Extremely Lightweight Portable Battery Charger - Jackery Air

KickStart Friday - World's Lightest Portable Charger Coming

We have talked a lot about battery chargers for smart phones. The primary reason for that is the lack of batteries lasting even a day under decent usage. It seems that you cannot get through the work day without having to plug your smart phone into a charger. And with larger screens and more features, that continues to be the big problem. Battery life is just not there. And as long as that condition exists, the need to carry a portable battery charger exists. It is something you need to pay attention to. We are finally seeing a number which are small and very portable. And the latest one coming is very thin as well.

The Jackery Air is this weeks KickStarter project and fits in with a growing trend of popularity for portable chargers. This one is unique in that it is the shape of a smart phone, but much thinner in size. We have been seeing so many that are square cylinders or ones that are very thick in size. The Jackery Air has a case made of aluminum which is going to cut down on the weight on that one item alone.

They are offering the Jackery Air in two sizes, 2800 mAh and 5000 mAh. The smaller size only weighs in at 5 ounces and is capable of charging your iPhone 5 with 2 charges. The larger model weighs in at 5.5 ounces and is capable of charging up your iPhone 5 with 3 charges. With almost double the battery capacity, it is interesting that you will only get an additional charge out of it. I would have thought 3.5 charges, but not a big deal.

The Jackery Air is still raising funding, though they have exceed the goal of $30,000 with 21 days still to go. They are now adding stretch goals and adding a great deal. But you will have to go to the KickStarter Project for Jackery Air site to see what they are offering. The Jackery Air is planned to be shipped next month for those who have helped fund the project. You should take a look at this one as it carries value for you.

ChargeLight Gives You A Flashlight And A Battery Charger

KickStarter Friday - Flashlight charges up your mobile devices.

We all have devices which are single purpose in our homes. One of those is the simple flashlight and it sole purpose is to provide light. When you need it, it must provide light or it is no value. But, what if you could have that flashlight serve another purpose as well and one that is important to you. Such as being able to charge up your mobile devices as well as being able to provide you with light. That is exactly what the ChargeLight is designed to do by giving you light when you need it and charge up your mobile devices as a battery charger. A combination of two necessary items in today's world of mobile devices.

The ChargeLight is this week's KickStarter project and one that is worth a look. If you have not experienced the low battery indicator on your smart phone when you have no where to recharge the battery, then you are among the lucky few. So many have experienced that panic feeling of where to charge up your smartphone that a growing list of battery chargers has emerged. And the ChargeLight is the latest one coming to KickStarter. What makes the ChargeLight different is that it is a useful tool as a flashlight along with the great benefit of being a battery charger when you need to charge up your mobile devices.

As a flashlight, the ChargeLight has 4 different settings with the brightest being 250 Lumens. They are saying that it is 5 times brighter than your regular flashlight with light reaching out a distance of over 164 yards. The distance claim will have to be proven when the product is released. With the ability to charge up the battery in either the dock or directly to power, this gives you what you need in a small device.

For charging up your mobile device, expect to see a full charge to your smartphone from the ChargeLight. Though the Galaxy S4 will get about a 90% charge given its large battery. Other smartphones with larger capacity batteries will not get a full charge. But, that probably is not going to be a big deal as the primary purpose of a battery charger is to let you continue using your smart phone. Do not expect to get much of a charge on a tablet is they have much larger batteries in them. That is because the included 2600 mAh battery is not going to provide power to larger ones beyond its capacity.

The ChargeLight KickStarter project has 27 days to go and is one that you should take a look at. We all need to have a flashlight available for use and to have one that doubles as a battery charger is a good idea. The company website is at ChargeLight.com and refers you back to the KickStarter Project. Take a look at the contribution levels for one that is of interest to your. At the $50 level, you get the ChargeLight flashlight, the dock and USB cable. But, those are going fast so you will need to get over to the contribute page to pick your color. Once those are gone, the next level is at $60.

This is a great idea and one that most will take a look at.

