iPhone 3G Solar Powered Case

The case design is different to the previous model – it’s now made from a tough polycarbonate that will help protect your phone from knocks and scrapes. The whole of the back cover is a solar panel and can generate enough energy to fully charge the case in around 3 hours in sunlight. Built into the case is a powerful 2100mAh battery – that’s 50% more than the iPhone’s built in battery.

The case can be charged using either the solar panel, or if you need to charge it faster, you can connect it to a USB port on your computer or laptop using a Mini USB cable.  Once fully charged, the case can more than double the standby, talk time and audio playback times of your phone. It has a separate on/off switch, giving you the choice to keep the extra power until you need it or to keep your battery topped up through out the day.

iPhone 3G Solar Case Charging Ports

Another new feature over it’s predecessor is that with the Solar Power Sleeve you can now charge any other device by connecting it to the USB output on the bottom of the case.

The Solar Powered iPhone Case is available to pre-order now with stock due shortly.

Turn your phone off!
It may sound silly, but how many times do you turn your phone off when you go to bed at night? Chances are you’ve not had many phone calls in the middle of the night, so by turning your phone off when you go to bed, and back on again in the morning, you’re saving 8 hours a day of battery life and could extend your battery life by a few days.

Turn off Bluetooth.
Bluetooth only needs to be turned on when you need it – by leaving it turned on all day your phone is constantly looking for other Bluetooth devices and draining your battery.

Turn off GPRS, 3G & WiFi.
If you never use the internet on your mobile, you won’t notice any difference by turning GPRS and 3G off – other than having to charge your phone less! If you do use Internet on your phone through either 3G or WiFi, turn them on as and when you need them, other wise they’ll be consuming power searching for networks when there is no need.

Adjust the display.
Manufacturers normally set the screen to its brightest setting to make it look clearer. This only drains power, adjust the settings and dim the screen to a level that you can still see, but is no brighter than it needs to be. Change the screen saver settings too, set it to come on sooner – reducing the time the screen is lit up for.

Leave it alone!
We’re all guilty of it, we get bored, nervous, need to look busy, so we pick up our phones and start fiddling with them. We’re not doing anything on them, only draining the battery. Put it down and find something else to play with!

The one source of power that is all around us, completely free and has no damaging effects on the environment is the sun, and thanks to a new range of accessories, you can now harness the power of the sun to help reduce the power your mobile phone uses.

Solar Powered Bluetooth Car Kits
LG and Iqua have both released a Solar powered Bluetooth Car Kit.

LG HFB-500 Solar Car Kit

The LG HFB-500 sits on the inside of your car windscreen and charges itself using energy from the sun. While its in sunlight it will charge constantly, and can provide upto 16 hours of talktime, and 1100 hours stand by time from a full charge! LG also provide a car charger, just in case the battery does run out, but as you’ll no doubt be leaving this in your windscreen all day, everyday you’ll probably never need it! If you have an LG handset, you can use the HFB-500 as an emergency charger and charge your phone from it.

Iqua Vizor Sun Solar Car Kit

The Iqua Vizor Sun is a slightly different concept and is designed to be mounted on your sunvisor. You’ll need to have your sunvisor down in order for it to charge, but its clear keypad makes answering calls easy. Talk time is even more impressive than the LG Handsfree, and it has unlimited standby times when in sunlight.

Iqua Sun BH-603 Solar Headset

Solar Powered Bluetooth headset
Iqua are certainly leading the field with environmentally friendly mobile accessories – In addition to their Solar Powered Bluetooth Car Kit, they also offer the worlds first Solar Powered Bluetooth Headset – the Iqua Sun BH-603. Despite having a solar panel built in, the headset weighs just 14g and provides upto 9 hours of talktime in darkness, even more in daylight. As the Iqua Sun draws its energy directly from the sun, it gives you complete freedom from wires.

