Meet Fuel, a portable battery charger that fits on your keychain [VIDEO]
This interesting little Kickstarter project caught my eye, and for a few different reasons. Its status as a simple battery charger isn’t the most exciting bit in the world — after all, portable chargers have been around for quite some time. Perhaps it’s the fuel can-shaped body that caught my eye. Perhaps it’s the tiny size, a size so small that you can attach fuel to your keychain.
Developed by Massachusetts-based Devotec, a maker of solar-powered Bluetooth speakers and phone changers, Fuel is said to be the next small gidget (not quite big enough to be a gadget) for your collection.
Looking at the device, you’ve probably guessed there can’t be much room for a big battery inside. You’d be right — fuel is only rated at about 220mAh, or enough to get you 20-30 minutes of talk time or 2-3 hours of extra standby time on typical smartphones. That’s not enough to get you going for the rest of your day should you run out of juice by noon, but it’s a nice pick-me-up for those days where you just can’t get to a wall outlet and need to stretch your phone’s life a tad longer.
The device plugs into your phone using a male microUSB cable, and receives charge through a female microUSB port on the other end. It is regulated by standard PCM and PCBs inside, has an on-off switch, and has LED indicators to let you know the status of the device. Fuel is rated for at least 500 charges, so it should be quite a while before you’ll need to replace it.
Kickstarter pledges start as low as $1 and the highest tier goes up to $20, so it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg for you to help make this into a reality. The goal is $20,000 April 19th, so if you’re interested in seeing this come to market be sure to get over to Kickstarter and put your dollars into the pool.
