Some German researchers have conjured up a kind of battery that’s less than a millimeter thin and is made by the reactive layers onto each other like a silk screen. But the most surprising bit is that they’re planning on making them on a commercial scale within six months.
Usually we hear about this stuff and then it disappears for a couple years. Not this time, hopefully.
Nasa (NASA?) has selected Saft, a French company, to develop its next-generation batteries, batteries that will power tomorrow’s rovers, landers, and all sorts of space-related goodies. The batteries will be of the Lithium-ion type, like the kind inside your cellphone (but not the new MacBook Pro—that’s a Lithium-ion polymer.)
Holy, poop. This is a lot of batteries for only 9 bucks. How can you go wrong? The description says these batteries are “cosmetically imperfect” but no one should care about that as long as they work.
Short Version: Wii owners sick of replacing controller batteries every couple weeks will find Tekno Creations’ $35 InCharge contact-less charging system to be a good investment.
Here’s a reasonably priced iPod-compatible quick battery charger from Energizer. Buy.com is selling it for $9.99, while most similar iPod/iPhone battery backup solutions are going for more than double that amount.
Short Version: Simple to operate and offering the ability to pop out the rechargeable AAA batteries for use in other devices, the Pocket Booster pulls double duty as life support for your phone and battery charger for items like remote controls and Bluetooth mice.
Boston-Power announced earlier today that their line of Sonata Li-ion batteries for 18 HP notebooks (about 70 percent of HP’s lineup) are now available directly from HP. The Sonata batteries were the first to be Nordic Ecolabeled, which essentially means they pollute less by being high capacity, longer lasting and having the “smallest amounts of detrimental heavy metals.” They boast a three lifespan and HP is backing that up by providing a three-year warranty, which is the only one in the market to do so. It’s available now for the following models for $150.
So there are already rechargeable batteries, and there are already solar power devices to charge batteries, but what if you could make a rechargeable battery that was completely self contained, that all you had to do was put it in the window, and let it charge?
Make sure to say “I love you, honey” after hanging up on your wife today. You know why? Because if what happened to a man in China happens to you, you’ll be as dead as Colin Quinn’s career. The man was killed last week—I guess news trickles slowly out of China—when his cellphone exploded, breaking an artery in his neck. Ouch.
Get right outta town, I would actually use this. It’s a somewhat unassuming wristband (looks like it’s made of rubber) that serves double duty as an emergency charger for your small devices.
Is that a phone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me not have to recharge your G1 every two hours?
The wait for a suitable extended battery for the G1 is finally over. I picked up the $42.95 Innocell 1400mAh battery from Seidio.com and I’m happy to report that the promise of 15% longer battery life seems to be legit.
If you own the T-Mobile G1, you might find yourself longing for an extended battery to replace the included 1150mAh battery that comes with the phone.
There’s a lot of money going out the door for the auto makers (well, maybe) and more so for the finance business, so I think it’s wise for some of the less bubble-orientated sectors to point out now just how little they need to establish or reinvigorate themselves. Public radio could use a boost, space programs are comparatively cheap, and now a consortium of battery makers is asking for a paltry $1bn to help get the ball rolling on US-based next-generation battery manufacturing.
After all, in five years, what use will having an American auto business be if they have to buy all their most important parts from China? There are four dozen next-gen battery manufactories being built there right now, and zero here in the States. The group of companies, including the likes of 3M, hopes to avoid total Asian dominance of a field upon which the existence of perhaps an entire industry is staked.
Andrew Grove, former Intel Corp chairman, is pushing the world’s biggest maker of microprocessors to diversify business by becoming a manufacturer of advanced batteries for plug-in electric cars. This emerging industry is attracting Chinese and Japanese companies like BYD Motors, Panasonic, and Sanyo.
According to an Intel spokesman, Intel already has investments in battery-related companies through its Intel Capital Unit. It is unknown whether they will increase their presence in this field, especially in these weak economic times when corporations are leaning towards cash conservation instead of new investments. Intel is also expecting a 12% decline in sales for the fourth quarter.
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Hybrid and plug-in vehicles have been plagued by poor battery performance in the past. The next-gen rides simply do not offer that much MPG improvement because of the lackluster batteries, but LG Chem and STMicroeclectronics are working on something new. By harnessing a more powerful and efficient battery management chip, they hope to improve lithium-ion batteries enough to deliver 1600V to electric motors. Who knows when this will hit the market — or if there will even still be a car market — but the battery development can only lead to bigger and better things. I, for one, would like a super long life battery for my MacBook. Dreams. We should all dream.
HP might have a solution to laptops batteries slow death thanks to a Boston-Power-made battery. The battery, dubbed Enviro by HP, should hit select platforms in early 2009 features with some kick-ass features. Allegedly, the battery can be be charged to 80% in just 30 minutes and will not degrade before a 1,000 re-charges. HP is backing the battery with a 3-year warranty to ensure consumers know this battery means business. Truthfully though, we have heard and been burned by fanciful battery claims in the past so while this sounds great, we’ll wait until we can test it ourselves.
What’s the most annoying part of your favorite gadget, be it your laptop, your phone or your portable media player? In fact, what do they all have in common? Here’s one vote for terrible battery life. (I have a cheap-o Philips digital audio player whose battery lasts, I think, 27 seconds before dying.) So here’s hoping that Energizer’s new zinc air battery, to debut at CES next month, isn’t merely hot air.
The new battery, officially the Zinc Air Prismatic, while not being any larger than current batteries, supposedly lasts as much as three times as long as your everyday lithium or alkaline battery. Très passionnant.
This actually has the capacity to be a bigger deal than not. I can’t tell you how many times companies give the same song and dance that they can’t improve battery life because there’s but so much juice they can tap into with existing battery technology. It’s a chemistry problem more than anything else.
Quick Version: We take a look at three different iPhone/iPod chargers from Kensington, RichardSolo, and i.Sound, weighing the pros and cons of each.
Once upon a time, I was at some press conference somewhere dealing with laptops and someone in the audience asked why battery technology hasn’t improved. The exec on stage replied something to the effect of, “Batteries aren’t our industry, they’re a chemistry problem.” So your laptop’s awful battery life can be blamed on chemistry.
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