Ever since I started traveling again for work, one piece of kit I’ve always carried with me is an iPod battery backup. My weapon of choice has been the Tekkeon MyPower. This was a nice battery that I like because it fit on the bottom and back of the iPod and made it easy to continue to handle the iPod. It also lets you have tons of extra power and it charges via Firewire or USB when plugged into your Mac. It also will charge the iPod while charging itself and you can even sync your iPod so its a portable dock. This battery backup lasted me for almost 4 years now and several iPods and my iPhone.

As I noted before my biggest complaint with my iPhone 3G is the fact that Apple changed the way the iPhone 3G charges the unit. Originally the iPod was both charged and synced over Firewire. Over the years Apple slowly depricated the syncing via Firewire in favor of syncing over USB, they also began to allow charging over USB and finally with the iPhone 3G, they stopped allowing charging via Firewire. This rendered my in car iPod connector, my iHome and the MyPower unable to charge my iPhone. An iPhone that I seem to use a lot more, which has yielded me a much smaller window between rechargings so I was desperate to find a battery backup.

I did find one and one I liked. I was searching the internet and found a list of recommended battery backups including the Kennsington one, but they also listed the Richard Solo Battery Backup. I liked the product, I liked the price and the form factor. They would not claim how long the battery would last using the Richard Solo because the goal of the product is to give you a full recharge of your iPhone/iPod from the battery. This is brilliant and takes only one hour to take your iPhone from 20% Battery (the first warning) to full.

My hubby was nice enough to get me a Richard Solo for my birthday and I was stoked. I followed the instructions and charged the unit up over night. The next morning I noticed the “100%” LED never lit up. I checked the manual and they suggested charging for 48 hours before using it. I did that and again no “100%” LED so I wondered if I had a defective unit. I emailed their customer support email on a Sunday morning at about 9am EST and by 12pm EST I received an email back from someone claiming to be the president of the company himself apologizing and telling me to that they would send me a new unit on Monday morning and that there was no need for me to return my unit just to put it in for recycling. The email copied another person who within two more hours had contacted me for my address and true to their word a few days later there was a replacement and it works perfectly. I am head over heels with this product. When I get on a plane, I use my iPhone and watch the battery drain without worry. About an hour before the flight is over, I plug in my Richard Solo and when I land… fully charged iPhone. Brilliant.