People spend a lot of time figuring out how to make their gadgets last longer. And in the realm of netbooks, that’s usually meant shopping around for third party extended capacity netbook batteries or building your own. But one hacker is taking a different approach, and using a standard netbook battery as a charger for iPhones and other USB powered devices.
After all, while a standard 3 cell MSI Wind netbook battery may only provide a few hours of run time for a laptop, it’s got enough juice to run a low power device like an iPhone for ages. So he cut open the battery and connected a USB port that can be used to plug in a USB charging cable.
The hack is not for beginners. It requires some soldering and a bit of electrical know-how. And to be perfectly honest, the end result is a kind of ugly mobile device charger/extended battery. But it certainly gets cool points. As you can see in the video after the break, the modified battery can still be used to power a MSI Wind netbook as well as USB gadgets
via Make and GottaBeMobile
Or he could just use one of the many netbooks that has a powered USB port, even when the netbook is off. Too easy, I guess.
I did want to say exactly the same as you. =)
But then you have to carry the netbook. This seems like a lightweight solution to keep an Ipod or camera charged if you aren’t going to be near any outlets for a while. You could probably go on a week long backpacking trip and listen to your music the entire time without adding too much weight.