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Innergie PocketCell can power over 10,000 USB devices, just not at the same time
Between your tablet, phone, GPS and whatever else, keeping powered up on the move is a challenge for us all. Innergie wants to crush that problem with its PocketCell battery pack. Yep, it's a power cell, yes it fits in your pocket, but here's what you might not have worked out from the name: it has a 3,000 mAh capacity, mini / micro USB connectors built-in along with an Apple 30 pin adapter (as it's based on its Magic Cable design we loved so much) and a fast "Smart Charge" function for the impatient. There's five built in protections against unstable voltage, so you can be confident your digital world won't burn out in your hand. The makers reckon you can get an extra 4.5 hours of iPad usage and about 15 more hours on the horn to mom -- though, we're sure your mileage may vary. You can get charging from today for $79.99, which includes the Magic Cable, or touch up the PR after the jump for more info.
Innergie Magic cables wed USB and 30-pin connections, let you break 'em up on the fly
Apple's 30-pin connection got you feeling down in a world filled with USB? Wish your iDevice cable worked with more of your gizmos? Fret not, as Innergie recently introduced its effort to solve this dilemma with its Magic Cables. The idea is simple, one end is fitted with a standard connector and the opposite side terminates into a mini-USB plug that can be fitted with different tips. Twenty bucks will snag you the Duo variant with a 30-pin adapter and for $5 more you can pick up the Trio if you also need a micro-USB tip. All told, we're not sure that keeping track of minuscule adapters will prove much better than having a few cables, but if you're ready to consolidate your cords it may be worth a shot. Full press release just past the break.
Hanwha unleashes HDMI / USB adapter for iPad, iPhone 4, and fourth-gen iPod touch
Feel the desire to watch your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch (fourth gen) videos on the big screen, but looking for something with a little more girth than Apple's HDMI solution? Hanwha's latest dongle might do the job. As you can see above, in place of the original adapter's dock connector port is a USB 2.0 socket -- compatible with cameras supporting mass storage connection -- alongside the 720p-friendly HDMI port, but you'll have to use the switch to toggle between the two modes. And that little mini-USB port on the far right? Well, it's there to provide some juice to "reduce battery drain," but probably not enough to charge up your iDevice. If you're still interested and have a friend in Japan, Hanwha's charging ¥5,980 (around $73), which is almost double that of Apple's $39 connector. Is USB support worth such a price jump? Your call.
WakeMate review
Sleep. It's where some get to relax, some get to be comfortable, and some get to be a Viking. But, for others, that overnight period can be a stressful time, full of tossing and turning and mornings highlighted only by ground beans and hot showers. For those unhappy souls there are ever more dreamtime gadgets working to help the situation and turn morning monsters into drowsy-eyed angels, devices like the FitBit, and latest among them is WakeMate, a $60 accelerometer-having wristband that charts your nocturnal sleep patterns. Sadly, we've found it can also be responsible for some early morning spikes to our blood pressure. %Gallery-111780%
Dell Streak procures a hacked-up mini USB adapter, gets friendly with your dusty cables
Even if you can look beyond the SIM lock and the aging Android 1.6 OS on the Dell Streak, there's still one irksome problem: the lack of a mini or micro-USB port (Dell clearly missed the USB party last summer). Dissatisfied with this state of affairs, John from Linux Slate decided to build an adapter for his tabletphone's dock connector, which he confirmed to be PDMI instead of a proprietary design. The procedure was simple: John cut up his Streak's cable plug, soldered a mini USB socket onto the board, and housed the new assembly within the Streak's cable clip. Voilà! Until third-party USB-to-PDMI cables start to show up in the stores, it's either this mod or cough up $20 for a spare cable from Dell. See the adapter in action after the break.
