Mobile Survival Kit - Don't Leave Home Without It

GeekSugar — Thu, 10 May 2007 09:30:00 -0700

If all goes well, I should be going on a weekend sailing adventure with a few of my friends in June, which is an amazing, sun-soaked experience the group looks forward to all year. It's heaven save for one thing - there are no electrical outlets so we are limited to charging our cell phones, computers and gizmos when we're docked at night. This year I'm coming prepared. I was planning on relying on the TuneJuice2, an iPod charger that runs off AA batteries and can provide up to 14 hours of additional audio play, but I found the Proporta Mobile Survival Kit, which will charge all my gadgets.

The kit is essentially a little USB rechargeable battery that plugs into any USB powered mobile device (phone, PDA, GPS, iPod, digital camera, etc.) and gives it that recharge juice it needs to keep working. In fact, the makers claim a fully charged Proporta Mobile Device Charger should be able to charge most mobile devices between three and five times from completely empty.

Apparently, "hard to charge devices," like the iPod 5G will recharge and play for up to three times longer when connected to the charger. A plus is the fact that the kit comes with adapters for Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones, and can be connected to UK, European, Australian and US region adapters (not included). This means so long as the charger has power (it is charged via USB on your computer), so will all the rest of your gadgets. The kit costs 44.95 and it's worth every penny.

To check out more pictures of the kit in action, read more

View 6 Photos ›

Note: The Proporta USB Mobile Device charger is not compatible with the Microsoft Zune.

Are Giant Battery Packs Worth It?

GeekSugar — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 11:30:49 -0700

I cannot deny that having an extra battery pack when you're in a pinch is delightful, but most of those pinches occur when you're on vacation and have very little packing space. The DS Lite Battery Pack that Gizmodo uncovered this week is plenty cute and green alone, but when connected it nearly doubles the fattness of the DS, making it slightly less portable and well, rather unsightly. The Mobile Survival Kit (seen at right) is also pretty oversized, but can charge a small army of devices like your PDA, GPS, iPod, digital camera and even DS lite.