Battery technology is a complicated and frustrating field, I’m sure. There are only a few sectors of technology where you’re limited by the actual physical characteristics of the elements you work with. But NiMH and Lithium Cobalt are not meeting power demands, to say nothing of the toxic and environmental effects of something like Cobalt being in all our electronics. An alternative is Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4, but LiFe is catchier), but as usual there’s something fundamental limiting its applications. In this case, the process to create LiFe batteries is complex and expensive. Fortunately, the compound is promising enough as a battery that research is going into it, and a materials engineer by the name of Manthiram says that a new process may reduce the cost and duration of the battery-making process. It’s not a major breakthrough but it’s a big step towards making these safer and better batteries more easily adoptable by tech and car companies. → Read More
Awful iPhone 3G (or 2G for that matter) got you down? Brando has just released the iPhone Power Station that lets you charge your iPhone when you’re away from a proper outlet. The power station has a capacity of 1000mAh, so definitely enough to save you from the awful reality of being without your iPhone for more than two minutes at a time. $25, so nearly free for you Europeans. → Read More
Already available for the iPhone, the Mophie Juice Pack will be available in an iPod Touch-friendly version next month. The $99 apparatus contains a lithium polymer battery and doubles as a soft-grip case that holds the Touch, giving it an extra seven hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback. That’s an entire day! You may recall that I took a look at the Richard Solo battery backup doodad that works on almost any iPod/iPhone device and only costs $50, but this Juice Pack looks pretty good too. I’ll be getting a review unit in a few weeks, so I’ll put it to the test. → Read More
This interesting accessory appears to be a case with a built-in secondary battery/dock combo that recharges your iPhone. The product’s web site is scant on details and the contact page says “We are looking for distributors for the United States and Europe,” so it’s tough to tell if and when you’d be able to buy one of these iPowerJackets. UPDATE: Apparently you can buy one now on Amazon for $80. Thanks Joanna! Power Built-in powerful and safe Li-Polymer rechargeable battery Doubles the time to rock, talk, surf and send Protection Slim design provides maximum protection to your iPhone Openings for earphone, microphone, speaker and camera Expression Hand-crafted from premium genuine leather Stylish designs in different attractive colors to express your personality Hand-crafted from premium genuine leather Thanks to Jon for sending this in. → Read More
Following the lead of Nissan and NEC, which both recently have started down this track, the German carmaker is looking into lithium-ion batteries to improve its hybrids and electrics. It sounds like the Nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries in their cars are both heavier and more toxic than the alternative. The Li-ion batteries would lower the weight of the car by hundreds of pounds, improving handling and mileage. You’ve already got them in your phones, media players, and so on, but adapting them for the high-capacity, high-throughput application of powering a car is a serious endeavor — which must be why Sanyo is pledging nearly a billion dollars over the next couple years to developing the technology. → Read More
If you’re using your Wii Fit enough to warrant a rechargeable batter pack, God bless you. Nyko’s Energy Pak is a rechargeable battery with LED charge indicator that fits right into the Wii Fit and offers 20 hours of life. It comes with an AC adapter. Available on May 19, the pack will cost $19.99 and should be on Nyko.com shortly. We gave out about five billion Nyko products at the meet-up and just reviewed the wireless nunchuck so rest-assured these guys make good product. → Read More
I hate batteries, but I love fuel cells. At some point in the near future the technology will do as promised, giving us hours of clean energy for our portable gear. Sadly, they’re still too big to be practical, but Sony’s working on the problem, and has this nifty palm-sized fuel cell to show for it. It’s a methanol-based unit, and can provide up to 14 hours of charge for a portable device. Now, it’s unclear if that’s “standby” or “active” use, but it’s still pretty impressive. Fuel cells should start hitting gear around 2010 if the technology keeps progressing at this rate, with affordable and practical uses about a year later. → Read More
Samsung’s developed a new battery for small form factor laptops that it’s going to be selling to American PC manufacturers, likely to HP and Dell, according to rumor. They’re using a new technology that gives the battery a 10% longer charge than previous generation batteries as well as a faster charging time. No word yet on if, like Sony’s, the batteries will explode and cause a fire, burning you and your family alive. → Read More
With so many portable devices in our homes, we use a lot more batteries than people think about. After many uses, though, many rechargeable batteries can suddenly fail, rendering the device useless if they’re non-swappable. If the device has a removable battery, you can of course buy a new one, but that means throwing the toxic and useless old one out. Why not trade it in to a refurb station to save money and save the precious, fragile environment? → Read More
People in Hong Kong are upset — maybe outraged! — at Asus for sending out review units of the new Eee PC 900 with 4-cell 5800mAh batteries and then selling the public machines with 4-cell 4400mAh batteries. I’d be a little upset too. According to DigiTimes, “Several consumers in Hong Kong who purchased Eee PC 900s on the first day have complained that the battery that came with their system (4-cell, 4400mAh) does not have the same capacity as that of review samples supplied to the Hong Kong media (4-cell, 5800mAh) before the launch. Asustek explained that the 4400mAh battery is currently the standard for the Eee PC 900, while it plans to introduce the 5800mAh battery in later products. It said 5800mAh batteries were provided to the media for testing by mistake. The company said it is currently evaluating procedures to instigate a replacement program, details of which it will announce at a later time.” Sounds a little bit fishy to me, but at least Asus seems to be prepared to offer the higher capacity batteries to those jilted consumers. → Read More
