To begin simply launch the Google Mobile App speak into your phone, it will then launch Google without having to navigate to google.com.

For example; on a recent road trip to Oregon I wanted to located a specific pizza parlor in Medford. I used the app to speak the name of the pizza parlor and city, then clicked on the google maps link that came up and quickly routed the path from where we were at the time while driving. It was just too easy and saved me time of not having to try and type in the search term on the screen.

Here’s a brief outline of features;

1. Quick access to Google via speaking into the mic on the phone.
2. Search by voice. Speak your queries instead of typing them.
3. You Location is already known. Don’t have to specify your current location when searching for nearby businesses because it knows your geo location already.
4. Google Suggest. Search for suggested queries and businesses that appear as you type.
5. Search history. Quickly search again for queries you recently performed.

Also, the Morphie Juice Pack Air fit in it, although a bit snugly!

The unit’s total thickness is .75 inches (~19 mm).  But, what is really nice though is that it is only 1/8 of an inch thicker than the very slim protective case that I  had.   For that 1/8 of an inch, I get just about 2x the battery life.  The 3GS is rated at 300 standby hours, the Morphie Juice Pack Air adds an additional 270 hours. In addition, it is totally encapsulates (other than the face on which I use one of the film protective screens anyway), the phone with a nice hard protective plastic.  Note: there is a model named Morpie Juice Pack (minus the “Air”) that is only partially encapsuating (more on that later).

But it includes a nice feature that I did not see on a couple of other battery expansion cases.

There is a switch on the bottom to designate whether you want the internal battery or the external battery to be operative.  Why would you want to have it use the internal battery first you ask?  That was my question too. But there is a good answer.

In the normal mode, the external battery provides a constant charge to the internal battery.  So if the internal battery is less than full, it will first charge the internal, and then use the external battery as its primary source.  So when the external battery is drained, you still have a full iPhone battery.  So that seems like the best solution, and I think most often it would be.  BUT, Morphie’s documentation notes that the iPhone actually uses a bit of power to charge itself.  So, you will get a little less battery life in the normal mode because a bit of the external battery power will be used in the constant chargin process.

So if you are absolutely going to be stretched for battery power, they suggest you go into “standby mode.”  In this mode, you use the internal battery first and no charge is sent to the iPhone battery until you flip the switch.  So you could run the iPhone battery down 50%, flip the switch to charge it (it shows the same charging info as if it were connected to computer or AC).  When filled up, flip it to “standby mode” again, and so on.

The other model named Morphie Juice Pack (minus the “Air”) is more expensive $99.95,  has a bigger battery, and is a bit thicker (.85 inches).  if all you want to do is use this as a portable charging unit, this might be better, since it just slides in and out easy since it does not have a top end to protect the unit.  But since I want a protective case anyway, I think the “Air” model is more to my taste.