By Evan Ackerman

At the end of last month, Nokia filed a patent for a “piezoelectric kinetic energy harvester” for mobile phones. If they get it to work, it will enable mobile phones to charge themselves. Brillliant! Why didn’t I think of that?

I’ll tell you why I didn’t think of that. It’s because a “piezoelectric kinetic energy harvester” works by generating electricity from crystals which are compressed by movement. So, the catch is (of course there’s a catch), you have to be moving for the phone to charge. As in, not sedentary in front of the computer. This means that people like me will have dead cell phones 99% of the time, with the remaining 1% of uptime due to bedroom to bathroom transitions plus trips to the fridge. Maybe I’ll just strap it to my cat and bust out the laser pointer for a few hours, that should do the trick.

Cat or no cat, it’s always good to see big companies trying to innovate when it comes to green energy and infinite phone calls. Or at least, it’s good to see them take the first tentative steps in the form of a patent.

[ Nokia Patent ] VIA [ New Scientist ]

Traveling with a compact power bar of some sort is a necessity these days, which is why I sincerely hope this Cute Cube power adapter concept becomes a reality, and soon! Designed by Zhang Xi, Wang Hui, Miao Yingying, Zhou Xing and Cai Yun and winner of a most deserved Red Dot Design Award, the Cute Cube is nothing more than your run-of-the-mill power bar, but in a vastly improved package.

First of all the compact cube shape makes it easy to carry in a laptop bag or suitcase, but it also ensures the sockets aren’t sitting next to each other, which can be problematic if you’ve got a large transformer plugged in that blocks other outlets. And if you do run into an issue because of the size of the plug you’re using or the orientation of its cord, each of the sockets on the Cute Cube can rotate to accommodate everything you need to plug in. Cute? Kind of. Brilliant? Absolutely.

[ Red Dot Design Awards - Cute Cube ] VIA [ I New Idea Homepage ]

I wouldn’t necessarily say that charging my iPhone with the included sync cable is inconvenient, but I can definitely see the advantage of being able to just drop it on a table to top off the battery. And the Hug from Case-Mate uses Fulton Innovation’s eCoupled Wireless Power system to enable you to do just that.

Now since the iPhone’s battery isn’t removable or even accessible the Hug enables wireless charging via a plastic case. And because there’s an induction coil inside there and other electronicy bits, you’ll have to deal with a bit more bulk than you may otherwise be used to. But the case does still allow the use of the camera and access to the dock connector on the bottom, and it comes with a charging pad that’s compatible with other eCoupled devices if you don’t happen to have a desk with that functionality built-in.

The Hug will be available sometime around early to mid February, for a hefty $90.

[ Case-Mate Hug ]

By Evan Ackerman

This thing is, seriously, the highlight of CES for me (so far) this year. 3D TVs and eBook readers are fine, but there’s nothing amazing about them.

The Airnergy Charger is amazing.

This little box has, inside it, some kind of circuitry that harvests WiFi energy out of the air and converts it into electricity. This has been done before, but the Airnergy is able to harvest electricity with a high enough efficiency to make it practically useful: on the CES floor, they were able to charge a BlackBerry from 30% to full in about 90 minutes, using nothing but ambient WiFi signals as a power source.

The Airnergy has a battery inside it, so you can just carry it around and as long as you’re near some WiFi, it charges itself. Unlike a solar charger, it works at night and you can keep it in your pocket. Of course, proximity to the WiFi source and the number of WiFi sources is important, but at the rate it charges, if you have a home wireless network you could probably just leave anywhere in your house overnight and it would be pretty close to full in the morning.

Here is the really, really unbelievable part: RCA says that the USB charger will be available this summer for $40, and a battery with the WiFi harvesting technology will be available soon after. I mean, all kinds of people are pushing wireless charging, but this would hands down take the cake… It doesn’t need a pad and it’s charging all the time, for free, in just about any urban environment.

We didn’t think you’d believe all this, so we made RCA explain it all on video:

Yeah, we’ll definitely be keeping you updated on this one.

