Logitech Rechargeable Speaker S715i for iPhone and iPod: review

Logitech owned the $149 price range for portable iPhone+iPod stereo systems for years, until the company cut too many corners last year in attempting to reduce the price to $129, resulting in a compromised S315i just as Altec Lansing finally managed to nearly perfect its own competing product. Here in 2010, Logitech’s new S715i attempts to put the company back into legitimate competition in the price range, and indeed fixes much of what went wrong with the previous model.

Despite the return to a $149 price tag, the S715i represents a better value over the S315i right off the at in that it sees the return of a (small, basic) remote control. The design of the S715i is smarter in that the volume buttons, which had inexplicably and awkwardly been on the back of its predecessor, are now on the front of the unit; no more blindly groping for them around back. And while the dock on top still cuts corners a bit by not using Apple’s system of universal docking inserts, turns out to be significantly more stable than what came before, as far as tilting the unit forward and such. And the kickstand, while simple, is plenty sturdy (just be sure to remove that slippery yellow piece of tape first). These are all improvements that were easily observable before I even turned the unit on.

Good news on the audio front as well, as the S715i sounds just a little better than its predecessor – but then again, audio quality was never a problem with the S315i to begin with. The hokey “turn this switch to cut audio quality in half for the sake of doubling your battery life” option is gone, which won’t likely be missed. Perhaps of more concern is that the previous ten hour rechargeable battery is now reduced to eight hours, but that still outshines the five hours you’ll get from the competing Altec Lansing iM620. Altec still wins this round, as the iM620 offers a built-in radio, LCD screen, carrying handle, better docking mechanism, and sounds a little better for the same price. But the S715i puts Logitech legitimately back on the playing field at the $149 price point – particularly if battery life is a priority for you.

Rating: four stars out of five · $149 · Logitech.com

Konnet PowerEZ Plus battery for iPhone and iPod: review

Batteries which merely snap onto the bottom of an iPhone or iPod have generally been considered a poor man’s substitute for a more expensive form-fitting battery case or battery cradle. But three things are potentially working in the favor of Konnet’s new PowerEZ Plus battery. One is that, for now, there are no form-fitting battery cases or cradles on the market for the new iPhone 4, leaving those users (at least for the moment) looking for universally compatible solutions. The second is that its 1000 mAh capacity is in line with competing snap-on batteries priced at $39, while this one is priced at a mere $29. And the third thing going for this product is the fact that it has a kick-out leg which can be used to prop up your iPhone.

So how does all of the above hold up in real world testing? As far as the kickstand, it’s immediately apparent that it has no value when your iPhone is positioned upright, nor was it likely intended to. But when you lay your iPhone (or iPod touch) sideways, for watching video or perhaps when you want to prop it up overnight on your nightstand as a pseudo-alarm clock, it’s actually surprisingly steady, so long as it’s being used on an evenly flat surface. And the battery life claims held up, meaning that you can count on getting roughly an extra fifty to seventy percent battery life out of your iPhone if it’s fully charged to begin with.

All of that, combined with the price, makes the Konnet PowerEZ Plus the most attractive bottom snap-on battery currently on the market. My only complaint is that unlike most batteries, which begin working when you plug them in, you have to remember to manually turn on the PowerEZ Plus after you plug it in, but that’s minor. I’d still recommend considering a battery case or cradle for your iPhone as they tend to be more practical during active use, but those will generally run you $50 to $100, whereas the PowerEZ Plus is $29 – making it a steal at that price.

rating: 4.5 out of five stars • KonnetOnline.com

iPhone 4 battery external solution launches from Konnet

iPhone 4 users won’t be able to use their existing form-fitting battery cases and cradles designed for earlier iPhone models, but Konnet is offering a solution in the form of its PowerEZ, a bottom snap-on battery which also doubles as a flip-out stand. The $29.99 PowerEZ offers 100 mAh, which based on our previous hands-on experience with external iPhone batteries should add about an extra fifty percent battery life to your iPhone 4. We’ll be doing hands-on tests of several iPhone 4-compatible battery solutions this month and will report back with our overall findings; in the mean time, Konnet’s PowerEZ is available through the company’s website.

iPhone 4: seven good reasons to upgrade, three to give pause

iPhone 4 is here, and tens of millions of current iPhone users have to make the decision whether or not to plunk down a couple hundred bucks to make the upgrade. Here are several good reasons why you should go ahead and take the plunge, and at the end of the list, a few reasons to give you pause:

1. It’s faster: the iPhone’s ever more sophisticated apps demand more processing horsepower to go with it, and iPhone 4 uses the same A4 processor technology as Apple’s iPad, which is bound to give you back a few nanoseconds here and there.

