As smartphones get more powerful and mobile internet connections get faster, battery life seems to be getting worse and worse. While there are a truckload of technologies in the works to make things better in the coming months and years, the only real option for mobile junkies to stay juiced up is to carry an external battery pack.
Thing is, every damn time we go to use our external battery packs, we run into one of two problems: we forgot to charge it, or we forgot the cable required to hook it up to our handset. The XP1 cable from XMultiple solves both of these problems with one absurdly obvious solution: the cable is the battery. They’ve got models for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and any phone that can be charged over Mini USB.
The XP1 serves as both a data cable and an external battery. Whenever you’ve got your handset plugged into your computer, the 2500mAh battery in the cable is charging up. If you use it as your primary data cable, you’re pretty much ensured to have at least a bit of backup juice next time your battery icon starts flashing.
While the suggest retail price of $49.99 seems pretty steep for a cable, it’s pretty reasonable when you consider that equivalent (but not nearly as clever) battery packs hover anywhere from $30 to $60. Unfortunately, we’re having a hell of a time finding anywhere that sells these in the US – drop us a comment if you find one.