Apple has managed to significantly shrink the size of the AC to USB power adapter it ships with the iPhone, but I think these Flipower devices edge them out just slightly when it comes to their compact size. And the simple secret to slimming them down was to just remove their prongs. Instead, you’ll find a flip out panel that almost looks like a wall socket, and in a way it is. You see the Flipower is designed to sit between a wall socket and a power plug as you can see it doing with the power bar in the upper corner of that photo, and thanks to a set of thin metal wires, it’s able to draw power from the outlet and pass it onto a connected USB device.

The obvious downside of course is that you need to have something plugged into a wall or power bar before the Flipower is actually usable, but in reality finding someplace to do so isn’t really that hard. But it doesn’t really matter since pricing and availability info for the US, or anywhere, are currently unknown.

[ Powertech ]

By Evan Ackerman

If you’re one of those uber-hip hipsters with the solar panels on your roof, I envy you and your free electricity. But until somebody invents a solar panel that generates electricity in the dark, there are always going to be times when you’ve got more electricity than you need (high noon) and times when you’ve got less electricity than you need (low noon, aka high moon). If you’ve been generating excess energy, you’ve probably been selling it back to your energy company at a tidy profit, but that doesn’t exactly help you achieve grid independence… The way to do THAT would be through some kind of energy storage system, which lets you store up excess energy and use it when you need it. This is just what Panasonic would like to install in your house, in the form of a giant lithium ion battery.

This household battery, which Panasonic says should be able to power the average home (whatever that means) for a solid week, will be available sometime in 2011. It will be somehow hooked up to your TV, which will allow you to monitor energy usage. We don’t yet have any information on how much this thing will cost, but I bet it’ll be hard to justify in terms of storage benefits and cost savings (and possibly convenience) versus the up-front cost of the system. As with most micro-energy generation systems, it’ll probably end up being more of a feel-good measure than an actual boost to efficiency, but at least it’ll keep your computer on for an extra week when the revolution comes and there’s no more grid power.

VIA [ Physorg ]

By Evan Ackerman

While we’re still (apparently) a long way away from the mythical standardization of cell phone chargers, more and more phones (and other gadgets like portable music players and digital cameras) have come to rely on (or at least accept) USB connections for recharging. The current supplied by most USB connections probably won’t charge your gadget as fast as whatever proprietary wall plug that came with it, but the epic level of convenience of only needing one plug and one cable more than makes up for it.

Unless you need to charge two things at the same time, in which case multiple powered USB ports are a necessity. Your laptop probably has multiple powered USB ports, but sometimes leaving your laptop plugged in and turned on just to charge some stuff isn’t especially convenient, sometimes you don’t want to carry around your laptop at all, and sometimes you just don’t want to deal with all the crap that happens when you plug something in that also uses USB to transfer data.

So after all that ranting, you’re probably expecting some kind of fantabulous thing that will solve all of your USB charging needs. Sorry. All I’ve got is this wall jack that has TWO USB charging plugs instead of ONE. And it’s small and black and has foldy plugs. And it only costs $7. Find it at USB Geek.

VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Evan Ackerman

Powerzoa is a little cube that sits in between a wall socket and your electronics. It has the magical ability to turn power on and off all by itself while monitoring energy usage, and each Powerzoa cube includes some kind of wireless internet connection that interfaces with a website that lets you track how much power you waste and gives you the option of turning each individual cube’s power off. Powerzoa touts these features as a great way to “save electricity, lower energy costs, and help the environment.” And that’s, you know, great. But for me, the big appeal is the ability to turn individual appliances and lights and stuff on and off over the internet.

Powerzoa is almost identical in principle to the Visible Energy UFO, except at the level of an individual socket as opposed to a power strip. While the Visible Energy UFO is supposed to be ready to go by the end of this year, Powerzoa is still in the prototype phase, but if it’s cheap enough and easy enough to set up, it could be quite a bit handier thanks to a small form factor.

[ Powerzoa ] VIA [ DVICE ]

There are lots of ways to charge USB devices on the go using disposable or rechargeable batteries, but none of them are as small or as cheap as this DIY one. It’s basically just a female USB connector stuck to the top of a 9v battery, with a voltage regulator in the middle to make sure that there’s only 5 volts coming out. Total cost? If you have a soldering iron and a scrap female USB cable, the voltage regulator will run you about $1.59 plus tax at RadioShack (which I refuse on principle to call “The Shack” like they want me to). The real beauty of this thing is that you don’t have to use a 9v battery. You could use a whole series of D batteries, for example, and go on vacation for a month with your iPod.

