I get a lot of products in the mail to review and they’re piling up on my coffee table, so I need to find somewhere to put all this stuff. Why not give it away?
I like a lot of the stuff I get to review, but I can’t keep it all, so I’m going to pick some items to give away every week. This week, I’m giving away a great product I reviewed a couple months ago, the Ecosol Powerstick. It’s a good way to power up devices while on the go and it’s ultra portable. Read the review for photos and more detail about it.
How to win
This contest is way too simple. Just follow me on Twitter and mention @joetech and http://lnk.gd/24 on Twitter to enter. Tweet up to once per day until next Sunday morning
That’s it? Yeah. That’s it. Just one little tweet could do it. If you want a bonus entry (and only once for the whole week, please, choose one of the following and tweet it:
@HeatherinBC is a social media pro. Great interviews, @MurrayNewlands @BenSpark takes some awesome photos
Pick one and tweet it before Sunday, May 31 and you’ll have an extra entry. I’ll randomly pick a tweeter next Sunday and DM that winner for prize delivery arrangements.
This week is just as busy as last week, but I I still have bookmarks to post, so here they are. As always, I’m starting with the Twitter suggestions. Don’t forget, if you want a link to your Twitter account, just follow me on Twitter and tweet the following:
@joetech I want that free link in your Bookmark Friday post : http://www.joetech.com/suggests/bmftw
This week, I just have a couple again:
jtarter (Pensacola, FL)
Bio: Founder & CEO of J-Vision Designs. Call me if you have questions or to find out how I can help you and/or your business today.
Site: http://www.jvisiondesigns.com/
Official PSDs – Working on a client site, I was looking for a Facebook logo to add and came across this web site. They have tons of free layered PSDs for your projects.
Crazy Egg – If you have a blog or web site and want to know how your menu, ad, etc. placement is working for you, try out a service like this one. It tracks the actual mouse movements on your site so you get an idea of where people are looking.
Blacksocks.com – Subscribe to automatically replenish your black sock supply regularly.
iPod Touch powered robot – I love to see stuff like this where someone does something different and cool with technology. And it’s a robot… my weakness.
Logo My Way – This is a great way to get a good logo. Offer up a bounty for the winning entry (say $200) and get a couple hundred or so entries to sift through for your new logo.
Waze real-time driving updates – It’s a mobile app that gives real-time user-submitted updates about accidents, construction, incidents, etc.
IceTECH sent me a couple of their solar charger products and the bigger, cooler, one is the i9005 Portable Solar Charger, a battery that can be recharged via the sun or a power outlet and can charge your devices.
About the hardware
At about 3.5 inches wide by 6 inches long, the i9005 is a little bigger than my iPhone, it’s about and inch thick and pretty light, so it’s certainly portable. The surface feels rubberized which should keep it from sliding around in on the car dash. Nice thinking, designers. On the front is a voltage selector so you can set the output voltage to 4.5V, 5.0V, 6.3V or 9.0V to match the voltage requirements of the device you intend to charge. The right side has a DC power in port and a switch to turn the charger on or off or turn on the LED. The built-in LED is a nice touch because it’s like a little extra flash light when you’re camping and have the charger with you anyway. The right side of the i9005 also has a USB out port for charging devices.
Although a lot of today’s devices can be charged via USB, many others require another type of connection. This is why IceTECH also includes seven plug adapters and a special USB cable to connect them to. While the packaging boasts compatibility with 99% Mp3/MP4 players, PDAs and cell phones, it left me scratching my head with my iPhone. I wanted to charge my most used device with the i9005 and found no adapter for it. Eventually, I was in contact with IceTECH, mentioned the compatibility issue, and had an adapter a couple days later. Other than the one piece that wasn’t included standard, the compatibility it offers seems pretty complete. If you’re wondering about compatibility, check out their compatibility chart.
Charging devices and recharging the i9005
One thing that was a problem for my review process but not for the device was that it took me a while to soak up all the power from the charger by charging devices I didn’t use very often. Charging up just one device didn’t dry this thing up, which is good to know. In my attempts, I was able to make use of a couple of the adapters. The USB cable it comes with plugs into the charger, the adapter plugs into the cable and also into the device you want to charge. With everything plugged in, the correct voltage is selected on the charger and charging begins when you turn it on. It has a handy LED to indicate that it is charging your device and how much power remains.
