Backup Battery for iPhone/iPod

retractable cable In the surprisingly broad world of emergency cell phone chargers, we've learned th at the products with the simplest designs workbest. Though solar-powered and hand-powered chargers may sound cool, the reality is they don't always work.Instead we prefer products that run off batteries or old-fashioned electricity. The Smart Backup Battery by Richard Solo is one such charger. Withits simple, easy-to-use design, the Backup Battery will zap yourApple iPhone and iPod partway back to life when you're running out of juice. Like the Planon Universal Mobile Charger , it works more as a secondary battery than an actual charger thatdelivers power from another source. That means you will have toremember to charge it before it can rescue your iPhone, but once itis powered up the Backup Battery will hold its charge until youneed it. It's also reasonably priced at $49.95. The Backup Battery consists of three parts: there's the batteryitself, a standard wall plug, and a cable for connecting the firsttwo parts together. The cable is retractable but it can stretch upto 2.5 feet. The backup battery is basic black and measures 2.83inches by 1.77 inches by 0.49 inch. That makes it small enough toslip into a bag for easy portability. It's also lightweight at 1.76ounces, but it retains a solid and durable feeling in the hand. Atone end is the iPhone/iPod jack, which you can protect with aplastic cap. To charge the backup battery you need only to plug into the wall.If you lose the wall plug, you also can use your iPhone's wall plugsince the Backup Battery's cable uses the same USB connector. TinyLEDs on the battery show when the battery backup is charged;Richard Solo says the full process should take about 3.5 hours butwe showed a full charge after two hours. Once you need to power your iPhone, you need only to connect thebattery and the process will begin immediately. In our initialtest, we tried charging our iPhone from a completely dead battery.It powered our iPhone halfway in about 1.5 hours before it wasdrained of energy. Though we were hoping that the Backup Batterywould charge our iPhone completely, the partial charge should giveyou enough power to get near an electrical socket. We'll runanother test just to make sure. Unlike the Cellboost charger, you can use the Backup Battery multiple times. Richard Soloestimates that it will be good for 300 recharge cycles.