Solar Chargers

Solar Chargers:
These are a must have accessory for anyone with an MP3 player, Mobile Phone, Handheld games console, or any other gadget that can be charged using a USB Charging Cable. The Solar Chargers have an inbuilt battery that draws its power from the sun. A range of charging tips are included for most devices. Solar Chargers are ideal for trips away, days out or down on the beach!

Using the Sun to charge your mobile phone and accessories may not be the biggest change you can make, but its certainly a step in the right direction. To help you save more energy, read our post on How to extend your Mobile Phone’s battery life.

As all HTC Diamond users will know the Original Diamond Battery is not the best in the world. Thankfully HTC have seen the problem and are releasing a Diamond Extended Battery (BP E270).

HTC Diamond Extended Battery

The battery is literally so packed with extra power it won’t fit the original housing, but HTC supply you with a new back cover with the battery. So finally you can speak longer and impress more people with the touch screen functionality in a single charge.

• Apple iPhone Cases (for the original iPhone)
• Apple iPhone 3G Cases
• Apple iPhone 3G S Cases

I’m sure most iPhone 3G users will agree that the battery life on the iPhone 3G is pretty poor at best. I can just about manage a whole days usage if I turn off 3G, which defeats the whole purpose of having the phone.

To combat this power problem, we have just released a range of Solar Powered cases for the new iPhone 3G. As well as protecting your iPhone 3G from everyday knocks and scrapes these energy saving cases can charge your iPhone. Each case has its own in built 1500 mAh battery, can provide one full charge for your iPhone and will recharge itself through the solar panel mounted to the front of the case, or via Mini USB if you’re in a badly lit area.

The iPhone 3G Solar Cases are available in Black and White and are due into stock mid August 2008.

Classic Nokia Charger

Classic Nokia Charger
This is the original Nokia Charger connector, the one that everyone will have lying around at home. No longer used on any of their current handsets, this is a 3.5mm connection used on handsets from the original Nokia 5110, right through to the Nokia 6230i.

2mm Nokia Charger

2mm Nokia Charger
This is the current Nokia Charger, used on most of their handsets. With phones getting smaller in size, Nokia reduced the size of the charging pin down to 2mm. If you have the classic Nokia mains or car charger, you can use the Nokia CA-44 Charging Adapter to reduce the size of the charging tip from 3.5mm to 2mm.

Micro USB Nokia Charger

Micro USB Nokia Charger
Starting to appear on the higher end Nokia phones, the Micro USB Charger uses the same port as some handsfree kits and data cables (not at the same time!) These ports provide a faster transfer rate, which is why they can normally be found on the latest Multimedia handsets

.

Alternative Chargers

Charge Anywhere
Historically you could only ever get chargers to use at home or in the car. Now you can charge your phone just about anywhere. You can now use a USB Charging Cable connected to a spare port on your PC or Laptop, an Emergency Charger that uses a standard AA Battery, a wind-up charger or even Solar power.

Elan Intelli-Mutes

Elan Intelli-Mutes: What are they and why do I need one?

The Intelli-Mute from Elan is designed to install your Car Kit quickly and hassle free. Instead of hardwiring your Car Kit into the vehicle’s power supply, the Intelli-Mute allows your Car Kit to be powered using your car stereo. All call audio is routed through the car stereo speakers, taking away the need to install a separate speaker in the passenger foot well, which can often lead to muffled or distorted sounds – especially at higher speeds. The volume of the call can be adjusted through your stereo controls or steering wheel audio controls (if fitted to your vehicle).

Intelli-Mute wiring Diagram

The Intelli-Mute is a three way lead, one end connects to your existing vehicle wiring, one to the Intelli-Mute control box and the third connects to the back of your car stereo. You will need to make sure that the Intelli-Mute that you order is the correct one for your stereo. If you are not sure what connection type your stereo has, please contact your local car dealership or stereo manufacturer. To complete the installation, you will also need an Accessory Harness specific to your Car Kit.

Elan Accessory Harness

Elan Accessory Harness: What are they and why do I need one?

