Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Yet another case of the few ruining it for the many.  Due to “at least 40” reports of laptop batteries overheating and causing fires as well as potential property damage, Sony is recalling 35,000 Lithium Ion batteries in the US and another 65,000 in other countries.  In a stroke of genius, none of these batteries were actually put in Sony laptops.  Instead, most of them (32,000) are in HP Pavilion dv model and Compaq laptops, and to a lesser extent Toshiba Satellite and Tecra laptops (3,000) and only 150 Dell Latitude and Inspiron laptops.  The batteries were made way back in October 2004 to June 2005.

More after the break.

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Usually, MP3 players serve only a few purposes such as playing audio and probably video.  It is pretty rare to find good Bluetooth embedded in an MP3 player.  However, Philips has recently announced their new MP3 player that incorporates Bluetooth 2.1 technology for hands free calling. 

The GoGear LUXE is a MP3 player that pairs to your handset via Bluetooth.  If you play a lot of music on your phone, you know what a battery drain that can be—the LUXE would alleviate that problem.

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While the day was full of admiring the tech feast of all the exhibitors at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, attendees were also encouraged to take part in a reception, opening ceremony and several product demonstrations.

Since the US is one of Honk Kong’s top five export markets, we are possibly in for some pretty cool stuff. Read on to see some of the things featured at the fair that might be heading this way soon (like that phone-watch in the picture)!

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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]

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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]

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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]

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