Now, yes, you do have to know how to solder if you want to make one of these yourself. But seriously, soldering is easy. And it’s fun! You get to MELT METAL! You can pick up a basic soldering set at The Shack for all of eight bucks, and there are a bazillion beginner guides online (try Instructables or even YouTube). So, have a fun afternoon and learn a useful skill while making a handy little gadget at the same time. Or, you can always just do it with glue, you wimp.

[ AnythingButiPod ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

It’s no secret that advancements in battery technology have not kept pace with advancements in gadgetry. Smartphones equipped with giant LCD displays that are capable of playing movies, surfing the web, GPS’ing your location, taking photos and even occasionally making calls are great and all, but they’ve made the ugly downside of poor battery life even more of an issue.

Now sure, it would be fantastic if companies like Duracell stumbled across some miraculous solution to the problem in their research labs, but for the moment external backup batteries like their Instant USB Charger are the next best thing. I had a chance to try it out, and you can read my full review after the jump.

The Duracell Instant USB Charger is essentially a rechargeable lithium-ion battery inside a pocket-friendly housing that allows you to connect and recharge a wide range of gadgets that are USB-charging friendly. According to the packaging the Instant Charger’s battery is rated at 1150mAh and there’s a chart listing the average additional run/talk times for various gadgets. For example, the iPod Classic will run for an additional 50 hours when connected to the Instant Charger, while the iPhone 3G will gain an extra 180 minutes of talk time, give or take. From my own testing I had no problem fully recharging an iPhone 3GS that was down to about 25% battery life, and doing so didn’t completely drain the Instant Charger either.

Included in the packaging is the Instant Charger itself as well as a USB to mini-USB cable which can be used to recharge the battery when connected to a PC, or used to recharge a device that features a mini-USB jack.

The best part of the Instant Charger is that it’s dead easy to use. The only button is a simple on/off switch that ensures the rechargeable battery doesn’t get depleted while it’s not in use. Otherwise it’s quite literally plug and play. And while it’s not visible in this photo, there’s an LED-powered light-up ring inside the half-circle ‘copper top’ on top of the charger that glows green while it’s on, or orange when the battery is dead.

On one end of the Instant Charger there’s a mini-USB jack used to charge its lithium-ion battery. Out of the box it did take a good couple of hours to completely charge it up, and the charge status is indicated with a small LED light that glows orange during charging, and green when the battery is full.

And on the other end is a standard USB connector where your device’s charging cable can be attached.

Of course if you ever forget which end is used for charging and which end is used for providing power to a gadget you can always flip the Instant Charger over where the underside is clearly labeled with the words IN and OUT and a couple of hard to misinterpret arrows.

As for its size, the Instant Charger is very compact, thin and most importantly, light. I would actually compare it to the more recent iPod Nanos when it comes to size (though thanks to a plastic housing it’s far lighter) but here you can see it sitting next to an iPhone. It’s very easy to stash in your pocket if you happened to need to recharge a device while walking around.

And while the included USB to mini-USB cable is handy for recharging many cellphones and other portable devices, we all know the iPhone and iPods use their own proprietary connector, so you’ll have to use the charging cable Apple provides. But since anyone with an iPhone probably already carries the charging cable with them at all times anyways (just in case) it’s not a big issue in my opinion. In fact the finger gets pointed at Apple here, not Duracell.

Conclusions:

It’s really hard to find anything wrong with Duracell’s Instant USB Charger. It does exactly what it’s designed to do and it does it well. It’s small enough that it’s not a hassle to carry or use wherever you happen to be, and until batteries improve, it’s really the perfect solution for portable devices that don’t allow you to swap out the battery with a backup when it’s dead. And with a price tag of just $30, I would say it’s an absolute must-have accessory for any gadget bag.

Pros:
+ Compact, light and easy to carry.
+ As easy to use as it gets.
+ Supports pretty much any device that can charge over USB.
+ Inexpensive.

Cons:
- Just the fact that my cellphone requires me to carry a backup battery, just in case.

Links:

Duracell Instant USB Charger – $29.99

If you have any questions about the Duracell Instant USB Charger you’d like answered, please feel free to leave them in the comments, and I’ll try to respond to them as best I can.