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.

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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.

Until now! Read More

This little guy, the Febot, charges your batteries, literally. Like, it literally charges Duracell (and other, lesser brands) batteries. Well, “literally” is a bit strong, as it’s only a concept, but whatever.

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Just a heads up that there are a handful of potentially dangerous laptop batteries floating around out there. These ones are made by Sony but are found in certain models of HP, Toshiba, and Dell notebooks. The HP notebooks are the most at risk with about 32,000 affected batteries.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, “There have been 19 reports of the batteries overheating, including 17 reports of flames/fire (10 resulting in minor property damage). Two consumers experienced minor burns.”

PC Notebook Computer Batteries Recalled Due to Fire and Burn Hazard [CPSC]

Holy crap, you could drive a truck under that thing. That’s a nine cell battery for the MSI Wind netbook, which is available on Ebay’s UK site according to a post in the MsiWind.net forums. The item ships from China for a grand total of around £70 – roughly $115 in US dollars.

Owners of this gigantic lump are reporting over 6.5 hours of battery life. When I tested the six-cell MSI Wind, I was able to get a little over five hours before having to recharge so I’d almost think you could squeeze 8+ hours out of a nine-cell battery with everything tweaked to maximize power consumption.

[via Wired]

I would caution you all against buying accessories for your Apple laptop now, a week before a major Apple announcement, but this external battery does look pretty handy. It plugs right into the MBP as if it were an outlet and gives (they say) 6-10 hours of extra battery life. Of course, my MBP is so borked that that would mean 6-10 hours of total battery life (thanks Apple), but hey.

Two caveats: one, you have to buy a new magsafe power adapter (or have yours modded) and two, the thing costs $450. Man, I could buy another laptop and just use that one when the first runs out!

Remember the word “spintronics” as you may be hearing more and more about it over the coming months. It’s basically a phenomenon that creates magnetic currents that behave much in the same way that electric currents work, except with out all the heat that electric currents generate.

In the computer world, advancements have already been made toward magnetic RAM, which is said to be much faster than conventional RAM and uses far less power (like 90% less power). Now scientists in Japan have extended the same principle towards batteries. Such a battery, when used in, say, a laptop, would produce no heat and would consume far less power.

The new breakthrough has been coined the “Seebeck effect” in honor of Thomas Johan Seebeck, who discovered thermoelectricity back in the 1800s. No word on if we’ll actually see these wonderful batteries anytime soon, but I’m guessing we’ll be stuck with the good old lap-scorching, explosion-prone lithium ion batteries for a while.

[via Spintronics-Info.com]

A new set of EU Directives could force Apple to re-design its iPod and iPhone in Europe. And if it did that, it might as well re-design them for every market, right?

The Directives would force manufacturers to design their products so that batteries are easily replaces—unscrew one or two screws, flip a tab, etc. Seems the EU wants to make it easier for people to dispose of their old electronics without endangering the environment with leaky, dangerous batteries littered about the countryside.

As such, Apple, whose iPod and iPhone don’t have easily removable batteries, would have to do a little re-designin’.

Of course, other manufacturers would similarly have to design their products; it’s not like Brussels is picking on Apple specifically. Everyone knows it hates Microsoft.

Thank you, lord. And by lord, I mean Toshiba. Now, if you believe everything you read, it appears that these new SCiB batteries last longer, charge faster, stay cooler, and survive more recharges. If I’m not mistaken, that’s an improvement on every single aspect I care about in a laptop battery. The one thing they don’t mention is price. And you can bet that if these things were cheap, they’d have said so. So while I’ll be happy to rock these new batteries when they make it to consumer devices, I’m pretty sure we’ll be paying a premium for a little while.

Yes, I know it’s not that kind of battery.

HTC Shift owners (see our review here) who have a little extra coin and don’t mind adding some relatively substantial girth to their device may find solace in a $240 extended battery from Mugen. Paul from Modaco posted a video of the battery itself and how it looks when added to the Shift. The included battery cover is a nice touch.

The Shift’s standard battery is 2700mAh and is rated for two hours of use. With pretty aggressive web surfing over the Shift’s EVDO connection, I was only ever able to get around an hour of use before needing to recharge, though. Whatever the case, the extended battery is rated at 6600mAh, more than double the capacity of the stock one. There’s also a 4400mAh battery for $170.

Tokyo-based NTT Data developed a manufacturing process to prolong the life span and reduce the weight of lead-acid batteries. The company said it will make use of its new technology in uninterruptible power supplies and possibly in automotive applications.

Production of conventional batteries requires high quantities of lead to retain capacity because lead particles bind together over repeated charge and discharge cycles. This binding reduces the reactive surface area of electrodes that can help keeping lead particles apart, resulting in shorter battery life.

NTT developed a new way to make electrodes by mixing lead oxide with carbon nano particles and polyvinyl alcohol, enwrapping lead particles in a carbon matrix (which prevents binding).

The company claims their batteries retain over 60% of initial capacity after 6 years, which is three times more than existing products. Another result is a reduction in weight (minus 15% in average) and manufacturing costs (minus 10 to 20%).

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

If there are two truths I’ve learned throughout my storied 29.5 years, it’s that 1) Everybody needs batteries and 2) Not everybody loves Everybody Loves Raymond. Some say it’s his voice or the constant bickering between his wife and his mother, but I digress.

Go to Amazon.com and buy 80 AA batteries from Duracell – it’ll be five two-packs at $8.07 each. Your total will add up to just over $40. Then use coupon code DURA908 at checkout and you’ll get $10 off. The deal is good on other Duracell batteries as well.

While $30 might seem like a pretty penny to spend on batteries, if you use a lot of AA’s this is a pretty good deal. Free shipping, too.

Duracell Ultra AA Batteries [Amazon.com via dealnews]

We all know that laptop makers have been using misleading figures for battery life for years now. The packaging would say 10-12 hours, but when you started using the thing you wouldn’t get anything near that and Sony is fessing up.

Most venders use the Japanese tech association Jeita’s method, which is the average of power depletion when idle and playing a movie file. This seems pretty far from every day uses. Sony is going to switch to the Jeita “A” standard that only uses the movie file results. I still don’t know how accurate this will be, but it should be better than the other method.

Our growing army of rapidly depleting mobile devices are spawning all manner of methods to power them back up again. You got your standard car chargers, your solar powered varieties; there is even a charge-by-motion that will soon (someday) be available. It just makes sense that we can now also add a pen into the mix.

The One Battery Mobile Charger Pen supplies one AA battery worth of external juice. Attach pen to phone, let it charge and you (apparently) got yourself 20 hours of stand-by time or two hours of talk time.

Five different adapters are included, and yes the pen works. Since the pen is bigger than most cell phones it seems a bit awkward to carry around, but it should make for a good thing to keep in a bag or backpack.

Gadget4all via Pocket-lint