Feb 07
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know there’s a big ol’ Nor’Easter about to tackle the East coast. If you have been living under a rock, you might be about to freeze to death under it. More »
Jan 20
Battery.Family: Batteryoshka
Posted in: Today's ChiliIt’s a hassle having to look through various drawers to find a battery that’s in the size you need. It’s even a larger hassle if you have a bunch of batteries but can’t find one in the size you need. Panasonic’s emergency flashlight took that into consideration by allowing people to use it with batteries in various sizes.
For everything else, there’s the Battery.Family.
It’s basically four 1.5-volt batteries housed in one huge size D battery. With each ‘family’, you get a size C, size AA, and size AAA battery aside from the D-sized one. The AAA actually contains the power source, while each of the larger casings just contain the contacts to fit the appropriately-sized battery. It’s like those Russian Matryoshka stacking dolls, but in battery form.
Battery.Family was designed by Soohwan Kim, Junho Yoon, Dohoon Lee and Hyojin Park and it is, unfortunately, just a concept design for now. But here’s to hoping.
[via Yanko Design]
Jan 07
In cases of real emergencies, most emergency lights are pretty much useless if you don’t have the required number of and type batteries to power them up. You can consider yourself lucky if you come across sealed packs of double As and triple As as you stumble around in the dark, but if what you’ve got is a set of batteries in mixed sizes, then you’re pretty much doomed.
Panasonic was well aware of this problem, which is probably why they came up with the BF-BM10 flashlight which is also known as the ‘Any Battery Light.’
I think the name pretty much says it all. You can use any size of 1.5 volt battery that you can find lying around in your house, from the tiny AAAs to the huge D-sized battery. The flashlight uses one battery at a time, and you can expect up to 86 hours of operation if you insert four brand-new batteries into the slots.
Panasonic was inspired to invent the flashlight after demand for portable torches soared after the devastating earthquakes in Japan last 2011.
At this point, the Any Battery Light will only be made available to the Japanese market, and will go on sale later this month for 2,000 yen (~$24 USD).
[via Japan Today via Bit Rebels]
Jan 07
Jan 05
You have to be prepared for disasters – whether it is a hurricane, a tornado, a zombie apocalypse, whatever. The end result could be that you could be without power. Forget food and water and blankets. You need to be ready to be able to play some classic Nintendo while you wait to be rescued.
Redditor robotairz has you covered. He has created a portable set-up that you can build yourself. This shock-proof yellow Pelican 1300 case is loaded with an SNES console, controllers, and games. It has everything two players need to keep themselves entertained for hours while civilization crumbles around them. It runs on batteries and even has a built in charger and LCD screen.
It cost about $425 to build, but being able to play Donkey Kong Country is priceless.
[via Nerd Approved]
Jan 03
Panasonic’s Any Battery Light isn’t picky about battery size, takes anything in your junk drawer
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Battery nerds rejoice: Panasonic has cobbled together an electronic torch that will play nice with almost anything in your collection. The Any Battery Light can siphon power from AA, AAA, D and C-sized batteries, lighting the dark with just a single serving of any compatible size. Loading it up with all four provides up to 86 hours of continuous LED illumination. Not all batteries are equal, of course — a single AAA isn’t going to shine as brightly as its thicker cousins, and users will need to manually flip a switch to choose what size battery the torch draws its light from. Japanese consumers will be able to pick one up for about ¥2,000 ( $23) in red or white later this month.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Panasonic
Dec 06
Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile agree to collectively push text-to-911 capabilities by 2014
Posted in: Today's Chili 
We’ve been hearing about new capabilities for emergency 911 services for years, but it looks like the industry is ready to move as one to make text-to-911 a reality across the US. The Big 4 wireless carriers, as well as The 911 Association and the Association for Public-Safety Communications Officials International has submitted an agreement to the FCC that outlines plans to work together on standards, procedures and technology deployments that will provide a “seamless introduction” of the tech across the US.
They’re not guaranteeing it will be available everywhere in two years, but the specific signposts noted are support for bounce-back notifications by June 30th, 2013 that tell texters when the service isn’t available in their area and a “commitment” to nationwide rollouts by May 15th 2014. So far, efforts to make your thumbs more useful in an emergency have been disjointed, but a concerted effort by industry giants should let you avoid busy signals and dropped calls at the worst possible time sooner rather than later. Check out a press release from the group, as well as a word from the FCC, which will consider the proposal on December 12th, after the break or the agreement itself in PDF form at the source link.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile
Source: Voluntary Text Commitment (PDF), FCC
Oct 30
A few days ago we saw an iPhone case with a built-in pepper spray. The Coyote Case isn’t as aggressive, but it was invented with the same idea in mind: to protect the owner of the phone as well as it protects the phone itself. The case tries to accomplish this by freaking out.
By pressing a button, you can activate the 100dB siren built into the case. But aside from the tried and tested scream for help trick, the Coyote Case has a more advanced and more practical feature. You can also set it to send an emergency text that contains a map of your location when you press its button. The case is also fairly customizable. You can set it to activate by just pressing one of its buttons or require both buttons to be pressed. You can also choose whether activating the case will make it emit the siren and send a text or just one of the two.
A pledge of at least $60 (USD) on Indiegogo gets you a Coyote Case for your iPhone 4, 4S or 5 if it gets funded. I think it’s easy to see that the Spraytect and this case have their pros and cons. The Spraytect is far more useful if you don’t have the time to call for help or if you have nowhere to run from the bad guys. On the other hand, I think the Coyote Case is more versatile. For example, you can use it to help people find you if you’re lost, whether or not someone’s after you.
Oct 28
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know there’s an epically huge storm about to crash against the East Coast. If you have been living under a rock, you might be about to drown under it. More »
Oct 26
Nothing sucks more than running out of power when you need it the most. And by that, I mean running out of juice to power your smartphone, MP3 player, flashlight, radio, and other gadgets that run on batteries.
Most of the time, it’s inconvenient. But when it happens during natural disasters, crises, or emergencies, then it’s potentially life-threatening (or life-saving.) And in cases like these, having something like Eton’s BoostTurbine would be a good idea.
It’s basically a crankable backup battery that you can use to charge devices that connect to a charger via USB or microUSB. It might take a while before you can crank enough power to send a text and even longer before you can make a call, but hey, it’s better than nothing.
The BoostTurbine1000 with the 1000mAh battery is priced at $49(USD), while the BoostTurbine2000 (which can store twice as much power, and comes in four colors) is priced at $59.
[via Gizmodo]
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