I currently have both iPhones setup similar (but not exact), e.g. one iPhone uses a contract SIM on O2 and the other a PAYG SIM on O2. I don’t have all of the exact same apps/games installed onto both, but both have my core apps/games, so if I want to switch between one and another then I can do at ease.

I charge both iPhones up over night, only one gets used for calls in the day. When my backup iPhone isn’t being used and I’m at a desk, then it gets charged up in my JBL Speaker Dock. I charge the main iPhone probably a couple of times a day (more so when I’m using the phone for around 4 hours in a day).

If I’m going for what I’ll call a heavy use session on the iPhone, e.g. game playing or lots of surfing or social media then where possible I’ll use my Philips SCE battery charger (I usually carry two of these). The Philips charger allows me to get at least one full charge of an iPhone. So effectively you could say that on any one day, I have the battery power of 4x iPhones.

On a real power hungry day then I might take my Juice Pack Air battery sleeve with me, that kinda got neglected until recently, but now the dust has come off the cover and I’m using it a little more.

Do I really need two iPhones? The answer for me is Yes, because I do a lot of testing.
Do I really need 5x the battery power? Oh yes! You can’t believe how handy this is.

With the Philips battery chargers, I can carry two of these around in a soft pouch, basically equaling the size of a regular iPhone. They can slip into any of my pockets and go unnoticed and I can whip them out with an Apple USB charger cable at anytime to give me a little battery top-up.

Personally I try not to run the battery power much below 50% although on some heavy days if I don’t charge often then I can get down to below 20%.

Philips say…
“We know how excited you are about the iPad because we at Philips are right there with you. From sharing our photo albums on the fly, to browsing iBooks for a fresh read – iPad is going to take entertainment media to a whole new level.

Right now, we’re developing iPad solutions that are both insightful and inspiring. From cases to electronics, our accessories are engineered to enhance your experience without intruding – and we’re committed to creating high-end designs that will fit how you truly use your iPad.

As the creators of the first iPod case, we have the experience and the know-how to deliver simple, smart and stylish solutions that just work. Keep an eye out for more products from Philips sure to maximize your iPad experience.”

More information can be found at the Philips iPad site.

The Mercury case is a reflection of style & sophistication. With a mirror finish like molten metal and a shape that protects vulnerable corners – your iPod touch has never looked so cool.

• Simple snap-on design gives secure, slim-fitting protection that glides easily into your pocket
• Full access to iPod touch screen, buttons, charging & syncing functions
• No added bulk – lightweight & slim in dimension
• Includes screen protector to guard against smudges & dust
• Microfibre cleaning cloth – keeps your iPod touch shiny and looking new

More information is available from Cygnett and can be purchased from Amazon UK for £16.99.

The Tribal case is a tight fitting, high density silicone case with a smooth anti-static surface providing users full access to all phone functions with low profile protection.

Features

• Product of the INCIPIO{LAB}
• High density silicone
• Play-through design for full function while in case
• Shock absorbing silicone protects device
• Cutouts give easy access to controls, touch screen and inputs
• Includes a screen protector and a cleaning cloth

The Incipio Tribal case come in a huge amount of colours including Black, White, Yello, Turquoise, Navy Blue and Charcoal. I bought a Tribal case and I do like the thick contour feeling on the sides and back. It’s really easy to take the iPhone out of the case in less than 2 seconds unlike most cases, as you just pull/stretch the case over the corners and edges of the iPhone.

The Incipio Tribal Case can be purchased direct from or in the UK from Amazon for just under £26

Case-mate says their new line of cases are sporty cases for the iPhone 3G / 3GS. These cases are designed to protect the design of the iPhone 3G / 3GS while allowing more of it to show.

• Extremely slim profile
• Impact resistant flexible plastic shell
• Covers the back and corners of the iPhone 3G / 3GS
• Full-Face Screen protection included

I decided to purchase the red one because it glows and looks so inviting. Many cases tend to obstruct certain parts of the iPhone, e.g. the volume buttons (providing rubber buttons instead), and obscuring the sync ports, or even the nice chrome bezel that we have all come to love on the iPhone, but the Case-Mate Barely There range of cases does completely the opposite. It doesn’t enclose the sync / charge port, nor the volume buttons and it leaves the top open to easily get to the headphone socket and the power button. It also doesn’t add much thickness to your iPhone, but what it does do which is the most important two factors is it makes your iPhone look really great, and it protects it from knocks and general use.

