Let’s face it, the iPod video’s battery life is less than stellar. Even with the recently improved 5.5G iPod, it still leaves something to be desired. For the most part, like every day use, it’s acceptable, but on long trips or times when you’re frequently away from an outlet, you’re going to need some extra juice. There are other solutions, but I think NuPower’s ViDEO+ is the best combination of functionality and price ($50).

First of all, the ViDEO+ isn’t a big, clunky dock, it’s a little pack that easily slides into your iPod’s dock connector. It’ll add a little girth and weight, but the benefits are worth it. On to the things you really care about– the specs. Rather than the 80GB iPod’s 6.5 hours of video, you get 22.5 hours of video. You can also get an additional 80 hours of music.

The battery pack itself actually has some useful features. First, it has a little belt clip so that it stays on (I admit, that’s kinda a given). There’s a dedicated power on/off button on the pack; when on, a little set of LEDs will show you the current charge level. Rather than taking the battery pack off every time you want to charge it up, there’s another dock connector built into battery pack that you can use. Best of all, this pack will also charge you iPod on the go — one charge of the pack can give 3 charge cycles to your iPod.

As I said before, the NuPower ViDEO+ seems to be the best iPod video battery pack in terms of price and functionality. Get yours for $50.

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