Oh! Gizmo

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 ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While I like this pocket sized solar battery charger, I’m not really sure how effective it would be when actually carried around in a pocket. The Violetta Solargear can be used to recharge 2 AA or AAA batteries, or with an optional power adapter can be used to juice up devices that recharge over USB.

From what I can tell the Solargear only works with these special Violetta NI-MH batteries, which are designed to withstand high temperatures from being recharged in the sun. The Violetta website is pretty vague when it comes to charging times, but I assume it’s no speed demon given the relatively small size of the solar cell it uses. But, with a set of special DC cables you can actually connect multiple Solargear units together to speed things up.

The Violetta Solargear sells for about $45 on the Studio del Sole website, while a set of 4 AA batteries is about $18. 4 AAAs is a bit cheaper at about $15 and the USB charging adapter is about $23.

[ Violetta Solargear ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Luke Anderson

If you’re a gamer, you probably try and squeeze as many extra sessions as you can. The best times are when you’re waiting in line at the DMV, stuck in traffic, or any other time when you’re generally away from your console of choice. That’s why something like a PSP is a great tool to pass the time. Unfortunately, if you’re like me, you have a tendency to forget that it needs to be charged. That’s why having a spare battery comes in handy.

Sony has announced a new battery pack kit that includes a larger 2200 mAh battery that will last up to twice as long as the original one. It also comes with a pair of cover plates to accommodate the larger size. You’ll be able to pick one of these up for $45 starting in the middle of December.

[Sony] VIA [GamerFront]

By David Ponce

Running out of juice sucks (I don’t mean orange juice). Sure, we can come up with tons of features that do an endless stream of “stuff” with our gadgets, but when the power runs out, you’re done. That’s why we’re digging Duracell’s awesome Mobile 100 portable power source. It features a standard North-American power outlet, as well as two USB ports. It can recharge pretty much any of your gadgets, simultaneously, giving you different levels of extra play-time:

Laptop: 2 hours of runtime
Cellphone: 18 hours talk time
Blackberry: 9 hours operating time
Portable game console: 8 hours of play time
MP3 player: 96 hours of play time

Given that different gadgets will suck power at different rates, we’re not altogether sure what kind of hat these numbers were pulled out of. Still, whatever extra time you get will no doubt be appreciated.

Expect to pay around $140 at various retailers.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Xataka ]