sure, your local Apple Store is happy to rob you blind of $20 for an extra iPod cable… but we digress.
Naturally, the iPhone’s ginormous accessory industry has come to the rescue in a pretty big way. Mophie’s Juice Pack Air series (and products like it) are the most integrated solution: you trade in some of your phone’s slimness and sexiness in exchange for a combination case and extended battery. Unless you’re taking your phone to the backwoods and you don’t plan to reemerge for a few days, it’s theoretically going to have you covered — you just need to be willing to carry around some extra girth. Another option, though, is to simply carry around an external battery pack. Doesn’t sound very appealing at first, but consider the advantages: your iPhone still looks like an iPhone, you can use the designer case of your choosing, and if you’re in a situation where you don’t think you’re going to need it, you just don’t bring it with you. No muss, no fuss.
That, of course, is where the Juice Pack Boost comes into play. Does it deliver on the promise? Let’s find out.
Wireless charging gear compatible with the Qi standard should be hitting shelves any minute now, but NTT DoCoMo’s charging base at CEATEC has a completely unnecessary (and completely awesome) trick up its sleeve to set itself apart from the crowd. The prototype — developed in concert with Sanyo and bearing the Eneloop brand — gives you some visual indication that a compatible gadget has been detected by displaying a ring of blue LEDs that converges around the device to be charged once you set it down. It’s a neat effect… and you can see it unfold on the video after the break. No indication on whether NTT DoCoMo will actually be bringing its own branded Qi charger to market, but clearly, these products are nearly production-ready.
Batteries die, and when your phone has a WiMAX antenna plus dual cameras and a gigantic screen, well, those batteries tend to meet their maker sooner than later. Enter hacker extraordinaire Ben Heck with a simple and cheap solution: a hand-powered charger. Ben took an inexpensive flashlight with a crank on it, disassembled it, and ran the leads from the internal motor to his HTC EVO 4G. The exciting (or at least excited) video below is proof that it works, but we’re wondering which would die first: the 4G’s battery, or your arm after cranking on this thing for an hour or two.
Nokia’s official marketing documentation for the just-announced DT-600 says that you can “charge in style” and “enjoy the life with full battery.” After checking it out here at Nokia World, we don’t think we could say it any better ourselves. The device is basically a rubber tray for setting your battery-dependent gadgets with a squid-like array of charging cables coming out of the corners; there are very similar products to this on the market already, but Nokia’s got a couple trump cards up its sleeve. Actually, one of them is less of a trump card and more of a Wild Draw Four: although one cable is micro-USB, two of the others are permanently connected 2mm Nokia jacks, an odd decision considering that modern Nokias are moving away from those to micro-USB — as are most manufacturers — so we guess they’re expecting you to keep a few antiques juiced up.
The other differentiator, though, is that you don’t need to snake your own chargers through the mess — the fourth cable is interchangeable and connects to one of two USB ports on the side, and you can use the other port for a fifth cable that isn’t routed through one of the four corners’ holes. Nokia includes mini-USB, LG, Sony Ericsson, and two flavors of Samsung connectors for this one; Apple’s noticeably missing, but we’re sure these guys had zero interest in licensing the 20-pin design — and obviously, you can just use your own cable if you like. In a nod to Mother Nature, the DT-600 burns no power when devices aren’t connected, but if you’re in the US, tough luck — there’s no plan in place for availability there. Hit up the gallery for a few in-the-wild shots (taken at Nokia’s Experience Lounge coffee bar, by the way, so the phones weren’t the only things getting juiced up).
Now that Samsung’s managed to deploy the Galaxy S far and wide across the globe (though we’re still waiting for that Epic 4G and Fascinate, ahem), it’s apparently high time for the company to start turning these bad boys into an ongoing revenue stream with a line of first-party accessories that should keep our pocketbooks empty for months to come. Pricing and carrier availability are still an open question, but all told, they’re announcing a desktop dock that pairs with a dock-friendly app in the Market (pictured above), a windshield- and dashboard-mountable car dock, and a spare battery charging kit that includes a combo phone stand / battery charger, an extra wall charger, and the 1500mAh pack itself. You’ve also got a selection of protective cases and screen covers in your choice of regular, mirror finish, and privacy versions. If you bought everything, you’d probably come close to doubling your expense after having bought the Galaxy S itself, but accessorizing is all part of the fun, right? Interestingly, Samsung’s shot of the car dock (above) seems to be the first official press picture of the Verizon Fascinate that we’re aware of… so there you go. Follow the break for the full press release.
Most cell phone manufacturers have charging standards these days, even if they can’t always agree on which version of USB to use, but as the hair-tearing message above shows, third-party renditions of Apple’s proprietary dock connector haven’t always been universal solutions for iPods and iPhones. Now we know another important reason why — secret resistors placed on the data lines in connectors for each iDevice. Minty Boost creator ladyada recently reverse-engineered the chargers for a variety of Apple gadgets, and discovered that iPhones in particular don’t draw electricity until they detect 2.8V and 2V signals when they attempt to charge. At that voltage, the handsets suck down about one amp, leading to a rapid filling of your device’s Li-ion belly, but by adding additional resistance to drop the voltage further, the iPhone can be coerced into accepting 500mA instead — perfect for the set of AAA batteries you stashed away in that Altoids tin. Video after the break, full explanation at our source link.
A while back, I mentioned that 4400 buyers of the Chevy Volt extended range electric vehicle would have the chance to get a free residential charger. One of the chargers that will be available to those early buyers comes from Coulomb Technologies. The company has announced that its residential home charging station is now available to purchase.
The EV charger is the new CT500 Level II ChargePoint Networked Charging Station for home and light commercial use. The charging station uses an open interface and is a 7.2kw single output charging station.
The station delivers 208/240V at 30A and is compatible with all plug-in electric vehicles that comply with SAE J1772 plug-in electric vehicle charging standards. Pricing information is unknown and interested EV owners have to contact a regional sales rep for pricing information.
PhoneSuit’s no stranger to the reload-and-refuel arena, and just months after ushering out the Primo Battery Cube, along comes this: the Primo Power Core. For all intents and purposes, this is an iPhone-sized battery pack, and it just so happens to be fully capable of charging your iPhone or iPod touch. Unlike the vast majority of alternatives, however, this 8200mAh pack can also rejuvenate an iPad, not to mention a wealth of Android smartphones, your mom’s BlackBerry, a couple of unnamed netbooks (yeah, seriously!) and practically any other handheld gadget that can be juiced via USB. The company throws in a cornucopia of tips for a range of “popular” devices, though high-drain devices like netbooks will need to make use of the 12V port. There’s an external LED charge meter to keep you abreast of how much power remains, and it can be headed to a stocking near you in exchange for $99.95.
