On-The-Go Charging

You’re about to embark on an afternoon of errands. All your items were neatly typed in to your Palm the night before, and you’re ready for a productive day. You pull up the the first store, turn on your PDA…and nothing happens. Somehow, the battery discharged itself.

This seems to happen to me every time I go out of town. My first line of defense is to have a backup program. The second is to have an on-the-go charger.

USB Charging

The first charger I picked up was a USB charger. This plugs into any USB port and charges. Most of these also allow synching. The one I selected is retractable because I hate dealing with messy cables while I am on the go.

Wall

The wall charger I selected takes a USB charger and plugs into a wall. A good example of the retractable charger coupled with the wall plug is the Retractable Sync and Charge Cable - Travel Charger Bundle (aff). The advantage of this type of charger is I can use it when I don’t have my computer with me. My husband and I also share the wall hookup while we are traveling.

Car

As I discovered on one long trip where my PDA died at the three-hour mark, it is nice to have a car adapter to charge my PDA as well. This plugs into the DC power source (formerly known as the cigarette lighter) and charges. Some car chargers will accept the USB cable, like this one: Retractable Sync and Charge Cable - Car Charger Bundle

Battery

When I bought my refurbished Zire 72 (my second 72), I received with it a battery charger. Since I live in a hurricane-prone area, this was a nice touch. Similar to the Emergency AA Battery Extender w/ Tip Exchange for the PalmOne Zire 72 - Gomadic Brand, it takes one AA battery and charges the PDA.

I hope that you consider alternate power sources, even if you never have yet experienced a dead battery. It is better to be prepared!

Photo by functoruser