One cute little device from Computex was Antec’s Lifecard, a tiny 2000mAh cell phone battery. Actually there were two of them but only one is a prototype the product gets the headlines.
The idea is simple, fashion has dictated ever slimmer phones that have no interior volume for the battery they need to power them. Add in weight constraints and things get even tougher, it is rare for a modern phone to last for a full day of active use. This has led to people bragging about how thin and light their phones are while carrying a large brick everywhere they go to keep it powered on. I don’t think we need to point out the idiocy of this tradeoff but cell phone makers won’t change things because, well because fashion. Where’s my flamethrower…
Antec Lifecard on right, prototype Lifecard on the left
That is where Antec comes in with their Lifecard, a 2000mAh battery that is a dead ringer for a stack of business cards. While I don’t have actual specs on the Lifecard, it seems to be far less than half a cm thick and almost dead on business card sized for the rest. You could easily stick one in your wallet and forget about it. They are said to be on sale now for about $25 MSRP.
The only problem with it is that there is no cable on the Lifecard, something that makes keeping it in your wallet kind of tricky if you intend to actually use it. That is where the prototype part on the left comes in, slightly larger in every dimension but carrying a micro-USB cable in the package. It is a tough call between wallet capable but no cable and not walletable but with a cable. I would go for the one with the cable in the end. Lets hope Antec makes this one, it is a no-brainer to have one in your travel bag.
If you think the Lifecard is just a slim little battery, you are right but it does have one very slick little touch. It is thin enough to not really have useful buttons so Antec did a bit of outside the box thinking there, if you shake a Lifecard, it will trigger the battery level meter LEDs. Cute and useful but not world-changing technology.S|A
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Charlie Demerjian
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