Remember when Sony’s batteries were catching on fire and there were many recalls? Well some of those poor souls who got burned by Sony’s flaming batteries (in Apple’s laptops) sued for damages and are actually squeezing a little money out of the two companies. A Japanese couple is being awarded ¥1.3 million for their troubles (and burns). It sounds like a lot, but yens are cheap these days and it ends up being about $13,000 — far less than they would have paid in America, where some LA douchebag would have gotten his crotch warmed by one of these and taken it all the way to the Supreme Court. → Read More
People who wear lab coats somewhere in Illinois (Argonne, to be exact) have reportedly developed a lithium-ion battery that’s capable of storing 30 percent more energy while at the same time being safer than current lithium-ion batteries. What’s more, the technology has been licensed to Japanese laptop battery manufacturer Toda Kogyo, so we might actually see these batteries in notebook iterations relatively soon. → Read More
A fire at LG Chem in South Korea on March 3rd has contributed to a worldwide notebook battery shortage, according to Reuters. Asustek is expected to be hardest hit, as the shortage “could affect up to 40 percent of second-quarter shipments” from Taiwan’s second-largest PC maker. A Dell spokesperson acknowledged the shortage today and has blamed it for recent replacement battery price increases, but said little more than “We sell battery packs. The prices of those battery packs for people ordering extra batteries have gone up.” In the short term, PC manufacturers may be able to stabilize high battery prices against plummeting flash memory prices. The plant isn’t scheduled to resume battery production for another 2-3 months. In the meantime, manufacturers have been able to purchase some batteries from plants owned by Sony and Panasonic while waiting for LG Chem to resume production. → Read More
Just caught news on the Today Show (in between some Eliot Spitzer segment and another, less interesting but more sensational Eliot Spitzer segment) of the iPod Nano batteries causing sparks to shoot out of units marked with model number MA099J/A (pictured right). Apparently the problem was found back in January but wasn’t reported by Apple to the Japanese trade and economy ministry until recently. According to the Associated Press, Japan is investigating a possible defect in Apple Inc.’s iPod after one of the popular digital music players reportedly shot out sparks while recharging, a government official said Wednesday… The problem surfaced in January in Kanagawa Prefecture southwest of Tokyo, and Apple reported the problem to the ministry in March. No one was injured, the official said. Other details weren’t available. The model of Nano in question shipped starting in September of 2005 and was discontinued in September of 2006. Japan investigates possible iPod defect [AP/Yahoo! News] → Read More
My kingdom for a dead-ass simple way to squeeze a little more juice out of my iPod Touch while I’m gallivanting across the globe living the life of a high-profile technology blogger. I need all the battery life I can get while I’m flying in fancy airplanes to conventions in such exotic locales as Las Vegas, Las Vegas and, of course, Las Vegas. So does the Richard Solo (made by Sharper Image founder Richard Thalheimer) make for an easy-to-use, no nonsense backup battery? In my best impression of Marv Albert to date; “YESSS!!!” → Read More
Here’s a project I wouldnt’ touch in a million years due to my shameful fear of small shocks. What, they’re painful! If you’re not as much of a chicken as me, and have some skill with electrical engineering, you ought to give it a shot. Then bring it over to my house because my shaver is dying. Fast NiMH/NiCd Battery charger [via MAKE:blog] → Read More
[photopress:gorilla.IMG_1576.JPG,full,pp_image] The Power Gorilla folks sell solar and batter-powered rechargers for portable devices. Their latest invention is the Power Gorilla, spare battery for laptops that can run a device for about TK hours on one charge. You can pair it with their solar panels to power your laptop with the sun. They’ve had one laptop running on solar power for about a month now, which is pretty impressive. You might find them in some stores in the US, so keep an eye out. The Gorilla should be out in the summer. [photopress:gorilla.IMG_1578.JPG,thumb,pp_image] [photopress:gorilla.IMG_1579.JPG,thumb,pp_image] Product Page → Read More
I used to test laptops en masse at Laptop Magazine and I’m well aware of the various problems with the testing methods available. Your battery test — playing a DVD over and over to recreate the experience on a plane, for example — might be different from mine — watching furry porn in a constant loop while Twittering college students. That said, there has been some lip service paid to the severe dip in battery life in the latest Penryn Pros and I’m glad Apple has to cojones to change its testing method. When we see battery life, we usually see best case life. This often means the laptop is doing nothing, sitting in a climate controlled room at lowest brightness. If that were the case, all of our laptops could get 10 hours with a little prodding. Apple, however, is now testing wireless productivity — which cuts lots of battery life — along with a number of other tests that improve accuracy but drive down scores. While this seems obvious, a number of OEMs don’t do this out of fear of deflating their numbers. Sometimes their claims of long life are true — IBM, now Lenovo, often had laptops with great life. In fact, I’ve seen laptops that lasted 8 hours or more on one charge. However, most of their claims are sadly false. Hopefully this will bring some truth back into the testing regimen. More MacBook details: battery life claims, enviro push, more [AppleInsider] → Read More
I really don’t know why we don’t see more of this melding of the new and old school. Sure, there are products on the market that let you charge your phone with batteries or through the car’s cigarette lighter, but these are aftermarket solutions. This one has a slot for an AAA battery built in, letting you rock out with 3 more hours of talk time. Of course, a AAA is a bit chunky by today’s standards; it’s far thicker than my Samsung Trace and wouldn’t even fit comfortably anywhere in my big ol’ Helio Ocean. Well, Philips’ 9@9j isn’t the sveltest of phones, it looks like, but it’s a cool capability to have if you’re, say, on a business trip and don’t want to try finding a plug in the airport. Although I have to take issue with the name. It doesn’t even make sense in 1337speak. MWC 2008: Philips Xenium 9@9j phone has AAA battery backup [Tech Digest] → Read More
Yeah, I know, they’re just batteries, but we rely on them for just about everything from games to cameras and everything in between. I can recharge batteries via USB. That’s hot. I’ll be testing them on my Xbox 360 wireless controllers, Pentax K100D Super and whatever else takes AA or AAA batteries. Product Page → Read More
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