This UPS Really Delivers - 8/20/07

Ah, summer in the Midwest. Nothing’s more fun than sunburn and mosquitoes and 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity—unless, of course, you count the thunderstorms that can knock out the electricity (and the air conditioning) at any moment. After a handful of surprise power outages and disappearing unsaved work, I finally figured out that I didn’t have to subjugate my image editing to Mother Nature’s whims. I purchased a UPS battery backup from APC, so now when lightning strikes, the lights may go out but I can keep on working—at least long enough to make sure I save all my changes and shut down the computer. It has enough outlets to power my computer, monitor, external drives, printer and speakers, so I can I can keep working… or just watch Web videos while the food in the fridge goes bad. But if you are out in the field, luckily there is a website that offers a variety of options to keep either your laptop or digital camera running, too. The Battery Geeks (www.batterygeek.net) offer a variety of external batteries for all sorts of devices, the PowerStick15 in particular keeps iPods, PDA’s, and even digital cameras running. If you’re using a laptop, they have different external laptop batteries that will lengthen the life of your MacBook Pro, or various other models. Visit www.apcc.com or www.batterygeek.net.