batteries
Random Stuff
10 Terrible Tips For Longer Battery Life
6:00PM Wilson Rothman | Nowadays, everything comes with a rechargeable battery, but who knew that getting long battery life could get soooo confusing? Here are 10 expert-backed tips to keep you from running low on the juice: More »
Science
Cheap, Printed Solar-Powered LEDs Could Change 1.5 Billion Lives
12:40PM Rosa Golijan | Photovoltaic cells printed on sheets aren’t news, nor are LEDs and ultrathin lithium batteries. What’s news is a combination of the three which can help give light to 1.5 billion people who live in impoverished areas without access to electricity. More »
Vehicles
FAA Concerned About Flight Attendants Carrying Handheld Bombs
1:20AM Matt Buchanan | They’re on pretty much every flight now: Handheld credit-card readers to buy snackies and drinks. None have exploded yet, but the FAA just issued special advisories to airlines, since they’re powered by explode-y lithium ion batteries. More »
Design
Kitschy-Yet-Eco-Friendly ReNEW Solar Battery Charger
11:20AM Rosa Golijan | It looks like a battery-eating iPhone case, but the reNEW Solar Battery Charger concept is actually a clever little device that spits out fully-charged batteries while attaching to your windows with suction cups. Your back-of-the-house, no-one-will-actually-see-it-here window. More »
Computers
Apple Tax Repealed? Comparisons Suggest It’s So
9:13AM Wilson Rothman | Our friends at Laptop compiled a chart comparing the new $US999 white unibody MacBook to similarly weighted 13-inch laptops from Dell, Acer and Samsung within $US100. While there are tradeoffs, Apple fights this one out on even ground, and makes up for lacks (no SD slot, smaller HDD, less RAM) with perks (LED backlighting, multitouch trackpad) and a much higher stated battery life. Feel free to scream it out below, or check Laptop for the full chart and spec rundown. [Laptop]
Hardware
New Bluetooth Runs For A Year Off A Watch Battery
11:10PM Mark Wilson | There’s little stopping Bluetooth from making its way into more devices, but its battery drain is many times that of, say, tried and true IR. But a new, lower power Bluetooth is coming next year. More »
Peripherals
Nuclear Batteries Solve The Shrinking Gadget Conundrum
2:30PM Rosa Golijan | It sucks that batteries are nearly bigger than the gadgets they’re powering, but thanks to researchers at Missouri University and some tiny nuclear batteries, that’ll one day be an issue of the past. Yeah, you read right. Tiny. Nuclear. Batteries. More »
Peripherals
Monstrous Battery Pack Promises 20 Hours Of Video Playback
11:31AM Don Nguyen | USB Fever’s 3000mAh add-on promises 8.5 hours of talk time or 20 hours of delicious video playback for iPhones. More »
Gadgets
Crank This Battery To Charge Up
11:20AM Rosa Golijan | The Wind Up Battery is a rechargeable battery with a little pop-out hand-crank to power up using some good ol’ fashioned elbow grease. I’d probably looks like an idiot using it, but better than suffering without a AA. More »
Science
