Gizmodo: external battery

HyperMac External MacBook Battery Review

Jason Chen — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:20:00 EDT

The Gadget: The HyperMac external laptop battery, which, through its Magsafe connection gives MacBook Airs up to 32 hours and MacBook Pros up to 8 extra hours of battery life. There's also a USB port for USB charging.

The Price: $200 for 60Wh, $300 for 100Wh, $400 for 150Wh and $500 for 222Wh

The Verdict: Enormous battery life. While we tested the 222Wh version, the only difference is the capacity, and you can do the math to figure out how much life each version has. In our test, the 222Wh was able to sustain a MacBook Pro at full charge for eight straight hours. Couple that with the internal battery that the Pro already has, and you're into double digit work time if you buy one of these.

Unlike the Powergorilla, the HyperMac actually is capable of charging the Pro (there's a MacBook Air style charger as well). That means you can use this as a portable charging station as well as a constantly-tethered power supply. But you pay for that in terms of lugging around a heavy ass block of aluminum.

The 222Wh battery itself weighs 4.7 pounds, and measures 10.1 x 5.91 x 1.34 inches. It's not small, but it's still slim enough to be shoved into a bag and carried around with you everywhere. It takes 3.7 hours to charge the HyperMac to full, and you can even continue powering your laptop while this charges, giving you an extra MagSafe charger at home.

One very sneaky use for this is taking the battery to work and filling it up with your company's power, then taking it home and powering your laptop(s) and USB devices off of this. Free power!

We passed one around yesterday at the liveblog and it was able to keep multiple MacBook Pros alive the entire time. And with the new built-in battery for the MacBook Pros, we're going to be stocking up on these instead of extra internal batteries.

So it's up to you: how much power do you need? $500 and 222Wh may be too much for most people unless they work in the field a lot, but the cheaper versions are worth it just to have a backup for emergencies. [Hypermac]

iPower Backup Battery for iPhone Has Built-in Speaker too

Kit Eaton — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:38:00 EDT

Brando's new extra-juice supply for the iPhone (both gens) sets itself apart from all the others by having a built-in speaker, making it its own speaker-dock. Though it's a clunkily large beast, this is because it's got a 2400mAh battery inside, which can give your iPhone three hours of life and speaker action—probably handy if you're into movie-watching on the device. It's got an extending grip arm to secure the phone inside, a power on-off switch and the 3G version has external volume control buttons. Available now for $44. [Brando]

Proporta Laptop Battery Gives You Extra Laptop, USB Juice

Jason Chen — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:00:44 EDT

If carrying around an extra laptop battery isn't enough, take a look at this Proporta Portable Laptop Battery. It's an external battery which has multiple types of connectors to fit all sorts of laptops, but also has the capability to charge USB gadgets as well.

With the somewhat generous 6000mAh charge, you can make sure both your iPod and your Lenovo is juiced up enough for whatever it is you have to have your laptop for. Yahoo Pool in the wilderness, we suppose.

Product Page [Proporta via Crunchgear]