On our desk this week - 9

Zap Portable Energy devices

Price: iPod nano charger @ $50, Battery box @ $30

Are you ever out and about when your portable something dies? Yes? We've all been there. Zap has a range of devices that aim to make your life on the road a little bit better.

First up are a couple of battery packs for iPods, specifically, the Nano and the Shuffle. The Nano pack claims around 28 hours of battery life on a full charge (we found more like 20). You simply plug your Nano into it via the dock on the bottom, then plug your headphones into the battery pack. The pack itself is recharged over USB. Simple, huh?

Of course, it rather ruins the sleek look of the Nano but if you're just using your iPod in the car or on an aeroplane, that doesn't really matter.

The Battery box is a cool device that runs off four rechargeable AAs, also charged over USB. It comes with a variety of connectors that allow you to hook up to lots of different types of mobile phones and PDAs, as well as having a number of mains adaptor sockets. We found it perfect for providing a few hours of extra power to a PSP.

At $30 with multiple connectors, the battery box is better value than the Nano charger. $50 seems a bit excessive to us, especially given that the Nano has pretty nifty battery life anyway.