The Accessory Harness is the lead that connects your Intelli-Mute control box to your Car Kit. As each type of Car Kit is different, they have harnesses specific to each type and have to be ordered separately. They are really simple to fit, one end connects to the Intelli-Mute control box, and the other end to the power and speaker connections of your Car Kit. Depending on your vehicle and the amount of space in your dashboard, the Intelli-Mute and harness are designed to sit behind your car stereo. If there isn’t room, the cables are long enough for you to be able to feed from behind the dashboard where there is more space. All you will need to do then is position the microphone (and display screen if present) and feed the cables through to the Car Kit control box.

What else might I need?

Brodit produce a range of in car accessories to help make using your phone in the car easy and safe.

Brodit ProClips

ProClips are brackets that clip securely to your dashboard, giving you a firm, flat surface that you can screw your chosen phone holder on to. When it comes time to change your car or remove the kit, the bracket can be removed easily, leaving no damage to your dashboard.

Brodit Car Holders

Brodit also make two types of in car holder, Active and Passive. Active holders have a charger built in to them which plugs in to your cigarette lighter. Passive holders will hold your phone securely and allow you to use your own charger. Both holders are normally available with a fixed or tilt/swivel base.

Car Chargers

Using Bluetooth car kits and headsets can sometimes increase the drain on the battery, and as most modern Car Kits don’t have a physical connection to your phone, its always a good idea to have a car charger.

If you don’t want the hassle of installing the Car Kit and all extra accessories, Mobile Fun now offer a fitting service for your car kit. Standard Installation includes a fully trained engineer installing the kit at your home or work address. Premium Installation includes the home visit, but also includes an Intelli-mute and Brodit ProClip for your vehicle (Car kit dependant).

The KF600 is the latest handset from the Korean manufacturer and is trying to change the way that we use our phones with the introduction of its “InteractPad”.

The phone looks stylish, is a decent size and weight and feels well built. The one thing you notice immediately is the lack of keys on the front of the phone. The KF600 is a touch phone, but with a twist. Rather than having a large touch screen display that drains battery power, the screen has been split into two parts, the display and the InteractPad.

The InteractPad is a unique way of using your phone, from the standby screen you have 6 touch sensitive keys, and as you move through the different screens of the phone, these buttons move and adapt to suit the application you’re using. In some cases I found the InteractPad to be a bit awkward, but in other applications it works really well.

I tend to use my phone mainly for photo’s, music, email, internet and texting rather than making calls. The camera on the KF600 is a 3 megapixel and has an LED flash. Photo’s come out clear and pretty sharp, and if you print them out they will be of a decent quality at 6″ x 4″ size. The flash is ok for taking photo’s in low light close up, but if what you’re taking photo’s of is more than a metre away, it probably won’t be much use.

The KF600 works really well as an MP3 player. There’s a dedicated shortcut key on the side of the phone for quick access and I found it easy to transfer tracks to the phone using Bluetooth or the data cable and software that came with it. The music interface is probably the best use of the InteractPad, you have the usual play/pause, forward and rewind, as well as a track progress bar. Normally these just scroll along with no purpose, but with the interact pad you can simply drag the slider to get to the part of the track you want – great if you want to skip sections of podcasts.

Email and texting works well too. Predictive text meant writing messages is quick and easy, and setting up POP3 email was very straight forward. The only thing I found to be not so great here was the handwriting recognition. In theory it sounds great, but in reality, writing with the end of your finger just isn’t accurate enough, and for hardcore texters, you’ll be able to text using the keypad a lot faster.

Internet access on the KF600 is pretty standard, it runs off a GPRS connection, so a fairly slow connection, but if you just want to check the odd train time or find out what’s on at the cinema then it does the job with no problem at all.

Overall the KF600 is a good all round handset. It will take a little getting used to with the InteractPad, and for the first few days I can guarantee you’ll be touching the top half of the screen and wondering why nothing is happening, but give it a week and you’ll be flying through the menus, but once you’ve got used to the interact pad, you may struggle to go back to a conventional phone.