Appletell reviews the iON Universal Mobile Power Bank

by Ed McKell on Oct 5, 2009 at 07:27 AM

Add a Comment

Let’s face it, the iPhone is an awesome device that is very flexible and can fulfill many roles. But this super ability often requires more power than your internal battery can provide. Thanks to Apple’s decision to make the iPhone battery non-removable, there is now a booming market in third-party external battery packs. One of the latest comes from FSP. As one of the top ten power supply manufacturers in the world, they have a lot of experience with powering the world’s devices.

I’ve had a chance to use several different external batteries over the last couple of years, and they usually fall into one of two categories. In the first category are iPhone/iPod dedicated batteries that usually have a built-in dock connector, while the second category includes universal chargers that have a USB port or a series of adaptors for various adapters. The iON Universal Mobile Power Bank falls into the latter category, but attempts to steal some advantages from its dedicated cousins. This sounded like a really good idea to me, since I usually prefer the universal category so I can potentially charge other devices like an iPod Shuffle, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS or Amazon Kindle, as well as the other dock connector wielding Apple devices.

The iON is a nice, compact, credit card sized device. It has a built in USB cable for charging the device, and comes with two different output adaptors for connecting to other devices. One is a two piece dock connector for your iPod/iPhone, and the other is a USB port for plugging in all of those other devices. It’s a 1500mAH Li-Ion Polymer battery with an estimated life of 500 recharges. That’s a little less than other universal batteries I have used, but that’s part of the price of a small footprint.

Hands On

I spent some time traveling this summer, so I had a chance to put it through its paces in place of one of my other packs I usually carry. The battery has a nice rubberized feel to it that makes it easy to hold and use. It also has several status lights built into it so you know when it’s charged and how much juice it has. Other packs I have used will usually have a button you can push so you can check the battery status, but the iON will only light up when it is plugged in to the wall for charging or when it’s charging another device. I like this method because, on these products, I have found the button gets inadvertently pushed when packed against other items in my bag, which seems to affect the useful battery life of those products. However, it does mean you will need to plug the battery in to something to be able to see what the charge status is.

The built-in charging cable is a nice touch. The cable is usually the right length and works well with a USB port on a computer or from a wall adaptor like the ones that come with an iPhone. The built-in cable means one less cable to have to carry around, unlike most of their competitors. The only problem with this cable is when you charge this device from most USB ports, the battery tends to hang or sit upside down, so you have to constantly turn it over to see the status lights. It is my understanding that they will be correcting this in the next few generations of this product, but I don’t know when that will be.

The output side of things is more of a mixed bag. After having such a nice design on the charging side, I’m not quite sure why they chose to give you a small array of adaptors. They give you a small, approximately one inch, adaptor with a dock connector, and a second equally small adaptor with a USB port. On paper, this sounds like a nice idea as you do not need to carry a longer iPod cable with you if all you need to do is charge your iPhone or iPod. But the point of a universal battery is that you want to be able to charge other devices as well, so you still end up carrying the USB adaptor. Plus, I found that I still need my regular iPod cable so I could use it for syncing since the iON cable is for charging only. The other downside is if you try to use the phone while it’s on the charger, you have to hold on to the battery as well since the cable is so short. Also, the dock cable inexplicably comes in two parts, with the dock connector plugging in to another cable that then plugs in to the battery itself. However, the USB plug is all one piece, rather than giving you a smaller USB connector to plug in to the same cable the dock connector uses. I also found that if I did not hold on to the battery, I was taking a chance that the cables would come unplugged from the battery since it is a simple power connector like you would find on many devices without any mechanisms for clamping on to the battery. You get double the chance for it to come undone when using the iPhone since that cable connects in two different places. I like the idea of a shorter cable for the iPhone since I often find myself having a lot of cable cluttering things up when I charge from other devices, but the implementation fell short of my expectations, and I usually found myself more inconvenienced and constantly trying to find the small adaptors.

The battery itself is reliable, but at only 1500mAH, it was only able to get my phone to about 80% from a low charge. That’s less than I am used to, but most other batteries I have used are 1800mAH or higher. That is part of the trade off in size. It recharges quickly and holds it charge well. It’s also capable of charging all sorts of other devices through the USB port, so its universal status is effective as well.

Conclusion

This battery looked really good on paper, and I really wanted to be able to give it 4 stars and a recommended status, but unfortunately it fell short of my expectations. The big thing holding it back is the method of output and the series of adaptors they give you. Because it requires adaptors, it can’t do the job as well as a dedicated iPod/iPhone charger. And because of the implementation of the adaptors, I found myself less likely to use the USB, and was disappointed with the dock connector, making it less useful than my slightly larger universal chargers. However, I really like the size, the feel, and the built-in connector for charging the device; all solid choices. I also liked the decent performance from the battery itself.

