Saturday, August 15, 2009 saw Apple open its newest store on West Jefferson St in downtown Naperville. Not being a total Apple fanatic and not needing another logo t-shirt, I was not one of the hundreds that started lining up on Friday evening and camping overnight just to be one of the first into the new store.

Naperville Apple store opens

I did stop by shortly after noon, and after running into some old friends from the swimming community, was warmly greeted by several Apple employees at the entrance. The store itself appears to be somewhat larger than the Oakbrook one I had visited before, was well laid out and overall had a good feel to it. I spent some time wandering around looking at various displays and eventually made my way to the accessories wall.

It has become apparent that to use my new iphone 3gs the way I do, some type of supplemental battery device would be needed. I’m telling you, 4 hours is not an acceptable level of performance for a tool of this caliber.

After looking over many of the add-on batteries – some extend a full inch below the phone, others are a wired power pack you carry in your pocket – I settled on a “mophie juice pack air“ a hard shell case with integrated battery. I tried to include a pic but they have them copyrighted so just click on the above link to check it out. It seems to hold a backup charge that provides another 4 hours of life for the phone. And its not that heavy or bulky so it still fits well in a pocket.

Minor annoyances include separate charging cable/link than the phone – and the two have to be separated to charge both, and the shallow rim on the top. Other than that, it will get a good test later this week when I attend another RE Barcamp in Ohio – where search for the power outlets is the name of the game.

iphone 3GS

I am sitting here in the lobby of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco waiting to have lunch with a local friend. I have spent the past week here in the Bay Area attending two real estate conferences, both with a focus on technology and Social Media in the industry. I have only had the iPhone 3GS for about a month now and this was a great test to see how it performs as a business tool for this former Blackberry user. My primary observation….what is with the lack of battery on this device? Wherever we went, the hotel, conference center, restaurants, clubs I was able to employ my newest search capability – looking for an outlet to recharge the dang device (along with half the people I was with).  The battery drain is incredible! At best it seems about 4 hours is the tops I can get before I am power scouting.

Advice that has been given to extend the charge life has been, turn off location services, turn off blue tooth, turn off many of those features. I love it, shut down the cool features of the hottest new phone – kind of makes it just a phone, no? It will be interesting to see the performance once I return home. I have some thoughts but they need some testing. peace.