2006-09-07
Devices offer backup power for portable laptops, phones, PDAs
A Canadian company has an answer for all those times that your laptop, iPod, PDA or cell phone runs out of juice where an electrical current is nowhere to be found. Xantrex's XPower PowerSource Mobile 100 is like a portable AC outlet designed to charge and run portable devices from wherever you happen to be.
The device is basically a lithium-ion battery with an inverter, a grounded electrical power plug and two USB power plugs for BlackBerrys, iPods and other devices that can draw power from PC USB ports. The USB ports and AC plug can be used at the same time to charge or operate two devices at once.
The device can be charged from any 110-volt wall outlet or a 12-volt vehicle power outlet -- what used to be called a car cigarette lighter -- so it doubles as a car adapter. It weighs 17 ounces and measures about 1 by 3 by 5 inches.
The company says it can power a laptop for two hours, an iPod for 44 hours or a cell phone for 12 hours of standby. The estimates include the time that the device being charged can run on its own battery after receiving a charge from the PowerSource.
It did an excellent job powering up one of my laptops but shut down immediately when I plugged in one with a hungrier power need.
A company representative acknowledged that there are "a small number of laptop AC power adapters or 'bricks' that were designed for docking stations, draw more than the 100-watt limit of the Mobile 100 and cause the device to automatically shut down.''
Xantrex makes a line of battery-powered backup systems including some that can keep a home office running for several hours.
ANOTHER OPTION: I get cranky when my cell phone battery dies but that would be OK if I carried around the SideWinder Portable Power device because it has a crank that you can use to generate power for a few minutes of talk time.
At under three ounces, it's a lot easier to carry than the Xantrex unit, but it's not nearly as powerful or versatile. It works with a limited number of phones (go to sidewindercharger.com for a list) and requires two minutes of cranking for every six minutes of extra talking.
The device is basically a lithium-ion battery with an inverter, a grounded electrical power plug and two USB power plugs for BlackBerrys, iPods and other devices that can draw power from PC USB ports. The USB ports and AC plug can be used at the same time to charge or operate two devices at once.
The device can be charged from any 110-volt wall outlet or a 12-volt vehicle power outlet -- what used to be called a car cigarette lighter -- so it doubles as a car adapter. It weighs 17 ounces and measures about 1 by 3 by 5 inches.
The company says it can power a laptop for two hours, an iPod for 44 hours or a cell phone for 12 hours of standby. The estimates include the time that the device being charged can run on its own battery after receiving a charge from the PowerSource.
It did an excellent job powering up one of my laptops but shut down immediately when I plugged in one with a hungrier power need.
A company representative acknowledged that there are "a small number of laptop AC power adapters or 'bricks' that were designed for docking stations, draw more than the 100-watt limit of the Mobile 100 and cause the device to automatically shut down.''
Xantrex makes a line of battery-powered backup systems including some that can keep a home office running for several hours.
ANOTHER OPTION: I get cranky when my cell phone battery dies but that would be OK if I carried around the SideWinder Portable Power device because it has a crank that you can use to generate power for a few minutes of talk time.
At under three ounces, it's a lot easier to carry than the Xantrex unit, but it's not nearly as powerful or versatile. It works with a limited number of phones (go to sidewindercharger.com for a list) and requires two minutes of cranking for every six minutes of extra talking.
