Microsoft Announces InstaLoad, Batteries That Work Any Way You Insert Them [Instaload]

Microsoft just introduced InstaLoad, a new battery technology that allows batteries to be placed in any direction without regard to positive or negative polarity. Meaning you can put a battery in however you want and it'll just work. It's genius.

InstaLoad uses a new, patented contact design that doesn't drain battery power or require expensive circuitry. Plus, it's compatible with off-the-shelf batteries used in flashlights, toys, battery chargers, and really anything that uses CR123, AA, AAA, C or D size batteries. We'll never have to look at + or - signs again.

[Gizmodo]

Future Car's Body is a Carbon Fiber Battery [Future Cars]

What if you could use carbon fiber as a battery? That's the idea scientists at the Imperial College of London are working on, aiming to build a car out of carbon fiber material that would not only function as a battery, but will be a strong and light substitute for the sheet metal on cars today.

Not only will it save weight and volume in a car, it would eliminate the need for wiring, letting engineers route electricity through the car's carbon fiber structure. The technology could be taken way beyond cars, also built into airplanes, cellphones, or anything that uses batteries. Just imagine a cellphone as thin as a credit card. Brilliant.

[DVICE]

Batteries That Last 10 Years Developed By Hitachi [Batteries]

Doubling the Li-Ion battery life from 5 years, Hitachi reckons its new technology which extends the life of batteries will also cost less too—thanks to reducing the amount of cobalt used. Hitachi hopes to get them onto the production line in the next year.
[Gizmodo via Akihabara News]

Panasonic batteries to last 30% longer: Breakthrough? [Batteries]

Panasonic announced a new battery that lasts 30% longer than today's lithium ion batteries. Instead of a graphite anode, these new rechargeable lithium ion batteries will use an anode made of silicon alloy, and Panasonic claims after 500 charge/discharge cycles, the batteries will still retain 80% of their capacity.


This could be a big deal. While there are already silicon alloy batteries in development by Hitachi Maxell, Panasonic's 30% improvement goes 10% beyond their alleged capacity improvement. Aimed at laptops, Panasonic says this new battery technology will be manufactured in volume starting in 2012.


But wait a second. This 30% improvement is nothing compared to those nanotech-enhanced lithium sulfur batteries we heard about last year — said to last three times longer than conventional lithium ion batteries. Talk is cheap, Panasonic. We'll believe it when we see it.


[DVICE via Nikkei Electronics, via Engadget]

New technology extends lithium-ion battery life

A Japanese company called Eamex claims it has found a way [JP] to increase the life of high-capacity lithium-ion batteries (that can be used in electric vehicles). Eamex says the new batteries can be charged and discharged over 10,000 times. Apparently, they can last about 20 years, too.

The main idea is to stabilize the electrodes and prevent the deterioration of tin, making the batteries withstand repeated charges. The batteries have a negative electrode that incorporates a tin-coated resin and accumulates lithium ions coming from the positive electrode. The positive electrode is made of silicon and tin and swells while generating the ions.

As a result, the repeated charging and discharging causes the binding between particles in the tin to weaken, but Eamex’s technology helps to effectively maintain the bonding among those particles.

The company says it plans to introduce a lithium-ion battery with a power density of 10,000 W/kg by the end of this year. The battery could be used to power electric scooters, for example. Eamex also claims batteries based on their technology have “extremely positive” cost effects (without giving specific details), which isn’t hard to believe given their lifespan.

[CrunchGear via The Nikkei]

Panasonic's Future High Power Lithium Ion Batteries Will Kick 20-30% Harder [Battery]

Great news: Panasonic not only started mass producing laptop type battery with a record setting rating of 3.1 amp hours this December, but in the next few years, will make these cells with up to 4.0 amps in 2013. Yowzer.
Part of the secret is to use nickel instead of carbon for the positive terminal in each cell. The previous record at Panasonic for type cells were 2.9 amp hours, and a quick search shows that most are in the 2.2 amp range.
Battery tech still remains one of the slowest developing sectors in technology, which is why Obama put billions of dollars in grant money towards its research. And why this is great news for all.
[Gizmodo via Panasonic]

Panasonic Delivering a Lithium Storage Battery That Can Power Your Home For a Week [Batteries]

After officially taking over Sanyo earlier this week, Panasonic is hitting the ground running with a joint venture aimed at developing a powerful lithium-ion storage battery than could store enough juice to power an average [Japanese] home for a week.
The battery will also include a system that will allow users to monitor their electricity usage through their televisions. Seems like a viable alternative to solar batteries and fuel cells, but I'm curious to know how a week of powering a Japanese home equates to powering a typical American home. Either way, the technology won't be available until sometime in 2011.
[Gizmodo via Physorg]

Cheap, Printed Solar-Powered LEDs Could Change 1.5 Billion Lives [Solar Power]

Photovoltaic cells printed on sheets aren't news, nor are LEDs and ultrathin lithium batteries. What's news is a combination of the three which can help give light to 1.5 billion people who live in impoverished areas without access to electricity.
Frederik Krebs came up with this combination of solar panels and LED lights which, while definitely a work-in-progress, could bring cheap light to some of the world's poorest regions. I call the lamps a work-in-progress because despite being durable enough to last several years, they run at a mere 1% efficiency. But with the expected final cost of $7 a piece, they're full of life-changing potential, despite that low efficiency.

