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Power to the People: Devices for the Wired Life

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Jul 08, 2014
Category: Gifts and Gadgets

It takes 12 hours to travel from the church of the wilderness in Ely, Minnesota to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, which is just across the street from our apartment. That means four hours in a car, several hours waiting for our invariably delayed plane to take off, two hours in the air, and, depending on traffic, as much as an hour getting into Manhattan.

I’m not complaining. For me. But the pain to our devices? Total hell.

We are not people who forget to charge phones and iPads the night before we travel. But even allowing for a recharging session in the Minneapolis airport, our batteries drain like sieves. By the time we get off the plane, we’re bottoming out.

This is preventable.

The solution for power-poor devices?

More devices.

EXTERNAL BATTERY CHARGER AND CASE FOR iPHONES
Slip your iPhone 5 or 5s into the case and it gives you several extra hours of power. It takes 3-4 hours to charge, which isn’t terrible. And it costs $18, which is two or three times less than other brands that function no better. [To buy the charger/case from Amazon, click here.]

PORTABLE CHARGER
Whatever your phone, there’s a simple fix: a portable charger. This lipstick-sized device takes about 6 hours to charge and delivers enough juice for 1-2 charges of your phone. It works on many phones: the iPhone 5, 4, 4S, 3G and 3GS, the Galaxy S5, S4, S3, Note 3, Nexus 4, HTC One, Nokia Lumia 520, 1020 and “most other” Smartphones. It comes in blue, silver, black and pink. Yes, you can use your phone while you’re charging it. [To buy the Anker portable battery charger from Amazon, click here.]

CAR CIGARETTE LIGHTER CHARGER FOR DEVICES
I wish I knew the date when the Tylt Dual Port 4.2Amp Car Charger came into our lives — I’d make a cake for its birthday. The charger fits into a car’s cigarette lighter. Thanks to the wide Y-design, you can plug two — yes, two — smartphones or tablets into its USB ports. I’ll repeat that: You can charge two devices — even two iPads — at the same time. And it’s fast. The charger will give you a 20-30% boost in battery charge in 20-30 minutes. It gets pleasantly warm, but never hot. And it looks good. Not a small thing when your heavy user is a style conscious child. So you want to think hard about your color choices: red, blue, green. [To buy the Tylt 4.2Amp charger from Amazon, click here.]

KILL A WATT ELECTRICITY MONITOR
Your aging computer — does it suck so much current that it might be cheaper to replace it? For that matter, your new computer — how much power does it take to keep it running 24/7?
Legacy dishwashers, refrigerators and washer/dryers — we’re told they’re current addicts, but if you don’t measure them, how can you compare them to new, “efficient” appliances to see if you really ought to replace them?
How much electricity do you use to run an air conditioner at 72 degrees? At 70 degrees? Does it matter what speed you run a fan? Stand-by mode — does that mean just idle or silently using lots of power? And the always-on cable box — is it true, as some say, that it pulls 100 watts a day, or as much as $100 in electricity over a year?
We think about these things, but in a random, what-can-you-do-about-it way.

Now there’s something you can do.

A Kill A Watt tells you how much electricity your appliances use. It’s a simple device. Plug the appliance to be tested into the Kill A Watt, plug the Kill A Watt into an electric al outlet, leave for a while, then measure — in volts, current and watts — how much electricity it consumes. Bonus: At the same time, it tests outlets and measures the quality of your power. Once you know what drives your electric bill, what can you do about it? In some cases, you’ll see that you can save money by replacing old appliances — a year or two of smaller electric bills may make the initial cost of a new appliance irrelevant. But more often than not, the culprits are devices you use every day. Or stuff that drinks electricity even when not on. [To buy a Kill A Watt monitor from Amazon, click here.]

SMART STRIP ENERGY SAVING POWER STRIP
The Smart Strip looks like a surge protector — and it does that. But the reason to buy one for $37.99 instead of a single-function surge protector for as little as $7 is its ability to turn devices completely off. That stereo or television or computer — it may not stand alone. (A TV almost never does — attached we find cable boxe s, DVD players, etc.) With the Smart Strip, just plug the TV or stereo in to one of the clearly marked outlets, and when you turn it off, the Smart Strip will also stop all current to its peripherals as well. Say goodbye to that cable device stealing your milk money.

What about devices that should always be on — broadband and digital video recorders? Plug them in to special “always on” outlets so current will keep flowing 24/7 to them. Note: when it’s switched-off, the Smart Strip is pristine on electric usage. Like: zero. [To buy a Smart Strip Energy Saving Power Strip from Amazon, click here.]

ETÓN AMERICAN RED CROSS SELF-POWERED AM/FM/NOAA WEATHER RADIO WITH FLASHLIGHT, SOLAR POWER AND CELL PHONE CHARGER
Solar works. So the Elon radio can sit for months, fully charged, and snap instantly to life. On a windowsill, the solar cell charges fast. If the charge is exhausted, a minute of hand cranking will generate enough power for a half hour of radio. Four-plus hours of radio (AM, FM and weather channels) on a single charge. You can charge your cell phone. (You can do that quicker if you plug the phone into your laptop, which, before the storm, you have prudently charged. For that matter, you can charge this radio from your laptop. But you can’t charge your iPod, or even connect it.) Three LED lights. In a pinch, it’s a decent flashlight. Headphone jack, so you can listen to music and zone out.

Solar power. USB ports. Cell phone chargers. More channels on the radio. Easier cranking, if it comes to that. And a dramatic shrinkage in size. That’s quite a lot in a small package. [To buy the Etón American Red Cross ARCFR160R Microlink Self-Powered AM/FM/NOAA Weather Radio with Flashlight, Solar Power and Cell Phone Charger from Amazon, click here.]

URBANEARS HEADPHONES
My wife worked for the company that owned half of Beats. That meant heavy discounts. And an array of Beats products — including Beats headphones, those must-have bling for the ears currently selling on Amazon for $144. But the young person’s Beats phones have been retired to the Museum of the Recent Past. She’s moved on to UrbanEars headphones, which, she says, are just as good as Beats. They cost $32 on Amazon. What — the kid is budget-conscious? Pass the smelling salts! [To buy UrbanEars headphones from Amazon, click here.]