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Mophie Juice Pack for the HTC One now available
If you picked up an HTC One and found that its battery isn't quite cutting it, Mophie may have a solution for your dilemma. The accessory maker is now offering its popular extended battery line for HTC's crown jewel. In addition to its slim protective casing, the freshly minted Juice Pack keeps the party going with an embedded 2,500mAh backup cell. Mophie claims that its added pick me up can increase the One's battery life by two-fold, placing its performance on a par with the marathon-ready RAZR MAXX HD. Available in two colors to match whichever hue you're sporting, the $100 Juice Pack is a surprisingly attractive backup plan for HTC's aluminum marvel.
IRL: Bing Translator, ioSafe N2 and the Mophie Juice Pack Air
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Yes, again with the mobile battery packs. (We're power users, okay?) In this week's roundup, Joe ditches his Elecom charger for the Mophie Air, and tells you everything you may wanted to know (and maybe a few things you didn't). Rounding things out, Darren kicks the tires on ioSafe's durable, "disaster-proof" NAS box, while Dan uses Bing Translator to avoid offending the lovely people of Germany.
IRL: Scanner Pro, Mophie Juice Pack Helium and the Native Union Pop Phone
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. It's safe to say we're a little picky around here: Darren's trying out yet another scanner app, and Edgar has settled on a smartphone battery pack (because everyone knows we can't agree on which is the best one). And Philip's been playing with a retro-styled "handset" because, well, why not?
I bought a fake Mophie Juice Pack (so you don't have to)
I find it wryly amusing that the first phone I ever owned with a sealed-in, non-swappable battery -- the iPhone, of course -- was also the first phone with a battery life so short as to warrant the ability to swap the battery. Hence the commercial popularity of battery cases like the various Mophie products. These are particularly handy when travelling, as the need for a phone when navigating foreign climes is greater and access to charging points is less frequent. That's why, in December 2011, I ordered two Mophie Juice Pack Plus battery cases for the iPhone 4 handsets my wife and I were about to take on a vacation to America. The Mophie models have plenty of fans amongst the TUAW staff, and had received a good review from Macworld's Lex Friedman too, so it seemed like a safe bet. However, unknown to me, the cases were fake, and could potentially have been very dangerous (fortunately, they weren't). I've written the story up to let you know what you should be looking out for and help you to avoid repeating the mistakes I made. %Gallery-176498% The tale of the fake In hindsight, I should have guessed right away, but I'd never heard of fake battery packs before so it simply didn't occur to me. I've heard plenty of stories of other types of accessories being riddled with fakes -- notably, Sandisk SD cards are a common target, and I once bought a 2 GB "Sandisk" SD card that turned out to be rebranded 512 MB fake. (There's an excellent in-depth look at fake SD cards by famous hacker-activist Andrew Huang.) But fake battery packs was a new experience for me at the time. It wasn't the packaging that should have tipped me off. I examined that very closely after uncovering the true nature of the counterfeits and it was absolutely perfect; high quality glossy cardboard, well printed, with a flap on the front held closed with magnets -- impressively elaborate. I suppose that when the counterfeits are sold in a retail setting, consumers can examine the packaging, and thus will be tipped off if the packaging isn't perfect. It wasn't anything about the transaction, either. These pseudoMophie cases came from Amazon Marketplace, from a "Fulfilled by Amazon" seller, so the order was packed by an Amazon staff member. I paid £34.99 each for the cases. Now, that's cheap -- around half the price of the Apple Store -- but it wasn't too-good-to-be-true cheap; as I recall, there were several other sellers in the £35-40 range, and the cases were around the £40-45 mark from most online sellers. At the time of writing, Amazon stock is £39.99. No, what should have clued me off was the poor fit the cases made with my phone. If you haven't seen one up close, the Mophie battery cases consist of one large piece you slide the phone into from the top, then a smaller piece that clips over the top and holds the phone in place. This part sits on the phone's power switch, with a small plastic pass-through button so you can turn the phone on and off. The top part on my two cases made quite loose contact with the main part of the case, meaning it rocked back and forth a little. Not much, but just enough to cause the occasional spurious power button press. With the case on, a few times a day I would pull my phone out of my pocket, press (usually without looking first) the Home button to wake it from sleep, and find myself taking a screenshot of my lock screen instead as the battery case was simultaneously