2. Better battery life: seeing how much thinner iPhone 4 is than its predecessors, it seems like they could have crammed a whole lot more extra battery life in there if they’d wanted to. But as it is, the new iPhone has what Apple claims is up to 40% more battery life, and while a look at the specific breakdowns by usage type suggests that the estimate is high for the features you’re likely to use most, the bottom line is that iPhone 4 has a noticeably longer batter than iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, or the original iPhone.

3. iOS 4: Apple’s new mobile operating system (previously known as iPhone OS 4) will also be available for older iPhone models, but some of its key features will only be able to fully fun on the faster more powerful iPhone 4. Just because you upgrade your existing iPhone to iOS 4 when it’s released doesn’t mean you’ll be getting the same iPhone 4 experience on your existing iPhone.

4. iMovie: If you’re of the opinion that no mobile video should ever be shown to anyone until it’s benefited from some basic editing, the iMovie app means you’ll no longer have to wait until you get home and sync your mobile video to your computer before being able to clean up the loose ends. We’re still waiting to officially hear whether iMovie will run on the iPhone 3GS. But even if it does, iPhone 4 has a much higher quality video camera (HD in fact) than the 3GS does.

5. FaceTime: Yes, it’s seemingly a gimmick to begin with. And yes, its wifi-only status means you’ll more or less have to schedule video calls ahead of time on both ends to make sure you just happen to be within range of wifi when the phone rings. But tell us you’re not at least a little bit tempted to use it to communicate with a loved one.

6. Upgrade pricing: Many iPhone 3G users skipped the iPhone 3GS because they weren’t eligible to buy it for the advertised price and found themselves being asked to pay two to four hundred dollars above sticker. And while a fair number of users will fall into that trap again with iPhone 4, the number will be significantly lower this time around. AT&T, who finally did something customer-friendly after three years of being the bane of most iPhone users’ existence, has said that anyone who was going to be eligible to buy the iPhone 4 at the advertised price by the end of 2010 will instead be able to do so from day one. What does that mean for you? AT&T has a secret formula for whether you become eligible either twelve or eighteen months after you bought your last iPhone, and rather than trying to do the math, it’s better to just confirm it on wireless.att.com – but the bottom line is that many iPhone users who bought their current iPhone prior to 2010, and nearly all iPhone users who bought theirs prior to mid 2009, will be able to get their hands on iPhone 4 for the actual $199/$299 pricing.

7. New antenna technology: Speaking of AT&T, despite its obvious deficiencies, carrier signal alone isn’t the only factor in call quality. AT&T customers who’ve moved from a RAZR to an iPhone are aware that AT&T’s call quality can magically jump by leaps and bounds simply by moving to hardware with better antenna technology. It’s not yet clear whether the new antenna technology in iPhone 4, which uses the device’s frame as an antenna, is supposed to result in better reception or merely allowed Apple to stop wasting space on a separate antenna – but we’re eager to find out.

And as promised, here are three reasons for current iPhone users to think twice about upgrading to iPhone 4…

1. Capacity: iPhone 4 has room for a gyroscope but not for anything more than thirty-two gigabytes of storage space? Even the iPod touch, which is nothing more than a fake iPhone, has a sixty-four gigabyte option.

2. Practicality: The bulk of the iPhone’s new features, whether it be mobile video, or FaceTime, or the newly built in gyroscope, are niches and not for everyone. The increased specs, from battery life to speed, are incremental and not game changing. If none of the new features and enhancements matter to you, is it worth upgrading just so you can say you’re using the latest and greatest?

3. Contract: If AT&T tells you that you’re one of the unlucky current iPhone users who has to pay four or five hundred dollars or more for an iPhone 4 because you’re not yet eligible for it, then whether it’s worth its price tag becomes a whole different equation.

In any case, if you missed iPhone 4’s full rundown of new specs, you can find it right here.

review: Novothink Solar Surge battery for iPhone

If a battery cradle is an insurance policy for when you exhaust your iPhone’s internal battery, then a battery cradle with a solar panel on the back like Novothink’s new Solar Surge is like insurance for your insurance; if you’re going to burn through your iPhone’s battery and the cradle’s battery, you can then use the sun’s rays to keep them both charged up. The two caveats are obvious: you’ve got to be enough of a power user that you actually need a backup plan for your backup battery. And you’ve got to be outdoors often enough to take advantage of the solar functionality.