If they would ditch the adaptors and go to a built-in USB port, it would probably be my “go to” charger. As it stands, it will sit on the shelf in reserve. A built-in USB port plus a standard iPod/iPhone cable with a shorter length of one to two inches would make it an easy 4 - 4.5 star product. As it is, I give it 3 stars with a plus for a solid performance and a space saver design over most universal chargers. The iON Mobile Power Bank is available today from FSP for $29.99, which is a good price for a decent external battery.

Appletell Rating:

Buy iON Universal Mobile Power Bank

Originally posted on AppleTell by Ed McKell on Oct 5, 2009

Back to School: Is a Mac the right choice?

Originally posted on AppleTellby Ed McKell on Sep 7, 2009 at 04:19 PM

Labor Day picnics are in full swing. Amusement parks and water parks are shutting down or shortening their hours. Traffic is slowing down in school zones all across the world. What do these things mean? It’s back to school, and that means it’s time to make sure you have all of your school necessities like pencils, paper and a backpack big enough for a MacBook Pro.

As students head back to school, many have dreams of computers dancing in their heads. Let’s be honest up front here, it’s hard to justify a new computer for your average high school student, but it’s definitely becoming a must-have for most college students. Let’s put the cards on the table here; in my experience, the best tool for the job is Apple’s Macbook or MacBook Pro line. There are a lot of options from a lot of other manufacturers, but the only one that can run Mac OSX is the genuine article directly from Apple, and that makes all the difference. With that said, is the Mac really worth the premium price it seems to command?

Price vs. Value

At first glance, Apple’s computers seem to be more expensive, and if you compare their price with the price of the low-end models from other manufacturers, that would definitely be true. But let’s make sure we are comparing apples to Apples because there are a lot of lemons out there. If price were the only factor, then that first glance at low-end models from other manufacturers would be hard to beat, and Macs could only be justified by those who had money to burn. Price, however, is not the only factor. While price can tell you a lot, keep in mind the lowest price rarely equals the best value. Value should be determined by initial price, total cost of ownership (long term price), longevity and usefulness/satisfaction.

When we look at price, Apple is frequently as expensive as comparable manufacturers like Dell, HP or Toshiba. Because laptops are the largest seller amongst students in the PC and Mac arenas, we can explore this specific area. Jumping to Dell’s site, you are quickly hit with laptops as low as $499, but when you hit Apple’s Education Store, the lowest laptop you will find there is $949. But comparing the options and specifications of both, you quickly realize you are comparing two different levels of laptops. After adjusting the PC product to have comparable specifications, they often come within $100-$200 of each other. While $100 is significant savings, that is just one part of our value formula. But to be fair, Apple usually loses on the initial price comparison.

So, next we jump to our long term price, or what companies refer to as TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). TCO is a great concept, and one people should use when buying a lot of high priced items, not just computers. TCO starts with initial price and then adds on what it takes to be able to use that machine over its lifetime. Software is a big part of that, and the most obvious piece is anti-virus software. Let’s start with a disclaimer here, all computer owners should be running some sort of anti-virus/malware software. That includes Mac users. WIth that said, most of them don’t use anti-virus software because they really don’t feel the need since there is very little malware that exists for the Mac, and currently no signifigant worms or virus are on the loose. To extend the honesty here, I don’t run active ant-virus software and I have been using Macs since 1989. I did see an infected file or two, but they were all Microsoft Word or Excel files that were infected with Macro viruses. However, I haven’t even seen any of those this century. I do run some free anti-malware and anti-virus scans about twice a year, just to be sure. PC users do not have this luxury. Anti-virus software is a necessity, and a way of life for any that uses any variation of Windows. Although there are free options, most will end up paying for a subscription service at an average of $30/year. Over a four year college career, that is an easy $120 added to our TCO. That eats up a lot of those initial price savings, and we haven’t even gone to the next two items in our value proposition: longevity.

Longevity is not necessarily a question of reliability, even though that can be an important factor. Longevity is reliability plus usability/satisfaction over time. Longevity is an area where Apple tends to shine. The initial price tends to buy you a very high quality computer that will meet your needs for some time to come. This area is actually improving across the board and is the reason why we are seeing $449 laptops from PC manufacturers. The hardware requirements for many things people want to do today are not increasing at the pace that it used to, meaning “yesterday’s” technology is still useful today. Therefore, the cheap PC is cheap because it is still a useful version of “yesterday’s” technology. If you are using technology that is already two or three years old, the usability of your device over time is likely to be reduced by a year or more. Apple tends to sell current technology, and does very well at making sure it comes with the things people tend to use currently and for some time to come. Generally, providing cutting edge without being bleeding edge is something Apple does very well. This tends to increase longevity for Apple’s products, and to to get the same level of longevity from a PC, you will be buying the middle or top of the line products, impacting your initial price.

