Save our SIMs
We all love our iPhones – in fact, we’re so
inextricably linked to them that we feel cut adrift if their battery goes down
at inopportune moments. Especially if we don’t have the wherewithal to recharge
it.
Emergency
Phone: Spareone
A new and rather clever solution is the
SpareOne, a phone that uses a single AA battery for up to ten hours of talk
time or 60 day’s standby. It comes with a battery preinstalled, and an isolator
tab that prevents it draining when not in use. The battery has a shelf life of
up to 15 years, the makers say, so it should always be ready for use. When your
main phone’s battery dies, take out its SIM card and slip it into the SpareOne.
This isn’t an iPhone replacement; it’s the
mobile phone at its most basic. Where the screen would be on a normal phone,
there’s a transparent window so you can check the battery is in place. And
that’s about it. No screen means no texting, no web browsing and absolutely no
apps, but if all you want to do is make phone calls, it’ll get you out of a
fix. That’s not quite all: there’s also an emergency torch built into it. And
if you don’t have a SIM card, it will still make 999 calls.
If
you iPhone’s out of charge and you really need to make a call, pop out its SIM
card, stick it in the SpareOne and you’re away. It even includes the SIM
extraction tool
But, but, you’re saying, my new iPhone uses
a micro SIM, so doesn’t that make this useless? No, and the fact that the
markers have thought of this was one of the reasons we wanted to feature the
SpareOne. Inside the case there’s a micro SIM adaptor – and even an iPhone SIM
removal tool identical to the one Apple supplies.
The SpareOne isn’t cheap, and as phones go
it’s only just out of the Stone Age. But keep one in the car and you need never
be caught incommunicado again.
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Details
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Price
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$60 until 1 June 2012, then $75
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From
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spareone.co.uk
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Pro
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handy emergency phone * iPhone 4 micro
SIM-compatible
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Con
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expensive for a basic handset
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Rating
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4/5
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