Gizmodo: powerstation

Lightning Review: Brando's Power Station iPhone Charger

Jason Chen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:00:00 EDT

The Gadget: Brando's Power Station, a portable battery pack for your iPhone that slides easily into your dock connection for charging away from a socket or a USB connection. The Power Station, in turn, is charged from ITS dock connection, so you can use the same charger for both devices. Comes in white and black.

The Price: $25

The Verdict: Works as advertised. In our tests, it charged our iPhone 3G from 10% to 60% in about an hour, after which charging stopped altogether because the pack was out of juice. We then used another pack to take our iPhone from 60% to 100% in about another hour. Great for emergency days when you're low on power from a frantic 3G browsing session earlier that morning.

The only complaint we'd have is that unlike other chargers that wrap around the iPhone to secure itself in place, the Power Station only connects via the dock. This results in a flimsy connection that might snap off if you're not careful. So be careful and don't stick the phone in your pocket when this is docked.

At a price of $25, it's the cheapest iPhone battery pack that we've seen. Despite its drawbacks (only charges about half the phone's battery and is sort of flimsy when connected), we'd still recommend it as a backup battery for emergencies. [Brando]

Side note: The original unit Brando sent us was defective and would alternate between charging state and plugged-in state, eventually going to DRAINING state. If you get one of these, call them up and get a replacement as it's obviously not supposed to drain your phone.

Brando's Power Station Holds 1000mAh, Title For Cheapest iPhone Battery

Jason Chen — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:40:00 EDT

We're not sure if Brando's version of the external iPhone battery pack bests the others we've seen in performance, but it's definitely the cheapest by far. At $25, it's a whole $18 cheaper than the iPhoneck, and half as costly as Macally's PowerLink. Is it any good? No clue yet. But it's cheap, which is all some people care about. [Brando]

World's First Tidal Turbine Power Station Goes Online, Doesn't Blend Seals

Kit Eaton — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:09:00 EDT

However exciting the rubber robot snake wave power generator sounds, a real seagoing power station is way more interesting. And over in the UK, they've just turned on the world's first commercial tidal power generator station. SeaGen is situated in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, and it has twin turbines that spin as the tide rushes into and out of the lough at up to 8 knots. The moving seawater spins the turbines for around 20 hours each day and when it's up to full operating capacity, SeaGen will be pushing out 1.2 megawatts of power, roughly enough to supply 1,000 homes. And since the revolution speed is only around 10 to 15 per minute, the blades shouldn't offer a threat to sealife like the local common seals. Eco-friendliness all 'round. [Daily Mail]

Wii Powerstation Charger and Battery Packs

Jason Chen — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:04:08 EST

We don't know if it's the motion sensing or the Nunchuk two-for-one peripheral design, but the Wiimote's battery life is pretty miserable. The default Xbox 360 wireless controller's batteries lasted at least twice as long as the Wii's, forcing me to change batteries twice while going through Zelda. Now with Joytech's rechargeable Battery Pack, that's no longer a problem.

The Power Station has slots for two Wiimotes and two battery packs, plus a sort of docking device for your Nunchuks as well. The other side seems to be USB-compatible, so you can grab one of the PowerBlocks and charge this from any USB port—even the Wii's own USB ports.

The Power Station will be availalbe January 26 for $39. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Gameseek via Video Games Blogger]