the technology is genius. When you want to charge the power pack it's MicroUSB->Powerpack->USB->Computer. Then when you want to charge phone it's Powerpack->Usb->MicroUSB->Phone

I keep mine in my car in case I run out of battery while driving. I haven't needed it in an emergency situation, but it saved my butt in non emergency situations.

Not much in the way of reviews at Amazon - one good and one bad.

http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Essential-KP1000-Power-Pack/dp/B004GKLW4S

The price, however, is quite a bit cheaper than Amazon.

P-P-P-POWERBOOK

No joke, this exact item is in the clearance section at my local WalMart for $6.00. I know because it was the cheapest way to get that micro usb cable locally, and I seriously considered buying it.

Since my DVR has a front USB port I use it to charge my devices. Anyone know how the LED indicates a fully charged battery aka different colors?

Will this make my laptop battery last longer?

Since this is a 1000mah battery, will it only charge my 1850 mah cell battery a bit over half-way?

I think its time to make my first tech.woot purchase!!!

kind of siesta compared to the 2x1800 mAh that only cost $15. But once a deal is gone, it is gone.

pegwhipped wrote:Will this make my laptop battery last longer?

no. It wont. This will make your MicroUSB powered device last longer though!

baillard wrote:Since my DVR has a front USB port I use it to charge my devices. Anyone know how the LED indicates a fully charged battery aka different colors?

The Kodak Website Shows a Green Light While charging And The pictures look like 2 LEDs so I would say Green for charging, Red when running low.

DaveInSoCal wrote:Since this is a 1000mah battery, will it only charge my 1850 mah cell battery a bit over half-way?

Personal experience tells me no, you'd barely get 50%.

1000mAh isn't too much depending on what you're charging, but if you just need an extra couple of hours to get you through a day, it should work well enough. I ended up needing a 5000mAh external battery to keep my phone running through a 10 hour workday with a few decent length breaks, but the HTC Arrive has odd battery issues if you start actually using it.

If you plan to charge anything while its in your pocket, look at getting a right angle micro usb extender so you don't break the port on whatever you might be charging, they're on eBay for pretty cheap.

Is this anything like that Livestrong battery, but USB rechargable instead of wall rechargable? http://www.amazon.com/Livestrong-Portable-Battery-Wall-Charger/dp/B005O02GEE

If so, I'm totally in for 3 so I can put one in every purse and bag I own. That battery saves my sanity on a regular basis. Gives my phone just that little bit of juice to get me home at night.

mAh (milli-Ampere-hours) is the common unit to indicate how much charge a battery can hold. In theory it indicates the maximum constant electrical current that a fully charged battery can provide for one hour.

In this case, 1000 mAh means that you can pull one Amp for one hour straight before the battery dies.

So yes, if you tried to charge a 1850 mAh battery with a 1000 mAh battery, it'd be like trying to partially fill a 1.8 gallon container with a mere 1 gallon of water, spillage not included.

But you're going down the right path with that question: 1000 mAh is not exactly a lot. Newer devices that cost 5 times as much as this one right here can hold more than 5 times the charge that this one can.

Yet, at 7 USD this makes a really nice white elephant christmas gift for under 10 bucks. Or if you have a cigarette lighter in your car that turns only on with the ignition (i.e. you can't drain your battery with it unless you're driving) you could also hook it up to the car semi-permanently, keeping it replenished at all times so you have some juice in a box when your other gadgets need some. Won't keep YOU hydrated though ;-)

Does anyone know how much is the battery drain on this product (percentage left after one month)?
Usually the main problem with actually using these external (emergency) battery packs is, that they are dead or almost dead at the point when you'd need that extra juice. This is because of the low quality battery packs feature "battery drain", which means that the battery packs discharges itself even in a week or two. The best / better quality packs may still have 80% charge left after six months, but I'd say the most will drain totally in 3...6 weeks, and your emergency battery is dead when you need it once a year..

I want to know if you can charge something through this device while it is charging; sort of like a 5v UPS.

If you're looking to have an emergency "boost" for your digital camera, iPod, dumb phone etc. this is a great buy for you.

If you are contemplating this device as an emergency power source for your smartphone (as I'm sure many of you are), you are almost universally better off purchasing a second battery for your phone and keeping it charged for travel.

