Just as small, fast-moving mammals replaced lumbering dinosaurs, pocketable gadgets are evolving to fill niches that larger, deskbound computers can't reach. But as they shrink, these gadgets are faced with problems mammals face, too, such as efficiently dissipating heat.

The recent example of Apple's first-generation iPod nanos causing fires in Japan raises the question of whether increasingly innovative product designs are impinging on safety. The nano incident illustrates how risk can increase as devices decrease in size, says Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies.

"As [gadgets] get smaller, the tradeoffs become more difficult, the balance becomes more critical and there's less room for error," Kay said. "I'm not surprised it's happening to the nano because that's the small one. You're asking it do a lot in a very, very small package and that's pushing the envelope."

There's no question that industrial designers' jobs have become much more difficult as the industry demands ever more powerful and smaller gadgets. With paper-thin subnotebooks, ultrasmall MP3 players, and pinkie finger-sized Bluetooth headsets becoming increasingly popular, it's questionable where exactly designers draw the line between innovation and safety.

Continue reading "Gadget Designers Push the Limits of Size, Safety" »

The search for longer-lasting batteries for gadgets is taking longer that the search for Bigfoot.

But a new development by Idaho-based M2E Power promises to take a small step towards this quixotic goal: a battery based on generating power through kinetic energy (i.e. shake the battery, get some power.)

But this is no theoretical gadget. According to a conversation with Regan Warner-Rowe, M2E Power's Director of Business Development, her company is in the middle of setting up deals with some of the top mobile manufacturers out there and expects to have deals with several by the end of the calendar year.

Depending on separate tests by the companies, the battery may be customized or it might be developed by M2E Power as a separate device. Either way, says Ms. Warner-Rowe, expect it to come in under $50.

Because it uses physics for energy, the battery is part of the same wavelength principle as solar panels: Use what's already a part of your life and make it work for you. For the panels, it's sunlight, and for M2E's batteries, it’s the simple act of walking.

But how does this work, exactly? 

Continue reading "M2E Power Creates Power-Generating Batteries in Search of Long Lasting Prize" »

You can almost hear the derisive comments from the Calorean bike geeks holding court in a street corner: "You need a little bike motor to help you get to the end of the street little guy? Moving those legs is just too hard isn't it?"

If you can get over the bike geek stigma of electric bicycles, the truth is that they are eminently useful. While generally more expensive than regular bikes, they offer plenty of positive traits: E-motors have improved over the years, the designs are attractive, and you can generally go faster in them without breaking a sweat (important for us juicy Neanderthals commuting to work).

In addition, innovations like torque sensors and power controllers have improved their efficiency in a cool, techy way. And of course, they're still better for the green Earth than a car. 

We're not the only ones who agree. A recent AP report found that electric bikes are growing in popularity all over the U.S. (10K sold in 2007, with a 6000% increase in Amazon sales.)

But which e-bikes are the best ones out there?

Continue reading "Electric Bikes Are Blowing Up and Gadget Lab Readies an e-Bike Test List" »

Apart from your roof, probably the biggest off-ground surface outside your house is the garden table. Which is why the folks at Sun Table have added solar panels and a battery pack to theirs, along with an inverter to convert the 12 volt DC output to a gadget-friendly 120 volts AC.

The Sun Table charges fully in four hours when the Sun is shining, and will juice a laptop for the same four hours when the Sun goes down. The tabletop can even be tipped up on a hinge to catch the rays better, although this obviously renders the actual table functionality inoperative.

A smart and simple idea, and of course -- like anything involving solar panels -- expensive. The Solar Table will set you back $2200.

Product page [Sun Table via Uncrate]

Adderall-addicted workaholics, rejoice: Dell designed its business laptops to stay awake with you through those late nights, with batteries lasting as long as 19 hours.

Dell on Tuesday announced its new line of seven Latitude laptops, including the 12-inch Latitude E4200, whose battery life can be considerably extended using a new mode called Dell Latitude ON. In this mode, business users will be able to access the stuff that matters most to them -- e-mail, contacts, calendar, attachments and Internet -- without booting into the OS, thereby significantly saving energy.

In addition to improved battery life, the new notebooks come in configurations including fingerprint readers, built-in disk encryption and smartcard readers. Every model offers several Wi-Fi options: 802.11N compatibility, mobile broadband options, Bluetooth 2.1 and more.

They come in various sizes to cater to each type of professional, too, ranging from the 12-inch E4200 to the 15.4-inch E6500. While the smaller notebooks sport epically long battery life, the larger models offer the more advanced options, such as fingerprint reader support. The higher-end models will cost about $1,200; pricing for the smaller models has not been announced.

New Dell Latitude Notebooks: No More Business as Usual

A group at the University of Texas has come up with an inventive way to create better and possibly cheaper batteries: By bonding its ingredients in a microwave.

Professor Arumugam Manthiram of UT Austin has created lithium iron phosphate compounds that take less time to create than its current method. Currently, lithium iron batteries use higher temperatures to create than other types, which leads to higher costs and less capable batteries for everything from laptops to electric cars.

Lithium-ion phosphate batteries are safer and 'deliver large bursts of power' than the lithium cobalt oxide that is used in most laptops. If they get cheaper, we could have the more improved performance we've been waiting for years. 

(The search for longer-lasting, cheaper batteries is often considered the modern holy grail of electronics. Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg has often said that he'd drop everything to invest in stock of the creator of the perfect battery.)

Image: 40-nanometer-wide rod-shaped particles of the lithium-ion phosphate batteries. Courtesy of Arumugam Manthiram, University of Texas at Austin.

Continue reading "Lithium-ion Phosphate Batteries Baked in a Microwave Could Lead To Cheaper Prices " »

Some UK residents are in for a shock if they purchase the wrong battery charger. According to a BBC report, hundreds of thousands of unsafe, potentially electrocuting chargers have made their way from China into the UK.

