Hasta La Gadget!

Are you a globetrotter with a penchant for vivid colors? Mili’s got your back with its compact and surprisingly practical Universal Charger. Capable of plugging into US, UK, EU or Australian-style sockets, this unit covers quite a bit of ground and can power a pair of devices at once via USB. Technically then, you’re unloading the chargers from your bag and refilling it with USB adapters, but a lot of UK road warriors would carry live rattlesnakes around if it meant freedom from those humongous plugs. There are nine color options — some of them are even socially acceptable — for the discerning customer with £20 ($33) in his pocket, and pre-orders are being taken now for August 14 delivery.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

MiLi Universal Charger for the psychedelic world traveller originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got a Scosche reviveLITE on offer, perfect for keeping your iPhone charged and the Boogie Monster at bay. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Big thanks to Scosche for providing the gear!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Scosche reviveLITE. Approximate retail value is $39.99.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Thursday, July 16th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

Engadget’s recession antidote: win a Scosche reviveLITE! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of our favorite intellectual property rips of recent months is without a doubt the SciPhone Dream G2 from China. Having completely missed the point of Google’s open-source OS being, well, open-source and thus free for SciPhone’s use, the company instead chose to hack the G2’s “proprietory” OS to look like Android. The charger, however, built to look like the iconic Android mascot is pretty damn cute; enough so that the idea of paying $150 just to get our hands on the 100-240V USB charger has crossed our minds. See the Android’s naughty bits after the break.

[Thanks, Steven]

Continue reading SciPhone Dream G2 Android charger is best ever

Filed under: Cellphones

SciPhone Dream G2 Android charger is best ever originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While the free-market works pretty well when, uh, left alone to be free, sometimes it needs a push from a visible hand. Case in point, phone chargers; at the moment some 30 different types of chargers are used with handsets throughout Europe. Today, the European Commission received industry backing of its phone charger standard that relies on a micro-USB socket. The standard is now backed by all the majors (representing 90% of the European mobile market) including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments with compatible devices starting to appear in Europe next year. Or course, the micro-USB charger standard already has the blessings of CTIA, OMTP, and GSM Association which implies a broader adoption beyond Europe, someday. One charger for any mobile phone… where’s the catch?

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia, Apple, RIM and others agree on micro-USB phone charger standard for Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s something really satisfying about a good multi-purpose device. It’s like buying one gadget and getting two free. Dexim has just introduced the DWP005 MHub Dock Station, which is a perfect desktop accessory.

For starters, the MHub can charge your iPhone or iPod while holding them upright so you can see the screen. It also includes a media card reader that can accept HCSD, SD, and MMC cards. Finally, it gives you three additional USB ports. I can never have enough USB ports.

iPhones and iPods charge through the dock, while BlackBerries and other phones can charge through the included miniUSB or microUSB cables. The MHub is available from RichardSolo.com for $69.95 and will be in Brookstone stores later this year.