The OC Technophile

The battle of external batteries and iPhone sleeves has picked up from one to many different versions. Brands such as Mophie, Case Mate, and others have developed iPhone cases that hold your phone and charge it at the same time. Now it looks like Richardsolo.com has the Mili Power Skin now available on their site at $69.95. We’ve had the chance to review several products from Richardsolo over time and their thinnest iPhone charger to date looks very promising. If you’re looking for a new iPhone charger/cover, check it out. If they pass along a review unit, we’ll be sure to get a review up soon.

Into the OC Technophile’s offices this week is an arrival from Thinkflood called the Redeye Universal Remote control. It’s the all in one remote for all of your technical and home theatre gadgets via your iPhone or iPod Touch. We’ll have a review up this week, but here’s a picture to get you ready…

The tech news is a buzz with Apple’s announcement on January 27th, for an alleged tablet. Listening and reading news regarding the upcoming product release is almost too much as experts try to figure out what it should be and what it shouldn’t be. A 10″ LCD is rumored to be the size with perhaps a new iPhone 4.0 SDK that will be announced that same day. Will a new iPhone also be announced with an OLED screen and a 64GB storage capacity? It’ll be an interesting next 10 days until Apple lights up the technology blogs and sites with it’s new product. What are your opinions on it?

Late last night, Rock Band for the iPhone and iPod touch was released on the iTunes music store. It costs $9.99 and contains 20 songs for your enjoyment. Are you playing it yet? Let us know what you think about it.

We are looking to review new iPhone apps. If you have any promotional codes for your apps and are looking for free publicity, please let us know and we’ll contact you asap. Please contact us at admin@octechnophile.com and we’ll get a review up within 48 hours. It’ll be updated on our site and twitter feed as well. Thanks

Recently we got the ability to review the external battery backup for the iPhone produced by Richardsolo.com and we thought it was a great product. In the past few weeks we received the RichardSolo 1800 for the iPhone and when you thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. If you remember our previous review, the Richardsolo battery allows you to carry an external battery for your iPhone or iPod Touch and not have to worry about 3G speeds slowing your phone’s life down.

The new RichardSolo 1800 provides 50% more power than the original battery and features a unique latching mechanism that holds the iPhone and battery in place. The latching allows for a secure connection between the battery and device and avoids any snapping of connectors of either connection. To charge the battery you can either use the AC Adater or a newly developed dual-port USB car charger that comes with the package. During your sleep you can charge both your iPhone and external battery together and throw both in your case for travels.

What truly sets this battery option apart from other external batteries are a white LED flashlight and a built in laser pointer. Yes, you read that correct, it features two buttons on the battery that house a laser pointer and a LED flashlight that you can use to get to your car or door in the dark. C’mon, you don’t see other manufacturers adding this do you?

In our tests we loved this external battery option and now with a longer life on it, gives you no reason to complain about the iPhone’s 3G battery woes. You can have all day battery support for your device and now have two ways to charge it during the day. This should be an essential item for your iPhone 3G and gives you a great holiday gift for the iPhone 3G fan.

The RichardSolo 1800 for the iPhone is $69.95 and is available at RIchardsolo.com. It gets a 9/10 in our review and makes a top product even better than before. Kudos to the design team at RichardSolo for making an essential product this easy to use.

Late Monday night Google released the Google Earth application for the iPhone and wow, what an impressive application. It offers almost all the features of the desktop application and displays stunning graphics and realism. It certainly is one of the prettiest looking applications for the iPhone out today. Unfortunately it appears as the iTouch isn’t supported at this time. If you’ve picked up the Android phones (T-Mobile G1), it is already preloaded on it. Try it out and let us know.

One of the major shortcomings of the iPhone and especially the 3G version of the phone, was a shorter than expected battery life. When using the iPhone on a 3G network, its very common to run down on your battery by the end of the day and wish for a extended battery or juice. Other than car adapters, there isn’t a perfect battery solution for the iPhone 3G until now.

We received the Richard Solo Backup Battery for the iPhone and iPod’s a couple weeks ago. If you haven’t heard of RichardSolo before, it’s the company started by Richard Thalheimer, who started The Sharper Image, one of the most popular gadget and technology stores in recent times. Richard Thalheimer left there and started RichardSolo.com and this product is the star of the show..

It’s pretty simple, just unpack the battery from the packaging and plug in the battery. It can be charged either via AC or USB power and takes a short amount of time to charge. Once fully charged, it plugs directly into the iPhone or iPod and enables backup power for your device. No funny wires, contraptions, or cables required.

We tested the RichardSolo backup battery recently on a two day roadtrip and but the middle of the first day were at 40-50% power. We plugged in the battery and immediately was recharging the main battery and within a short period charged the phone to almost full power. Once done, we unplugged the small battery and put it back in our case. At the hotel, we charged both units up, and repeated it on day two.

It’s that simple and easy to use. It’s incredibly small and features a great ease of use. You don’t have to be a technology wizard to operate it, and with easy to follow initial directions, should be a required accessory with the purchase of the 3G.

With a device that zaps power as quickly as the iPhone and iPod, it’s a great feature for road travellers and road warriors. The ability to power your device with such simplicity is a solid plus for any piece of technology and thats what this does. Imagine being on a plane while watching a movie on your iPhone or iPod and running out of power 50% of the way through. Just plug in the Richardsolo backup battery and you’re back in action..

Kudos to Richardsolo and the design team for putting together a top notch product and one of the best battery solutions on the market.