Our final factor in the value formula is usefulness and satisfaction. Again, this is an area where Apple excels. Not only does Apple get some of the highest user satisfaction ratings in the industry, they also have a reputation for having a computer that “just works.” A lot of this comes from the advantage that Apple makes both the hardware and software (operating system) that runs their computers. No other major consumer computer has that advantage. This allows them to make sure that both work together very well. You combine this with a Mac community and mindset that has created a very high expectation for Mac developers to create comparably high quality software that has a high usability factor, and you get a system that consistently works very well. However, the Mac is not perfect. It is possible to have problems and need help with things, but the Mac community tends to be very helpful and Apple provides Genius bar services in all of their stores where you can schedule an appointment with a Mac Genius to help you and answer your questions. All of this combines to give Apple a high usefulness and satisfaction rating. This may seem small at first, but it tends to greatly increase your longevity, affecting your value factor greatly.

The proof is in the pudding

When you look at our value formula, you discover that Apple can score very highly. But much of what we discussed above is subjective, and different parts of the value formula will be weighted differently depending on your circumstances. For example, if your up front budget is $800 and you cannot wait to save more, the initial price will become a very important factor. However, if you have saved for a long time and therefore you want to make sure it lasts for a long time, then the last two factors of longevity and usefulness/satisfaction will be more important for you. There also may be other external factors that effect your purchase, such as software or hardware requirements from the school your children will be attending.

I’d like to inject some anecdotal evidence in here from my own experience. I’ve spent a lot of time working with older high school and college students over the years, and helped a lot of them evaluate these factors in their own life. When they tend to make their purchases, they obviously fall into two groups: half buying PCs and half buying Macs. Of those who buy PCs, I have found that about half wish they had bought or could have bought a Mac, and many of them did so before the end of their time in college. Many of those who stayed happily with the PC still ended up replacing quickly it with something better. However, as far as I’m aware, every single student who purchased a Mac never regretted the decision, and most managed to make that initial purchase last their entire time at collage (and frequently beyond that). For those who did buy another, they upgraded to another Mac.

So what is the right back-to-school computer for you? I’m afraid you will have to discover that yourself. However, I would recommend you try to use the formula above and consider a Mac if your circumstances allow. If you are buying for college, I would recommend you use the online Apple Store for Education and check to see if they are running any specials. Apple doesn’t tend to do sales, but they will frequently have promotions. For example, until Sept. 8, you can receive a free iPod Touch when you buy a qualifying Mac. That will certainly help your value proposition.

Originally posted on AppleTell by Ed McKell on Sep 7, 2009 at 04:19 PM

Appletell

OK. I haven't bee very good about posting to my Blog but I have begun writing for a wonderful site about all thing Apple Computer Inc. So, I will now start posting and linking to those here as well so you all can see what I am writing elsewhere.

Enjoy!

A few of the things I hope to discuss here...

Since I am turning this into a personal blog I will need to shift gears a little bit. The nice things is that I won't need to be quite as profound as I kept trying to be with all of my previous ideas that never made it to the blog :)

First of all, I have a lot of people ask me a lot about gadgets and things I use. So I figure that will be a great place to start. I will not be reviewing the products in the typical sense but more talking about the gadgets I have used and how and why I use them the way I do. I guess you could say it will be a practical look at the various gadgets that I use.

I do have a lot of gadgets but I will still run out of topics to discuss if that's all I stick to. I also like to read a lot so I will probably cover books and some of my thoughts on them as well. Once we move to Germany I will hopefully have some interesting thoughts on life there and the differences from where I grew up.

Finally, I will reserve the right to be completely random and discuss just about anything else that comes to mind. However, if you have anything you would like me to post, just drop me a note.

Mostly it will be a place for me to sketch the things going on in my life so I can come back and remember them all later. I guess that is how blogging really began.

Sorry it's been so long.

I think I am going to start a second blog for our missions stuff. I've been so lousy at keeping this one rolling that I figure I might as well be lousy at keeping 2 blogs up :)

So this one will be more personal and just contain my random thoughts while the other one will be more about what we are doing as a family with our missions work in Europe. It will be:

European Adventure (http://mckellsineurope.blogspot.com)