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Mobee's Magic Feet and Power Bar juice up Mac peripherals, no more battery swapping for you
Mobee's no stranger to the world of Mac peripherals these days, and you would've already come across the brand if swapping batteries is too much for you. Following its Magic Charger (for Apple's Magic Mouse) and Magic Bar (for Apple's wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad), at this year's CES the company's decided to dish out an all-on-one charging station that features a second inductive charging pad plus four USB ports. But of course, there's a trade-off for this big daddy: in addition to the USB connection to your Mac, the Magic Feet also requires an AC adapter. However, given that each device has a battery life of up to 10 days only, this external power will actually come in handy for night time charging. Alternatively, if you're not a fan of clogging up desk space with a charging station, then you can consider Mobee's Power Bar. Unlike its inductive-charging counterpart, this stick simply adds a 10-day battery and a micro-USB port to the Magic Trackpad, thus letting you plug-and-charge when needed. Oddly enough, Mobee doesn't say whether the Power Bar is also compatible with Apple's wireless keyboard, but the response we received was that it isn't a matter of technical limitation; but rather, it's simply that the company believes the Magic Bar is the better solution for owners of the wireless keyboard. Well, we'll let you be the judge.
Ask Engadget: best sub-$70 smartphone battery pack?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from a nameless Engadgeteer, who needs a heavy-duty smartphone battery for his nomadic life. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "I'm kind of a nomad: I travel anywhere I can, sleeping away from civilization in my sleeping bag. My only issue is that my smartphone needs a recharge every two days. What I need, is an external battery pack that can give me a week's worth of juice -- but can I get a lightweight one that costs under $70? Many Thanks!"This is going to be a tough one, we know -- our first thought was toward a Powerbag with a 6000mAh battery, but that costs $170, more than twice our man's budget. Is there something cheaper you could suggest to our nomadic friend that'll enable him to stay off the grid long enough to become a modern day Grizzly Adams? All we ask for is a comment, and your knowledge to steer it by.
Orange Sound Charge T-shirt will juice up your phone while you listen to the bass go boom
Orange UK has a long-running tradition of coming up with quirky ways to recharge your phone while enjoying the Glastonbury Festival every year, and 2011 is proving no different. This time around, it's a T-shirt that generates an electric charge from the sound around it -- rendering it ideal for front-row crowd-surfing types -- though the provided tech details go no further than to tell us that piezoelectrics and the absorption of vibration are involved. We find ourselves overcome by the suspicion that you'll never be able to get much meaningful utility out of this rather unstylish garment, but then it does give you a plausible excuse for pushing your way nearer to the stage, and if anyone objects, you can consider it a great conversation starter. So whatever happens, you win, fashion loses.
Toshiba SCiB to be used in Mitsubishi i-MiEV, recharge to 80 percent in just 15 minutes
Toshiba's SCiB (Super Charge Ion Battery) technology has long been the source of great hope and anticipation in electronics circles, but it's never quite delivered the world-changing retail products that its marketing promised. Hoping to correct that in a big way, the company's now hooked up with Mitsubishi to distribute said fast-charging cells in the taxman-friendly i-MiEV (to be known as Mitsubishi i in the US) and its taxi variant, the MINICAB-MiEV. How fast-charging, you ask? We're told recharging will be done in 15 minutes for 80 percent, 10 minutes for 50 percent, and a mere 300 seconds for 25 percent. You'll need a CHAdeMO charger to achieve such rapid revitalization rates, but those stations are sprouting up across the US now. There are other favorable qualities to Toshiba's batteries, including "excellent charging and output" under very low temperatures, 2.5 times the number of charge / discharge cycles of regular lithium ion cells, and safer operation than most other alternatives. Check out the full PR after the break.
Japan trying out roadside service vehicles capable of charging EVs, soothing range anxiety
No matter how hard Nissan tries to convince folks that driving an EV won't leave them stranded on the side of the road gagging for electricity, that pesky range anxiety issue continues to permeate discussions about electric cars. So, what else to do but strap an EV charger on roadside service vehicles? The Japan Automobile Federation is trialing just such a scheme, with a Nissan-built prototype service truck helping to top up electrified transporters that have ended up bereft of juice at an inopportune moment. The trial's gotten its start in Kanagawa Prefecture this week, which, incidentally, happens to be using a Nissan Leaf as its governor's official car. So, even if you do figure out a way to use up your Leaf's entire battery, you get the comfort of knowing you're riding like a governor and that the good men in orange jumpsuits will be there to take care of your problemo.
Mophie's Juice Pack Powerstation is smarter than you think
You're probably wondering why Mophie has apparently crafted a device that's not also a case. Believe it or not, you actually aren't living in a parallel universe, and this is -- in fact -- the outfit's first product made compatible with other USB devices. The Juice Pack Powerstation is most obviously targeting heavy iPad users, but the beastly battery pack is quite capable of rejuvenating your PND, PMP or smartphone provided you have the necessary cabling. Most interesting, however, is this unit's ability to automatically switch between desired mAh charges, including 500 mAh, 1A and 2.1A, while a standby toggle switch ensures no drainage when it's idle. There's also a USB pass-through so users can charge a device and the Powerstation simultaneously, and if you're interested, all 3600mAh can be yours starting today at $99.95.