In my tests I found that walking down the street while using my Solar Surge-clad iPhone in my hand did cause the Surge to recharge while I was doing so, as did simply pulling the Surge out of my pocket and setting it upside down on my thigh while I was sitting on my back porch. But the solar recharging doesn’t really happen any faster than if you were to plug it into a wall, meaning that you have to be outside for longer stretches of time than I typically am in order to make real use of the solar recharging aspect – and no, keeping it in your pants pocket won’t help.

The key point here, however, is that you can completely ignore the solar panel and use the Solar Surge as if it were a regular iPhone battery cradle. It charges up via USB and keeps your iPhone charged just fine even if you never come into contact with the sun’s rays. This means that those users who want to take advantage of the solar aspect occasionally, such as weekend hiking trips, can do just that, and then proceed to use it as a traditional battery cradle the rest of the time.

My only real issue with the Solar Surge is that aside from the solar aspect, it feels like a battery cradle from 2008. It’s got a largely squared off design at a time when most newer battery cradles and cases are much more svelte. Maybe that’s necessary to house the solar panel, the product just feels like it’s from an earlier era. That having been said, a certain segment of users will view the Solar Surge as a godsend.

Also available for iPod touch.

review by Bill Palmer • rating: four stars out of five • novothink.com

World’s thinnest iPhone battery case debuts

iPhone users have long had their choice of battery cradles, battery cases, snap-on batteries, battery docks, even solar powered batteries (Apple, take a hint: iPhone users want longer battery life), but now comes what the vendor claims is the world’s thinnest iPhone battery case yet. According to iPhone accessory manufacturer MiLi, its new Power Skin is thinner than competing battery cases, which generally consist of a top and bottom two-piece rubber or acrylic plastic case whose rear surface includes a battery slab inside. MiLi claims 1200 mAh of battery juice, which based on our previous tests of batteries from MiLi and other vendors, would suggest that the product slightly less than doubles your iPhone’s internal battery.

We hope to review the Power Skin here at Beatweek soon, at which time we can confirm whether the product really is thinner in real world terms than Mophie’s competing Juice Pack Air or FastMac’s forthcoming iV lite, both of which employ a similar physical design (although based on specs, it appears to be the case). MiLi’s Power Skin sells for $69.95 and comes in a choice of eight different color combinations.

iPad: Beatweek’s hands-on two week review

Now that I had the iPad for two weeks, I have a better understanding of when and where I like to use it. it’s still a bit heavy to hold but I think getting some sort or stand will remedy this. Here are a few points I’d like to address:

Applications. New iPad-only and universal apps are coming out daily and it’s getting hard to keep up. If there’s an application you need for the iPad, it’s probably available, or will be soon. Again, all iPhone apps that you purchased before will work on the iPad, but they do not make great use of the space. You’ll find yourself deleting most of these apps off of your iPad and waiting for an iPad version of it.

Landscape vs. Portrait. I enjoy holding the iPad in landscape mode a lot. It’s much easier to hold with two hands, especially when you’re playing a game. I also notice that a lot of the apps make better use of the space when it is in landscape mode. Take the official Mail app for example. In portrait mode, you only see the email and would need to tab over to the menu to see the list of emails. In landscape mode, you see both the email and the list of emails in one window. I like to see everything at once, but again, this is just my preference. What’s handy with the iPad is that there’s a switch on the right side (if you’re holding it in portrait mode) that allows you to lock the screen so it’s not switching on you as you move. Sometimes, I wish the iPhone had this switch!
Read more

review: RichardSolo 1800

review: Dexim P-Flip

Review: MiLi Power Pack

As an unrepentant battery hog, I’ve had an intimate relationship with iPhone battery cradles going back to late 2007 when I first got my hands on a preproduction prototype. Since then I’ve been continually thankful that such products exist, yet often disappointed that most of them haven’t evolved much beyond their original 2008 incarnations (Mophie’s Juice Pack Air, which is actually a battery case, being the only real exception). So while MiLi’s Power Pack is very clearly modeled upon Mophie’s original Juice Pack cradle, a nearly two year old product, the evolution of the market has been sufficiently slow enough such that – well, let’s just say that MiLi has finally added the finishing touches to the original recipe that Mophie never did.

