While I've talked about back-up power before, sometimes you need a quicker or more portable solution for your technology, a lot of which can now be charged via a USB port. First of all, make sure you pick up a USB adapter for your vehicle's cigarette light, which can usually be found for less the ten bucks.
Another solution, which is quite inexpensive, is a battery-powered back-up USB power source. We picked up several of these Rayovac 7-Hour USB AA-Battery Powered Chargers for less then ten-bucks each a whole back and they come with a set of four AA-batteries. I've tried one of ours and it actually lasted for almost nine hours of continuous use on a discharged cell phone, which it did bring to a full charge.
I also purchased one for my daughter who is away at college and has already experienced an eighteen-hour power outage. Keeping those iPhones, iPads, iPods, and iWhatevers charged is critical in an emergency, so for anything short of the zombie apocalypse... pick up some... Back-up USB power for your technology.
Ran across one at Cabelas awhile back, ran off of solar power. Nice and handy, as long as you're not stuck in the middle of a hurricane or in the middle of a nuclear winter. I think the more expensive version also had a hand-crank, which I found to be imminently useful. I've also seen a few of those portable weather radios with solar and hand-cranked power; the manufacturers like to Swiss-Army the things, they now have flashlights and battery chargers and USB ports built in to them. I can't see using more than one or two functions at a time without really stressing out the charging capabilities, but I can also see the usefulness of such a contraption. Just need to convince myself that the $50-$150 is worth it.
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