edit

Never run out of iPhone battery power again with this hand crank case

I remember one day, back when I was a kid, when my dad came home from a meeting with some parents of other kids who went to my school. He told me about this amazing new computer this one dad had. It was the fastest he'd ever seen, and the hard drive had 256 megs of storage space. 256 megs! This sounds absolutely silly right now, but back in 1993, I could barely fathom such a thing.

Technology has come a long way, hasn't it? Nowadays we've got phones in our pocket that hold thousands of times more than that paltry 256 megs. We can stream Netflix on our phones or do live video Facetime calls. But I guess the great question of the day is: with all of these improvements, and with all of the wonders our little devices can do on their own, why in the blue crap has someone not come up with a battery that can last a full day?

I know, I know. Plenty of phones can survive a day under minimal usage. But I'm talking about a battery that can stand up for the rest of us, the ones who use our phones a good portion of the day for work. I've got the iPhone 6 Plus, and it has a giant battery, and I'm at 36% right now. It's not even 6 p.m. And today wasn't even what I'd call a heavy usage day.

The most exciting technological breakthrough, for me at least, will be a battery that lasts days on end under heavy usage.

Until then, I'll keep using portable battery packs. I prefer Anker's line of products, but if you want to try something a little different, there's this: Ampware has a new battery case with a built-in hand crank and generator.

Yep, that's right. Just turn the crank on the back of this case for five minutes, and you'll get an hour of regular usage or up to five hours of standby time. You don't have to charge it; you just crank it when you need a little extra power. That means you'll never, ever run out of power. Your arm might get a little bit tired, though.

The Ampware case also protects your phone from those times when you drop it or throw it in anger, too.It's $80 and is available right now.

What do you think?