When there’s no more juice in the battery, you can plug it in with the included 5V DC plug or charge it with the sun. Going solar is better for a couple reasons. First, it’s greener, pulling power from the sun instead of the power company which may generate power in less “green” ways. It’s also cheaper. Imagine if you just charged all your devices with this thing and recharged it in the sun when it was depleted. I’m sure you’d save some cash.
To buy or not to buy
The only dislike I had was that it didn’t come with the adapter for my iPhone, despite all the other adapters it did include, but I found the following on the site:
We have a large variety of power adapters available to match virtually any device. If the bundled adapters do not work with your cell phone, etc.. and you do not see a compatible one in our online store – let us know and we will try to help you get the right one.
My personal experience tells me they’re definitely willing to help you out with getting the right adapter and fast. I’ve seen it priced from around $70 (Amazon) up to $100, so it measures up with other portable power devices on price, while seemingly out-performing those devices in terms of battery capacity. Granted, it’s also larger, but still portable. I wouldn’t suggest this as a solution just to keep your phone powered up on the go. There are plenty of cheaper and more portable solutions for that (although the solar aspect could be a benefit). However, if you’re on the road a lot or like to camp and hike, this would be a great item to have with you for the price. The company seems to be more hands-on, too, so you might ask about the adapter for your most-used device if it’s not included by default.
A company called Ten One Design makes the smallest iPhone accessory I’ve gotten my hands on. It doesn’t even use any power or really plug into anything, which is why it’s also probably the least expensive iPhone accessory I own. I’m talking about the SoundClip, a “Passive Sound Enhancer” for the iPhone 3G.
An innovative idea
For those unaware, the iPhone 3G has three things on the bottom edge. On the right is the microphone, in the middle is the docking/power connection, and on the left is a speaker for external audio. One of the problems/tricks that I noticed some time ago with my iPhone 3G was that if I put my thumb over the speaker, I can pretty much completely mute out any audio. It’s a handy trick when I just want to cut the audio for a second, but it’s a little annoying when I’m playing a game or watching a video. I think that’s what sets this product apart for me. Instead of just another product that had been done before, Ten One innovated with something new (as far as I am aware, anyway) and something useful and did it without putting a big dent in my wallet. At only about $8, I was eager to see if it worked as well as I had hoped.
Not exciting so much, but it works well
Sometimes I get too excited about a product and this may have been one of those times. When I was told one was being sent out, I got excited about an iPhone product that could be really useful for under ten bucks. I’ve opened it up and put it to use and I’m not that excited, but I think that’s more the nature of the product than it’s living up to expectations. I guess I had the idea that I’d hear a big boost in volume, but that wasn’t the case. What I did experience is that the audio was, indeed, more focused in my direction as advertised, and the audio was noticeably louder as a result. It also did a great job of making sure my listening was not interrupted by a rogue thumb. I tried it with a video, a game, and a phone call with pretty much the same results for each. The SoundClip proved most useful during the game because I’m holding the iPhone and paying attention to the game and not my hand position. It also has a little groove to attach it to your charging cable so it won’t get lost while you’re charging it.
What’s missing?
For such a simple design, it covers most of the bases, but there’s one feature that I think would make it much better even if it bumped the price up just a little. I imagined this thing being attached to my phone all the time and I just don’t think I’d do it, but I wouldn’t want to carry it in my pocket and it’s just a bit bulky for my wallet. The solution, I think, would be to have some kind of easy-release key chain attachment so I could keep it on (and release it from) my key chain as needed.
I’d also love to see a version with the little deflection chamber for both the speaker as well as the microphone. I don’t know if it would be any benefit at all, but if it helped to focus the microphone only on my voice, helping drown out background noise, it would be a pleasant bonus and might make me more prone to keeping it attached all the time.
Should you buy one?
If you’re wondering if it’s something you should buy, you should ask yourself if you’ve been frustrated by low audio or, more importantly, accidentally covering the speaker. If so, go for it. If not, you could buy it anyway (it’s cheap enough), but you probably won’t appreciate it much.