While every other battery cradle I’ve used has placed the indicator lights on the back, MiLi has made the long overdue move of putting them on the front. Humorously, I’ve grown so used to having to flip my iPhone upside down to see how much juice my cradle has left over the years that while testing the Power Pack I kept instinctively flipping it over only to remember that the lights are on the front where they should be. And while the black rubber of the Juice Pack has eventually blistered on every unit I’ve gone through, the Power Pack uses shiny acrylic plastic that matches the exterior of the iPhone 3GS. And although the choice of interior colors doesn’t much matter because the interior disappears as soon as you insert your iPhone, you do get a choice of black or white here. The Power Pack is also two-thirds the price and provided about the same battery life in my tests (the specs say that the Power Pack actually has about ten percent more power than the Juice Pack). And the Power Pack has an USB port for simultaneously charging another device.

To be fair, Mophie’s efforts seem to have instead gone into the Juice Pack Air battery case, which offers the same acrylic backing and choice of colors. And Fastmac’s bulky iV cradle offers more battery life than any of the above. But as far as ergonomic one-piece battery cradles go, MiLi’s Power Pack has pulled into the lead. Just one complaint: please lose the silly mini-USB port and replace it with a real iPhone docking port so we don’t have to travel with multiple charging cables.

Learn more at MiLiDirect.com

Review: ZAGGsparq

At first blush, the ZAGGsparq appears to be the world’s most overgrown dual wall charger: electrical prongs flip out on the back and plug into a wall, while a pair of USB ports on the front allow you to charge up one or two iPhones and/or iPods (or any other rechargeable USB device). But here comes the big surprise, which explains its giant size: the brick itself doubles as a long-lasting external battery. And that makes this product fairly intriguing.

While on most days I’m content to use a battery case or cradle and the resulting doubling or tripling of my iPhone’s battery life, on my recent cross country road trip I found that keeping my iPhone charged at my bedside overnight, or even keeping it charged at a hotel desk all day without tying up my laptop’s USB ports, was a frequent challenge. So I often fell back on an external battery brick, which was handy, but even it had to be recharged via USB, which meant plugging it into my laptop at some point (or traveling with a third party wall charging brick). But the ZAGGsparq, with its built in wall charging capability would have changed that equation: charge it by day via a wall plug, then leave my iPhone plugged into it on the nightstand at night. Everyone has their own iPhone and iPod usage patterns, so I’m sure some you can think of ways in which you’d put it to use.

But while the concept is nice, it’s the brute-force amount of battery life that makes the ZAGGsparq worth toting around despite its large size: while the company claims it’ll quadruple your iPhone’s battery life, my two full cycles with the product suggest that ZAGG’s estimate is conservative, as it basically quintupled things for me. Now that’s some real power. I do wish there were a way to recharge the ZAGGsparq via a computer for those times when doing so is desirable, but beyond that there’s little to quibble with here: if you want a long-lasting battery brick that easily recharges from a wall socket and can recharge two devices at once, here’s your winner. I can’t wait to use this one on my next cross-country flight. Please lose the big yellow logo, though. And our rating would have been higher if the price weren’t so exceedingly high.

Learn more at Zagg.com

Review: NewerTech Charge & Sync

NewerTechnology has a track record of taking expensive functionality and bringing it down to a breakthrough price point, as best demonstrated by the company’s $19 iPhone-specific earbuds two years ago, at a time when it was difficult to find such a product for less than triple digits. Here in 2010, where anything beyond lame snap-on batteries will cost you sixty dollars or (much) more, here comes the descriptively if not-so-catchily named Charge & Sync+ which offers battery brick functionality for forty bucks.

As you might expect, the price point brings some compromises with it. While the $129 ZAGGsparq offers a mind-blowing 6000 mAh of battery life, and form-fitting battery cradles typically offer 1800 to 3300 mAh, the Charge & Sync+ offers a mere 1400, putting it barely above the svelte Juice Pack Air battery case. What 1400 mAh means is that the Charge & Sync+ will not-quite-double your iPhone’s battery life, or if your iPhone’s battery is dead to begin with, not quite charge it up to full. For this price, I’ll take it.

Further attempting to push the value quotient, the Charge & Sync+ not only comes with an iPhone/iPod connector cable (several more expensive batteries inexplicably don’t), the cable is actually built in to the brick. Unfortunately this is an instance of a product outsmarting itself, as extending the cable requires undoing the kind of plastic trap door that you’d have to pop open to change the AA batteries in an alarm clock; not something you want to be fiddling with every time you go to use the product. And in a head scratching move, the built in electrical prongs can’t be extended until the cable has been unwrapped – meaning you have to go through all the trap door hoopla just to charge up the brick itself, let alone connect it to your device. It’s nice that they’ve included separate tips for charging mini and micro USB devices, but the cable implementation is so befuzzled that I’d rather have seen then go with a simple USB port and a separate cable. As such it’s a three star product that gets bumped up half a star for being a good value play despite the flawed concept.

