My life is basically a series of trips on public transport punctuated by occasional other activity (work, social life etc). My current job is responsible for a minimum of 13 hours a week of commuting – the vast majority of that on a train route that has no wifi, minimal 3G connectivity and worst of all no power sockets.

I’m still trying to find a solution to the 3G issue but the power problem has been resolved thanks to a random blogpost from author and internet fiend Warren Ellis. This post introduced me to the Anker Astro2. The Anker has been a god send these last three weeks – happily holding enough charge to completely resuscitate my empty Nexus4 and have enough juice left to charge my iPod Nano. It also comfortably refuelled my iPad3 on a trip back from Titchfield.

It is not lightweight but justifies the extra strain in my shoulder when carried and Amazon have been selling them half price recently (I think there is be a new model).

It is recharged itself via a standard mini USB wall charger so is pretty low maintenance and while I haven’t ‘crash tested’ it it certainly looks like it could take a beating (though the connectors it comes with look a little flimsy so I swapped them for stuff I had laying about.)

For anyone who has a lot of commuting in their life I’d definitely recommend it. It will have a permanent spot in my commuting bag going forward (now just need to get a new bag – but thats another post!)