It’s happened to all of us before.  You need to make a call but you’ve run out of battery life! Well, just give your cellphone a shake for an extra burst of power – that’s the idea behind a new cellphone charger that turns your movement into power.

Shashank Priya and his colleagues at Virginia Tech are designing an emergency onboard charger that gets its power from what is called, piezoelectric force, which is generated by your fingertips clicking the keypad, your voice – or by giving your phone a quick shake.

Granted, this new technology is still in the developmental stages, but if it was possible, it could be a game changer for those that use their phone until the last drop.  Do you use your phone all the time?  If so, when was a time you needed your phone, but ran out of battery life?

CNET is reporting that Microsoft in planning on creating Office apps that will run natively on iOS and Android will finally launch early next year.  In a statement to CNET , Microsoft said that “Office Mobile will work across Windows Phones, Android phones and iOS, and we have nothing additional to announce today about retail availability of the new Office.”

This is an interesting development in the world of smartphones as Microsoft attempts to reach across the aisle with their competition.  Having already created a line of “Windows Phones“, Microsoft is looking to expand to other operating systems.   Would you use Microsoft Office on your Android or iPhone?

For many students and professionals, spring break is just around the corner.  At Abt Electronics, we have just what you are looking for to make lying on the beach or poolside, even more relaxing.  Check out our full line of great Spring Break essentials!

2011 brought us the rise and fall of numerous gadgets.  HP’s tablet fell into oblivion.  Apple, of course, made big headlines with the release of the iPad 2 and a combination of sighs and grunts from consumers when it released the iPhone 4s.

Personally, I made the upgrade from a two year old Android phone to an iPhone 4s so for me, that is the best gadget I have run into in 2011.  Extremely fast, with an excellent camera and sleek design, I am thankful Sprint made the move so I can finally enjoy a super powered smartphone.  When it comes to the best gadgets, what are your thoughts?

The presents are opened, all the sweets have been eaten and everyone is ready to add to their new gifts, or return the ones they got.  At Abt, we are here for all your accessory needs.  If you found yourself opening a new fancy gadget, chances are you will want to keep is safe and efficient.  Find hundreds of add-ons to your new tablets, MP3 players, TVs or more!  Get chargers, cases, screen protectors, headphones, docks and more!  Visit our accessories page and start shopping.

Engineers at Northwestern University are creating batteries that last longer and charge faster, a potential solution to battery drain on mobile devices.  Using the innovation, a typical smartphone is expected to charge fully in 15 minutes and last for at least a week on a single charge.

As consumers use smartphones and tablets for more data-intensive purposes like watching movies, playing games and surfing the web, battery life has become a big concern. Apple just completed software updates on its iPhone 4S to fix battery drain problems, and researchers are always on the lookout for ways to make batteries last longer or charge more efficiently.  Hopefully, battery life will become stronger and quicker to charge as technology grows making it all the more convenient to operate portable electronics.

Well, today’s the day.  Apple users feel like it’s Christmas morning  as they look outside to see the arrival of the postman or many wait outside cell phone retail stores hoping to get their hands on one: the iPhone 4s!  Did you get yours today?  What are your thoughts?  If you haven’t yet, do you plan on getting one?  Let us know!

One of the most talked about tech stories this year is, “what will the iPhone 5 look like?”  With that, comes a vast array of rumors, false reports on tech specs and stories of hopeful ideas.  Some are true, some are close, others are completely wrong.  One of the more interesting stories that seems to be true is that the iPhone 5 is coming to Sprint.

From the beginning, the iPhone was available through AT&T only.  Then, just last year, Verizon announced the good news and had a nice bump in their subscribers who were eager to enjoy Verizon services with an iPhone.  With the release of the iPhone 5, Sprint looks to be next in line. According to The Wall Street Journal, “ Citing the ever-popular “people familiar with the matter,” they say the carrier will be getting the iPhone 5 in mid-October.”  Will it come to Sprint? Only time will tell.

You can find them all over the place now.  What you ask? Well it is a portable hard drive that will work with my IOS devices more specifically my iPhone, iPad, or iPad Touch.  Since these drives have come out in the last few months many people have asked, “Why do I need an additional drive, if my device already has storage?”  Let me take a moment and answer that question.

I have been using the Kingston Wi-Drive for the last week or so and I also wondered why I need additional storage for my phone myself, until recently.  The other day, I went out of town with three IOS devices and I found the answer: I can have the same movies and music playing across the 3 different devices at the same time.

No more having to worry about syncing both the iPad and the iPod touch to a computer.  This Kingston Application available from the Apple App Store allows me to see everything that is on the Wi-Drive and play it across multiple devices without the files being directly on the device.  So no more worrying about taking time to ensure that every movie is synced to multiple devices. All you need to do is hook up your Wi-Drive to a computer and it acts just like an external hard drive where you can literally just drag and drop files.

How does it work?  The Wi-Drive creates its own wireless network that each of the IOS devices can attach to.  The default is “Wi-Drive” but that can be both changed and encrypted so you can control who you are sharing with.  Once I am connected to the Wi-Drive network and I launch the application from my devices I can navigate through the drive and either listen to music, watch a movie, or look at pictures.

Wi-Drive iPhone Screen Shot

Finally the Wi-Drive can create a bridged connection to the Internet using my wireless connection at home.  So that means not only can I share content to multiple devices, but I do not lose my internet connection.

The Kingston Wi-Drive is available in 2 sizes 16GB and 32GB and are both available at abt.com.

-Chad Taylor



As you may or may not have already ascertained from my previous blog entries, I am a huge movie fan.  Huge.  So I’m pretty excited to follow this weekends events.  January 20-24th in Park City, Utah is the CES of movies; The 11th Annual Sundance Film festival 2011.  Four days of new, independent films presented by filmmakers, to other filmmakers, movie stars and cinema freaks alike.

This year is a bit different as Sundance brings news, reviews, and juicy tid bits to those who can’t make it out to Utah through a wide range of social media outlets.  Instant access through iPhone or Smartphone applications can provide news and reviews at the touch of a button.  If you are a lucky iPad owner, you can download the Sundance application and watch streaming movie trailers and even live interviews from on location.

Canon Camera, a sponsor of the festival will be showing their collaborative film called “The Story Behind the Still.”  It is a movie created with collaborative still images as well as HD video taken with their SLR camera by contestant winners.  ”Shooting video on d-SLR cameras has become increasingly popular among filmmakers and enthusiasts. Nearly 20 percent of the overall 2011 Sundance Film Festival films were shot on HD d-SLR cameras.” (TWICE.com)

For full information, check out Sundance’s website.  Who knows what movies will be a success and hit mainstream theaters later this year.