Learn more at NewerTech.com

Review: MiLi Pocketpal

The original iPhone came with a USB wall charger that was on the large side but featured retractable prongs so they’d stay safe when traveling. More recent iPhone models have come with a wall charger that’s much smaller but whose prongs stay sticking out, leaving them prone to get bent or damaged if tossed into a bag unprotected, making the charger unsuitable in the minds of some road warriors – hence why my iPhone’s bundled wall charger is sitting somewhere in a drawer.

Enter the Pocketpal by MiLi, a USB wall charger which attempts to offer the best of both worlds in that it’s about as small as the current bundled iPhone wall charger but offers retractable prongs which disappear into the body of the charger when not in use. And in a move away from the all-white chargers offered by Apple and most third parties, the Pocketpal comes in five different two-tone color combinations; my test unit is black with bright blue trim.

In short, the Pocketpal works equally well for use with an iPhone or an iPod (any iPod model except the shuffle). It doesn’t come with a cable, but that merely presumes you’re going to use the cable that came with your iPhone or iPod. I’d like the prongs to be a little easier to flip out, as I had to use both thumbs simultaneously, but that got easier the more I got used to it.

So why not a higher rating? The wall charger I’d been using, from RadTech, only costs ten dollars and has prongs that are a little easier to flip out (the RadTech charger also comes with two USB ports for $15). Then again, the RadTech charger is quite a bit larger and very generic looking; the Pocketpal, while not matching my iPhone or any of my iPods stylistically, has its own sense of stylishness. So if you want a small retractable wall charger in your choice of colors, and don’t mind paying a bit of a premium for the privilege, MiLi’s Pocketpal is an easily recommendable option.

Learn more about the MiLi Pocketpal at MiLiDirect.com

Review: Just Mobile Gum Plus

Earlier this year we reviewed the Gum Pro, a standalone brick of battery whose only trick was offering a metric ton of extra battery for your iPhone or iPod in a fairly small package, and that one trick alone was enough for me to really like it. Not enough for me to abandon the form-fitting battery cases and cradles that allow far greater flexibility in terms of active usage, but enough that the Gum Pro did rate out quite highly, the only brick-style battery to ever rate out at more than four stars.

Now here comes the followup in the form of the Gum Plus, which is largely the same product in terms of specs, but the black plastic styling has been completely replaced with an aluminum body wrapped with a black stripe which not-so-subtly resembles my MacBook Pro laptop. As a user of Apple products this makes me happy. And with so many PC laptops now borrowing similar styling, it’ll probably fit in well on that side of the fence as well. Of course the catch is that the Gum Plus is a battery for your iPhone or iPod, not your laptop, and while it does match the various silver-colored iPod models, it doesn’t match the iPhone or iPod touch stylistically at all.

Of course looks are secondary to what you might actually use it for, and this is more of a product for keeping your iPhone or iPod charged overnight next to your bed, and a power outlet isn’t handy; trying to actually walk around throughout your day with a brick like this plugged into your iPhone isn’t going to fly. But the Gum Pro / Gum Plus does represent the best value I’ve seen yet, by far, when it comes to this kind of battery, and quadrupling your iPhone’s battery life is nothing to sneeze at.

So is the Gum Plus worth ten dollars more than the $59 Gum Pro? That depends on you. More attractive styling can be worth paying for. But perhaps just as importantly, while the Pro failed to include a cable for connecting it your iPhone/iPod, (you had to use your own), the Plus comes with a short-stem connector cable, which can cost up to $10 when purchased from a third party. Pick one; either is a great value.

Review: Macally PowerLink8

New in iProng Magazine: a hands-on review of the PowerLink8 external battery for iPhone and iPod from Macally, priced at $39…

review by Bill Palmer

The good news is that there are now enough bottom snap-on batteries on the market for iPhone and iPod that you have your choice of vendors. The bad news is that some of these options just don’t measure up when it comes to capacity vs price. That such an example comes from a vendor like Macally is a surprise, as the company’s products, while rarely splashy, are typically priced aggressively enough to rank pretty high on the value scale.



