The Price: $100

The Verdict: The $100 price tag isn't cheap, but the Mophie Juice Pack for the iPhone 3G is worth every penny if you are a power user. Mophie claims that you can double the available power of your 3G with their Juice Pack, and I have to say that these claims are pretty spot on. I assaulted my phone with a barrage of web surfing, media streaming and app usage during the day (with brightness settings at 50%), but when all was said and done I had only just begun to tap into the power stored in the iPhone itself. In other words, under normal usage I would be charging every two or two and a half days as opposed to every single day.

The Juice Pack definitely adds a bit of bulk to the phone (2.5 x 4.75 x .75 inches), but I gladly made the trade-off for the power boost. Besides, the added size isn't much more than you would expect from most standard cases. The time it takes to charge your iPhone with the pack is decent at a little over 2 hours (you should get around two rounds of charges with a full pack). It also has pass-through USB for syncing and charging which is a major plus.

This is Mophie's second go around with their Juice Pack (a version is also available for the original iPhone), but with the power demands of the 3G version, a product like this has never been more useful. Plus, the fact that it doesn't dangle off the end of the phone like other chargers makes it suitable for daily use. Again, $100 is a steep price to pay for an iPhone case no matter how you look at it, but if you are willing to drop the cash during these uncertain financial times, the Juice Pack will ship to customers starting this month. [Mophie]

# Standby Time – Up to 350 hours
# Talk Time – Up to 6 hours on 3G | Up to 12 hours on 2G
# Internet Use – Up to 6 hours on 3G | Up to 7 hours on Wi-Fi
# Audio Playback – Up to 28 hours
# Video Playback – Up to 8 hours

Knewsroom works like this: Members submit story ideas, which can be as basic as "Apple Introduces 3G iPhone." Then, people find stories around the web that they like, maybe one from Giz, one from Engadget and another from, let's say, Ars Technica. Readers vote on the stories they like, but if someone doesn't like any, they are free to write their own, possibly combining those three sources for a better overall story. (As if.) The final product is a daily Knewspaper that runs only the biggest crowd pleasers, and the Knewsroom writer, if one is selected, gets paid for services rendered.

You may say, "That doesn't sound like Digg," and in truth, this once-per-day concept isn't very Digg-like. But if you belong to the community, you'll be seeing the popular stories rise and fall day in and day out, just like they do on Digg. Then, people with less time or maybe just better perspective will hit the daily site, to see what the top stories are and then get on with their actual bona fide lives.

The funny thing is, this all came from a guy who wanted to use the collaboration to create gadgets. Ben Kaufman—who at 21 is so much younger than me it's embarrassing—has already sold one company that was successful at doing just this: it was called Mophie, and now it's a part of mStation, an exotic iPod accessory product maker.

Ben wanted Kluster to be an expanded Mophie, a place where companies could go to find design inspiration for whatever they were trying to build—iPod docks, sunglasses, board games, you name it. It worked almost like a massive sim game—you bet on various ideas at various stages of development, and if your idea wins, you get a piece of the bounty offered by the client companies. That's right, you got real money.

The downsides were that the companies who most liked the service wanted it on their own terms, and a site with a broad mission to design anything and everything with a massive, nebulous volunteer workforce was hard to manage. As a result, Kluster pulled down its initial infrastructure, and is in the process of building mini Klusters for companies. It will also launch specific Kluster "labs" for specific product categories. Ben thinks a more focused studio breeds better and faster decisions.

It's all pretty crazy, and I don't blame you if it's hard to follow along. But what's important is that you go there, because shit, someone's got to start submitting those Gizmodo stories, and if it's not you, then who, baby, who? [Knewsroom]

Product Page [Mophie]

How did we almost go a full weekend with no iPod posts to annoy our PC readership? The Wraptor is a new iPod shuffle case by Mophie. Aside from its scuff protection and fashionable design, the case spools your earbud cords, cutting out excess slack that could GET YOU KILLED...yeah, killed. Plus it appears that cords disappear completely when the iPod isn't in use. Very nice. $15. – Mark Wilson

Product Page [via techiediva]

Product Page [mophie]