Powertraveller Silverback Gorilla Provides All Day Laptop Power

Sounds like an interesting title and makes one wonder what this actually is. Are we talking about the zoo and the silverback gorilla's? How can a gorilla provide you all day laptop power? No, it is nothing like that at all. This is about a product which can give you power to your laptop when there is no power available to plug the power cord into. And while that may not be a big deal for most, there is a group where that is a really big concern to be able to continue working. I get to work from home which does allow me to essentially work from anywhere. So, if there is no power, I cannot work and that is a big deal in continuing to work from home.

As a result, I am always on the look out for alternate power sources. One that I found over the weekend is the Powertraveller Silverback-gorilla which is a coming product. And this is one that should be of interest to anyone who gets to work from home. The key feature that caught my eye is the fact that it can power my laptop for up to 14 hours. In reality, this is a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) battery which is powerful enough to provide for a day of work and light enough to carry around. Weighing in at just over 5.5 pounds, you can easily throw the Silverback Gorilla charger in your laptop bag to take with you. Or you can leave it plugged into the wall so that when the power does go out, it is fully charged up.

With a size of 9.6 by 8 by 1.3 inches, it is not going to take that much space. And the insurance of having all day power when the power goes out could be considered as being "priceless". The 60,000 mAh battery is the key to this and it contains 2 USB plugs so that you can charge up your mobile devices as well. But, what about your Internet connection? The Silverback Gorilla also comes with a 250 watt output plug to connect up your Wifi or modem to it. That way, you continue to be connected to the Internet while you are working. This sure looks to be a great solution for those working from home when the power goes out.

Another of the features coming with the Silverback Gorilla is the ability to set various voltage outputs for this UPS. Those various settings for USB output include 5v, 8.4v, 9.5v, 12v 16v, 19v or 24v. With that variety, you can set the correct setting to match your mobile devices. That kind of flexibility is not seen that often.

The Powertraveller Silverback Gorilla UPS battery is expected to arrive this summer at a price of about $460. If having power when there is none is critical, this is a great choice for those of us working from home. You can add your name to an email list for when the Silverback Gorilla Charger will be available at their website.

Eton FRX3 - Emergency Power To Charge Up Your Mobile Devices

The events in Oklahoma yesterday should cause everyone to start thinking about what we might do in the event of an emergency because of a disaster such as this. It does not matter whether it is a hurricane, tornado or earthquake. The resulting damage and impact has far reaching effects. The first and most obvious needs are going to be food and shelter, so you need to have plans or at least an idea of what you are going to do. If you only have an idea, now is the time to put together your plan. As part of those plans, the Eton FRX3 is the one item that you need to have as part of your emergency kit. It can provide you with a number of different benefits in an emergency.

The Eton FRX3 is associated with the American Red Cross. While the Eton may not look like much, it is a multifunctional unit which will meet a number of your needs in an emergency. The big item from a technology perspective is that it can charge up your mobile devices. Your ability to communicate with friends and family is extremely important to let everyone know that you are safe. The Eton FRX3 contains a battery which can provide power to charge via the USB port. And when that runs down, you can charge it up via a car cigarette lighter. Or you can use the included Solar Panel or use the hand crank to add juice to the included battery. This will give you the ability to communicate over the web until power is restored. And that might be several days.

As in so many past disasters, phone service is disrupted for days. And that includes the cell towers as well, so with communications down, you need to have some way of hearing what is going on in the world. The Eton FRX3 includes a radio which can let you listen to AM or FM stations along with the national weather as well. A very important feature when you do not know what is going on and when services might be restored.

It is not that big of a device at 2.6 high by 6.9 long and 5.8 inches wide. And is less than 1 pound. There is an included LED light which will come in handy when there is no power. All of this in a compact package to give you some of the conveniences of life when things go wrong. And it gives you the big feature of being able to keep your smart phone working when there is no power for an extended period of time.

The ETon FRX3 is available at Amazon for $56.06. You should considering buying this for the next disaster which may happen.

