Backup

[Hands On] A month with Energenie ChargeGenie 50

Mike Hudson 1 Comment

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For as long as I can remember, I (much like many others) have suffered at the hands of a dead battery in my tech. More so now since smartphones have been such a large part of my life.

I’m no way going to blame manufacturers for the capacity or drain of device batteries… I’m a heavy user… In that I doubt 10 minutes go by when I’m not using it! Unless I’m asleep of course!

This has obviously created a gap in the market. When that has steadily filled up with all manner of devices, in all shapes and sizes. Each device is not without its pitfalls, equally each device suits a certain type of user more.

I think over the last 4 years I’ve pretty much tried every type on the market; from AA battery-powered key rings to solar panels. I’ve also endured my fair share of smart phone case batteries… Non of these devices has proved successful in truly giving me that extra charge I need when I’m out and about..

That was until this year (2013) … When in the excited build up the yearly Gadget Show at the NEC, I can across a manufacturer’s name on the programme. Energenie… It’s one I’d never heard of, and never seen any products from before. So I made my way over to their website, and was amazed by the variety and the spec of some of the devices!

This is when I spotted the Energenie ChargeGenie 50, a 5,000 MaH external battery pack.. My school boy maths suggested I should get at least 2 full charges of my iPhone 4S from this, and what’s more it would even give my iPad (thanks to FreeVirtualServers) a boost. So I got in touch with Energenie, and excitedly asked them to reserve me a fully charged ChargeGenie 50 at the Gadget Show.

Once I’d made my way around the show, battery now flagging at 20% I headed over to their stand, and collected what was soon to become my phones new best friend! I carefully opened the packaging and plugged in my phone.. Slowly but surely my device made its way back up to 100%

But wait… It didn’t stop there!! As I was taking many pictures at the show, my device was soon back at 10%.. So of it went again, and charged straight back up to 100!!! Perfect! Just what I needed…

Now, I know external batteries arent to everyone’s taste, and some people prefer cases.. But until someone comes up with a case that can pack the punch of the Energenie 50 whilst adding little to no bulk I’m happy!

Nearly a full month on since purchasing it, and it still travels faithfully in my laptop bag.. In its own compartment no less, and I can rest in the knowledge that this little unit has got my back!

So…. Thanks Energenie, for your fantastic ChargeGenie 50! Here’s looking forward to the future, when my Energenie ChargeGenie ?100? Drops through the letterbox!

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Don’t just backup.. Clone!

Mike Hudson Leave a comment


One of the worst feelings in the world for any PC or Mac user is the dreaded error message on Boot-up stating your hard drive has failed. Putting your trust in hardware (despite its age) is foolish to say the least. We are all guilty of it, including myself.

OS X has a pretty impressive backup utility built in as standard TimeMachine which is even capable of doing offline backups. However, TimeMachine won’t help you if your entire OS fails to boot.

But don’t reach for your wallet just yet the boffins over at Bombich have been hard at work updating their flagship backup application Carbon Copy Cloner, which now fully supports OS X Lion. Which not only creates backups (full and incremental) of all of your data, but is also capable of creating recovery boot disks, containing your OS and all of your backed up files!

Carbon Copy Cloner has a long list of features, most of which wouldn’t look out of place in a commercial and expensive backup solution. Carbon Copy Cloner has been designed as shareware, but has not been crippled in anyway. The only thing you will notice on the ‘free’ version is the inclusion of a banner add, much like the one in the screenshot above. However they have been tastefully placed to ensure they don’t hinder your cloning experience. You can however get rid of the advertising banners simply by making a donation to it’s ongoing development.

I recommend using both TimeMachine and Carbon Copy Cloner to my fellow mac users, to ensure an issue free restoration should the need ever occur.

Once Carbon Copy Cloner has been configured to your liking you really can set it up and forget it, as it’s scheduled backups will incrementally keep your backup file up to date.

You can download Carbon Copy Cloner direct from Bombich’s website by clicking this direct link.

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Offline TimeMachine Backups

Mike Hudson 1 Comment

One of OS X Lion’s new features around it’s fantastic TimeMachine backup facility is also perhaps one of the least known. TimeMachine is a built in backup system which you can set up and forget about, each time it detects your backup device it will automatically start backing up. (If you last one was missed/delayed)

However, if you are a ‘road warrior’ and spend more time disconnected from your backup device then connected, you no longer have to worry about your important files not being backed up. OS X Lion actually back’s up your files in a local cache whilst your normal backup device is unavailable. Then, when you plug in/come in range of your normal backup device, TimeMachine will then move the cached files over to your other drive!

Despite the fact the market is full of third party backup applications, including some very powerful free ones, I personally have no need to use anything but TimeMachine. In my opinion it’s almost perfect!!

Time Machine works with your Mac and an external hard drive or Time Capsule. Connect the drive, assign it to Time Machine, and start enjoying some peace of mind. Time Machine automatically backs up your entire Mac, including system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents. But what makes Time Machine different from other backup applications is that it not only keeps a spare copy of every file, it remembers how your system looked on any given day — so you can revisit your Mac as it appeared in the past.

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TimeMachine makes finding previously backed up files as easy as navigating normal finder views:

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…Restore files is as simple as ‘Right Click > Restore’. I have actually been known to use TimeMachine as a built in source code revision system. Bringing back files prior to code changes – all whilst being out on the road and not near my TimeCapsule.

If you use something else for your backups, let me know by using the comments system below.

 

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