A look at technology, gaming, photography, gaming, smartphones, electronics and culture and life from a geek's office

Tag Archives: juicepack

Geek Life February to Mid March 2013

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PT Smartcase for Note II

 

I don’t get the chance to post as often as I want to these days but I do update my Flickr and Instagram pretty frequently so you can see a lot of my food porn on both of them. If you haven’t noticed already I’ve switched from using the iPhone 5 and am now proudly sporting a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 which better suits my needs because of the customization, larger screen, and expandable capabilities. Although the iPhone 5 is a nice phone, I like most people have gotten bored of it and tired of Apple’s restrictions on how I can use my phone. I love the fact that I can load as many songs and videos I want in several different formats and it’s great that I can pop in a 32GB MicroSD card and not worry about space. I like it so much that I’ve pretty much broken free of the Apple eco-system and eliminated the need for having an iPad Mini because it was redundant having both. The Note 2 is good enough to cover both the phone and the tablet for my uses. The eco-system thing is all hype anyway. I have no issues surviving without iMessage which can easily be substituted with apps like LINE or Facebook Chat. The people who matter to me have them already and if they don’t, they like me enough to install them! PhotoStream was an annoyance and uploading photos to Dropbox is a better solution. I could go on and on but people who gave Android a chance and love it have already said the same things over and over.

This session of Geek Life covers the usual food, tech, and I also went to Mardis Gras in New Orleans as well as take a cruise to the West Caribbean! Don’t worry, I wasn’t stranded on that Carnival Cruise! Continue reading→

Mophie Juice Pack Helium Review

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One of the largest complaints about the iPhone is that it doesn’t have a user replaceable battery and it has always been that way since the very first that was released in 2007. One solution is to have a separate battery pack and have it charge with the USB cable but there will be many occasions where that will be inconvenient. A much better alternative is the battery case and there are a handful of vendors that make these at a cheap price but they are often poorly designed and are very bulky.

Mophie has created battery cases for years, which are usually very lightweight and make your iPhone look and feel as least awkward as possible. I’ve been a fan of their Juice Pack cases since the iPhone 4 and 4S and the case for the iPhone 5 has been long overdue. Let’s see how the Mophie Juicepack Helium for the iPhone 5 fares over its predecessors.

Read my full review on Put That Back!

$5 1900 mAh Backup Battery Charger for iPhone Quick Review

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Let’s face it, the iPhone 4S battery pales in comparison with any of the iPhone’s that were released. You use your phone to text, send emails, look up something in the web, and make calls and the battery dies out in the worst possible time. What are your options? Carry around a power adaptor and cable? It’s a hassle. Get a battery case? Too bulky. Go out and buy a Mophie Juicepack for $35 or more? Too expensive!

When looking around on Amazon, I was actually looking for deals on the Mophie products for portable power backup solutions and stumbled onto the Stitchway UltraPower 1900 mAh for about $4.50 with free shipping. Mophie (don’t take this the wrong way, they make excellent products) has their Juicepack Reserve for $34.95 with a capacity of 700 mAh. The Stitchway isn’t as stylish but it gets the job done. You may feel a bit insecure that it looks like it’s cheaply made but I’ve had this for over a week already and it’s bounced around, thrown in backpacks and laptop bags cramped with portable hard drives and other equipment and it still looks new. I’ve dropped it a couple of times too on hardwood floors and sidewalks as well.

The battery isn’t enough to charge your iPhone 4s to completely but just enough to get through a busy workday and get a few hours of extra tweeting or Facebooking until you’re able to charge your phone at an outlet or computer. This also works with previous iPhones and iPod Touch but I haven’t tested the battery on them. The Stitchy brought a dead iPhone 4S back to life along with 45% – 55% battery which is quite impressive for something so cheap. For something less than $5, this product is a no brainer! You can find it on Amazon by clicking this link.