Oh! Gizmo

By Chris Scott Barr

Here’s something interesting, it seems that Energizer is screwing customers who purchase rechargeable D batteries. Specifically, the Energizer E2 D batteries. People have noticed that these batteries seem weaker, and actually physically lighter than comparable batteries. Well upon closer inspection, it is found that they are rated at 2500mAh each, the same as a standard AA battery. An average single-use D battery is rated at around 12,000mAh. Guess what that means?

That’s right, if you tear open one of these batteries (I don’t usually recommend opening batteries, as it’s just a bad idea) you’ll find a something that resembles a AA battery inside a plastic case. Granted, the shape is a bit different, but the capacity is exactly the same. So for $25 you are essentially getting the same thing as a $6 pair of AA’s and a pair of cheap (we’re talking a couple bucks each) AA-to-D converters. For shame Energizer, for shame!

VIA [ NaturalNews ]

By Chris Scott Barr

iPhones aren’t known for their excellent battery life. In fact, they pretty much need recharged every night just to make it through the next day. If you’re a heavy user, then sometimes you’re lucky to make it through the day at all. This has lead to all sorts of interesting battery packs being created for Apple’s phones. One of these is the Mophie Juice Pack Air, which I’ve been testing out for the last week or so.

The Juice Pack Air is one of the latest battery packs from Mophie, who makes a host of iPhone products. It is essentially a hard case for your iPhone (3G and 3GS), which adds a small amount of bulk to your phone in exchange for roughly double the battery life. So is it worth it? Read on to find out.

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By Andrew Liszewski

This morning Sony announced a new type of lithium ion secondary battery that includes all the major improvements one expects to hear from a new battery including higher power output, extended lifespan and faster charge times. The batteries, which are designed to be used in larger rechargeable batteries like the kind used in power tools (hence the basic label) feature an olivine-type lithium iron phosphate used as the cathode material. As someone who never progressed past high school chemistry I’m not quite sure why that’s a better material to use, but according to Sony it results in a battery that has a power density of 1800W/kg with 20A continuous discharge, a 2,000 charge-discharge life cycle and the ability to recharge up to 99% of its capacity in a mere 30 minutes. And apparently the new batteries have been shipping since June of this year, so thanks for letting us know right away Sony!

[ PR - Sony Launches High-power, Long-life Lithium Ion Secondary Battery Using Olivine-type Lithium Iron Phosphate as the Cathode Material ] VIA [ Sony Insider ]

By Evan Ackerman

I’ve got portable chargers for my cell phone, portable chargers for my iPod, portable chargers for my little video recorder, portable chargers for my AA batteries… The only thing I don’t have a portable charger for (besides my laptop) is my DSLR, because it takes those annoyingly square 7.4 volt battery packs that require their own special charger. Energizer is about to solve this problem with a little clip that has teeth to attach to the contacts of battery packs of any size. The other end can be plugged into a USB port, and if I may say, props to Energizer for not making it some kind of proprietary plug.

Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that you can’t charge a 7.4 volt DSLR battery out of a 5 volt USB port, which means that you’ll have to instead use one of Energizer’s new line of XPAL universal power packs (out next month) that come with 8.4 volt outputs. Nothing wrong with that, though… The battery packs looks pretty useful, and some of them even come with solar chargers. We should be seeing a review unit sometime in the near future, and we’ll keep you updated.

[ Energizer XPAL Power ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

By Chris Scott Barr

If you’ve got an HP laptop that you purchased between August 2007 and March 2008, you might want to stop and pay attention for a minute. Yes, I know there’s plenty of other fun stuff to look at, but if you value your legs and the pants you’re wearing, stop for a moment. HP is recalling some 70,000 laptop batteries due to overheating issues. Apparently there have been incidents of property damage with some of these, so it would be worth checking into. The models affected are listed below, more info after the jump.

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By Evan Ackerman

We’re big big fans of rechargeable batteries, but they’re not usually something that you think of powering devices that suck up a lot of electricity over a long period of time. Something like, oh, I don’t know, a laptop. But it looks like netbooks are just barely low power enough to achieve a decent amount of on-time using a bunch of rechargeable AA batteries, and NorhTec has taken the first step with their Gecko Edubook, which uses eight integrated NiMH batteries for power. More info and specs, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

Yes, I know that this thing is most likely not real, especially since it’s from a company called “Naivetek.” The idea is you stick D batteries in one side, and it charges up AA or AAAs on the other. It sounds silly, kind of like the solar powered flashlight, but it actually could end up being something useful.

Disposable D batteries have a typical capacity of 12,000 mAh, whereas rechargeable AA batteries normally have capacities of 2,500 mAh or less. It looks like this thing can hold maybe 4 D batteries on one side, and 2 AAs on the other. So hypothetically, that gives you 48,000 mAh capacity with which you could recharge your AA batteries 9 or 10 times. Say you’re off camping for a week and need to keep your camera running… Would you rather carry 10 sets of AAs, or 1 set of AAs, 4 Ds, and this charger?

[ Flickr ] VIA [ TechEBlog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Even though they’re still in the prototype stage and not terribly efficient at this point, I still think these solar powered rechargeable batteries are a brilliant idea. Designed by Knut Karlsen, the SunCats are basically a set of old NiMH rechargeable batteries wrapped in a flexible Photo Voltaic cell created by the Institute for Energy Technology. When the batteries are drained, you simply leave them sitting in a windowsill or anywhere with ample sunlight and they’ll recharge themselves.

The PV cells were simply glued onto the batteries and wired up using a conductive silver pen and some flat wires scavenged from a broken canon lens. At the moment they only provide a weak trickle charge to the batteries, but Knut envisions a second version with built-in capacitors and electronics to make the charging process more efficient.

[ Notes from Knut - The SunCat Batteries - DIY prototypes ] VIA [ Inhabitat ]

By Evan Ackerman

Fuji EnviroMAX batteries are just like any other disposable batteries, except that they are actually disposable. Like, you can throw them out in the trash. Not that you should necessarily DO that, but the point is that (unlike other batteries) they don’t have any toxic elements in them. So you can feel less guilty or something. You’ll be able to buy EnviroMAX batteries in AA, AAA, C, D, etc. at hardware stores and other major retailers (like Target and CVS) by the end of March, and here’s the important bit: they’ll cost the same as traditional non-reusable batteries that are made from pure unfiltered evil. Oh, and independent testing apparently shows that the environmentally friendly ones last about 15% longer. So why not buy them, right?

Incidentally, the Fuji rep and I had a bit of an argument about whether it’s better to buy these and toss them in the trash or buy rechargeables (which have all kinds of nasty heavy metals in them) and use far, far less of them… And let’s just say we didn’t exactly reach a consensus. Oh well.

[ GreenFuji ]