Very rarely do I get the chance to go hands on with some of the items that I read about daily but this time I was pleasantly surprised to be allowed the chance to review a great accessory to any mobile device from Digipower — JumpStart, the end-all to your mobile charging needs.

The Skinny
I was contacted by a representative of JumpStart and asked to do a review of the product a few weeks ago and after agreeing to it I was sent my own JumpStart. The first thing I noticed, after pulling it out of the box, was that it was in a clamshell package. I HATE clamshell packages and I nearly cut myself trying to get the product out more than I cut the package itself.

I finally got the product out of its package and was surprised at how lightweight it was, the packaging claimed it was 2 ounces and I can believe it. The size of the JumpStart reminded me of a lighter and could easily be slipped into a pocket or purse and barely noticed. There is a button on the side of the casing that is marked “TEST” and pressing it lit up 3 green lights on the top. Below the test button is a USB Mini and USB A port (marked IN and OUT, respectively). I plugged the JumpStart into the wall to charge and 4 lights came on, I’m not sure why but I left it that way for a while and they never changed.

The company claims that the JumpStart will hold a charge for 1 year and can recharge a “typical” cell phone 3 times before it needs recharging (more on that later).

Seven adapters came with JumpStart, a few I knew right away (Mini USB, 5-pin micro USB, Nokia, Samsung) but the others I couldn’t figure out. There was no iPhone charging adapter but as long as you carry your iPhone cable you will be able to use the JuumpStart. Also, the charger came with a retractable USB cable with a proprietary end for the adapters and an AC adapter with a USB A plug to plug in the USB cable.

My Impressions
I had the chance to really use this charger the other night when I lost power at my house for about 9 hours. I needed my phone fully charged the next morning, since I use it as my alarm clock, and my wife needed hers charged as well. As far as I know the JumpStart was fully charged when my wife plugged up her phone (an HTC Titan). She charged it to 80% and then I checked the battery status on the JumpStart, it had two lights so I plugged my phone up to it (an HTC Touch) and let it charge until the JumpStart was all out of power — I had about 50% charge.

Now, neither of our phones are “typical” and we both had data turned on, so take the statement that it will charge a typical phone 3 times with a grain of salt.

I plugged the JumpStart back into the AC adapter and it charged again in about 2 hours. (As charged as it can get, I figure. Once again it had 4 green lights and they didn’t do anything after that, so I’m not sure if it was complete or not.)

According to Digipower, the device will be available this month (June) from select retailers and will sell for $49.99. If you drain your phone’s battery while on the go then this product should definitely be your next purchase.

It’s easy to take a photo or video on your phone and then send it in a MMS to a friend, or even multiple friends, but it’s not as easy to take that same picture and post it to Twitter or Photobucket. Sure you can go online and upload it, plug your phone into your computer and download it, or send it to yourself in an email, but there just has to be a better way! Enter Shozu, an undercover app that, like a stealthy ninja, sends your pictures to your online photo hosting sites as soon as you take them.

It takes opening Shozu twice to actually get to the app the first time you use it, this is because the first time you open it you are starting it and every time after that you are opening the app. Of course you don’t have to open the app to use it every time, when you take a picture Shozu pops up and asks if you would like to send it to your photo hosting page right away (This is a wonderful idea as I generally forget to send the photos to the sites after I’ve taken them).

Shozu currently supports photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, PhotoBucket, Twitter, Friendster, Kodak Easyshare Gallery, Picasa and more! Also, Shozu supports blogging sites like Blogger, LiveJournal, and Wordpress (plus others!), a few citizen journalism sites (e.g., BBC News, CNN, etc.), and FTP and email. If you want to send your photo somewhere more than likely Shozu supports the site or plans on supporting it in the future.

You can read more about the freeware app, Shozu, or you can go ahead and sign up right away! Shozu is definitely worth the time to sign up and get this service on your mobile phone. Shozu is currently supported on most mobile phones with a camera, but you may wish to check for availability on your phone. Remember, Shozu uses a data connection to upload and download files so it is best to get an unlimited data service from your provider.