Smartphones have changed the world. The amount of things one can accomplish with a device that can fit in pockets is truly astounding, but there\’s always one thing that stands in the way of the smartphone\’s endless options: battery life.
Unfortunately, humans haven\’t invented a way to create constant power without cords, and if you want your smart phone battery to last the entirety of a music festival, you better not be doing any snap chatting, tweeting, instagraming, or anything else besides using it for basic communication. Essentially your smartphone, in all its multipurpose glory, is reduced to being the same brick you had 10 years ago. If you\’re among the many that will tweet away regardless of this dilemma, you run the risk of losing all contact with your group; an occurrence that can lead to disastrous results.
Many music festivals have tried to assuage this problem by placing charging stations within the venues. However, there are rarely more than two different stations, and despite the large number of outlets at each of them, all of these phones are sharing one central power source, which leads to your device charging very (and I mean very) slowly. Even if you\’re at a festival with onsite lodging, and you have your own version of a charging station there, no one enjoys the long trek back to camp if the purpose is solely to recharge your phone. That\’s time you could be watching your favorite artist, discovering a new artist, or doing a billion other awesome things that are available at festivals.
As far as mobile solutions go, there aren\’t a lot of options. There are cases that charge your phone, but they still need to be plugged in after an amount of time to be able to charge your phone again.
A second option is the AMPY
The AMPY Engery Capturing Device is a small battery pack that you can wear on your arm or leg like a watch, or an armband, or a kanji bracelet. The cool part is it naturally recharges using a never ending source of energy: you. Once you are wearing the AMPY, it uses the kinetic energy your body produces to charge the cell, which you then use to charge your device. The AMPY can store up to 1000 mAh at a time, which is equivalent to an entry level Mophie.
Pretty groundbreaking stuff huh? Now you\’re phone will stay alive at a festival as long as you\’re moving, and unless you\’re taking a break after a sustained period of raging, you\’re pretty much always moving at a music festival.
AMPYs are available for pre order starting at $95. Check out the full page on the AMPY here.
