When I later removed the iPhone and battery from my pocket, I could not get any response from the iPhone. The screen remained dark no matter what button I pressed. I disconnected the 1200 from the iPhone. This had no effect. The iPhone remained completely dead.

Later, after returning home, I connected the iPhone to its charger. This too had no effect. Even after waiting 30 minutes or so, the iPhone showed no sign of life; its screen remained completely dark. I was starting to get concerned that the iPhone had been permanently damaged.

As a last resort, with the iPhone still connected to a power outlet, I (simultaneously pressing and holding both the Sleep/Wake and the Home buttons for at least ten seconds). This did the trick. The screen finally lit up and the battery icon appeared. However, in a further unexpected and unwelcome surprise, the screen indicated that there was zero charge left in the iPhone's battery. In other words, not only had the Solo backup battery failed to charge my iPhone, it had led to a loss of battery power beyond what would have occurred if I had never connected the 1200 to the iPhone in the first place.

The good news was that, after waiting a couple of hours, the iPhone fully recovered its charge and all seemed well again.

What the heck had happened? As an initial test, after confirming that the Richard Solo battery was charged, I reconnected the 1200 to the iPhone. This time a message appeared that said: "This accessory is not made to work with iPhone." This had never happened before. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the battery several times. Exactly what happened on each occasion varied a bit. For example, on one try, no error message appeared but the iPhone's battery icon did not shift to indicate that charging was taking place. Clearly, whatever message did or did not appear, something was wrong with the Solo battery.