Build Your Own Power Bag With MyCharge Summit

There are a lot of choices when it comes to your travel bag for carrying all your technology items. If you are like me and have to go to locations to do repairs on occasion, you need a bag which fits your needs and has the ability to charge up some of your devices. You do not want to have to plug into a wall socket at a client to charge up your smart phone. Which brings up the need to be able to charge things up in your tech bag. In the selection of bags, you can go for one that has the battery built in, but they are not as flexible as I would like. While they are the perfect solution when traveling by air, I prefer the idea of selecting a bag that fits my needs for calling on clients and then add in the charging abilities. For this, I really like the MyCharge Summit as the solution for keeping my devices with sufficient charge during the day.

The MyCharge Summit is a 3000 mAh battery which provides exactly what I need when helping clients. It is strange that the company web site is showing the MyCharge Summit as coming soon, as this has been available since last year. Guess they missed updating their site. This small battery charger which can charge up your smart phone multiple times is about the size of a smart phone, but a lot thicker. It comes with a built in Apple 30 pin connector and a built in microUSB connector. Handles my Samsung Galaxy S3. And it comes with a built in USB port where you can connect the device of your choosing.

This flexibility comes in handy to charge up a tablet and smart phone while I am moving from one location to another in SF. And the built in microUSB means that I do not have to carry a USB cable with me for my S3. If I have to charge up my tablet, the USB port is the answer. And if you have an iPad with the 30 pin connector, you are all set. If you have an new iOS device with the new Lightning connector, you will have to use the USB connection. The MyCharge Summit has 5 LED indicators on it to let you know the battery levels along with a retractable plug for when you need to recharge it.

One of the items that you might consider as strange is the talking voice on MyCharge Summit which tells you verbally when it begins charging the device and other status items. And if it knows the device, that will be included in the audio alert. If you do not like the voice notification, you can simply change it to a tone indicator or make the notifications silent which is my preference on many of the device which I have. Too many sounds may cause one to start to ignore them.

The MyCharge Summit 3000 is available at Amazon for $42 and is available in the colors of white, blue, purple or red. If you have a special bag you really like to use when visiting clients, then the MyCharge Summit is a great add on for making sure that your mobile devices have enough juice when you are on-site.

No Outlet Battery Charger For Your Mobiles Device

KickStarter Friday - Ultra-high capacity batteries coming from no name company

Batteries seem to be a re-occurring theme in the products that we are seeing. And the reason for that is very simple. When your mobile devices gives you a low battery warning, panic tends to set in when you are not near a power source. That has happened to me on a number of occasions, so I tend to notice when I see something new. And this week, I have found a product which is being created by someone who travels in the range of 200 days per year, though he lists it as 200 nights per year.

These coming batteries are from a company with no name on KickStarter this week and are well worth the look. They have just closed funding to create 3 different size batteries to help the business travelers who are "fighting for outlet space at airport terminals" to charge up their mobile devices. If you have been in that situation, you know. With a goal of $25,000, the project closed today with $144,516 in funding to move this forward.

Since the company does not have a name, we are going to call it the "No Outlet No Problem" company and they are working towards providing 3 different battery charger models. They 3 are:

• Adventurer with 6,600 mAh battery at 2.55 by 3.9 inches and 0.75 inches thick. Weight is 5.5 ounces.


• Expedition with 11,200 mAh battery at 4.8 by 3.2 inches and 0.80 inches thick. Wieght is 8 ounces.


• Destination with 10,000 mAh battery at 3.75 by 5.25 inches and 0.64 inches thick. Weight is 8 ounces.

Using lithium-ion batteries for these, they are providing large sized capacity in a very small form factor. These various sizes will give you the knowledge that you do have a battery to recharge your mobile device when you have to. While these are not going to be the speediest of charges, they will do the job for you. Each of the batteries will contain a charging circuit to control the discharge to your mobile device. And they are including a universal adapter with 8 different adapters to charge up a wide variety of mobile devices.

The "No Outlet No Problem" company is going to be providing a solid product with two USB outlets on each one of their charging batteries. Current plans have them providing the selected battery to backers of their KickStarter project in May this year. There is no indications of when retail sales of these may start nor possible pricing for them. For those who backed this project at various levels, the price for them is $30 for the Adventurer, $50 for the Expedition and $65 for the Destination. If those translate into pricing when it comes to market, this will make it a very competitive product for a battery charger.