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Gadget City By Norman Spencer The PowerMonkey eXplorerer
Ever found yourself without an adaptor or plug in the wall from which to recharge, your mobile phone, iPOD or laptop? Or sitting on the train opposite someone who is using the one available wall socket? Or in a coffee shop near the table with the socket which is occupied by someone else? Ever heard of a power monkey?
Nor had I, until I went for a long weekend in Switzerland to stay at a friend’s house and ski. The power monkey is one of those gadgets you are likely to find in a duty free technology shop at the airport. It consists of a capacitor no bigger than a man’s thumb which can be charged either from the wall (with adaptors to suit wall sockets in every country of the world) or from a solar charger supplied with it. You plug the capacitor into whatever mobile device you need to charge up, and Bob’s your uncle.
The power monkey replaces the charger for your iPOD or mobile that you often forget to pack, and it gives you days of battery even when you are miles from a wall socket. I took mine up to the top of the mountain and watched the sunlight charge the capacitor using its phone-shaped solar panels which in turn charged my Blackberry.
Yesterday morning I had to pop into an electrical megastore store to get my wife’s laptop fixed. On my way she called me to say she had now lost her iPOD charger and to ask if I could get her a new one. Can you believe, they didn’t have any in store? Which is just as well really because on the way home I remembered we had a power monkey and that did the job. I generally avoid new gadgets, but the power monkey makes life simpler. At £69.99, its not cheap but if it gets you out of a tight spot up a mountain, or saves wasted journeys to electrical megastores looking for contraptions, its worth every penny.
4/5 Very Good Visit www.cotswoldoutdoor.com for more details
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