The PSP 3000 will have a brighter LCD with a wider colour gamut and 5 times the contrast ratio of the PSP 2000. From the shots we've seen, it blows the old screen away—and that screen was already pretty decent. There is, of course, a catch. And that catch is that the PSP will lose somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes of battery life compared to the old PSP, putting its playtime to 3 1/2 to 4 hours. But to compensate, Sony will be rereleasing the just-discontinued PSP extended battery to the market which should still provide 8-10 hours of play. [Gamespot via Maxconsole]

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The biggest chokepoint in technology is a single roadblock: batteries. Amidst all of the amazing advances in the last 50 years, battery tech has remained fundamentally unchanged, engineers incrementally squeezing out a few extra drops of power from old tech each year. With better batteries, you wouldn't just be able to make it through the day with your iPhone 3G on a single charge, but laptops and phones could run faster, electric cars would rule the highways--it'd be like a brand new world. There are like a million different kinds, but here's a rundown of the most common ones we're stuck with in gadgets for now, and their strengths and weaknesses.

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MIT Researchers are working on virus-based microbatteries that are about half the size of a human cell. Using a combination of virus cultivation (which assembles itself) an soft lithography, Paula Hammond and team were able manufacture the battery, which consists of a cathode, anode and electrolyte. They hope the breakthrough will allow for applications like implantable medical sensors and labs that fit on a computer chip. [MIT via Good Clean Tech via PC World]

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This isn't the first time we have seen a mobile phone charger that is powered by kinetic energy, but the difference is that M2E is working on a charger that can produce 300 to 700% more juice than current technologies. They hope this will translate into a full-on replacement for mobile phone batteries somewhere down the line. According to earth2tech, M2E's short term goal is to develop a charger that will produce an hour of talk time for around six hours of normal movement. Currently, M2E is in talks with major accessories manufacturers about bringing a device to market as early as 2009. [earth2tech via Inhabitat]

Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies have launched the the Bio Energy Discovery Kit, a product that they are calling "the fuel cell industry's first direct ethanol product." The kit directly converts alcohol into electricity and can run non-stop for days on end. The purpose of the kit is to introduce fuel cell technology to students, scientists, teachers and engineers using a simple gadget that is easy to understand.

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Brando has a new universal battery charger available, working on the same jaw-grip/adjustable electric contacts principle as Thanko's version before. This time though, the gizmo is designed to be portable and draw its power from a USB source and it's got "high capability switch power supply with efficient transforming." It's even keyring mountable. So if you're constantly charging up a variety of batteries for all your gear, and don't fancy hauling all the power bricks around this might be an elegant solution. Can be yours now, for US$12. [Brando]

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There's a slight issue for Asus Eee PC owners who want to use their older batteries with the Atom-based Eee PC 900A revealed earlier this month--they won't work. That's because the tiny laptop uses a different connector (4400mAh, cheap) than its predecessors the 701 and 900. There's some good news, however, as jkkmobile notes the 900A's 8GB SSD implements a single pci-e card, not a split one; and the SLF flash should give you speeds comparable to the 900/901 4GB SSD. [HKPug via jkkmobile]

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PSP Fanboy just learned that Sony's discontinuing their 2200mAh PSP battery pack, an official aftermarket addon that would allow you to game for up to 12 hours or so. What's the deal? We're not sure, but someone from Sony said they're looking at other ways to "service the consumer," which might say to us that they're looking at ways to extend battery life without making the back of the PSP bulge out in an unseemly manner. And just when we learned how to hack your PSP for homebrew apps too. [PSP Fanboy]

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Last weekend we wrote about MSI's now available 6-cell battery laptop, the Wind, so it seems only fitting that one week later we bring news of Acer's new Aspire One battery (also 6-cell). The battery is not available just yet, but a forum member at Liliputing found a picture and a price: US$120. As Liliputing notes, that's almost 1/3 as much as the computer's US$380 price tag. Pretty steep for more battery life on a super cheap laptop, but we're with Lilliputing in hoping Acer offers a future version of the Aspire One that comes bundled with the 6-cell, for a more reasonable price. [Liliputing]

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Australian researchers have developed a new fuel cell prototype that could lead to much cheaper, more efficient fuel cell vehicles in the near future. Scientists at Monash University in Melbourne created a new cathode that could bypass the need for expensive platinum nanoparticles, which adds about US$3500 to US$4000 to the sticker price of current fuel cells.

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