Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

A battery backup device is a must-have accessory for those who forget to recharge their toys every night. But if you’re the type who forgets to recharge stuff, how are you going to remember to bring the backup battery with you? Well the obvious answer is to have it strapped to your wrist all day. This recharging bracelet might not win any points for design or subtlety, but it makes up for it with convenience and the fact that it can also be used hands-free.

The bracelet recharges over USB and stores enough juice to keep a PSP running for about 4 hours, or a Nintendo DS for almost 7 1/2 hours. It comes with the USB cable needed for charging and a secondary cable with interchangeable tips allowing it to be used with portable gaming systems, cellphones and MP3 players. It runs about $48 from the Rare Mono Shop and if you like the idea but are embarrassed about wearing it, you can always tell people it’s a security bracelet you were issued after getting out of prison. Just don’t let them see you playing Pokemon on the DS with it as it could diminish the credibility of your story.

[ Battery Backup Bracelet ] VIA [ Siliconera ]

By Luke Anderson

I have a lot of devices that run on AA batteries. Namely my mouse and gaming controllers, but there are others around here that need them as well. This of course means that I have a few different chargers throughout my house to ensure I’ve always got a fresh pair somewhere. If you also need rechargeable batteries on the go, I might recommend tossing this Freeloader Battery ChargerPop into your bag.

It claims to be the smallest and lightest battery charger in the world, which is always nice for a laptop bag. It will charge either two AA or AAA batteries to 75% of a full charge in three to four hours via your PC’s USB port. For $25, it probably wouldn’t be a bad addition to your gadget bag, provided your gadgets actually use AA batteries.

[ Gizoo ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]

By Evan Ackerman

I have a tendency to complain a lot about batteries. I can accept the fact that batteries are a necessary evil, but do there have to be so darn many different kinds of them? I love rechargeable AAs because you can use the same batteries over and over in a lot of devices, but increasingly, new gadgets have integrated, customized, expensive lithium ion batteries. The iGo powerXtender is a brilliant little AA battery pack that, with the aid of iGo tips, you can plug into virtually anything to recharge and/or power it. The best news is that it costs all of $16; read my full review after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

Sure, emergency mobile phone chargers are useful for camping and the occasional blackout, but what about those times when you’re surrounded by power outlets and there’s plenty of electricity to go around? During those times they just sit in a drawer, unused and taking up space. That’s why this emergency mobile phone charger strives to do more by also serving as an LED flashlight. It’s powered by a single AA battery making it relatively small, and it’s able to provide you with a steady beam of white LED light for hours and hours. It even comes with a handy wrist lanyard minimizing your risk of accidentally dropping it.

It’s available from Gadget4all.com for $21.50. Happy April 1.

[ One Battery Flashlight Emergency Mobile Charger ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Sure, flashlights are useful for camping and the occasional blackout, but what about when the sun’s out or when there’s plenty of electricity to go around? During those times they just sit in a drawer, unused and taking up space. That’s why this LED flashlight strives to do more by also serving as an emergency mobile phone charger. It’s powered by a single AA battery making it relatively small, and it’s able to provide your phone with enough power for 2 hours of talk time. It even comes with a set of 5 different charging adapters for Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and other phones.

It’s available from Gadget4all.com for $21.50. Happy April 1.

[ One Battery Emergency Mobile Charger Flashlight ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I probably wouldn’t have given this battery charger from La Crosse a second look were it not for the LCD display that caught my eye. But on closer examination I’m ready to throw away the bundled charger that came with my Energizer rechargeables and replace it with this one. Did you know that the best way to recharge a NiMH battery is the slow and steady route? Sure it might take hours and hours, but it will considerably prolong the life of the battery. Fast chargers actually put more strain on the batteries making them wear out quicker, which kind of defeats the purpose of buying them in the first place.

So the Alpha Power charger from La Crosse automatically defaults to a 200mA charge mode which is the optimal setting for prolonging battery life. But if you’re in a hurry you can manually set it to 500, 700, 1000, 1500 or 1800mA to reduce charging times. And when the battery is fully charged the Alpha Power automatically switches to a trickle charge mode to ensure maximum battery capacity. It works with all NiCd and NiMH AA and AAA rechargeable batteries and you can even charge AA’s and AAA’s at the same time.