Primo Battery Cube brings extra life to mini or micro-USB devices, is not actually a cube
If you, like we, were disappointed by mophie's unwillingness to support anything lacking an Apple dock port in its new line of juice packs, here's an alternative. PhoneSuit is launching the Primo Battery Cube, a decidedly non-cube-shaped device that is perhaps a bit chubby but manages compatibility with either micro or miniUSB devices. The $40 battery, which launches on July 12, charges over USB, packs a 1,000mAh cell inside, and sports four LED lights on top to give you an idea of just how many of those milliampere-hours have yet to be served. Oh, and it's shape, because of its unequal sides it's actually a cuboid, not a cube. But of course you knew that, you geometry whiz you. %Gallery-96309%
Road Tested: Newer Technology NuPower Charge & Sync +
If there's something that is almost as common as fart apps, it's iPhone external battery packs. TUAW has done reviews and giveaways of a number of these units including the Richard|Solo 1800 and the Mophie Juice Pack Air. One thing that a lot of these boxes have in common is that they all require an external AC adapter in order to charge 'em up. That can sometimes be problematic, particularly since the AC adapters are sometimes as large as the battery pack itself. A separate AC adapter also means that there's one more thing that you have to remember to take on a trip and one more thing that can get lost. Newer Technology came out with a new and rather innovative device last month that I thought was so different from the pack that I ended up buying one for myself. The NuPower Charge & Sync + packs almost everything you need, including the AC adapter and charger, a 1400 mAh Lithium-Ion battery pack, and a USB charging cable, into one small package. Read along as I tell you all about this unique little device.
Dell Mini 3i unboxed in China, capacitive stylus included
One lucky Chinese blogger was kind enough to share his Dell Mini 3i unboxing experience beyond the Great Firewall, just a tad before Dell officially announced their first-ever smartphone. What's interesting is that the China Mobile version comes with a special stylus for the capacitive touchscreen -- a very handy tool for writing Chinese -- but there's been no mention of this accessory for the Brazilian 3iX. Dell's also bundled a 3.5mm adapter for the mini-USB port in case their handsfree isn't good enough for your audiophilic ears. Yeah, too bad about the missing headphone jack, but don't let this deter you from checking out the Mini 3i's full glory after the break.
SendStation's latest PocketDock is slightly larger than a penny, has much better audio quality than a dime
SendStation has impressed us before with its PocketDock line, back in 2007 releasing a tiny nub to suck audio, video, and even get a USB out from an iPod. The company's latest, the PocketDock Line Out Mini USB, is far smaller -- no bigger than Apple's own charging plug -- yet sports a Mini-USB port for charging and a non-powered 3.5mm line out that enables better quality tunes from your pod when connected to an amplified device. The kit even includes a set of tiny stereo RCA jacks that would like nothing better than to mount the front of your receiver. This latest PocketDock is available right now for $29.95 on the other end of that read link, and we're told they'll be showing up in Apple Stores, too. [Via SlashGear]
PSP Go lacks mini USB, compatibility with existing accessories, common sense
Confession time: we weren't exactly charmed by Sony's PSP Go when Sony made the thing official. It's not that we're particularly fond of UMD (quite the contrary as a matter of fact), rather we found it a little hard to stomach a slimmer device that offers nearly the same hardware as its predecessor, swapping an optical drive for more storage, yet will cost nearly twice as much. Factor in the cost of all new accessories and things get even less appealing, with confirmation that the Go lacks a standard mini USB port on top, meaning things like PSP keyboards and Sony's GPS accessory are on a fast-track to obsolescence. Even current A/V cables and chargers won't work thanks to a new multifunction port on the base -- but Sony will be quite happy to sell you new ones. Is this the price of progress, or an attempt to boost profit margins? It's not good news for gamers, regardless.
The $1.94 reason micro-USB is the new phone charging standard
Yep, we're all gonna get squeezed for accessories again as the member companies of the GSM Association begin standardizing on micro-USB chargers, and while we're happy that the madness is over, we can't help but feel the decision to use micro-USB over the already-ubiquitous mini-USB was purely greed-driven -- sure, micro-USB's supposedly more robust connector can handle something like 10x more disconnects, but if mini is good enough for everything from pro-level DSLRs to rugged portable hard drives, it's probably good enough for your average flip phone, don't you think? Sigh.[Via Geardiary]
Motorola's P970 dials up USB power
Of course Motorola would most prefer you buy its new Portable Power P970 battery pack to power its own devices -- not all of which, ironically, posses mini USB ports to draw power from -- but that doesn't mean you can't use their freshly minted 1700mAh device to charge up that handheld, media player, GPS unit, or whatever else it is you might have that could use a quick hit of juice. As for phones, well, we'd like to think more than Moto, HTC, and smattering of others would get their act together on mini USB ports in our wireless devices, but it's not like the P970 won't have its uses otherwise.
