DavidB pointed out this interesting little gadget to me and I thought it was a really cool idea. I travel quite often and tend to run out of juice. I am not always conveniently around a wall charger so I have resorted to using a Case-Mate Fuel for my Bold. The PowerPak which comes out in November is essentially just a wall charger for any USB device with a built in battery so that it can store a charge.
That means you can always pump in that last bit of juice while on the go. I am not sure what the capacity will be but the idea of giving your wall charger a secondary purpose is appealing since you have to carry it around anyways. I always thought it would be really cool if laptops could perform the same function of charging a gadget while off. Some laptops do this when the power plug is in but I have yet to hear of one that does it without the power cable plugged into the wall.
Check out the PowerPak at this link.
via CrunchGear
PetieG Not Registered
Posted: October 16, 2009 at 10:42 AM EST
surprisingly, my unibody macbook acts as a 5lb battery for my iphone… if i leave it in my backpack, w/ the ports up, i simply plug in the ipod cable and plug it into my 3GS and ~viola! a quick boost w/out turning the macbook on… love that feature! (it’s nice that the 1 jack headphone port also works w/ the mic on the iphone headset too!)… Have a great weekend!
Kaediil Not Registered
Posted: October 16, 2009 at 11:17 AM EST
My new Dell has one of its 4 USB ports that will charge if the power is off and it is unplugged. I thought that was a most cool feature when I saw it.
The symbol has a little lightning bolt next to the normal tree like USB symbol so you know which one to use.
-frank
Ramsy Not Registered
Posted: October 16, 2009 at 1:04 PM EST
The Solio solar and wall charger does the same thing. The Solio has an internal battery that can be charged by AC power or by the sun. The Solio can recharge a device at the same time it is charging its own internal battery. Because the Solio is also solar powered, it seems to be more useful than the PowerPak.
DavidB ( View Profile) Guru - Posts: 1751
Posted: October 16, 2009 at 4:28 PM EST from my BlackBerry 9530
My Dell E6500 has a USB port that is always live.
What I thought was so cool about this gadget was practically anything can charge from it since every BlackBerry/iPod/PSP/etc. can charge from USB and should work with this. 1 charger for all ny gadgets, traveler nirvana!