It includes a set of 4 AA and 4 AAA NiMH 1.2v batteries, a travel bag, an AC power adapter and adapters for converting the batteries into C or D cells. All that for just $39.99 from Amazon.com.

[ La Crosse Alpha Power Battery Charger ] VIA [ Coding Horror ]

By Evan Ackerman

Without electricity, my life would come to a standstill. It’s sad, I know. In the event of a blackout, Energizer should be able to at least keep my lights on with their new rechargeable light sticks, which are LED lights with built-in rechargeable battery packs. The reason that these light sticks are better than, say, a rechargeable flashlight is that they’re designed to function as integrated parts of Energizer’s Light-On-Demand system. The light sticks act like normal LED light bulbs in Energizer desk lights, wall lights, etc. until the power goes out… And then thanks to the internal battery packs, the lights just stay on, for up to 20 hours. You can even take the light sticks out and move them to wherever you need. If you still don’t have electricity after 20 hours and haven’t killed yourself due to boredom, you can keep the light sticks on by replacing the rechargeable packs with conventional alkaline batts. The Light-On-Demand system and light sticks should be available at Target this month, but pricing information (and the website, for that matter) doesn’t seem to be available yet.

Update: More info here; looks like the products will range from $24.99 - $69.99.

[ Light On Demand ] VIA [ Energizer Press Release ]

By Luke Anderson

If you’ve been paying careful attention to the world of tech news, then you may have caught the quiet launch of Apple’s latest addition to the MacBook line dubbed the Air. So maybe quiet isn’t exactly the best word to use when talking about any product launch from Apple, but I digress. One of the issues that I noticed right off the bat was that much like Apple’s iPods and iPhones, you can’t actually replace the battery yourself. This is a major turnoff for most mobile users.

So what is it going to take to get yourself a spanking-new battery when your old one stops holding a decent charge? The magic number is $129 and the best part is that Apple is more than happy to install it for you for free. That’s about on-par with other notebook batteries, so I think most people will be more or less pleased with the cost.

[ Apple ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Luke Anderson

Mobile products are generally limited by three factors: size, power and battery life. There’s not much that the end-user can do to change the power or size (except to make it larger) of their mobile device of choice, however, battery life is something that can be worked on. In the case of the Sony PSP, you can now find all of the power you’ll ever need just by walking out on a sunny day.

While this new battery may offer you extra power without plugging into a wall, I’m not so sure that I’d get too excited about it. First, it looks bulky; this means that it’s going to likely make your PSP a little more uncomfortable to play, and it’s going to be a little more of a burden to carry around. Now this is all fine and dandy, since you’re never going to have to worry about a dead battery, right?

Looking at the device you’ll notice that it’s going to mount to the bottom of your PSP. This also means that your solar panels will be facing down while you’re playing. Unless you like playing upside down, or you feel like carrying a mirror to reflect the necessary rays, you’re not going to get a lot of extra power from this bulky unit. Even at around $30, I’m not so sure that it’s worth it.

[ DealExtreme ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Evan Ackerman

As a consumer society that’s so reliant on batteries, it’s sometimes surprising how infrequently major innovations take place. Or maybe when it comes to pace of innovation, we’ve just been spoiled by the rest of the consumer electronics industry. But either way, Toshiba is planning to launch a substantially improved type of lithium-ion batteries in March of next year. Called SCiBs (”Super Charge ion Batteries”), they use lithium titanate nanocrystals (duh) to recharge the battery to 90% in 5 minutes, with a useful life of over 5,000 cycles.

You’ve probably noticed that the batts in the picture don’t exactly look like a friendly set of AAs. No, unfortunately the industrial sector (i.e. non-consumer) has first dibs, meaning that the first place you’re likely to see SCiBs are going to be in hybrid electric (or entirely electric) cars, where the quick recharge rate could potentially overcome one of the major downsides of cars like the Tesla Roadster: the 3.5 hour recharge time.

[ Press Release (Translated from Japanese) ] VIA [ Engadget ]