Did you hear the one about the Cell Phone Reviewer who left his phone charger at home when he went to CES? This little tale could have turned out terribly for yours truly, facing three days in Las Vegas with an iPhone quickly running out of battery life. Luckily, a little gizmo called TurboCharge saved the day for me. TurboCharge is a line of portable, battery-powered gadget chargers that work with a wide variety of cell phones and portable media players and gaming systems.
I had received emails from TurboCharge's PR people, and lucky for me they rang a bell when I came across their booth on the CES show floor. Double lucky for me was that the rep manning the booth was more than happy to give me a review sample of the TB650 Digital Charger for iPod right then and there. While TurboCharge is working on an iPhone-specific model, they told me that the TB650 would yield somewhere around a 50% charge on a single use - the unit included the two "AA" batteries needed for powering up.
At the end of the day I headed back to my hotel, plugged the 650 into my iPhone, and let it do its thing while I blogged, ate dinner, and headed to the casino for a little post-show relaxation. LED indicators on the unit tracked charging progress, and a built-in flashlight would have proved handy had I dropped my keys in a dark corner of my hotel room.
The whole process took several hours, and while I only wound up with about a 40% charge on my iPhone, it was by far better than the lifeless alternative I faced otherwise. TurboCharge told me that the iPhone-specific model will yield a much fuller charge when it hits the market; the TB550 cell phone charger with "TC2" technology averages 75% or greater charge according to reports I've read.
The TB650 for iPod sells for $19.95 and works with iPods and iPod nanos. The TB550 is $24.95 and includes your choice of one cell phone adapter - adapters are available for many of the most popular handsets that work with networks with the U.S. Additional adapters and "family pack" bundles are also available.
If you rely on your cell phone and spend a lot of time in your car or on the road, picking up a TurboCharge and leaving it in your glove box or travel bag might not be a bad idea. Sure, you can always hunt down an extra cell phone charger if you try hard enough. But a battery-powered backup adds additional protection in case of a power outage. And, like me, you can plug your phone into TC and stick them both in your pocket so you can power up on the go. TurboCharge saved my bacon in Vegas a few weeks ago, that's for sure.
Learn more at TurboCellCharge from here.
