IOGEAR's AA-powered GearJuice gives you 15 more minutes to yap

Oh yeah, we've seen dedicated battery pack extenders for a plethora of the most popular gizmos, but IOGEAR's looking out for the run-of-the-mill crowd with its GearJuice Rescue Charger. Essentially, the wee device accepts any 'ole AA cell, and upon plugging it into your mini-USB-equipped PDA / mobile / DAP / fish tank, it provides an infinitesimally small boost of power. Okay, so it's said to give you an extra 15 minutes of talk time, but we'd probably go in with even lower expectations just to be safe. It's available now for $11.99 (battery not included).

[Via Gearlog]

[monik @ May 28th 2008 11:34AM]

sounds pretty cool!

[Jason @ May 28th 2008 11:34AM]

15 minutes? As a high expectation? Wow. I think I'd rather invest in a crank-powered model, since this dongle is a bit large to hang off my keychain anyway.

[looseinthedeuce @ May 28th 2008 11:47AM]

AA batteries are rated at 1.5 volts (often they give you even less). So you're gonna get pretty low current if this device steps it up to the 5 volts normally found on USB....that, or this thing will run very, very hot.

[tekdroid @ May 28th 2008 12:11PM]

or put that 12 dollars you'd otherwise spend on this external inconvenience towards a new battery for your device (if it has God-approved user-replaceable batteries, as all god-like devices do).

[Superevil @ May 28th 2008 12:16PM]

Seriously if you absolutely need this get off the fucking phone already.

[SimbaDogg @ May 28th 2008 3:02PM]

talk about the worst comment...ever

[Andy @ May 28th 2008 12:22PM]

Anybody notice that they made a little error with their "glass floor" effect. The charger is empty, but the reflection has the battery inside the charger. OOPS!

[tiuk @ May 28th 2008 12:35PM]

Haha, nice catch.

[TavisJohn @ May 28th 2008 1:10PM]

Put that $12.00 tward a cig ligher adapter... Or one of those "Black & Decker 20W Power Backup Battery" devices. Those things can charg via USB or 110 charger! (Yes they have a small power inverter in them, and you can charge nearly any device with the standard wall charger it comes with.)

[Greg Baz @ May 28th 2008 2:31PM]

Turbo Charge has been making this for 3 years now. It comes with 10 cell phone adapters and takes 1 AA battery you get 30-60 minutes of talk time depending on your phone. the 10 adapters include a mini USB and many other brand specific adapters. they also have an iPod/iPhone unit. They also make a 2 battery unit with 8 adapters that will give most phones a full charge. I haev one and I love it.
http://www.turbocellcharge.com

[Murph fan @ May 28th 2008 11:33PM]

"We'd probably go in with lower expectations just to be safe." Thanks for the careful research, man, but from Greg Baz's comment it looks like you guessed wrong.

[sodakar @ May 29th 2008 2:01AM]

This would be a decent product if paired with Eneloops (or any other long-charge Ni-MH's) -- sure, an AA won't give you a full day, but it would give you a little extra juice when you need it.

At $12, it's a bit expensive for something that probably costs less than $1 in material, but I do like the idea of using a commodity battery, vs buying a larger, proprietary, non-pocketable cell for $70+.

But... the fact that the mini-USB does not appear to be retractable is a big no-no for me... As of this writing, I don't think I saw any diagrams or manuals indicating you can protect the mini-USB end..

[usb4all @ May 29th 2008 8:12AM]

Nothing new!
I sell similar chargers with a couple of cables (also with mini-USB) for all the recent cell-phones. Price is 6,99 euro and includes free worldwide-shipping! AA battery included. Works also with rechargable AA's. Input voltage can be between 1.2 and 1.5V. They even come in the color of your choice!

My shop is in Dutch language, but if you send me a mail from the shop I can give more info in English.

http://usb4all.nl/joomla/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=75&category_id=64&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1