Tag: BATTERY

Forget paper tigers, dolls, and trails, the next breakthrough in the pulpy stuff involves a battery. Researchers from Stanford University have possibly saved the stuff of stationary from falling into total obsolescence, transforming our first medium of mass communication into the stuff that powers media devices themselves. By coating standard copy paper with an ink made from carbon nanotubes ...

Reading your significant other's e-mails, texts, or Facebook messages usually turns out to be a bad idea. For example, a police officer in Martinsburg, West Virginia didn't take too kindly to some 'friendly' Facebook exchanges between his wife and a mutual friend. While some would simply talk it out, this cop allegedly decided to let his fists do the talking. According to Your4State.com, ...

Anyone who has shopped for a laptop knows that a manufacturer's estimated battery life is estimated pretty liberally. Usually, the numbers are based on a test called MobileMark 2007, which measures how long a computer's battery lasts under conditions that are, to be polite about it, completely unrealistic. The screen is set to 20-percent brightness, Wi-Fi and any other wireless tech shut off, ...

Imagine a world where plugging in your gadgets to charge them is a thing of the past. And we're not talking about "wireless" chargers, like the Palm Pre's Touchstone, which still require some sort of physical contact. No, according to Technology Review, Nokia is working on technology that would collect ambient electromagnetic radiation to slowly charge batteries. Ambient electromagnetic ...

Some big brains at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed battery technology that could change the way we charge up our cell phones, cameras and other devices, according to the MIT News. The technology involves a change in the channeling of lithium ions through -- you guessed it -- lithium ion batteries. Created by MIT Professor Gerbrand Ceder and graduate student Byoungwoo ...

It's been quite some time since we've had a good exploding battery story. Back in 2007, it seemed like nobody was immune from the plague, with Sony being blamed for battery recalls extending to laptops from Apple, Dell, Toshiba, and a number of others. Given that was so long ago and the news was so widely publicized, we'd figured everyone would have, by now, swapped their recalled batteries for ...

If your camera takes AA batteries, you should know that regular alkalines die in a fraction of the time that Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) types do. For the best possible battery performance, look for a rating of 1850 mAh or higher. And, while you're at it, buy rechargeable versions instead of landfill-clogging disposables. Click here for more Tech Tips. ...

Instead of chucking your iPod when its battery dies, or explodes, buy a replacement battery kit and install a new longer-lasting one. For as little as $10, Batteryship.com sells kits that fit virtually any model and can be installed in 15 minutes. Click here for more Tech Tips. ...

Leave it to our clever, if bizarre, Japanese friends to come up with the NoPoPo battery. According to Unplggd, the battery gets power when one of several fluids mixes together with its magnesium and carbon components. Among those fluids are beer, saliva and -- that's right -- urine. Apparently, those unlikely charging agents help the batteries to live for as long as ten years. And the bizarre ...

Freeplay, creators of a large line of self-sufficient hand-cranked radios and flashlights, is entering the rechargables market with its Zipcharge rechargeable power stick, available in March. Co-opting tech developed for hybrid cars, the device pairs intelligent circuitry with a nano-phosphate lithium cell to achieve a swift charge time of only ten minutes, with enough juice to bring to life your ...

Feeling the hurt of endlessly dying batteries on your BlackBerry (or iPhone, if that's what you're into)? Atif Shamim, a PhD student at Canada's Carleton University might have the medicine for that pain of yours. He's cleverly hacked such devices, removing all the wires that connect the electrical circuits to the antenna, and developed a module for the connection to operate wirelessly. The result, ...

Dr. Priya Narasimhan, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, doesn't intend to put a single NFL referee out of work, but there's no doubt that the technology she's tinkering with could indeed have that effect. The prof and her students are developing sensor-laden footballs and gloves, both of which could eventually tell in real-time whether a ball bounced off the ground before being caught ...

Don't get too excited: the Toasting Charger is merely a concept, at least for now. Still, it always brightens our day to see products that call to mind this most beloved human food. Simply pop in the battery, push the lever on the side and well, that's the beauty of it... you already know how to use this little guy. There's also a helpful LED on the front to indicate the progress of the charge ...

One day later and Sony's battery recall has already tripled in size. What started as a recall of 35,000, just hit 100,000 (75,000 of which are HP related) and now includes Li-ion batteries used in some Lenovo and Acer laptops as well as the original list of Dells, HPs, and Toshibas. All the laptops were sold between 2004 and 2005, two-thrids or which were sold outside the US. What's most troubling ...

Imagine this -- you, sitting in a dingy airport terminal waiting on your flight with a lifeless laptop and just 10 minutes to spare. You've got oodles of spreadsheet work to do before 8:00AM tomorrow, and unless you get it done on this flight, you're fubared. Toshiba is looking to make said scenario seem like one that's not so grim, as its prototype SCIB (Super Charge Ion Battery) purportedly ...