Power Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

TUAW's Daily Mac App: UnPlugged

by Samuel Gibbs (Jul 4th, 2011)

The Magsafe is a fantastic innovation, but it has made it slightly easier to disconnect your Mac from the AC outlet by accident without realising it. UnPlugged is a little free utility that notifies you via Growl when the power cord is disconnected. Now it's true that if you're running a ...

Aluratek Mini Surge Dual USB Charging Station: Pocket-sized power package

by Steven Sande (Jun 21st, 2011)

One of my major gripes while traveling is the lack of available wall sockets in hotels, as I often have two or three devices while my wife brings her iPhone and iPad. To help keep us from fighting over where to plug in our gadgets, Aluratek is now shipping the Mini Surge Dual USB Charging ...

Third Rail zaps iPhone case market with detachable battery pack

by Michael Rose (May 11th, 2011)

For every gadget that claims to charge an iPhone on the go, there's sure to be a constituency that swears by it (or quite possibly at it). With external battery packs from HyperMac, Zagg, Kensington, Newer and Monoprice, you can dangle a cable; with battery-equipped cases from Exogear, Boost ...

GoDAP amplifies your mobile audio and provides optical output for iPhone 4

by Mike Schramm (Jan 7th, 2011)

Most of the gadgets we're seeing here at CES 2011 this year aren't too big a surprise -- we set up meetings even before we walked into the convention center, and the surprise is in seeing the new gadgets we've only read about before. But the GoDAP was a surprise, found just by walking around the ...

Delta Airlines to install gate-area charging stations in 19 U.S. airports

by Sam Abuelsamid (Dec 11th, 2010)

Delta Airlines is helping to make life a bit easier for travelers that hope to top off their batteries before getting onto a plane. Until now, fliers often had to scour the corners of gate areas to find an available outlet to scrounge some spare electrons. Last week, the world's largest airline ...

Patents aplenty: iPhone radio, fiber optic MagSafe, 3D without glasses

by Mike Schramm (Dec 3rd, 2010)

Apple's patent team must be cramming before the end of the year, because this past week we've seen a flood of patent applications come out of Cupertino. First up, Apple has patented a radio system in the iPhone (finally!), allowing you to listen to standard FM and AM broadcasts on the smartphone. ...

HyperMac forced to stop selling MagSafe charging cables

by Dave Caolo (Oct 18th, 2010)

A lawsuit from Apple has forced HyperMac to stop selling MagSafe-compatible charging cables as of November 2nd, 2010. HyperMac has produced a number of small, portable batteries that can provide power to a variety of Apple portable devices. When connected to a MacBook Pro with their MagSafe-like ...

Apple considering MagSafe charger on iPad

by Matt Tinsley (Oct 11th, 2010)

Here's something to get your mind wondering this Monday afternoon. Patently Apple is reporting that Apple may be considering integrating the MagSafe Power Port to its portable products, like the iPad. The continuation patent, published on October 7th 2010 by the US Patent and Trademark Office, ...

Apple's new battery charger is deceptively cool

by Dave Caolo (Jul 27th, 2010)

Rounding out the list of hardware updates from Apple this morning is a battery charger. Before you dismiss it (as I initially did) as just a battery charger, consider the following. First, Apple is pushing its green aspects. For example, the charger is smart enough to pull less power once the ...

hacksugar: Wireless iTunes syncing makes it to jailbroken iPhones

by Erica Sadun (May 14th, 2010)

Cables, schmables. Why occupy valuable USB slots when you can make iTunes data fly magically over virtual intertubes to and from your home computer? New to the jailbreak world, Wi-Fi Sync introduces over-the-air sync to iPhone devices. The application works like this: you install a client ...

AutoSmiley uses the iSight to turn your face into an emoticon

by Mike Schramm (Mar 25th, 2010)

This one's a little silly but I still really like it -- AutoSmiley is a public domain app that runs in the background while you work, quietly monitoring your iSight's camera input. Whenever it detects a smiling face on the camera (so any time you smile while working), it will send a ":)" emoticon ...

Charge your iPhone, or any two USB devices with ZAGGsparq

by David Winograd (Feb 5th, 2010)

In the never ending saga of finding the best battery backup for your iPhone or iPod touch, Zagg has taken a different approach in releasing the ZAGGsparq [US $99.95]. Instead of a dongle or a snap in case, The ZAGGsparq is a big honking block, around the size of an Airport Express that contains the ...

How to get the most out of in-flight Wi-Fi

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Nov 25th, 2009)

Over the weekend, I discovered that my annual flight from Phoenix to Alabama (via Atlanta) had in-flight Wi-Fi. Best of all? It happened to be free, thanks to eBay jumping in on the free holiday Wi-Fi bandwagon. The promotion was already active on the flight I took from Phoenix to Atlanta. If you're ...

The other new products that Apple released today

by Joachim Bean (Oct 20th, 2009)

Surprisingly, the Mac mini, Magic Mouse, iMac, MacBook, AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule updates are not the only things Apple updated today. Several other products were updated today, which include: Apple Wireless Keyboard: This keyboard, the subject of several update rumors, did get revised ...

Worldwide Mac: the dos and don'ts of international electricity

by Chris Rawson (Jul 20th, 2009)

Whether you're moving to another country or just visiting, chances are pretty good you're going to be bringing a lot of electronics with you. Chances are also pretty good that whatever country you're going to is going to have an electrical system with a different voltage or frequency than your home ...