pushing on the power button. I wasn't particularly impressed. Other than that, the cases worked fine... at first. After we came back from our vacation, we took them off our phones and didn't use them for a few months. Then I had to travel for work, so I got them back out, only to find they'd both Gone A Bit Strange (technical term there). One of them had developed a loosely fitting USB jack, and I had to fiddle with the cord when plugging it in before it would charge up. The other one wouldn't charge the phone correctly, as if it was flat, even though its own little indicator lights claimed it was fully charged. Plus, I noticed, both of them had somehow accumulated noticeable cosmetic damage, despite being very lightly used. Mophie cases have a kind of soft-touch rubberised coating over a hard plastic shell, and on my pseudoMophies, that coating had worn off in a number of places. I still didn't think "fake!" though. I just assumed they weren't very good, and tossed them back in a drawer until I eventually got around to emailing a warranty claim to Mophie, several months later. In fact, I remember glancing over the one-star Amazon product reviews and seeing people complaining about all the problems I had -- poorly fitting cases, problems getting the case to charge up, problems getting the case to connect to the phone, excessive cosmetic wear -- and assuming that Mophie's quality control had gone downhill since the glowing reviews were written. Looking back now, a small number of these reviews mention that they were dealing with counterfeits; but at the time, no-one had said anything like that. One seller even pinned the blame on the iPhone 4S being different from the iPhone 4, which I find rather suspicious. Eventually, my irritation at being sold what I thought was a couple of lemons overcame my reflexive procrastination, and I contacted Mophie customer support. I did the usual dance of filling in my product serial number and describing my problems, but then had an unusual request come back: "In order to move forward with your replacement, we need to gather some information. First we need a copy of your receipt. Please reply to this email with a scanned copy. If you purchased your item through our website, we can look your order up internally. If you have not already submitted your mophie (sic) order number, please reply to this email with the number. "We also need a clear picture showing the product label and serial number on the inside of the product." (Emphasis mine.) Slightly baffled -- I'd already provided the serial numbers, so why did Mophie need these pictures? -- I complied, only to receive a terse message back: "Judging by the serial number, and the label itself, you have two counterfeit devices. As such, we cannot offer you a replacement and urge you to seek a refund through the seller as soon as possible." At this point I became rather concerned. Poorly made lithium-ion batteries can be quite dangerous, and while there's plenty of no-name battery cells that are perfectly safe the fact I'd been stuffing a blatantly counterfeit product in my trouser pocket was rather worrying. Angry now, I emailed my Amazon seller, but after 48 hours I still hadn't heard anything. I followed up with Amazon itself, and it almost immediately agreed a refund and issued me an RMA to return the cases, saying:- "This order was purchased from 'REDACTED' and was 'Fulfilled by Amazon'. As we dispatched this item to you directly from an Amazon.co.uk fulfilment centre on behalf of this seller, we can process the return of this item, in exchange for a full refund." (I have redacted the seller's name as I have no way of knowing if the seller was knowingly selling counterfeits, or itself a victim of an unscrupulous supplier. I have attempted to contact the seller directly for comment, but the details I have are too generic to let me find them, and Amazon would not pass along a message from me. The seller's Amazon Marketplace account appears to be defunct now, although feedback on its profile page indicates it was still trading as recently as November 2012.) Lessons learnt So, how could I have prevented this sorry story from happening in the first place? I contacted Mophie and Amazon UK's press office for comment on this case and to ask them that question directly. I asked what advice they would give consumers when shopping. Ross Howe, Vice president of Marketing for Mophie, said "mophie takes counterfeits very seriously. In order to try and combat this problem, we have developed a page that solely address this issue, offering purchasing tips to the consumer. Additionally, our internal legal team works to monitor the selling of mophie products by unauthorized retailers, taking appropriate action if it is determined counterfeit items are being sold." Howe went on to offer consumers the following advice: Purchase at mophie.com or one of its authorized partners. The authorized partners page provides a breakout of all approved retailers globally. Customers should avoid the 'too good to be true' deals of eBay and the Amazon Marketplace. Even the stores that are "fulfilled by Amazon" are known to sell low-quality