Unless of course you have an iPhone, but then if you're an iPhone owner you probably didn't bother reading anything not directly adjacent to the pretty pictures...

pshipley wrote:I want to know if you can charge something through this device while it is charging; sort of like a 5v UPS.

Even if it could act as a USB UPS you would have to remember that if the Kodak is fully discharged, the charging USB port would have to deliver considerable current just to charge the Kodak. The time to full charge is 3 hours, but the current draw is likely to start out high and decrease as the battery gets charged.

So I'm a little tech stupid. My camera battery is usually charged by removing it from the camera and putting it in a separate wall charger. I have lost the wall charger.

#1 - Can I still use this to charge my camera battery?

#2 - The battery says it is 1000 mah. So if I understand the discussion so far, I should be able to give it a mostly full charge off of this?

I've needed one of these on multiple occasions when my iPhone was drained and I was nowhere near an outlet. Could have used it last week while chilling out at the pool in South Beach and my battery quickly went dead on me

Since I have several camper family members I grabbed 3 - perfect for gifts.

I'm in for one. I had a woot coupon to use anyhow so $7.99 shipped is worth it. I primarily use my Energizer Xpal to keep my phone charged when I'm camping. For those extended trips it doesn't quite do the job so I'll keep this loaded up as my emergency spare! If it doesn't work for what I need I'll just give it away as a white elephant gift.

I have an energizer battery pack and I love it. It is a little more powerful than this but also it requires a wall outlet recharge. This is perfect for my husband and stepdaughter who both frequently run down their batteries on their phones. In for three!

I don't have one because it doesn't come in teal.

These (and similar products) are fun. I have a similar product, and it's not just for keeping my phone alive while traveling; it can power anything USB-powered/charging device.

E.g., I also have a Logitech Z305 speaker bar, and it powers that just fine so I have (small-medium size) room-filling sound wherever I go.

Does this charge anything that charges through usb?

jackmcdowell wrote:P-P-P-POWERBOOK

Totally off topic, but I researched about this meme and wow... the most epic story ever told.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/index.html

mammalas wrote:Does this charge anything that charges through usb?

Short answer: It will probably charge most devices that can be charged via USB.

Long answer: If you already have a few generic USB chargers, such as a "car to USB" adapter, and if your device can be charged using all of those, then yes, the Kodak USB Power Pack can - with extremely high probability - power your devices as well. But if you only have devices of the same manufacturer, and all chargers and adapters you use have something that says they have been made specifically for your device, then the answer gets downgraded to a "maybe".

Explanation: USB is pretty straightforward with its four pins: Two for power (+5V, -5V) and two for data (Data+, Data-).

So any device that needs 5V (without too many amps) could in theory be powered through USB. It would simply tap the two power pins and be done with it. Most devices fall into that category.

But then there's manufacturers who require that the data lines be connected even if all you wanna do is draw power. That's a completely arbitrary requirement.

If you're into conspiracy theories, you could theorize that some manufacturers put mechanisms in place to prevent users from using a certain standard (such as USB) for a technically compatible purpose (such is powering a device) by imposing arbitrary checks in an attempt to force their users to buy that manufacturers "special" charger at a higher price. Some refer to this as "broken by design". There's a Gizmodo posting that describes such an example.

Maybe this power pack has those data pins connected the way some devices expect them to be. But looking at all of the devices that are "broken by design" - are they all "broken" the same way?

voltylicious wrote:Short answer: It will probably charge most devices that can be charged via USB.

Long answer: If you already have a few generic USB chargers, such as a "car to USB" adapter, and if your device can be charged using all of those, then yes, the Kodak USB Power Pack can - with extremely high probability - power your devices as well. But if you only have devices of the same manufacturer, and all chargers and adapters you use have something that says they have been made specifically for your device, then the answer gets downgraded to a "maybe".

Explanation: USB is pretty straightforward with its four pins: Two for power (+5V, -5V) and two for data (Data+, Data-).

So any device that needs 5V (without too many amps) could in theory be powered through USB. It would simply tap the two power pins and be done with it. Most devices fall into that category.

But then there's manufacturers who require that the data lines be connected even if all you wanna do is draw power. That's a completely arbitrary requirement.

If you're into conspiracy theories, you could theorize that some manufacturers put mechanisms in place to prevent users from using a certain standard (such as USB) for a technically compatible purpose (such is powering a device) by imposing arbitrary checks in an attempt to force their users to buy that manufacturers "special" charger at a higher price. Some refer to this as "broken by design". There's a Gizmodo posting that describes such an example.