But not so much with its new PowerLink8, whose most distinctive quality is that its back and sides are shiny acrylic white, which may appeal to users of white iPhones. But aside from that, the PowerLink8 sports a surprisingly high $39 price tag, which puts it in direct competition with an identically priced competing battery from Kensington, yet the PowerLink8 doesn’t last as long (750mAh capacity vs. 100mAh capacity). Even the Kensington product will only give your iPhone about a 50% boost, and the PowerLink8 offers even less, barely boosting your battery life by a third. And if you can stomach buying a no-name generic competitor, such batteries with 1000mAh or more can be found around the web for $15.



My recommendation when it comes to boosting your iPhone’s battery life hasn’t changed: if you can afford to, skip the snap-ons and get yourself an $80 form-fitting battery case or a $100 battery cradle, as such products can be used at all times while these bottom snap-on batteries are too awkward and unstable to keep plugged into your iPhone while in your pocket. Then again, having an inexpensive snap-on battery around can’t hurt, especially if you’ve got more than one iPhone/iPod model in the house and want to be able to mix and match. But it’s tough to recommend a snap-on battery that competes both with identically priced higher-capacity name brand products and with significantly cheaper no-name options that also have higher capacities. So this one’s probably only for users of white iPhones.

*****

Learn more about the PowerLink8 at Macally.com.

*****

Review: Kensington Battery+Dock

New in iProng Labs: a hands-on review of the Charging Dock with Mini Battery pack for iPhone and iPod from Kensington, priced at $69…

review by Bill Palmer

Snap-on batteries represent the least expensive – and often least versatile – method of extending the battery life of your iPhone or iPod. Battery cases and cradles are much easier to use in your hand or pocket, and USB battery bricks generally last a lot longer. But as snap-on batteries go, Kensington’s $49 product was a well done product and a good value proposition. That same battery has now been bundled with a dock for $20 more, which represents both a better value overall and a more versatile way of recharging the battery; you can use the included mini-USB cable to connect the dock to your computer or to an electrical outlet via the included wall brick, or you can do the same by plugging the mini-USB cable directly into the battery itself.



As a bedside docking station, plugged into an outlet, this is a highly efficient product; go to bed and then wake up with both devices fully charged and ready to go. As a desktop docking station, not so much; plug it into the USB port of your computer and you’ll likely find that the battery can only recharge when the iPhone isn’t docked. Leave them both sitting in the dock overnight, connected to your computer, and in the morning you’ll find a fully charged iPhone along with a battery that hasn’t charged one bit (including my 2009 MacBook Pro, with every iPhone and iPod model I tried). There are valid technical reasons for this, as explained to me by Kensington’s product manager, but it limits the viability of the product as a docking station for your computer (even though the iPhone or iPod does sync with your computer).



Bottom line is if you’re going to go the snap-on battery route, this product is a great value (and a space saver), particularly since Amazon has it for $44 instead of $69. If you’re going to use it primarily with an eletrical outlet. If you’re looking for a desktop dock, you’re probably better off buying this battery on its own and finding a dock somewhere else. Hence the split rating, with significantly different scores based on how you intend to use it.

*****

Learn more about this product at Kensington.com or pre-order for a discounted $44 from Amazon.com.

*****

Review: Just Mobile Gum Pro

New in iProng Labs: a hands-on review of the Gum Pro external battery pack for iPhone and iPod from Just Mobile, priced at $59…

review by Bill Palmer

Ever since the iPhone launched two-plus years ago, power users have been gunning for additional battery life from wherever they can get it. That’s come primarily in the form of three types of products: form-fitting batteries that enshroud the iPhone in a cradle or case; slim rectangular batteries that snap onto the iPhone’s bottom, and standalone batteries that connect to the iPhone via a cable. The latter two have generally been considered a poor man’s version of the former, since they’re cheaper (in the $50 range, as opposed to $80-$100 for a cradle or case), and can’t be used in a manner all that practical when the iPhone is either in the user’s hand or pocket.



But if a standalone battery is going to break that rule, the Gum Pro from Just Mobile shows precisely how: with a metric ton of additional battery life that you can’t get from any form-fitting iPhone battery of any size. Battery life on the iPhone can be complicated to quantify in terms of hours due to its various functionalities (and combinations of those functions), but the Gum Pro with its 4400mAh can more or less quadruple the battery life you get from your iPhone’s internal battery; these claims were verified by the fact that I could recharge my nearly-drained iPhone via the Gum Pro three times in a row without charging the Gum Pro (which itself charges via USB).