knockoffs. Sign up for the brand newsletter to receive the latest information on new products and sales. Suzi van der Mark replied on behalf of Amazon, and of course was keen to stress that buyers are protected (contrary to Mophie's stance of pushing you to its retail partners): "Amazon.co.uk does not allow the sale of counterfeit items on its Marketplace platform. Any seller found doing so will be subject to action from Amazon including removal of their account. Occurrences of counterfeit products on Amazon.co.uk Marketplace are rare and we have an established process in place which enables third parties including rights holders to provide us with notice of counterfeit product. We respond rapidly to any such notice. Every customer who orders on Amazon.co.uk is covered by our A-Z guarantee and if they do receive counterfeit goods from a Marketplace seller we will provide a refund. For more information on our A-Z Guarantee please visit this link." The old adage that "a price that's too good to be true means it probably isn't" applies, of course, as Howe says. But of course a clever seller of counterfeits can easily overcome that by simply pricing their goods just below the genuine ones, which was the case with my purchase. If I'd registered the cases with Mophie as soon as I'd received them, I might have been alerted if the serial numbers hadn't matched up. However, I'm guessing the counterfeiters can use real serial numbers (perhaps duplicated from genuine products), as otherwise my initial attempt to request product support would have failed. Other Amazon commenters mentioned that they had successfully registered their counterfeit case with Mophie, which supports this hypothesis. The bottom line is that I'm not sure there's anything I could have done upfront to avoid being taken in by this, except perhaps paying top dollar from the Apple store. I was lucky that Amazon stood by me and refunded my money promptly, or I would have been out the cost of the goods. In future, when using "market" style reseller services like eBay or Amazon Marketplate, I'm going to pay rather closer attention to retailer terms & conditions, as well as its reputation for aftersales customer care. Notably, Amazon (at least in my case) offered considerably more protection that eBay offers, in substance if not in policy. Many people have written about the difficulties of getting a refund for a counterfeit eBay purchase; stories abound of people having a rough time from Paypal's dispute resolution system. Probably most famously, Paypal forced a buyer to destroy an antique violin worth $2500 that may or may not have been fake. The seller was out the $2500 and the violin at the end of the transaction. Still, it could be worse. Counterfeit products aren't just a headache for consumers, either. At least I didn't buy a job lot of fake military grade processors...
Mophie Juice Pack for Samsung Galaxy S III now available for $100
Mophie told us a couple of months back that it would be bringing its GS3-friendly Juice Packs to market sometime around late October / early November, and, well, today's the day the handy add-on is finally up for grabs. As you can see above, the battery case will be available in white and black livery, with the company promising its 2,300mAh peripheral can "virtually double" battery life on the Galaxy S III without adding too much heft to the device. GS3 owners can snag one of Mophie's renowned Juice Packs now for $100 -- and to do just that, all you interested folks have to do is head over to the source link below.
Mophie readies Galaxy S III Juice Packs, coming very soon
If you thought Mophie was planning to keep its smartphone Juice Packs exclusively Apple-based -- we'd have probably agreed with you. But then we got to take a look at this pair of cases crafted for Samsung's Galaxy S III. Yep, the battery-packing cover (which looks likely to fit all the current iterations) promises to give "over double the battery life" of your un-augmented handset. This was just a brief peek -- but expect the (as-yet unpriced) cases to appear in stores around the end of October, early November.
Arcane Brilliance: 4 things I'm going to miss the most in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we're discussing a sad topic: loss. Not that this is a new feeling for mages. We've loved and lost before; everyone pour one out for Wand Specialization. You were too beautiful to die. Every time there's a new expansion, we get some new toys to play with. We tend to focus on these shiny new abilities or revamped mechanic -- and rightly so, as they are often pretty spiffy. But I fear we sometimes forget the casualties. For when Blizzard giveth, it also tends to taketh away. Spells are replaced, redundant talents vanish, and mechanics change, and as a mage, I always feel somehow diminished when I see a blank page in my spellbook -- even if it's a page that used to be occupied by something as useless as Arcane Fortitude or Amplify Magic, those ancient relics of fail. Mists of Pandaria will be no exception. We're gaining some awesomeness but losing a few things too. And some of those things, I'm really, truly going to miss.
