While waiting for my train at the main railway station in Rome, the world had come to a complete stop. My various devices beeped for the last time and then there was silence. It was then that I realised something so obvious that I am surprised people don't pay more attention to it: we are so engrossed in the "who is winning the mobile phone war" and "who has the best/thinnest/fastest gadget" that we forget these devices all rely on one single component - power.
No power = no usage. An old Nokia 3310 that can make phone calls trumps the latest iPhone with a dead battery.
When you consider the advancement in technology, the battery - in comparison - has not evolved by leaps and bounds. It still holds a small amount of power; it still takes ages to charge; and is still very expensive. The battery is the weakest link in our devices, and yet we depend on it as a critical portable power source. In fact, the main reason we don't all have electric cars today is because of the battery.
As I sit on the train, shooting through the Italian countryside at over 250km per hour, I am plugged in and able to charge everyone's devices with the conveniently provided socket located between the seats. And just like that, peace returns to the land, as my wife and the kids are BBMing their friends and I am free to blog.
Whenever I travel, I always ensure I have sufficient chargers for every device, a task made significantly easier with the standardisation of the micro-USB charging socket. As long as the chargers are sufficiently rated for the device, these can be used interchangeably. However, make sure you read my article about universal chargers to safeguard your device.
I also carry with me portable power in the form of the BlackBerry Emergency Charger, which has the benefit of being able to charge any micro-USB device, and it also comes with a spare battery for my Z10. And there is one for my wife's Q10 too. This little device has saved me on many occasions when power is scarce, being out of the hotel from 9am and returning to the hotel past midnight.
As I have hired a car on my travels, I would highly recommend a cigarette-socket-charger. Resist the urge to buy one that is cheap and nasty, but rather invest in one that has the ability to charge multiple devices via multiple USB cables. This comes in handy to top-up power on those long autostrada drives between major cities.
One thing that Italy has a lot of is sunny days. And unlike sunny South Africa, Italy has embraced its sunny disposition and has harnessed the power of the sun by making solar panels cheaply available. These solar panels are everywhere around the countryside, powering up everything from street lights at the most remote points of the Amalfi Coast to powering the most essential element of Italian living - the coffee vending machines in the cities. Power from the sun is free once you invest in the technology to harness it. As long as the sun shines, you have free electricity for life.
With our struggling power grid, I wonder how long before the South African government makes it mandatory for any building permit to be granted a solar panel that forms part of the construction?
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