What’s more, you can also fit the iPhone and the Case-Mate Barely There in a lot of mounts without having take off the case which is a real advantage!

This by far must be my favourite case. Case-Mate also do the case in a number of inviting colours.

The Case-Mate Barely There can be purchased direct from Case-Mate for around $20, or for people in the UK direct from Amazon for around £15!

So I decided to try out and purchase the Juice Pack Air. So the first thing I should say here is that I actually purchased the the Juice Pack Air. It’s not a review sample of any kind, so I placed down my hard earned cash to try this out.

Disclaimers aside, here’s the review.

I have a number of battery chargers for my iPhone, the one I use mostly is the Philips SCE4430/05 mobile charger. Believe it or not I actually have three of these, and you can get about 1.5 times the charge of an iPhone out of these chargers including the iPhone battery charge which is getting you close to 3 charges on an average day. The Philips SCE4430/05 mobile charger is great on an average day, for example when you’re in meetings and there’s no plug sockets around or you don’t want to get your chair caught up in charger cables, but it does require you to manually plug in a cable to the iPhone.

With the Juice Pack Air, it’s a hard protective case and a charger integrated into one which immediately means you don’t have any additional cables to plug in which is a good thing. The bad thing is the size of the case extends it more deeper.

Pro’s

• No additional cables required to plug into the iPhone
• Provides a hard shell protector case for your iPhone
• The case has LED indicators on the back of the case with a ‘Press Me’ button to check the status of the Juice Pack Air charge
• You can have the case permanently charging the iPhone or you can switch the case off to preserve the power for when you ‘actually’ need it.
• Never be caught without power again
• No overlapping ridge to the edge of the case, you can also see the iPhone’s chrome bezel which is a nice touch, makes it easy to touch the edge of the screen still and not having the case obscure it.  See associated con though.

Con’s

• Adds quite a bit of bulk to your iPhone
• Adds quite a bit of weight to your iPhone
• It comes with a Micro USB charger lead.  For me this is a CON because I have probably about 30 chargers that all use Mini USB so it means I need to either carry another charger with me (or at least the lead) with a USB 3-pin mains plug to plug it into.  Long term this will probably become a Pro because all chargers in Europe and North America are now adhering to the Micro USB standard.
• If you now want to charge your iPhone in the Juice Pack Air in-car you also have to have a Micro USB car charger (these aren’t that freely accessible but will be soon)
• When the iPhone is in the Juice Pack Air case there’s no way of plugging the iPhone into a speaker dock, e.g. JBL iPhone Speaker
• The Juice Pack Air doesn’t have a textured back, although it doesn’t slip out of your hands easily it might not be so forgiving if you have wet hands
• The Juice Pack Air is about 1/2 centimeter thicker in depth compared to other hard cases like the SwitchEasy Rebel
• You have to be careful not to put your iPhone face down on a desk because there’s no overlapping bezel so it means the case is flush with the iPhone screen and it does show the iPhone’s chrome bezel.  Although this is most certainly a pro in some aspects like you can still touch the edge of the screen but it’s also a con.  I’ve listed this under both Pro’s and Con’s.
• You must take the case off to use GPS.  As the case is pretty deep and the back of the case also contains another spare battery, this will reduce the overall GPS reception your iPhone receives and will mean that when driving in-car that you may find you have to remove the case from the iPhone to get a better GPS signal especially in those hard to reach places like Urban Canyons.
• For several weeks the Juice Pack Air was working fine then started complaining ‘accessory is not compatible’ although it still charged when I powered the Juice Pack Air on, however it also seemed to want to charge when I powered the Juice Pack Air off sometimes. Getting a replacement seemed to fix the problem, so something seemed to go wrong with the Juice Pack Air.

Conclusion

Immediately when you look at the amount of Con’s above, you would think that the Juice Pack Air is on a loser.  However, the pro’s are pretty good ones and do outweigh some of the con’s.  For me I don’t particularly like the extended bulk that you get in depth and the weight but it does grow on you, e.g. my shirt pocket now weighs a whole lot more.  However, I don’ t have to have the case on all time time and can whip it out of a gadget bag quite quickly if I need to use it.  For me it’s probably not a case I think I can keep on all the time.  I’m a fan of the hard shell cases but even then there are times when I don’t want them on the iPhone.

The cases do add quite a bit more depth to the iPhone so it doesn’t make it as slim as it usually is but the cases are extremely durable and it’s much more easier to grip the iPhone when you hold it so that it doesn’t slip out of your hand.

