By Colin Ackerman

We first heard about Sanyo’s Eneloop rechargeable hand warmers early last year, but apparently it’s taken them this long to make it to the states. There’s a new version, too… The original egg-shaped hand warmer gets warm on one side only (102° F in the low setting to 109° F on high, which they call “Turbo”), runs off a rechargeable lithium ion battery, and you get over 3 hours of heat for a 3 hour charge.

The square hand warmer is the new one; it uses AA rechargeable batteries (Eneloops included) and also functions as a battery charger, which is pretty sweet. It warms up on both sides to 102° F on low and 115° F on high, and you’ll get between 1 and 3 hours of warmth for a 4.5 hour charge. So, it’s not as long lasting as the other model, but it’s heating both sides and using swappable batts, which is a major plus in my book.

Best part about these things is the cheap factor: the one-sided warmer with the integrated battery is $35 (in white or pink), and the two-sided warmer that’s also a charger and includes 2 AA Eneloop rechargeable batteries is only $10 more (in silver or, um, ‘hot’ pink). You’ll find them at the online Sanyo store or “select retailers nationwide.”

[ Sanyo Rechargeable Hand Warmers ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By Evan Ackerman

As electronics get more powerful, the demands that they place on their power source increases, often entirely out of proportion to the ability of things like batteries to keep up. This is especially problematic with rechargeable batteries, which generally start off at a disadvantage anyway when it comes to voltage. I’ve had pretty good luck with high end NiMH batteries in the past, but the future is being brought to you by PowerGenix and their new NiZn (that’s nickel zinc) rechargeable cells.

This new nickel zinc technology appears to offer the high output voltage of premium alkalines (1.6 volts), the lightness of lithium batteries, plus faster charging, no memory, and relative cheapness and eco-friendliness (thanks to the zinc). The only downside is potentially the capacity, which is 1500 mAh, as opposed to some high end NiMH batteries, which offer in excess of 2500 mAh. By way of comparison, Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries have a capacity of about 3000 mAh, while standard alkalines store about 2700 mAh. You have to remember, though, that capacity and voltage are interrelated, meaning that the NiZn rechargeables that output 1.6 volts will perform far better in high drain devices than NiMH rechargeables, which only output 1.2 volts.

The other downside is the unsurprising fact that NiZn batteries require their own special charger, but a charger plus a set of 4 AA batteries is only $25 (pre-order) with free shipping on Amazon. I wouldn’t go swapping out all of your NiMH batteries for these new ones, but for high drain devices, nickel zinc looks like it should work significantly better, and they’re a damn sight cheaper, and much less wasteful, than buying disposable batteries of any sort.

[ PowerGenix ] VIA [ Engadget ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Sanyo is hoping to boost the popularity of their eneloop rechargeable batteries with this overly cute tester named eneloopy, which is clearly an homage or parody of the Peanuts’ character Snoopy. But instead of hanging out with Woodstock or engaging the Red Baron in air-to-air combat, eneloopy will accept a AA or AAA battery (using his food dish spacer) and will indicate its charge level with his light-up LED nose.

Green means the battery’s fully charged, orange means it’s partially charged, red means it needs to be charged, and of course off means the battery’s completely dead. eneloopy will be available in Japan bundled with a set of eneloop batteries sometime in November, though pricing info hasn’t been announced.

[ PR - SANYO Releases 8-Color AA-size “eneloop” Rechargeable Battery Pack and
Product Sets that include the Simple “eneloopy” Battery Checker ] VIA [ DVICE ]

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 »