FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Best iPhone External Battery - Help me choose
Old Jul 11, 2010 | 7:38 pm
  #35  
Drek82
500k
40 Countries Visited
100 Nights
15 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Colorado
Programs: Hilton Gold , Hyatt Globalist, United Gold
Posts: 138
Originally Posted by potfish
I'm actively looking into this at the moment. Beware, many of the older designs which worked fine on the original iPhone and 3G won't charge an iPhone 3GS and I believe iPhone 4 is the same.

Not only does the charger need to put some resistors onto the USB data lines to signal to the iPhone that it can take a load of current, but also (I've read) the charger must be capable of supplying 1 Amp. Since USB specification is 500mA max this is a bit cheeky but Apple will just do what they like.

Some models to Google are as follows, but I haven't confirmed whether each of them will charge a 3GS.

MiLi Power Crystal
Kensington Battery Pack And Charger For iPhone And iPod
Veho VCC-A007-PBP Pebble 5000mAH Battery
Proporta USB Turbocharger 3400
Just Mobile PP-08 Gum Pro
Ted Baker (Proporta rebranded I think)
PINES Rechargeable Backup Battery Pack

I'm coming to the conclusion that they're all way too expensive for what they are and really I wanted something that would charge from AA batteries anyway. All the AA chargers I've found will NOT charge a 3GS, so I'm going to build my own. But if you find something else that'll save me the bother, please post here
I have and use the Just Mobile Gum Pro 4400mAh and it works great. I have a iphone 3gs and my wife has a iphone 3g and it charges both of them. It has ~3-3.5 full charges on it. The biggest reason I picked this one was mostly because I could use it to charge any USB device that I have ... so it has come in pretty handy for things like my bluetooth or kindle when I forgot to charge those before leaving for a trip.

Drek
Drek82 is offline