With four difference cases I can now switch the spines over and create an even larger collection of cases

• You started your journey without a good quality GPS fix and the iPhone is trying to always ‘catch up’
• You might have an Athermic UV coated Windscreen in your car which dampens radio signals (of which GPS is one of these)
• You might have your heater coil in your windscreen on, and this is sending a small electrical current through the windscreen to keep it from freezing / misting up and this is dampening GPS signals
• You might be unlucky to be driving through an area such as an ‘urban canyon’ which has tall buildings either side of you blocking the GPS signals
• You might be unlucky to be driving through a lot of heavy tree cover blocking GPS signals
• Where you position your device on the windscreen can affect the GPS coverage.  Always ensure it has a good clear view of the sky as close to the windscreen the better
• Heavy cloud cover, rain, snow can affect GPS coverage
• Ionosphere disruption around the earth can also affect GPS coverage

I’ve known all of the above can block your GPS coverage for 10 or so years, but this past week I’ve started to receive very bad GPS signals across all applications that I’ve been using on the iPhone, and I’ve really been scratching my head to work out what was causing it.  Some days it’s fine and some days it’s…. to put it mildly…..Terrible!

Nothing has changed, I’m driving the same car, under the same conditions and the same routes.  I’m using the same iPhone, it’s mounted in the same place on the windscreen, I wait to get a fix before I start driving.  So what has changed other than the weather getting slightly more colder and cloudier?

This weekend I finally found out what was causing the problem.  Now not wanting to keep you all in suspense, but this in hind sight is quite an obvious thing that I haven’t really thought much about in the past…..

This past week I’ve been driving with a case on my iPhone!   I’ve been using the Switch Easy case for some time now, but usually take the case off when I get in the vehicle.  I didn’t think that it fitted in the car-mount that well, but since finding a slightly wider car mount, I’ve been driving with it on for the past week.

I carried out a drive this weekend with the case on and got less than par GPS signal coverage (e.g. lots of GPS fix loss and snapping me to side roads as if the GPS fix quality was sub-par).  Taking the case off and driving the same trip again, I had no problems at all.

This is by no means a conclusive test or an ultimate fix, and I will be carrying out more testing with and without the case over the course of the next few weeks.  If you think about it the GPS receiver is in-built into the iPhone and near the back case, so if you’re adding more plastic/rubber to the back of your iPhone then there’s more chance of dampening GPS signals.  

If you are experiencing GPS problems and have a case on your iPhone, perhaps try taking it off whilst you are in-car and see if this improves your GPS quality and please let me know your experiences!

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The great thing about this is that its not tacky like most silicone cases out there.

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A case manufacturer (Pong Research) has come out with the Pong radiation-reducing case.

Pong Research have created a case that is like a silicone case. It offers good protection while giving you full access to all ports, controls, and the camera but when you look at the inside you find a gold PCB module that claims to reduce overall radiation output by 60%. It is this PCB module that directs an iPhone cell signal and radiation through the back of the phone, keeping it away from the user’s head.

While the price is not cheap at $59.99, it’s something I might start to look into again.

Source: Pong Research

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The IceBox comprises of a hard plastic case with touch sensitive screen shield.

 
Available from Amazon for £19.99 or Gear4.com.

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It comes in two versions. One for the iPod touch and one for iPhones original, 3G and 3GS. The Gaming Grip is constructed from high-grade silicone to provide enhanced grip for sweaty hands, whether you’re operating in landscape or portrait mode and also doubles as a protective case when not playing games. It also comes with a screen protector included as standard.

The Gaming Grip from Exspect is available from Amazon costing £18.18.

I liked the look of these serpent style cases and though it would be worth while testing these out. I’ve noticed that the silver apple on the back of the iPhone is starting to get some scratches so to preserve that I thought I might try a few cases out. TBH, I’m not a great fan of cases, I pretty much hate cases and just like carrying my iPhone around in my shirt pocket as I hate how cases can bulk out a device, but decided it was time to try a case or two.

To the right is what the is what the cases should look like and below is what they now look like when you change the spines around.

The great thing about these cases is they’re hard shell cases but they only add about 2mm to the size of the iPhone which is really cool! Plus they also protect the chrome around the outside too!

More importantly, was that a waterproof set of in-the-ear buds I see that are sinking? I think mine’s staying on dry land!

More info at H2O Audio.

Key Features include:

 
More information available over at Ultra-Case.com.