Maybe this power pack has those data pins connected the way some devices expect them to be. But looking at all of the devices that are "broken by design" - are they all "broken" the same way?

I thought the same when I tried connecting my nano 3g (the square one) to all my old USB chargers and found that it didn't work. However, the pending USB spec actually had a new spec for chargers (which you describe above as "broken by design"). The change was supposed to allow a device to immediately tell if it's plugged into a port, a hub, or a charger. Anyway, I had a Motorola phone that seemed to follow no known spec so your point is spot on in many cases.

pegwhipped wrote:Will this make my laptop battery last longer?

Less than half the capacity of 1 AA battery?

barok wrote:Less than half the capacity of 1 AA battery?

No, a NiMH AA battery is 1.2 volts. USB ports are 5.0 volts. So 1000 mAh at 5.0 volts is 5.0 watt hours. A 2300 mAh 1.2 volt battery is "only" 2.8 watt hours. So this has less capacity than two AA batteries.

hamjudo wrote:No, a NiMH AA battery is 1.2 volts. USB ports are 5.0 volts. So 1000 mAh at 5.0 volts is 5.0 watt hours. A 2300 mAh 1.2 volt battery is "only" 2.8 watt hours. So this has less capacity than two AA batteries.

hamjudo, you have your units wrong. P (Watts) = V (Volts) x I (Amps). The battery capacity is 1000mAh (not amps or milliamps).

Loeb wrote:hamjudo, you have your units wrong. P (Watts) = V (Volts) x I (Amps). The battery capacity is 1000mAh (not amps or milliamps).

mAh is milliamp hours. Capacity can be measured in watt hours. Watt hours = V (Volts) x Amp hours. This is a unit of energy, so it can be converted into any other unit of energy, although it will massively confuse people to state the capacity of a battery pack in electron volts, or food calories.

Not much power you get what you pay for

Update: Received mine yesterday, charged it up (Green LED indicates charging, no LED indicates charge complete). I was able to charge my Galaxy S3 from 50% to 100% no problem. I'd say it works as advertised, my only con is that it makes a really high pitched squeel when it is charging my S3, I'm concerned about that. It doesn't make noise when I'm charging any other device.

eraten wrote:Update: Received mine yesterday, charged it up (Green LED indicates charging, no LED indicates charge complete). I was able to charge my Galaxy S3 from 50% to 100% no problem. I'd say it works as advertised, my only con is that it makes a really high pitched squeel when it is charging my S3, I'm concerned about that. It doesn't make noise when I'm charging any other device.

Same thing is happening with my SGS2 Epic 4G (Sprint). Don't know what's wrong. I'm going to call Kodak and see if it's faulty.

Am I missing something on charging these things? I have 2. I charged both for about 4 hours last night (hooked to a laptop), but the green light never went off. I hooked both up to my HTC EVO 4G LTE, but only got about 5 minutes of charging from each. I plugged one into charge via AC today and charged the other via desktop USB. Each charged for at least 6 hours, but again, the green light never went off. I got one to charge an iPod for about 10 minutes and nothing from the other. Any thoughts?

eraten wrote: I was able to charge my Galaxy S3 from 50% to 100% no problem. I'd say it works as advertised, my only con is that it makes a really high pitched squeel when it is charging my S3, I'm concerned about that. It doesn't make noise when I'm charging any other device.

I plugged mine into my S3 and you're right. Do you think that could damage either the phone or the charger?

ladysoleil wrote:I plugged mine into my S3 and you're right. Do you think that could damage either the phone or the charger?

Same thing while charging my HTC One S, as well as charging a Zune player - high pitched squeals from all three of the USB power packs. Appears to happen from anything that goes to active mode on USB. (Smartphones, some MP3 players, some cameras.)

We makin' bombs here, Woot? Or is this normal for these devices?

EDIT: Two days of use, all three batteries had seen some time charging a smartphone or in other capacities. High pitch hum is universal among all three devices, the sound grows louder depending on the draw of the unit. Tested on Samsung Galaxy II (Tmobile) - charged from 0 percent to 39%. On a G2, charged from 12 percent to 42 percent. And on a HTC One S, charged from 40% to 76%.

All in all, great little devices, perfect for an emergency (IF you keep it charged..)