Hey! do you have 16 iPad’s and a 13-inch MacBook that you travel with regularly? Are you sick of plugging and unplugging them, and having to roll them in newspaper every time you take a plane?
Well, if you’re happy to put all your iEggs in one tough, roll-along basket and entrust it to the notoriously light-fingers of the airport baggage handlers, then Parat Solutions has just the, uh, solution for you.
The ChargeCard is an iPhone charging that’s designed to live in your wallet, purse, or pocket. Shaped like a credit card and measuring just 2.54mm thick, this is the thinnest iPhone charging cable you can buy, and you can pull it out whenever you find a free USB port to charge your device. What’s more, you can finally say goodbye to carrying messy cables.
If you’re waiting for Apple to add wireless charging to the iPhone, you could be waiting some time. We’ve been hearing rumors of its introduction for a number of years now, but five generations in, it’s yet to arrive. If you’re a skilled solderer, however, you could always add wireless charging to your iPhone yourself.
That’s what Tanveer did. He took apart a wireless charging case for the iPhone and installed its components into the iPhone 4S. Now all he has to do to charge it is place it down on a USB charging mat.
Shortly after the new iPad made its debut earlier this month, it was discovered that the way in which the device calculates its battery life is flawed. Despite telling you its charge is at 100%, your device hasn’t actually finished charging.
New data proves that in fact, your device isn’t finished charging until more than two hours after it reaches “100%,” and if you unplug it before then, you could lose around 1.2 hours of battery life. What’s more, it seems all iOS devices misreport their battery life.
I love getting to review products from Just Mobile because I know they will always have excellent build quality. The Highway car charger for the iPhone is no exception. At about $35, the Highway isn’t exactly price sensitive. You’ll be able to find a multitude of cheaper solutions at your local Walmart, but you won’t find anything quite as luxurious.
It’s a well known fact that the new iPad takes significantly longer to charge than the iPad 2. You can chalk that problem up to the fact that the new iPad has approximately 70% more battery in the same form factor than the iPad 2, requiring almost twice as long to charge. Consequently, the iPad has gone from being something you could charge up in just a few hours to a tablet that needs all night to charge to 100%.
But you shouldn’t stop charging your iPad at 100%. No sirree bob. If you want the most battery life from your new iPad, you should keep the device plugged in for at least an hour after it reports full. Why? The iPad battery gauge lies.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2012 — As ever, NTT DoCoMo has some weird new tech to show off at the Mobile World Congress. This year, it’s a cellphone battery that charges fully in just ten minutes. and if you’re really in a hurry, you can get enough juice to last a couple of hours in just a minute.
It’s been rumored that Apple is looking to rid future iPhones of their traditional 30-Pin connector in a move to save space, but we have no idea what Apple would replace it with to handle the charging and syncing of iOS devices. iCloud has given us the ability to completely cut the cord for syncing, but recharging the device would still require a cable. Or would it? Thanks to some newly invented hi-tech fabric, it looks like future iPhones may possibly be charged using body heat in the not too distant future.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 — Those studly hex bolts, that rubberized exterior, the thick mass of battery — Mophie’s new Power Station Pro was obviously designed with one idea in mind: keeping your iDevice-laden butt juiced out in the middle of nowhere.
Cables are so last month. Just a few weeks ago, iOS 5 cut the sync umbilical cord, and gave us AirPlay, which liberated the iPad from cables when streaming video or music — and today Dana Innovations’ new LaunchPort freed the iPad completely.
The PowerSkin for iPhone 4 ($80) is a silicone case with a built-in rechargeable 2,000 mAh battery that claims to double your device’s battery life with patented “XPAL Power” battery technology. Like most battery cases, it uses a mini-USB port to charge and sync your iPhone simultaneously, and you can turn the case on and off when necessary. The four-LED battery indicator will let you know how much juice you have remaining at the touch of a button.
The problem with battery cases is that they’re so big. Wrapping one around the iPhone 4 turns it from slim-and-sleek into a thick brick of a phone; and if you wanted fat and ugly, heck, you would have bought an Android phone.
But the PhoneSuit Elite iPhone 4 battery case ($80) changes everything. It’s the first case I’ve really felt comfortable carrying around in a jeans pocket, and it’s powerful and fast to boot.
If you owned an Apple notebook before 2006 when the MagSafe method of charging was introduced, you’ll know that if someone tripped over your power cord, they often took your computer down with them. Now we have the MagSafe, we don’t have to worry about the fool in the coffee shop who isn’t looking where he’s going, because your power cord just pops out with a slight tug.
According to a new Apple patent, MagSafe technology could also be heading to iOS devices to safe them from clumsy feet.
Following this morning’s discovery of a new Apple patent for inductive charging, MacRumors points to a video from WiTricity, the company that develops magnetic resonance charging technology, which demonstrates a much better method for wirelessly charging our Apple gadgets using our Macs as a power source.
Apple’s intentions to introduce a wireless system to its iOS devices has been well documented over the past few months, but just exactly how it plans to do it remains to be seen. However, a new patent application published by the U.S. Patent & Trademarks Office today could reveal all.
Rumor has it that Apple is already working on a new method of charging our iPhones for 2012, and many believe the company may introduce wireless magnetic charging using technology developed by WiTricity. But according to a report from DigiTimes, future iOS devices may absorb all the energy they need from the sun.
Following its report yesterday that promises a thinner, lighter iPhone 5 by the end of this year, The Wall Street Journal now offers us some information on Apple’s 2012 iPhone, which it says will boast a whole “new way of charging.”
If a bag is on display at CES, chances are excellent it’s got some kind of snazzy tech feature. Newcomer Powerbag caught our eye with its line of four handsome bags that all include batteries for charging iDevices (or other peripherals); Voltaic — we featured their OffGrid backpack in our Holiday Gift Guide — just launched an iPad case with high-efficiency solar cells slathered all over one side.
Boy, Delta’s getting everything right with Apple owners this year. Hot on the heels of their announcement that they would be installing 135 free-to-use iPads at their gates at JFK comes word that they’re now in the process of installing gadget charging stations in their gate areas at 19 United States airports.
Case and battery manufacturer Mophie has just launched the Juice Pack Powerstation — a one stop iOS charging station.
It’s 3,600mAh capacity means it is more than capable of fully recharging either iPad or iPhone (including iPhone 4), which will bring the possibility of going days without touching a power point.
The Powerstation has a pair of USB ports, one used to charge your device and the other for charging the battery itself. At 2.86 x 4.31 x 0.65 inches, and weighing somewhere around a pound, it is not the most portable of devices. You would be hard pressed to find a pocket big enough to lug this around in, but that said it will comfortably fit in most bags.
The Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation for iOS devices is available now direct from the Mophie site for $99.95. Full review as soon as we get our hands on one.