Extending Your Devices Battery Life

        

          One of the biggest problems with portable gadgets is that their battery life never seems to last as long as we had wanted.  Which then you have to continue to plug in and recharge which can take hours.  Or if your not near a plug-in outlet you will have to bear without your device for the time being.  I'm sure you as hate it as much as I do, and luckily there are some solutions to fixing your short battery life misfortune.  Such as buying a battery case.  Now and days, more and more cases are having a battery extenders built in.  Such as Seido's Innocase Surface, which is a case for the Blackberry Tour 9630.  There are also a few different battery cases with the iPhone as well.  The Power Slider Case for the iPhone 3g and 3gs which contains 120% of your iPhones battery.  Giving you a chance to fully recharge and then a little more.  There are also battery cases made by Mophie that allows for a full charge and more.

          Additionally, there are separate battery packs that provide more compatibility between different devices.  Along with the option to charge more than just one device, separate battery packs normally contain a larger battery than in a battery case.  And maybe for the same price as a case that can charge your device one full time, you can get a battery pack that is able to charge it twice or more.  The Satechi iCel 4400 mAh Battery Pack can charge your iPhone at least twice, and it is able to charge other cell phones and media players.  Another major battery pack company is imaxpower.  Their IMP500 can charge your iPhone four times, the IMP880 can charge it six times, and IMP19500 can charge it 20 times!  Not saying that anyone needs to have that big of a battery with them, but its a great option for long trips or hikes.  The packs aren't limited to iPhones either, other media players, cell phones and laptops are covered too.  Check them out for yourself and please leave any comments if you've had any experience with the packs.  Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed this.

Like Video Games, Movies, Books, Or Music CD's?

Then Swaptree.com is the place for you.  I found out about this site on Yahoo.com and thought it was a great idea.  In a way, it's like ebay or craigslist.  You post all of the games, books, cd's, and movies you are willing to trade.  You do this by typing in the UPC or ISBN code on the item (its the scanner number, on most things).  

After you put in the items you have, now is the FUN PART!  Finding all of the things you want, add as many things as you'd like.  After that, you just sit back and wait for swaptree to find someone who has an item you desire.  It took about a day for me to receive an email notification of a potential trade, but for some people trades could be found INSTANTLY.  What's really cool about it, is that it is not always a trade between two people, sometimes you will get three way trades.  So the person you are getting the item from is not the same person you ship the item to.  I like how it is smart enough to create trades like that.  Swaptree looks all around the U.S for people to barter with and so that just makes the chances of you getting what you want THAT MUCH GREATER.  

Shipping is very quick and easy because you can print out the shipping label at home (no special paper or ink needed).  So far i've done one trade and sent the game to Spokane, Wa and it cost $2.74 for the label.  Even though I had to go to the store to buy packaging for the game, I still found it rather easy to do.   It cost me only $2 (it was a bigger game case), normally packaging would've cost me a dollar.  So $3.74 to send the game seems pretty reasonable to me.  I'm in the process of another trade where I'm sending a game to Pennsylvania and the label cost me the same thing ($2.74).  

A little more information about the site is that it cost you a dollar a month (for label and tracking fees).  And of course you don't have to use their shipping labels, it's just a simple method that is provided.  Also you don't have to accept every swap that is offered to you, but one thing about rejecting too many trades is that swaptree will limit the amount of swap's it finds for you in the future.  So if you go on a vacation, you can just pause your account and you wont have to deal with any of that.  Click the link above to to visit the site and see it for yourself.

So far, I'm liking the site and it is very straightforward and I hope that you find it to be that way too.  Have questions/problems?  Write it in a comment and I'll try my best to answer it.

Update: Just received my first game.  It was really quick!  Was not expecting it today.  So just letting you know people on this site can be trusted.