This article was published on March 25, 2011

From the CTIA floor: 5 ways to never run out of battery life


From the CTIA floor: 5 ways to never run out of battery life
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If you didn’t catch my accessories roundup video, you’ll want to check it out. One of the things that I noticed was that a lot of retail accessories providers were focusing on battery life. Whether it was green tech via solar rechargers or huge battery packs that provide power for days, there are a ton of options. Here are 5 great ones that I found.

ZAGGsparq

ZAGG has been around for a really long time. The company makes, almost without question, the absolute best screen and body protection that you could ever buy for your mobile device. But it also makes some great mobile accesories that are a bit more fun.

The ZAGGsparq is a rechargable battery pack that is about the size of the transformer box for a MacBook Pro charger. It’s small enough to toss in your bag, has 2 USB ports and carries a 6,000 mAh battery that will charge your iPhone 4 about 3 times back to full from dead empty before needing a recharge itself.

Amzer Solar Charger

In my video, I talked to Danny from Amzer. Though I saw a few solar bricks around, I liked the life of Amzer’s 3,500 mAh battery more than the rest. It’s a rechargeable candy-bar style battery that you can take with you to bring your phone back to life, and leave it sitting out in your office or car to charge when you don’t need the power. Handy stuff, and a pretty decent $70 price tag.

Noon Solar bag

I’m going to cheat, for this entry. There were displays that showed bags with solar panels, but most of them were ugly. Just because you want to be eco-friendly doesn’t mean you can’t be fashion forward. Noon Solar makes 4 different bags that are all solar powered, though they will set you back a few bucks. My choice? The $447 Elston. Yes please.

Say Qi

Inductive charging. It’s been all the rage for the past couple of years. Now, Energizer has put out the first inductive charger that uses an agreed-upon standard known as Qi (chee). Granted, you can’t buy it just yet…but you will. With Qi being the standard, handset manufacturers are already starting to look at Qi-compatible integration.

The Future

OK, so maybe I’m cheating again, but this is too cool to ignore. There’s a company in France called Wysips. It has developed a thin film that goes over your display and acts as a solar panel. That means that you could practically forget about your charger, as your phone will draw more power every time that it’s in light.

Want to see it in action? Laptop Magazine got a great video, which we’ve embedded here:

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