By Vince Horiuchi

| The Salt Lake Tribune

When the crap hits the fan, I need to be on my iPhone tweeting, Facebooking, taking photos and videos, cranking out texts, and for talking to reporters and other people. I need a viable extra rechargeable battery to have on hand for when the one in my phone runs low and I’m not by a car or a computer. Do you have a suggestion or know of a good online site that offers them? — Lori Buttars, Bountiful.

A long battery life is probably one of the most important features people look for in a mobile phone. Unfortunately, all cell phones are traditionally rated to last an average of one day. The thought is a person will routinely put it in the charger every night under normal use.

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The iPhone is no different. But when you add other functions like surfing the web, playing a game or two (c’mon, you know you like a session of "Angry Birds" every now and then), and all the other things Lori mentions she needs for the iPhone, the battery life can go from a day to just a few hours if you’re not careful.

Unfortunately, the iPhone doesn’t have a removable battery because Steve Jobs likes his devices to be sleek and without ugly lines, like from a battery cover. So you can’t just plop in a replacement battery like you can on so many other mobile phones.

Obviously, if you’re in the office or in your car, you want to keep that phone in a charger if you tend to use it a lot. But if you’re out and about, the best thing to do is use an external battery to extend the charge.

One of the backup battery companies that looks good is Mophie (www.mophie.com). The company makes a product called the Juice Pack Air, which is a combination case and external battery. When you slide the iPhone into the case, it connects a small battery on the bottom to the phone’s 32-pin connector, giving it nearly double the battery life. Another version called the Juice Pack Plus, which gives more than double the life, is coming soon.

What I like about those products is that they aren’t separate batteries that are attached by a cable. Insteady, the case and battery become part of the phone for easier handling. They don’t add thickness to the handset and only a small amount of length to the bottom. And the Apple retail stores sell them so you know there won’t be any compatibility issues. The downside: It retails for $80.

There are plenty of external batteries on the market for the iPhone, but I would stick to only a few known brands like Griffin. If you go with an ultra-cheap battery from an unknown manufacturer, you run the risk of damaging the phone.

And when searching for a battery, look for one with the higher mAh rating, or milliampere hour, the measurement of how much energy a battery can hold. The larger the number, the longer the battery life.

As for where to purchase them, first check with CNET.com, an electronics review site to see their recommendations on a backup battery. Then go to Amazon to start. I’ve done a search, and the online retailer has at least all the well-known companies’ products on sale.

If you have a tech question for Vince, email it to him at ohmytech@sltrib.com and he’ll try to answer it for you for either his column in The Salt Lake Tribune or its website. For an archive of past questions and answers, go to www.sltrib.com/topics/ohmytech.