FastMac TruePower U-Charge juices up those Apple laptop batteries

Even accessory-laden Apple users have a dearth of options when it comes to offboard battery chargers, which is why we're sure Mac-toting road warriors will be taking a close look at FastMac's new TruePower U-Charge. Basically, it's a $70 laptop battery charger -- not a power adapter -- with a variety of tips and connections for Mac batteries both modern (MacBook / MacBook Pro) and dating all the way back to the G3-era (like Pismo / WallStreet PowerBooks). FastMac is also apparently working on rounding out the collection with higher voltage connectors for machines like the original iBooks and TiBook, if you happen to holding out in a bunker with one of those suckers, browsing Engadget on Internet Explorer for Mac 5.0.

[Maestro @ May 22nd 2008 7:58AM]

Oohhh....ahhhh...a battery charger.

[Flashpoint @ May 22nd 2008 8:00AM]

THIS IS FANTASTIC !

Now I can charge the spare battery on my MacbookAi....

..o...wait a minute....

[Esat Dedezade @ May 22nd 2008 8:27AM]

Dude, you totally like...

...went there.

[bob sakamano @ May 22nd 2008 8:08AM]

if you happen "to be"

i think thats what you mean my sweet sweet engadget

[Federico Guardia @ May 22nd 2008 8:36AM]

Hey! I have a PowerPC G3 466 iBook working perfectly with MacOS X 10.4.11! Yeah, I had to add some RAM and HD to it, but Camino works like a charm on it :D

[pundit @ May 22nd 2008 9:20AM]

IE 5 for Mac, what a browser! My copy (on a 2.4 GHz Penryn MBP) comes in handy sometimes, when a site refuses to display in anything but IE (and lets you use IE5)... kinda like the site for a test I needed to take recently.

Someday, web programmers will all catch on that you can code for IE, or you can code for every browser at once.

I'll keep this power adapter in mind if I ever feel that my 5 hour battery life isn't good enough.

[thethirdmoose @ May 22nd 2008 9:27AM]

Try User Agent Switcher for Firefox

[Jake @ May 22nd 2008 9:50AM]

It's not usually a UserAgent problem, but a problem with non-portable coding styles.

-jp

[nd @ May 22nd 2008 11:26AM]

Yup. Same here- IE 5.2 :-p

These days I love using current IE in Parallels tho- mostly because XP runs better within OSX than it does on 90% of PCs out there and the geek factor is way high.

[retro77 @ May 22nd 2008 10:28AM]

Queues up lawsuit for using the three letters M, A and C in a product name.

[GHDesign @ May 22nd 2008 10:31AM]

"...and TiBook, if you happen to holding out in a bunker with one of those suckers, browsing Engadget on Internet Explorer for Mac 5.0."

Hey RYAN... i've got a Last Gen. 1GHz TiBook from 2002 thats still KICKIN!
I just upgraded it to Leopard, installed a new hard drive... this machine was the last of a dying breed.
How many laptops do you know of that have lasted 6 years! That includes 3 years of taking it to college classes in a Backpack!

[fashionista @ May 22nd 2008 10:40AM]

uhh, countless 6 year old ThinkPads are still keeping people productive around the world. I would say anyone with a working PowerBook that old is lucky more than anything.

[Robert Abramson @ May 22nd 2008 10:46AM]

I had a G3 Wallstreet running Ubuntu (yes, it can happen) until a few months ago when I dropped it...

[dutty_mark3 @ May 22nd 2008 11:41AM]

let's hope their chargers work better than their batteries. my FastMac battery experience has been terrible.

[Justin @ May 22nd 2008 11:24AM]

You totally wrote WallStreet PowerBook! Awesome. A 266Mhz PBG3 was my first laptop. Wow, that was 10 years ago now... I suddenly feel so old =)

[peshue @ May 22nd 2008 2:45PM]

Nice. For as many mac accessories there are it's amazing how few are actually of any use.

[Hank Roberts @ Jun 5th 2008 4:45PM]

Dutty, care to say more?

I bought a FastMac battery for my Pismo three weeks ago; it lasted 18 cycles on a trip then failed to charge above 50 percent, then 40 percent, now 15 percent. They're sending me a label to return it for a replacement, and I'm buying a different brand battery from OWC (for the Pismo's second battery slot) in the meantime.

I'm very curious how your experience went.

I've saved a lot of screenshots from XBattery; the transition from proper to improper behavior is really obvious, but I can't say what happened.