All charged up with no place to go

Written by Lincoln Adams on February 1, 2010 | 1 Comment
Filed Under: Travelogues

Warning: techie geeky nerd-like dweebie content ahead.

One of the things I’ve been needing to complete my mobile blogging arsenal is a way to extend the life of my cell phone while I was out in the field. I use my iPod Touch for all things Internet via wifi tethering on my Verizon phone, but enabling wifi sucks the battery juice like a vampire on a hot babe. Usually I get only 2-3 hours usage before the battery dies completely. What I’ve wanted to do to address this issue was get a battery operated charger that I could attach to the cell, enable wifi and then toss the whole thing in my backpack while I’m out scouting the city or geocaching. That could extend the life of my cell phone’s wifi for as long as I’d need it, giving both my iPod and my laptop Internet access anywhere in the country, even out in the wilderness. Who’s awesome? I’m awesome. :-D

So I did some researching, and researching, and researching. As it turns out, there’s only ONE battery charger suitable for my cell phone with the right connector (because these cell phone makers, they just wubs to make their own nonstandard ports to set their cell phones apart from the rest and make it speeeciaaal, doncha know?) The charger is made by Energizer and is powered by two AA batteries. Awesome.

But wait, they recommend lithium batteries, their own brand of course. The idea of swapping expensive lithium batteries on a daily basis to keep my charger going seems well, weapons grade STOOOPID. So I researched some more to see if there were rechargeable batteries out there that would have enough juice to power this thing. Turns out one does, Rayovac Hybrid batteries. Awesome.

But wait, their charger to put it bluntly, sucks the crap stick. It’s a dumb charger that simply charges for x amount of hours and turns off, regardless of whether it properly charged the batteries or not. I needed a smart charger that would turn on and off according to how much charge a battery needed and not wreck the cells in the process. So I did some more research, and as it turns out, the best charger for it is made by Duracell. As an added bonus, the Duracell charger also doubles as a battery operated USB charger, so it can also charge my iPod too. Awesome!

So after much hair tearing, the solution turned out to be an Energizer charger, powered by Rayovac batteries, which are recharged with a Duracell charger.

As a friend of mine commented, the solution I came up with here seemed to suit me: difficult and full of irony.

Ah well. I should have a chance to give this a trial run later this week to see how long I can keep my cell phone’s wifi going, just in time before I take my trip to Boston. The prospect of being able to walk everywhere in the city with my iPod fully powered for blogging and geocaching gives me ooovas!