It connects via USB to your iPhone and more or less sits beside it (you could toss the two of them connected together into a backpack, but not realistically shove them into your pocket while connected), meaning that it’s less for charging your iPhone while you’re using it and more about charging it up while your iPhone is sitting somewhere idly.



Examples? Charging your iPhone each night of a hiking trip. Getting you through a power outage. Lunch break at a conference. And so on. The Gum Pro isn’t exactly tiny, being about twice as thick as the iPhone, nearly as wide, two-thirds as tall, and a little heavier than the iPhone itself. But it’s a compact enough shape that it doesn’t feel overly bulky for what it offers. The lack of a wall charging brick or even an iPhone sync cable (you can use your own) feels like a cheap omission, but that’s my only complaint. The first non-form-fitting battery to receive more than four stars from us.

*****

Learn more about the Gum Pro at Just-Mobile.com

*****

Review: Dexim BluePack S3

New in iProng Labs: a hands-on review of the BluePack 3 external battery pack for iPhone and iPod from Dexim, priced at $66…

review by Bill Palmer

The old sports adage is that if you’re not the most talented player on the field then you need to make up for it in other ways, by working harder, studying more film, and so on. The same could be said for Dexim’s BluePack S3 external battery. It’s not a form-fitting battery case or cradle that can charge your iPhone while it’s in your hand or your pocket. And as far as standalone batteries go that sit next to your iPhone or iPod and connect via USB, the Bluepack S3 can do a little more than double the life of a fully charged iPhone, which is barely half what you can do with the similarly priced competing Gum Pro. So just how does the S3 manage to earn four stars out of five? Like the slow running back or the weak-armed quarterback, the S3 makes up the difference with a slew of intangibles that come in handy in a variety of ways.


Actually, those “intangibles” are easily identifiable. Its shape is nearly the same as the iPhone itself, just a little shorter and a tad narrower – meaning that, like the iPhone, the S3 will slide easily into your pocket. Not that you can put it to good use in your pocket, but you’ll have it with you once you get there. Provided, of course, that you take the included iPhone/iPod connector cable with you, which is easy enough to do since it’s only about four inches long. And the word “included” is important as well, as the S3 actually comes with an iPhone cable, as opposed to the Gum Pro. But the S3 doesn’t stop there, far from it in fact. Also included are mini-USB and micro-USB cables for using the S3 to charge other kinds of devices (digital cameras, BlackBerry, etc). It even comes with a carrying sack along with a wall charging brick that sports two additional USB ports so you can use the combination of cables to charge up multiple devices at once. The USB charging cable (for recharging the S3 via your computer) is even a dual-USB cable, meaning that you can connect it to two USB ports on your computer at once so it’ll recharge faster (although it recharges just fine if you’ve only got one USB port available).



The battery unit also has a small flashlight built-in just in case (and come to think of it, where are the Ginsu knives?). The BluePack S3 is basically a three-star battery that gets bumped all the way up to four stars by including a slew of useful add-ons.

*****

Learn more about the BluePack S3 at Dexim.net

*****

Mophie Juice Pack Air for iPhone

Hands-on with the first external iPhone battery solution aimed squarely at mainstream iPhone 3G users

For those iPhone users who are heavy email users, or like to change songs frequently, or are addicted to Twitter, or any other task which requires the screen to be turned on frequently, the iPhone’s battery life has always been of questionable suitability. And with the rise of third party apps, most of which require having the screen turned on most of the time, we not only have a sharply increased percentage of the user base longing for more battery life, we actually now have different classes of battery hogs: the hardcore users who need every extra minute of extra battery life they can get their hands on at almost any cost, and the more casual users who would like some additional juice but aren’t willing to turn their iPhone into a bulky monster.



Until now, the most popular iPhone battery products have only addressed the former: cradles that make your iPhone oddly asymmetrical and large enough to barely fit in your pocket while leaving the iPhone’s top corners exposed, along with less expensive (and less stably attached) snap-on batteries which don’t add any depth to the iPhone but make the device almost unusably tall. But now Mophie, who started it all with the Juice Pack awhile ago (I remember playing with an original pre-production Juice Pack prototype back in December 2007), has released the Juice Pack Air for iPhone 3G. It’s a product that’s not just a battery cradle but a full-fledged battery case. It’s about 20-25 percent thinner than the Juice Pack, largely symmetrical, and (dare I say it?) aimed squarely at the average iPhone user.



