This little guy, the Febot, charges your batteries, literally. Like, it literally charges Duracell (and other, lesser brands) batteries. Well, “literally” is a bit strong, as it’s only a concept, but whatever.

What it does is charge batteries using THE POWER OF WIND. You plop the Energizer in there, then stick the contraption on the window. There, it catches wind that turns the little propeller-things which turns the motor.

It’s an ingenious device. Too bad it’ll never be more than a render, probably.

According to a Xantrex Technology Inc. Survey, 71%of American travelers do not have an emergency preparedness kit in their vehicle, and only 11% have an independent jump-start solution that does not require another vehicle’s assistance.  Notably absent is the number of American drivers, like me, that have jumper cables but don’t have any idea how to use them properly.

The Duracell PowerPack 450 with Voice offers a unique twist on the standard portable power source: it tells you what to do.

[T]he step-by-step usage instructions walk you through what to do to jumpstart your car or use the air compressor to inflate a tire.

Seems like a pretty good idea, no?

The Duracell® Powerpack 450 is a stand-alone source of portable power for AC, DC and USB-powered electronics such as a laptop, cordless or cell phone, GPS, lamp, portable light, small tool and small appliance. Simply connect your devices to the Powerpack 450 and its voice technology automatically tells you the estimated runtime for each device.

That’s a pretty handy feature.  Also handy is the inclusion of USB ports on the face, so you don’t need to hunt for the special AC adapter cable for your various gadgets. Available now for about $150.

Duracell wants some of the tasty flash memory pie and have a complete product line coming soon with help from Dane-Elec. The Duracell product line will include Secure Digital, CompactFlash and microSD Flash Memory cards; USB Flash Drives; Flash memory Card Readers; and other Flash Memory bundles, such as an Instant Power Charger and micro SD card bundle, USB Flash Drive 3-packs or SD Card 3- packs. These flash memory products should hit select grocery stores and pharmacies within the coming weeks. Yay, more flash memory. Exciting.

MSNBC discovered this odd commercial made by Duracell and Brickhouse Security, a New York-based security gadget company. While I’m totally down with keeping kids out of creepy white vans, I love the incongruity between the voice-over, the scene, and the suggestion that without Duracell, your kid is going to end up in some madman’s septic system.

via Consumerist

Jump drives after the, er, jump.

Hitting the road this summer? Why not carry a huge battery with lots of plugs and even an air compressor that you can use in an emergency? Or maybe a little tiny recharger for your iPod or other USB-compatible devices? Or a 10-pound solar charger?

At any rate, Duracell and Xantrex have you covered. They are now selling a selection of fairly hefty chargers and emergency systems for homes and cars. Take, for example, the Duracell Powerpack 300, an 18-hour battery with jumper cables and air compressor along with two AC outlets and an LED flashlight. The entire package is about as big as a boom box and charges off of wall current when its not in use.

Then you’ve got this beast, the Powerpack Solar. It can charge multiple devices using the healing rays of the sun and weighs about 10 pounds. They also launched a few smaller chargers including the XPower PowerSource, a USB battery that can apparently charge an iPod Nano seven times.

It’s hard to get really excited about batteries, but if you’re in a brown-out or tornado area, I’d say the Powerpack 300 ($80) or the massive 600 — three AC outlets and 36 hours of power — would be a great investment. They’re available now online and in stores under the Duracell name.