TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Cellphone Dead? AA Batteries to the Rescue!

Cellphone Dead? AA Batteries to the Rescue!

Clayton Collins (csm@telecom-digest.org)
Mon, 09 Oct 2006 13:50:54 -0500

By Clayton Collins, Christian Science Monitor

Cellphone-toters dread the sound: a hand-held device chirping its
complaint, often far from home base, about needing to be recharged.
Now on the market: a lipstick-size brass canister that holds one AA
battery and offers reserve power. Run a short adaptor from the tip of
a Turbo Charge to your phone, and a blue light indicates that a charge
is flowing. You're back in business long enough to get to a plug -- the
device's maker, Voxred International, claims "up to 40 hours" of
standby time or two hours of talk, and touts patent-pending technology
that protects devices' batteries from damage. It is designed to work
with PDAs as well.

We tested Turbo Charge -- about $20 at stores including Best Buy,
Sports Authority, and Office Depot, $5 more with a bundle of adaptors
and a carrying case -- on a Samsung SCH-A630 phone. Getting the right
adaptor took some doing. In a service the firm says it extends to all
customers, it sent us an adaptor not in the original bundle, and then
walked us through the extra wiggling that first use required.

When the depleted Samsung started scolding one night around 8, we
attached the device. The phone quieted and began indicating a
charge. We made a 20-minute call. Then we left the phone on and
plugged into the charger. By 3 a.m. it was indicating low battery
again; but we were using an alkaline AA rather than lithium. Verdict:
a sensible spare with some novelty appeal.

Copyright 2006, The Christian Science Publishing Society.

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