The chargers posing risks could overheat and, at worst, electrocute users of mobile phones, portable gaming devices and music players. One of the chargers is marked DE62347066, while others are generically labeled "Travel Charger." Trading standards officers discovered the faulty chargers and are in the process of issuing a recall, according to the report.

China has been the subject of scrutiny in recent years for exporting dangerous, cheaply produced products. Who-Sucks.com, a "site dedicated to researching the reasons why certain people and things suck," compiled a timeline of about 60 dangerous items made in China that the U.S. recalled in 2007. The list includes flammable lamps, overheating remote controls and lead paint on baby toys.

Moral of the story? Avoid cheap products from China at all costs, no matter how substantial your savings.

Unsafe chargers flooding the UK [BBC]

(Photo credit: Locutis/Flickr)

The FreeCharge Weza does not have an OLED screen, or a 3G network and it has a zero megapixel count.  But it can manually recharge all the gadgets that do have those features, earning it a little green cred as one of the most interesting under-the-radar gadgets out there. It might even have enough juice to help out a few communities in need in Africa. 

The Weza is a portable power charger that outputs 12V DC (through a 'cigarette lighter' plug), and generates power by stepping down on its treadle repeatedly. (Its rugged material should prevent overexcited users with crazy rabbit legs from breaking it.)

Each pedal crank pushes out about 25 to 40 watts, lasts up to 500K charging cycles, and the generator is made out of a gearbox that pushes the power to the main battery (that can also be charged by solar, wind, or regular AC power.) Basically, the Weza is a more powerful version of the Potenco Pull-cord Power Generator for the OLPC, and just like that cord, it’s mostly useful because it’s so easy to use.

Continue reading "FreeCharge Weza Cranks Up the Portable Green Power Up To 11 " »

Lithium-ion batteries have kept gadget lovers on their toes for years with their occasionally combustive ways. Now, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research in Würzburg, Germany think they've solved this problem by successfully swapping the liquid electrolyte (the flammable stuff) used in conventional lithium-ion batteries with a non-combustible alternative.

"We have succeeded in replacing the inflammable organic electrolytes with a non-flammable polymer that retains its shape," ISC team leader Dr. Kai-Christian Möller in a statement earlier this week.

"This considerably enhances the safety of lithium-ion batteries," he continued. "What’s more, because it is a solid substance, the electrolyte cannot leak out of the battery."

Non-leaky, non-flammable batteries? Say it ain't so. Möller and other Fraunhofer researchers will be presenting this new prototype battery at Hannover Messe, a tradeshow for industrial technology, on April 21 - 25. But don't get too excited. We have at least another 3-5 years before these non-explosive batteries make their way into laptops and cellphones. Researchers say they still need to fine-tune the conductivity of this polymer so that the batteries can store and deliver an adequate amount of power.

In case you've forgotten, here's a video of what happens when good lithium-ion batteries go bad.

After cranking out a series of working fuel cell prototypes for digital cameras last year, one company says it's finally ready to start mass-producing the methanol-based cells. Indeed, if MTI Micro has its way, these diminutive cells will start showing up in laptops, cell phones and digital cameras by 2009.

CEO Peng Lim gives a pretty compelling case for why gadget addicts shouldn't shed any tears for lithium ion batteries, too.

"The main advantage of fuel cells is that they will last twice as long as a battery pack of the same size. ... And the recharge time is almost nonexistent," Lim told News.com. "Powering up a fuel cell-based phone only requires squirting in some new fuel or putting in a new cartridge."

Not bad...save the fuel squirting bit, which sounds kind of impractical. And what about stability? Yeah, that's where things also get a little dicey. Methanol, of course, is a flammable liquid and I'm guessing cellphones with methanol-based fuel cells aren't going be met with open arms by the TSA or U.S. regulators. That being the case, you can probably expect stand-alone universal chargers with said fuel cells first. The built-in variety? I'm guessing that might take a little longer than a year to approve.

The latest consumer device to burst into flame made us wonder: Are manufacturers doing anything to guarantee the safety of their lithium-ion batteries through better quality assurance (QA) testing? The surprising answer: Not really.

Gadget Lab called Marijana Vukicevic, a senior analyst of
power management at iSuppli, to find out about the current state of battery manufacturing. What she had to say about the testing methods employed by various consumer electronics manufacturers gave us pause. Turns out, even after the massive battery recalls of 2006 and 2007, most companies still use what seem like incredibly low standards for battery quality testing.

"Usually when they test these devices, they test only one batch that comes off the manufacturing line," Vukicevic said. "They'll perhaps sample 25 out of thousands in a given batch. Even if one or two fails out of that 25, they will assume those devices are OK," she added.

What? Two failures out of 25 is a pass for the entire batch of thousands of batteries? Granted, these are rigorous tests that measure battery performance in a number of different extreme heat and moisture conditions. The tests often take days to complete. Still, if 2 out of 25 of your devices are failing a battery test, that seems like an awful big gamble for companies to take. Sony, you may recall, spent $429 million on its own battery recall in 2006.

According to iSuppli, manufacturers use such low criteria because quality testing is considered way too expensive to employ across broad swaths of newborn devices. What's more, there's always an expectation of some rate of failure, since there are always a number of unknown factors (not necessarily battery related) that can cause problems, said Vukicevic. Faulty circuitry, using a higher current than the battery spec, or a variety of different environmental conditions can set off an unpleasant chain of events ... as we've seen before.

Still, you'd think the 10 million recalled batteries might prompt the industry to be a bit more thorough in its testing. Apparently not.

Continue reading "Batteries Explode, But Industry QA Remains Unchanged" »