Hasta La Gadget!

It’s funny, really. We’ve figured out how to put men an women on the moon and repair an orbiting telescope, but we can’t concoct an AA battery that lasts more than four days inside a Teddy Ruxpin. Thanks to a revolutionary new design from the labs at the University of St Andrews, all that could be well on the way to changin’. Researchers at said institution have teamed up with partners at Strathclyde and Newcastle in order to design an air-fuelled STAIR (St Andrews Air) cell that could theoretically last up to ten times longer than current batteries. Put as simply as possible, this design utilizes oxygen in the air as a re-agent instead of heavy, costly chemicals; the result is a lighter, cheaper battery with loads more capacity. Needless to say, gurus within the project are already dreaming of a prototype to fit in small gizmos such as cellphones or MP3 players, though we wouldn’t expect one anytime soon — after all, there’s still two years of research left to complete.

[Thanks, Khattab]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Science

Air-fuelled STAIR battery could last ten times longer than traditional cells originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 May 2009 11:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever dreamt of keeping a phone so long that the original battery went kaput? And, during that same dream, did your loving, compassionate carrier decide to bless you with a second battery for free? No need to keep dozing, as regional operator US Cellular has decided to show up the big boys by introducing its Battery Swap program. Launching tomorrow, the initiative enables customers to come into any US Cellular store and “change out a dead or dying battery for a fully-charged one, for free.” Needless to say, the firm is pretty stoked about being the only wireless carrier in America to offer such a service, though you should know that only phones which have been purchased within the last 18 months are eligible. Sounds fair enough to us — so, when’s everyone else jumping on this bandwagon? Bueller…?

[Thanks, Kristofer]

Filed under: Cellphones

US Cellular’s battery swap program puts a new charge in your handset, for free originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 May 2009 08:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s massive, costs $500,000, and is just a prototype; but you’re looking at a possible solution for swapping out heavy car batteries from future electric vehicles. Kind of important if you’re hoping to take your EV on a trip a bit further than the supermarket or city center without having to stop for a lengthy recharge. This switch station, unveiled in Japan by Better Place, can swap out a spent battery in less time than it takes to refuel the tank in that baby-killer of a car you hold so precious. These battery swap stations are just part of the enormous infrastructure required to support Better Place’s subscription approach to electric vehicles — infrastructure easily estimated to cost $250 million or so for countries like Israel or Denmark on up to the $1 Billion already pledged by San Francisco Bay Area mayors. Better Place admits that the swap technology is a work in progress but hopes to have 150,000 charging stations and about 100 battery swap stations deployed in Israel by 2011. Check the video after the break.

Continue reading Video: Better Place’s automated electric vehicle battery switch station is faster than Melvin Dummar

Filed under: Transportation

Video: Better Place’s automated electric vehicle battery switch station is faster than Melvin Dummar originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yep, Sanho’s Hypermac is a big clunky external battery pack. Sure, we’re intrigued by the idea of running a MacBook Pro for 32 hours straight, but we’d really rather hunt around for a power outlet than drop $500 on the 222Wh unit required to make that happen. On the other hand, we could definitely see splurging for the $150 car charger or the $200 60Wh model, but we’re crazy like that. Shipping later this month, we’re told.

Filed under: Laptops

HyperMac external battery powers MacBooks for 32 hours originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 May 2009 12:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got one of the first mophie Juice Pack Air units on the market (they just went on sale today, ya know!), which promises to provide lots of extra iPhone 3G runtime while doubling as a case. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Major thanks to mophie for providing the gear!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) mophie Juice Pack Air iPhone 3G case / battery extender in Black. Approximate retail value is $79.95.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Tuesday, April 21th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Filed under: Announcements, Cellphones, Peripherals

Engadget’s recession antidote: win a mophie Juice Pack Air for iPhone 3G! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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