A few nights ago, I and the rest of the crew from the *tell sites attended Digital Experience. It’s an event like all the rest at CES where we get a little more face time with the exhibitors. And naturally, we went to our sponsor, Energizer, first. Energizer was kind enough to sponsor us for more »

Finding a new way to store power in our mobile devices has been a problem for quite some time. We’ve been stuck with Lithium-Ion batteries for a while now, and unless a device is using ULV or is a netbook, chances are the battery life could be a lot better. There’s been promises of several more »

With a few exceptions, despite all the advancements in computer technology there is one place where the industry hasn’t seemed to make huge leaps forward: batteries. Apple made some interesting advancements to the batteries in the new 17″ MacBook Pros, but that was more in dealing with how the energy is stored and used. There haven’t been too many batteries pushed out to consumers that really pushed the boundaries of what we’d expect. A major issue I find is how long it takes to change the damn things. Having to wait hours for a netbook or laptop to fully charge can be extremely frustrating for the impatient.

In a few years that may change, thanks to a new battery material developed by researchers at MIT. The material could lead to batteries that could power laptop or other devices in seconds rather than hours. It can do this by allowing the electrically-charged ions travel through the material much faster than they possibly could in our current batteries.

There’s reports that through 50 charge/discharge cycles that the batteries with the new material show no real drop in capacity. That’s very good news for those of use who are always afraid of the lifetime of a battery.

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:

It happens eventually to all laptops, the battery starts to last for a shorter period of time to the point where you can’t bring it anywhere without also bringing the power supply as well. Normally this point comes about 18 months into the life of the laptop, and is the point at which you need a new battery, Now, HP has licensed technology from Boston-Power that will not make is buy new laptop batteries so often. Continued after the break.

It’s hard to believe that the Consumer Electronics Show is almost upon us once again. With CES only a month away, it is time for companies to start teasing us with what they’ll be showing in Las Vegas. One of the first of these announcements comes from Energizer of all companies. Although, this could potentially have a huge impact on the gadget industry, or at least it could for consumers who value long battery life.

Energizer has announced that they will be unveiling Zinc Air Prismatic batteries at CES. These batteries are said to be smaller and give more design choices to OEMs when they’re eventually released. The biggest thing about these tiny batteries is how much life they can give your devices. According to the Energizer press release, these new batteries can gives three times the battery life of similarly sized lithium-ion or alkaline batteries.

Panasonic is already a sizable company, but they are going to get that little bit bigger with the confirmed takeover of Sanyo. Sanyo have been struggling recently, and it’s probably not a coincidence that their downturn coincides with the economic crisis that we are facing. Nevertheless, they are still worth a substantial $18.5 billion which will boost Panasonic’s value to around $107.8 billion, making it one of the biggest consumer electronics companies.

The reason behind this is that this takeover will give Panasonic access to two key technologies in the shape of solar panels and batteries which will help them greatly in their own hand-held electronic products, in fact, Sanyo is the market leader in the manufacture of rechargeable batteries. They will also acquire a company specializing in portable gadgets which generates $4 billion per annum in revenue. Continued after the break.

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.

Powering up a laptop with portable liquid fuel? It’s genesis is closer than you might think. The company PolyFuel, which develops fuel cell membranes, recently announced that it has developed a prototype laptop (the Lenova T40 ThinkPad), which uses methanol cartridges and a fuel cell as it’s power source.

Although the working prototype is not an actual finished product, but instead a proof of concept, the company plans to show it off to consumer electronics and PC manufacturers in the coming weeks.

With resolving more Eee PC battery issues in mind, Asus has announced that they will be offering a “free upgrade” to customers who either purchased the Asus Eee PC 900 or received it for review with 4400mAh batteries instead of the advertised 5800 mAh ones. This is in relation to all the negative publicity that more »