Telekom Austria to turn phone booths into EV recharging stations, stave off obsolescence
For most Engadget readers, telephone booths rank somewhere up there with smoke signals in the annals of communication devices -- old, primitive, and bypassed by newer and better technology. Ah, but wait, what if we used all those cables we have wired into those boxes for something actually helpful? Telekom Austria's trying to do just that with its newly unveiled plan to roll out 30 electric vehicle recharging stations over the rest of this year. Attached to what are admittedly rather swish phone boxes, these stations will juice up one of the 3,782 currently registered electric or hybrid transporters in Austria at remarkably low prices. The testing phase will allow free recharging, and even after that it'd be a single-digit Euro cost to boost your battery back up. Ironically, the fastest way to pay will be via your mobile phone, but let's just get this project off the ground first, then we can worry about how to save the precious talker boxes from extinction.
Digital Works' ReZap recharges disposable batteries, coming to North America in May
We don't know what charlatanism is afoot here, but word is that Australian company Digital Works has come up with a way to recharge non-rechargeable batteries. We'd usually scoff at such blasphemy, but the tech has been convincing enough to at least get PC Treasures (who?) to distribute the ReZap Battery Engineer on the North American continent. This little do-it-all device will juice up rechargeable and standard batteries alike -- allowing up to 10 recharges for the latter type -- and is also capable of electrifying up to four cells of varying sizes at the same time. You can expect the ReZap to arrive in May with an SRP of $59.95, which we'd consider cheap if it does everything it promises, or extortionate in the somewhat more likely event that it doesn't. Full PR after the break.
Confirmed: "Not charging" iPad does recharge
When TUAW reader Gregory P. wrote to us yesterday, claiming his "Not charging" iPad was, in fact, charging, I admit I was pretty skeptical. After all, the new iPads have been widely reported to be incompatible with USB hubs and lower-power USB ports. Gregory claimed to have charged up his new iPad even when the device reported that it wasn't charging. Gregory writes that he plugged in his 63% iPad into his Lenovo T61, where it reported itself to be "Not charging." Several hours later, the iPad reported an 87% battery level. As I've been plugging directly into A/C power or using a dedicated onboard port on one of my desktop because of those reports, I decided to give Gregory's suggestion a real world try. Last night, I plugged in my 83% iPad into one of my USB hubs. The unit reported "Not charging", as expected. Regardless, I left it plugged in and revisited it this morning. Sure enough, my battery was completely 100% charged. As Gregory wrote in his letter, "Maybe when it says it's not charging it is just charging slower due to less voltage or something, but it is actually charging!" It worked for me. Results may not be typical, so make sure to chime in below in the comments to let us know if it worked for you too.
Korea starts testing 'recharging road,' might make it part of its public transport system
Time to set aside the chains of worry that have prevented us from jumping on the electric bandwagon -- Korean researchers have figured out a way to make us forget all about charging stations and cruising ranges with their magnetically recharging road. The Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) you see here went into service yesterday and can now be found towing three bus-loads of tourists around a Seoul amusement park. It operates on a battery five times smaller than conventional EV juice packs and can collect its power through non-contact magnetic transmission from the recharging strips in the ground. We're also told running costs for this system are a third of what a typical EV would require, and should it prove successful and find itself expanded to the public transport system, only about 20 percent of bus routes would need to be electrified -- at bus stops, crossroads and the like -- with the rest being covered by the power stored inside the OLEV. Here's to hoping it all works out.
Nokia wants patent on self-regenerating phone batteries, piezoelectrics and much magic involved
In Nokia's own words, what we're looking at is a "piezoelectric kinetic energy harvester." Working along the same principles as kinetic wristwatches have done for a long time already, Nokia's idea is to capture the energy generated by the phone's movements and to refashion it into beautiful, clean-as-a-whistle electric power. By allowing the heavier internal components to move on rails within the phone as part of a "force-transferring assembly," the Espoo think tank has figured out a way to capitalize on all the small forces of acceleration and rotation that we subject our phones to on a daily basis. It would seem overly ambitious to expect this to replace the trusty old charger, but we give credit to Nokia for even thinking about it. Check out some schematics of how this would work after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Just add water: NTT DoCoMo to demo new fuel cell charger
Countrywide 3G coverage: check. Plethora of gorgeous 3G phones in all shapes, sizes, and platforms: check. 4G development well underway: check. Dismal standby times: check. With battery tech having largely stagnated over the last few years, Japan's NTT DoCoMo has turned their attention to powering all that buttery, broadband goodness via more creative means, showing their direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) recharger last year. The DMFC wasn't a bad first effort, but how about shrinking it by a factor of four, doubling the output, and swapping methanol for water? That's what they've managed to do through a partnership with Aquafairy Co., pumping out a prototype polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) that rocks 800mAh at 3.6V -- enough juice to recharge your average FOMA handset in the same time as a wall wart. The new unit gets shown off this week at Wireless Japan 2006 with production plans slated for next year; availability outside Japan is (as usual) an open question, but with battery life falling to under a day on some modern smartphones, we can only hope manufacturers' hands are going to be forced on this one.[Via The Raw Feed]