Having spent ten days with the product there are a number small details I could throw at you, but here’s what you need to know right at the top: perhaps owing to the fact that Mophie has prior experience in making iPod cases, the Juice Pack Air is well done as a case. The two-piece snap together design comes apart easily when you want it to, but is unlikely to come apart by accident, which is all you can ask for.

The acrylic surface (my test unit is black but there’s also a choice of white or – interestingly – purple) is very similar to that of the back of the iPhone 3G itself. It’s prone to pick up fingerprints, but then so is the back of the iPhone. In ten days of real-world usage, the exterior of my Air didn’t pick up any scratches, for whatever that might or might not be worth over the long term. The cut-outs for the ports and controls (including the camera) are of the right size.



You also need to know that the $79 Air does NOT have the same battery life as the standard $99 Juice Pack. But I could have told you that back in February when Mophie announced the Air; while the Juice Pack has a 1800mAh battery, the Air only sports 1300mAh. That means that in theory the Air offers about 70% as much “juice” as the full-on Juice Pack does. So instead of your battery life being a little more than doubled with the Juice Pack, you’re looking at the Air getting you and your fully-charged iPhone through a twelve hour day instead of a seven hour day. Or twenty hours instead of twelve. You get the idea. Everyone uses up their iPhone’s battery life at a different rate, and while the Air won’t quite double the battery life of a fully-charged iPhone, it’ll come pragmatically close.



As it turns out, my real-world tests with the Air yielded results that were pretty faithful to what the numerical capacities would have predicted: the Air consistently gives me about two-thirds to three-quarters as much extra battery life as the standard Juice Pack.



Or course neither the Air nor the standard Juice Pack will provide nearly as much battery as FastMac’s iV, which essentially triples your iPhone’s battery life. But comparing these products head-on gets lost in the context of their varying sizes; the FastMac is a semi truck, the Juice Pack is a cargo van, and the Juice Pack Air is a minivan. None of them are going to be ideal for someone who’s used to driving around in a sedan, but the minivan is going to come closest to feeling natural of the three. So if you can haul everything you need in the minivan then that’s your best bet. Similarly, my recommendation is that unless you’re going to routinely need more than a seventy percent boost in battery life each day, the Juice Pack Air is the way to go. I’ve got all of these products (and more) here in my office, but on most days I’ll be reaching for the Air as my first choice (although in fairness, when flying across the country last week I did opt for the iV instead of the Air because in that instance I needed as much juice as possible).



And it’s not just the fact that it’s slimmer than the other options. Anyone can make a slimmer product with less capacity. What makes this work so well is the fact that it’s a real case. When an iPhone gets dropped it most often lands on one of its top corners, and unlike battery cradles that expose those corners in such a manner that there’s no way to protect them, the Air protects the top corners explicitly. And it also works because it’s not awkwardly shaped. Sure, it’s as large as the largest non-battery iPhone cases I’ve ever tested, but the iPhone inside the Air is a largely symmetrical product. It doesn’t have an awkward docking mechanism hanging off its bottom, or the awkwardness of the top portion of the iPhone jutting out above the cradle, like other products do. It feels natural in your front pants pocket, which is a breakthrough for iPhone batteries.



That having been said, there are some things Mophie is still doing wrong with the entire Juice Pack line. The four indicator lights on the back are great except for the fact that they’re on the back, meaning that you have to flip it over each time you want to check your remaining battery life. In fairness there’s not much room on the front of the Air for indicator lights, but they could conceivably go in place of the Mophie logo just below the iPhone’s home button.



And while the micro-USB port (yes we’re now done with the mini-USB typically found on digital cameras and we’ve moved on to an even tinier new version of USB) allows you to charge the Air from your computer’s USB port using the included cable, and to sync your Air-clad iPhone with your computer by using the same cable, the lack of a “real” Apple dock connector port on the Air means that if you want to dock your iPhone into any dockable iPhone speaker system you’re going to have to remove it from the Air first. Which is a shame because the Air is just thin enough that it appears that if it had a true dock connector port then you could fit it into almost any universal iPhone/iPod dock simply by not using any model-specific insert.



But what more to say? We’ve reached minivan status, and while it would be nice to get that down to sedan size, we’ll have to wait for breakthroughs in battery technology first. In the mean time, despite not having nearly as much battery life as some competing products, the Juice Pack Air is hands-down the best external iPhone battery solution I’ve used yet. And at this point I’ve spent quality time with just about all them.



My rating for the Air is a rather lofty 4.5 stars out of five – but with the understanding that I want Mophie to keep trying to make the next one better.