Nifty Gadget O' The Day: The Powerstick

[Vincent Ferrari]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.powerstick.com/new/home.php' target='_blank'>http://www.powerstick.com/new/home.php</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The Powerstick is the winner of the CES Award for Best of Innovation. It charges mobile devices such as BlackBerrys, cell phones, smart phones, PDAs, iPhones, iPods, digital cameras, GPS and MP3 Players. It is simply charged from any USB port including computers and laptops and then used to charge mobile devices; no disposable batteries or wall chargers are required."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1229483120.usr18053.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>I was sitting at my desk Monday morning and the owner of my company came in and plopped this down on my desk.&nbsp; "I thought you'd like this," he said.&nbsp; The company gave it to him as a promo so he passed it along to me.&nbsp; I have to say, it's one of the coolest gadgets I've played around with in awhile.</p><p>Essentially, you plug it into your USB port and it charges the internal battery.&nbsp; It takes about 3 hours or so to go from stone dead to fully charged.&nbsp; When you're done, cap it and put it in your bag along with one of the ten included tips and you're good to go.&nbsp; If your phone dies, just plug your tip into the charger and then other end into your phone and press the button.&nbsp; Within a few minutes, your phone should be fully charged.&nbsp; My iPhone was down to 25% of its battery and in one hour, the PowerStick had it fully charged.</p><p>I tried it out with my iPhone and it charges it perfectly.&nbsp; Right now, Powerstick's website has them available from Best Buy for $59.99 and while that sounds like a lot, it does come with a lot of interchangeable tips including a Mini USB so you should be able to charge more than one device when needed.&nbsp; That alone makes it worth the cost.</p>

[doogald]

That is such a great gadget! We've had some of those Eveready battery chargers with multiple tips, but this looks better, for me. Thanks for posting this.

Ordered!

[Vincent Ferrari]

That is such a great gadget! We've had some of those Eveready battery chargers with multiple tips, but this looks better, for me. Thanks for posting this.

Ordered!

I hope you like it :-) I'm pretty happy with it. The word nifty keeps popping into mind every time I see it. Like I said, it was a freebie, but had I only gotten to play with it and had to return it, I would've bought it.

[photoboy2012]

Does it have an iPhone/ iPod connector? Looks pretty awesome to me! :D ---------------- Now playing: The Cranberries - Ode To My Family (http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/the+cranberries/track/ode+to+my+family) via FoxyTunes (http://www.foxytunes.com/signatunes/)

[Vincent Ferrari]

Does it have an iPhone/ iPod connector? Looks pretty awesome to me! :D ---------------- Now playing: The Cranberries - Ode To My Family (http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/the+cranberries/track/ode+to+my+family) via FoxyTunes (http://www.foxytunes.com/signatunes/)

Well, I did say it charged my iPhone :-)

[photoboy2012]

Leave it to me.:p

[Tony Rylow]

Cool device, i'd like to get one to charge my iphone 3g on the go, but I will probably wait until I can purchase this for around $40.

[Sven Johannsen]

Not exactly a new concept. I've had a similar APC device for years. Here's a review I googled up. http://robert.accettura.com/blog/2008/12/01/apc-usb-mobile-power-pack/

Nice that that this one includes tips, but it also requires these specialized cables. If your device charges off of a USB port, you certainly already have the requisite cable to use the APC device. I don't see anything on the site that indicates it charges anything that doesn't normally charge off of a USB port, i.e. 5v up to 500ma. If it does do other voltages, as some of the universal laptop chargers do, based on the tip used, then this could be pretty useful, and the proprietary tip is understandable.

[Vincent Ferrari]

Not exactly a new concept. I've had a similar APC device for years. Here's a review I googled up. http://robert.accettura.com/blog/2008/12/01/apc-usb-mobile-power-pack/

Definitely not a new concept, but the one I wrote about is about the size of a large thumb drive. That's a huge difference imho. I have a similar Black and Decker device that's about the size of your APC one and I never carried it with me but this little guy weighs nothing and is always in my bag.

[Sven Johannsen]

Definitely not a new concept, but the one I wrote about is about the size of a large thumb drive. That's a huge difference imho. I have a similar Black and Decker device that's about the size of your APC one and I never carried it with me but this little guy weighs nothing and is always in my bag.
You are right. Size matters. But you don't get something for nothing, or less for nothing. The one you wrote about is 110x25x14mm, 35g, and has a capacity of ~3.75WHrs, while the APC is 100x65x13.7mm, 105g, and has a capacity of 10WHrs. So, about one third the size for one third the capacity...about. That's kind of how battery technology works.

No intent to diss the powerstick. If you want a capability to get an emergency charge back onto a depleted phone or PMP, in a form factor that is unobtrusive, great product. If you went to keep your PMP/phone running for that 10hr flight, and still make calls when you land, there are beefier options...at a price...weight, size, cost. Well, maybe not cost...the APC one is cheaper.

Guess if you will actually carry this one, it has an immediate advantage over the one you leave at home;)

[Vincent Ferrari]

No intent to diss the powerstick. If you want a capability to get an emergency charge back onto a depleted phone or PMP, in a form factor that is unobtrusive, great product. If you went to keep your PMP/phone running for that 10hr flight, and still make calls when you land, there are beefier options...at a price...weight, size, cost. Well, maybe not cost...the APC one is cheaper.

Guess if you will actually carry this one, it has an immediate advantage over the one you leave at home;)

I think you're 100% right and these two things are geared at different folks. For someone like me who usually gets through a day without a charge, an emergency charger is all I really need. For someone who needs in-flight entertainment, that's a whole other ball of wax!

Although yes, despite the enormous power benefit of my B&D unit, this one actually goes places with me making it infinitely more useful!

[doogald]

I dropped my son off at the movies last night. And when I asked him if he had his phone with him, he said yes. When I asked him if it was charged, he said, "um." So the last 10 minutes he topped off enough charge to make sure he could call me when it was done.

Worth it; I can carry it in my jacket pocket.