Mophie's Juice Pack PRO aims to keep iPhone 4 / 4S protected and powered during wild adventures
Staying true to its peripheral nature, Mophie's outed yet another iPhone companion: the Juice Pack PRO. Although the new power-boosting case doesn't carry as much juice as that Powerstation (not surprising, really), it does offer similar ruggedized aesthetics -- which should come in handy the next time you decide to take your Cupertino handset on a hazardous trip. Mophie notes the Juice Pack PRO can more than double the iPhone 4 / 4S life with its 2,500mAh battery, but the company's also placing a hefty amount of focus on the add-on's water splash, sand, impact and shock protection features -- these, naturally, earned the PRO a MIL-STD 810G (Military Standard) rating on the testing grounds. If all that makes this Juice the one for you, then gather up $130 and head over to the Mophie site to snag one for yourself.
PSA: Mophie and Best Buy issue separate iDevice battery pack recalls due to overheating concerns
Sporting an external battery pack on your iPod Touch or iPhone? If it happens to be from Mophie or Best Buy's Rocketfish brand, we'd advise you to take note and avoid getting burned. Rocketfish's RF-KL12 battery case for the iPhone 3G / 3GS has been reported in a small number of burn and "minor" fire incidents, while Mophie's announced that a select number of Juice Pack Air models for the 4th generation iPod Touch (seen above) are at risk for overheating, and potentially even melting. Suffice it to say, if you're currently in possession of said battery extenders you should stop using it immediately. Best Buy asks that owners of the Rocketfish case get in touch to facilitate a return, which will be met with a $70 gift card in the US ($105 in Canada) as compensation. As for Mophie? If your Juice Pack Air is among the affected serial numbers, you'll be able to initiate a swap for a fresh unit via a return form on its website. Hit those source links below for all the details -- this is one case where you definitely won't want to feel the burn.
Mophie cuts the price on the Juice Pack Boost and Powerstation, raises the battery capacity
Most companies here at IFA figured if they were going to haul it all the way to Berlin, they might as well unveil their products on a stage -- you know, with some prepared remarks, a press release and maybe some disco music to get people pumped (okay, we haven't been subjected to that yet). But not Mophie. The company has a habit of releasing its products quietly, demonstrating its unannounced wares in plain sight. That's how we happened upon the newest versions of its Juice Pack mobile chargers, the Boost, Powerstation and Reserve. Of the three, the latter got the biggest makeover, with a more compact shape and a pop-out USB connector that's attached to a plastic cable. As a result of that diet, though, it now has a battery capacity of 700mAh, not 1,000mAH, although its price is about to go up to $35 from $30. The good news is that Mophie lowered its prices for the other two, all while expanding the battery capacity. The Powerstation now has a 4,000mAh battery and costs $80 (down from $100) while the Boost is rated for 2,000mAh and costs $49.95 (a $10 price cut). In case you're interested in this sort of thing, we've got hands-on photos below, and Mophie says the lot will hit the Apple Store in about two weeks. %Gallery-132566%
Mophie introduces external juice pack batteries for iPhone, iPod, and iPad
Mophie's juice pack air external case added some much-needed longevity to our iPhone when we tried it out last year, but most of us on staff aren't particularly fond of making our gadgets even more chubby. If you are also not looking for a little more to love, mophie is introducing a line of external juice packs that pop into your device (courtesy of a retractable dock connector) to add a little extra life. Smallest will be the $40, 1,000mAh juice pack reserve, followed by the $60, 1,500mAh boost, both of which are compatible with the iPod and iPhone -- and also offer "super-bright" LED flashlights. Last but not least is the juice pack power station, which hasn't been given a price or specific mAh rating but is said to add in compatibility with the iPad. The first two are available now and, while it's a shame these things don't just offer a plain 'ol USB port as well for charging other devices, we suppose you can't have everything. Update: If this is a little too rich for your blood, check out the comments for a few less expensive and more broadly compatible alternatives.
