Special Savings on the RichardSolo 1800mAh iPhone Backup Battery

The RichardSolo Company is offering special savings to Gadgeteer readers. They are offering their RichardSolo 1800 for iPhone 3G/3GS/4 and iPod backup battery for only $5.98 – original price was $49.95. This is a rechargeable 1800mAh that has enough reserves to completely charge your iPhone and have power left over. It works with iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4, and with all iPods except for the shuffle. It comes with a USB cable, AC wall charger, and a dual-USB car charger. The charger is equipped with an LED flashlight and a red laser pointer. To get the $5.98 price, enter the the code fireworks at checkout. Order more than one and your price drops to $5.09 each. This offer is valid only in the US and expires July 31, 2011, while supplies last.
source: The Gadgeteer

Elecom External Battery Charger For Apple iPhone And Samsung Galaxy S

Elecom today introduced a new external battery charger for the Apple iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S. Available in 4700mAh and 3000mAh capacities, these external battery chargers are now available in the Japanese market. The 4700mAh version is priced at 8,400 Yen ($), while the 3000mAh model retails for 7,000 Yen ($87). [Akihabara]

Extend Your iPhone 4 Battery Life with the juice pack plus From mophie

Smartphones are great for keeping in touch and keeping yourself entertained, until the battery dies. With the juice pack plus case from mophie, you can more than double the battery life in your iPhone 4. This protective case has a 2000mAh rechargeable battery, a charge indicator, and a standby/charge switch so you only use its battery when you need it. The juice pack plus hard-shell case has rubberized sides that look like Apple's Bumper cases. They are available with a black back and cyan, yellow, black, magenta, and purple (limited edition of 3000) sides. You can charge and sync the iPhone 4 while it's still in the mophie case. It acts as a virtual speaker box, redirecting the sound from the bottom of the phone to the front. Best of all, the mophie juice pack plus fits both the AT&T and Verizon versions of the iPhone 4. It's available now for $99.95 from mophie.
source: The Gadgeteer

Hitachi Maxell Wireless Power Charger For iPhone 4

Charging your devices is always a hassle since most chargers may not be the most convenient means to charge them. Device users have to deal with cables and connectors to charge different devices. In the case of the Apple iPhone 4, Hitachi Maxell has introduced a Wireless Power Transmission system that will make charging the said device in a more convenient way.

The new Hitachi Maxell Wireless Power Transmission system is composed of a charging pad and a charging sleeve attached to the iPhone 4. This system makes use of electromagnetic induction technology in order to charge the device without the use of wires. Users would only need to place their iPhone 4 on top of the charging pad in order to charge it. This provides a convenient means of charging devices since wires have been eliminated this time. The Hitachi Wireless Power Charging gadget system for the iPhone for is expected to be available in Japan around May. It is expected to cost around 6,900 Japanese Yen or US$83 for a set of one charging pad and one iPhone 4 sleeve.

Energizer Inductive Charger and iPhone 4 Qi Sleeve Review

The Energizer Inductive Charger and the iPhone 4 Qi (pronounced chee) Sleeve is the newest wireless charging system promising to simplify your charging experience for your myriad rechargable devices. It uses the Qi standard for charging, which is a global standard for wireless charging systems. What this should mean is that as more devices ship with integrated induction charging using this standard, you’ll be able to use them with this charging pad. In the meantime you’re stuck using sleeves to add the necessary charging magic to existing devices, and this is where the promise of easy cable-free charging meets the stark reality of not having any native support in a sleek device for such charging.
Stuff Inside

The system consists of the Charging Pad & its wall wart. The Sleeve is just that – only a sleeve that connects the dock of the iPhone4 to the inductive power receiver embedded in the back of the sleeve.

The Charging Pad

The Pad provides two charging spots (marked with the Qi symbol) with corresponding blue LEDs overhead to indicate charging status. On the back edge of the Pad there’s a standard powered USB port, for charging devices via wired USB. When a Qi device is placed pretty much anywhere on/over either spot, The blue LED lights up indicating the device is charging. It goes out when the device is fully charged.

The Sleeve

The iPhone 4 sleeve is the weak link in this system. Although it is easy enough to side a bare iPhone 4 into/out of the sleeve, and you could leave your phone in the sleeve at all times, it is both too large and heavy and makes for a poor phone case.

You can see the sleeve provides routing for the bottom speaker and mic to the front of the case. However, the dock is “consumed” by the sleeve, so there is no way provided to connect your en-sleeved iPhone 4 to anything else.

The sleeve covers the back fully, with a cutout for the camera & flash.

The top and left side are left uncovered to allow for access to controls and the headphone jack:

Charging

The good news is, the system works really well. Slide the iPhone 4 into the sleeve, and you’re done. Just drop it anywhere generally over the Qi circle on either side of the charger, and your iPhone will happily report it’s “plugged in” and charging

Pick it up, and it’s “unplugged” – drop it back on, it’s plugged in.
Charge times

As far as I can tell, the power supplied by the Energizer Inductive Charger gadget is roughly equivalent to that provided by the Apple mini AC adapter – there is no technical information provided with either the pad or the sleeve, nor on the Energizer website, detailing the amount of power being delivered. Nonetheless dropping the iPhone 4 on the pad delivered a fully charged iPhone 4 in roughly the same amount of time as it would if plugged into AC.
Usage Ups and Downs

I tried to leave the sleeve on during the day, but it’s just not practical. I’m not at all happy with the additional bulk and weight – the iPhone 4 itself is 137 grams, the Qi Sleeve is nearly exactly 1/3 of that at 46 grams. It adds 9mm to both the width and height, and a massive 6mm to the thickness of the iPhone 4. Even worse, I lost the ability to dock in my car (which has an iPhone/iPod dock) or to quickly dock/sync/grab a photo off via USB cable at work, without taking the sleeve off. Swapping the sleeve multiple times during the day just didn’t work.

What did work was just swapping my normal jell case (which adds a couple grams of weight and less than 1mm all around) for the sleeve when I arrived at home, and then returning the iPhone to the jell case as I left for the day the next morning. Leaving the charging pad on the bedside table, I just dropped the phone on it before turning in, and grabbed it (and then, swapping cases… argh!) in the morning.
Conclusion

The Qi standard for inductive charging should finally allow manufacturers to embed the receiving portion of the system into new rechargeable products, eliminating the major flaw of requiring a sleeve or other add-on to bridge the native wired charging port to an inductive receiving system in the sleeve. Until that time, the design of the sleeve is critical, and the current Energizer iPhone 4 sleeve gadget doesn’t quite provide a usable solution. The added size and weight, along with the nearly fatal blockage of the dock without even providing an alternate microUSB connection, makes it impossible to go any significant amount of time with the Sleeve on the phone. So, you can plug and unplug a cable to charge, or you can plug and unplug the sleeve to charge. Either way, you’re still plugging every time you charge.

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