Backpacks with mobile batteries aren't anything new, but AMPL Labs is taking things a step further with a truly smart bag...
The AMPL SmartBag is an all-in-one solution for the tech-heavy travellers of today. If you were Phileas Fogg, it would be your Passpartout - carrying and looking after all your stuff. If Phileas Fogg had a SmartBag, he would have thrown Passpartout in the Suez Canal.
Anyway. Every single pocket has an integrated charging port for your gadgets, connected to an internal battery, which has capacity to charge a smartphone 2-3 times off a full charge.
But, the 'Power Centre' section of the bag has space for up to three expansion batteries, letting you charge multiple devices simultaneously, including larger capacity devices like laptops and tablets.
This bag isn't just a giant battery though - it has street smarts too. The brains of the operation live in a moulded scratch-resistant nylon housing, where the bag intelligently routes power to devices that need it most. There's even an OLED display that shows you everything that's going on inside the bag.
Or failing that, you can connect via Bluetooth LE 4.0 to your phone, where the AMPL app tells you how juicy your devices are looking, as well as buzzing at you if you happen to leave your bag behind somewhere.
And thankfully, the whole lot is built out of tough, hard-wearing nylon with extra foam padding and water-resistant coating, making it light, waterproof and shock-absorbant.
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After picking up two awards at CES 2015, AMPL is working hard to get the bag to consumers this year. Check out the AMPL Labs website for more information!
Pete started his fledging journalistic career covering lifestyle tech and video games for T3, before a brief sojourn in food turned into a full time career as a chef, recipe developer and editor with the likes of Great British Chefs, BBC Food and SquareMeal. Over a decade later he has come full circle, putting kitchen tech and appliances through rigorous testing for T3 once again, and eating a quite intense number of omelettes whilst testing non-stick pans. In his spare time Pete loves nothing more than squashing his size 11 feet into tiny shoes and going climbing. He also dabbles in cricket writing from time to time, and is certainly a man who knows his leg from his wicket.
