This plug-in backpack wants to charge your gadgets
A Kickstarter campaign seeks $80,000 to fund a project for a backpack that can ease your worries that your phone will run out of juice.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Today, you have to worry about charging your phone, tablet, laptop, wireless access point, Bluetooth headset, and more. Tomorrow, maybe you'll just have to worry about charging your backpack instead.
A Colorado company called Co.alition started raising funds on Kickstarter on Tuesday for that idea, a gadget backpack called Colfax. The foam-padded product comes in two models, a standard one for a laptop, tablet, and phone, and the Colfax PHD (power hard drive) that adds a 500GB hard drive for access to files even if there's no Internet connection handy. The drive can be reached by USB 3 or Wi-Fi connections.
The product is indicative of just how reliant many of us have become on our electronic gadgets -- and how much of a problem it can be if they run out of battery power.
The company is trying to raise $80,000 to fund the project. Those who donate $199 will get a Colfax, and those who donate $375 will get the Colfax PHD -- as long as the Kickstarter project meets its financial goals so it can start production at its planned Vietnamese site. The products are set to sell for $349 and $495 in regular retail versions.
The backpacks come with a lithium polymer battery, but when you're near an outlet, you can plug the backpack in and it will charge your devices directly using a pass-through system.
