charger

While waiting at Las Vegas' McCarran airport for my flight home to San Francisco, I spotted one of the most interesting things I've seen during my CTIA trip. Sitting between a water fountain and the restrooms was a nifty cell phone charging stand. For $3, it delivers 30 minutes of charging time, which can be just enough juice if your phone is dying but you left your charger in your checked luggage. The machine included connectors for 12 types cell phones, including Kyocera, Samsung, Nokia, Palm Treo, RIM BlackBerry, LG, and Nokia. It also had connectors for iPods and … Read more

Long ago Crave made a plea for for solar chargers that wouldn't induce hernias and, thankfully, more than a few manufacturers have answered that call. But now Strapya, which offers a keychain-size version of its own, is going in the other direction with a 22-pound beast called the "Sola Unagi Solar Generator."

Developed by Fuji Technologies (PDF), this mega-charger that can purportedly power as many as 20 mobile phones at a time, according to Red Ferret. It would be the perfect accessory for the kind of phone junkies who are so addicted that they embed microphones in their teeth.… Read more

You'd think that the design for power strips and surge protectors would be pretty much played out, but Belkin has actually done some pretty interesting things with them in recent years: clamp-on models, ones that hide all of the wall warts, and even the forthcoming Conserve, an eco-friendly model that truly shuts off connected devices at the touch of a wireless remote.

The company is taking that spirit of innovation on the road with its latest power product: the Belkin Mini Surge Protector. The travel-friendly model packs three grounded three-prong power outlets and two powered USB ports into its … Read more

There was a time not long ago that solar chargers looked about as portable as the brick phones that came out when Duran Duran was touring the first time around--which kind of defeated the purpose, considering that these were meant to go with mobile phones and other handheld devices. Today, however, some of them are small enough to use as a keychain or even a fashion accessory.

Yet power capacities of many tiny chargers remain an issue (not to mention that they often come from generic brands of dubious origin). So U.K.-based Solar Technology has tried to split … Read more

Ick! Did I actually just write a headline with the words "disposable" and "battery"?! Let's see...yep, I did. But before you get your environmentalist dander up, consider: one, I recycle; two, I use compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and three, I have a relevant story to share.

About three years ago, at a CES show in Las Vegas, a PR flack handed me a Cellboost disposable battery for my Treo smartphone. "You never know when you might need it," she winked.

Flash-forward to three weeks ago, when my phone (it's a Centro now, … Read more

The "WildCharger" was met with some skepticism when it was announced more than a year ago because it sounded too good to be true. The roll-up pad promised to charge various devices simultaneously, regardless of type or brand.

But its manufacturer, appropriately named WildCharge, continues to prove its critics wrong by releasing new adapters compatible with more products. The latest of them will work with the iPhone, iPod, second-generation Nano, and two BlackBerry models (the Pearl and 8800), according to Gizmodo.

The adapters still need to be placed on the back of the devices, which can then be … Read more

I know, it's already a portable video player--I mean one with a bigger screen. Buy.com has the Memorex iFlip on sale for $59.99 shipped, a pretty significant savings over the $199.99 list price.

Similar in design to a portable DVD player, the clamshell-style iFlip features a 7-inch widescreen LCD, stereo speakers, dual headphone jacks, and an iPod dock/charger that promises up to five hours of video playback from its rechargeable battery. It's designed for 5G iPods; I'm not sure if it'll work with 3G nanos. (Class? Anyone?)

I suspect that videos will … Read more

This is a switch. Usually the products from Japan's Strapya fall squarely under the category of novelty items, ranging from the silly to the, er, exotic. But it's finally come up with something practical: a mobile phone strap with a solar charger.

The solar cell can be charged up to 500 times, according to Tokyomango, and can use an AC adapter as a backup battery. It doesn't hold a candle to the drunken salaryman dangle, of course, but nothing really can.

As I get ready to leave CES and Las Vegas, I wanted to give a shout-out to the device that truly powers the convention: the smartphone. Doesn't really matter whether it's Treo or Blackberry, everyone was calling, texting and emailing all day long. At such a techie summit you could talk in any public space with impunity. I would have been lost from my CNET compatriots without it. [Side note, my iPhone had "no service" within the convention center but my Blackberry was fine, both on AT&T.]

So at the end of they day, … Read more