Review: Monoprice's iPhone leather-cased battery backup is another great deal
We like Monoprice around here. They are a wonderful source for cables and iPhone battery backups as well as lots of other accessories and add-ons. We covered their 2200 mAh battery dongle a few months back and nearly everyone who bought one was quite happy including our own Auntie TUAW. The price was great at US$14.50 when reviewed and currently up just about 75 cents to a still absurdly cheap US$15.23. One problem people had with it was that if left in your pocket, the dongle could get loose and stop charging the iPhone. Pushing it back into place corrected that, but it was an inelegant solution. Getting ready for my trip to the Macworld Expo I wanted something that would stay in place dependably no matter where I put it, so I went back to Monoprice.com, and found a leather case cover with a 2200 mAh battery built in that the iPhone snaps into. The price is ridiculously low at US $20.75, just US $5.52 more than the dongle. This has been on sale for at least as long as the dongle, I hadn't heard anything about it, but decided to give it a try.
Dear Aunt TUAW: What's the low down on battery packs?
Dear Aunt TUAW, Boxcar is killing my battery life (at least, that's what I'm guessing -- I love Boxcar, but since I began getting 20+ notifications a day, I'm seeing the battery drain quite a bit faster). What kind of battery pack can you recommend to help my poor iPhone stay online and available? I need to stay connected. Thanks in advance from your favorite nephew, Mikey Read on for Auntie's reply
Mophie juice pack TV hands-on
You won't know it by the product's official name, but this is the FLO TV appendage for the iPhone that's been teased since November last year. Combining a mobile TV receiver with Mophie's juice pack, this is 2mm thicker and noticeably heavier than the normal external battery pack. You can see comparison shots in the gallery below -- the red and black units are samples of the new peripherals while the white one is the standard Mophie hardware. Alas, no working FLO TV demos were available, but we were told the iPhone UI should be one different from what the company offers at present. Reps kept mum on pricing, but they confirmed the juice pack TV should be arriving in the first half of 2010. %Gallery-82492%
Juice Pack manufacturer Mophie developing iPhone credit card reader
The Mophie Juice Pack and Juice Pack Air have been popular iPhone cases / external battery packs for a while. Now we're hearing that the manufacturer is going to add a credit card reader to its lineup of accessories. The Mac Observer is reporting that Mophie will provide a credit card reader similar to the one used at Apple Stores, and possibly supply software to manage transactions as well. The company hasn't divulged its detailed plans for the device, but is expected to provide more information during CES 2010. The annual consumer electronics show in Las Vegas will run from January 7th through January 10th. A number of other companies, including Square and Verifone, have jumped into the iPhone credit card reader market, and it is logical that a company with iPhone accessory manufacturing experience would join the party. Credit card transaction software for the iPhone platform made a big splash in 2008, but it appears that Apple's validation of the concept of using the device as a way to capture retail transactions has really opened the doors. The EasyPay checkout system (at right) used at the Apple Stores has garnered a lot of attention from customers who have asked if Apple would actually market the system. With the proliferation of third-party solutions, it's likely that Apple will stay out the market.
mophie's iPhone 3G Juice Pack unboxed and tested: high marks all around
Curious to know if your Benjamin will be well spent on mophie's iPhone 3G Juice Pack? TestFreaks is out to make sure you have an accurate answer to that, and judging by their report after two solid weeks of usage, the response is an emphatic "yes." Not only was the device sleek enough to not be incredibly cumbersome, but it actually performed as advertised. Reviewers were able to get their iPhone 3G from near-death to fully charged (twice!) on a single mophie charge, leading them to conclude that it "basically doubles the run time of the iPhone 3G" in a worse case scenario. Granted, even they couldn't overlook the particularly large price tag, but if you've been running bone dry with any level of frequency, we suspect the asking price won't matter nearly as much.[Thanks, Kristofer]