Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Imagine being able to power your smoke alarm in your house without ever needing to change your batteries. It would get it’s energy simply from the energy and vibrations from everything around it. That is the goal of Texas Instruments. They call it “energy scavenging”, and they say the reality is not that far away.

Employing the inventor of the original microchip Jack Kilby, Texas Instruments, currently the world’s third largest chip maker, is busy trying to break another electronic frontier.  This time by creating a chip that uses an infinitesimally small amount of energy to operate.  They actually did a demonstration showing a clock being run on...get this...grapes. 

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We may not be able to get a spare battery for the Eee PC directly from Asus, but that has never stopped third party manufacturers from offering up accessories. The latest is a battery charger from expansys and is very unique, it will allow you to charge your spare battery while you are using your Eee PC. It will reach a full charge within 4 hours and has dual LED lights that indicate the status of the current charge. The spare battery charger will be available beginning July 31 and retail for $40.95. Keep reading to check out another image of the charger…

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Coming a little over a month after the notebook was released, HP has finally made the spare batteries for the Mini-Note 2133 available for purchase by themselves. It looks like the 6-cell battery is retailing for $129 and currently available for order. The 3-cell, although it has been reported to be priced at $207 could not be found on the HP website as of this posting. The model number for the 6-cell battery is 482263-001, and the 3-cell model number is 482262-001.

Hopefully the 3-cell will be closer, if not lower in pricing than the 6-cell when it becomes available on the website. Personally I have a 6-cell battery but don’t always need the extra bulk and power that comes with it. I also would not be all that willing to pay around $200 for that smaller battery, especially considering the notebook itself was just $749.

Product [HP] Via [MiniNoteUser.com]

Owners of the T-Mobile Dash has been receiving little gifts in the mail as of late, which are coming in the form of new batteries. It turns out that the current batteries that were made by Dynapack are experiencing some issues with overheating, the new batteries are made by Celxpert. While T-Mobile claims the issue has only been in “rare occurrences” they are still taking the necessary precautions.

Along with the battery comes the simple explanation:

“T-Mobile and HTC are providing a replacement for the T-Mobile Wing battery made by Dynapack at not charge to you due to rare occurrences of the battery overheating.”

Any current T-Mobile Dash owners with a battery marked Celxpert may want to be on the lookout for the new battery to arrive in the mail soon, if not a call or stop into a T-Mobile location may be a good idea. Last thing anyone needs is an overheating battery.

Via [WM Experts]

Forget concepts! An instructional (albeit a bit creepy) video from Hila Science Camp shows you how to make live, working batteries out of ordinary pieces of lemon. The process is faily simple: all you’ll need are a few inches of wiring, a nail that’s coated in Zinc, a copper penny, and of course, the lemon itself. Where would we be without Science?

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It’s no secret that cell phone batteries typically suck, sometimes not even lasting us until we get home in the evening.  What’s the secret to good battery life?  The general rule of thumb is that if your phone is doing anything, your battery power is being drained.  And if you’re doing something fun on your phone, you can bet your battery meter will be running low shortly.  This means photos, games, and web surfing will all impair your battery’s performance significantly more than regular use.  So what are some steps you can take to maximize your battery life without sacrificing the fun?  Read on for 10 things you can do to increase your phone’s battery life:

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Asus has added a line of accessories for the Eee PC. Currently there is not any pricing or availability date, however these should be welcome additions for most Eee users. The accessories include a mouse, noise-isolation earbud style headset, power adapter and a 6-cell battery.

The mouse is available in a variety of colors and the headphones list either black or white, sadly the spare battery is just showing as white, which would be bad news for any black Eee owners looking for additional power.

Read [Asus] Via [jkkmobile]

Want to extend your MacBook’s battery life for extended use away from a power source? FastMac’s new product, the TruePower is great to pack into your bag for long plane trips.

The TruePower is available in black and white to match your MacBook, and they will retail for $99.99 - $30 less than if you buy an extra battery directly from Apple.  They are scheduled to ship in mid-March, and you can pre-order now.

These look very interesting - I’m very keen to get my hands on one for my white MacBook for use on long trips away from home.

Product [FastMac] Via [CrunchGear]

I will try and make this as straightforward as possible, but please remember that we are talking about wireless electricity here, not soap… What is eCoupled technology? Wireless electrical power. It works by transferring energy from one device to another through a shared electromagnetic field.

eCoupled technology can be utilized essentially anywhere traditional power needs exist. Power and data can be efficiently transmitted to virtually any electrical device without wires or constraints. This means that eCoupled allows for intelligent cordless charging of consumer electronics devices such as cell phones, digital music players, cameras and PDAs.

eCoupled technology communicates with the object it is powering, allowing for feedback on the operation and status of the powered device. It also reduces or eliminates exposed physical power plug connections and reduces the risk of arcing and shorting by eliminating exposed conductors. eCoupled technology has efficiencies near that of plug and socket connections and allows a “charger” to supply power to one device or simultaneously to multiple devices and can even mix AC and DC power. eCoupled technology allows for the elimination of external ports, instead of plugs and connectors, the primary and secondary need only be placed in close proximity.

Consumers can clearly benefit from new product designs, increased functionality, increased mobility and longer service life, but what will it cost and how long will we have to hold our breath until we can use it? More answers to come at CES…

Read [eCoupled]

I mean seriously guys, we’re all really pleased that you’re admitting to your mistakes, but can’t you get the batteries right the first time?  After Dell, Apple, and Panasonic’s leads, Lenovo and IBM have announced plans to recall approximately 526,000 ThinkPad batteries - Sony ones of course.  Why are they doing this all of a sudden?  Well, that’s because 1 computer caught fire at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday.  I have to say Lenovo, I respect you.  I mean, it took Dell what - 6 exploding batteries to do a recall?  All I have left to say is Sony, are you just messin’ with us?

Photo courtesy Reuters.

Read [Reuters] Via [Gizmodo]