Some prototypes of the lamps are currently being tested in Zambia. As seen in the picture, the solar panels are left laying flat during the day and then rolled up (and secured with snap-button) into a cone-shaped lamp. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the results of the prototype tests and a final product, because no one should go without artificially lit nights.
[Gizmodo via IEEE Spectrum via Pop Sci]

New Bluetooth Runs for a Year Off a Watch Battery [Bluetooth]

There's little stopping Bluetooth from making its way into more devices, but its battery drain is many times that of, say, tried and true IR. But a new, lower power Bluetooth is coming next year.
By Texas Instruments, a new, 6mm-square Bluetooth system-on-a-chip can operate for 'more than a year' on a small button-cell battery (like you see in watches or very tiny remotes). Everything from cellphones to laptops could get a battery boost from the technology, but low power, low cost Bluetooth also opens to door to sticking the technology in more places, too (imagine an RF remote or console controller that you don't need to recharge).
It'll be interesting to see how many companies adopt the new tech when it's available next year, along with how many side with the latest developments in Wi-Fi instead.

[Gizmodo via Texas Instruments and Press Release]

Nuclear Batteries Solve The Shrinking Gadget Conundrum [Batteries]

It sucks that batteries are nearly bigger than the gadgets they're powering, but thanks to University of Missouri researchers and some tiny nuclear batteries, that'll one day be an issue of the past. Yeah, you read right. Tiny. Nuclear. Batteries.
The real secret behind the size of the batteries is the use of new liquid semiconductors instead of tired old solid semiconductors. That's great, because nuclear batteries aren't a new idea, nor are they terrifying and harmful according to Jae Kwon, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Missouri:

'People hear the word ‘nuclear' and think of something very dangerous,' he said. 'However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pace-makers, space satellites and underwater systems.'

Anyway, researchers are building and testing these batteries as you read this, but the bad news is that the initial focus is on powering micro/nanoelectromechanical systems, not remote controls. We can't even begin to speculate as to when we would see tiny nuclear batteries in our local 7-Elevens.
[Gizmodo via University of Missouri via Boing Boing]

Panasonic rolls out new Toughbooks with Windows 7 and 16 hours of battery life

Panasonic’s Let’s Note (aka Toughbook) series is the favorite choice among many Japanese hackers. And today the company announced [JP] two new notebooks from the series with Windows 7 on board. Panasonic says their 16 hours of battery life is unmatched in the industry.
The so-called N8 and S8 are the models Panasonic will market in Japan as “winter season computers”. The S8 has an internal super-multi drive, but otherwise the main specs are identical for both Toughbooks: Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 processor (2.53GHz), 250GB HDD, 12.1-inch WXGA LCD, 2GB RAM (max: 4GB RAM), Wi-Fi, WiMax, one SD slot, one HDMI interface and three USB 2.0 ports.

The S8 and N8 will go on sale in Japan on October 22 (prices: $2,400 for the S8 and $2,300 for the N8). No word yet on international sales plans from Panasonic.


[CrunchGear]

LED Jumper Cables Show How a Little Lateral Thinking Can Make the Mundane Awesome

Jump starting a car is about the easiest semi-mechanical fix that one gets to do. Everyone should have a sit of jumper cables in his/her car: you never know when your battery is going to die and render your car inoperable, or when someone else is going to need help. Doing it by day is extremely easy and just takes a couple of minutes, the trouble is what to do at night; it is a lot harder if you can’t see what you are doing. Having an LED light into the cables keeps you from having to juggle the cables and a flashlight.
Price: $34.95 for a set of 16″ cables [Slippery Brick]

Dell Adamo XPS: Thinner Than Air [Notebooks]

What happens when Dell's Adamo and XPS laptops get set up on a date, have a few too many drinks and end up rocking the bed? The slimmer-than-Macbook-Air, 9.99 mm Dell Adamo XPS.
Dell is revealing next to nothing about its new best of breeds lappie today. All the micro site tells us is that it is 9.99 mm or .39 inches thin. Dell is cleverly showing it off today being 9/9/09 and all.
For a bit of measurement comparison, the original Adamo was .65 inches thin. The Macbook Air is 0.76 inches at its thickest point and 0.16 inches at the front. The Adamo XPS will be all around thinner than the Air it seems and from the single picture it sure looks it.
I hear the Adamo had a pretty brutal walk of shame. We are looking forward to details on the illegitimate child since we have no idea what is inside, what size the screen is or if it will cost less than a hybrid. [Dell Adamo XPS]

בטריה אורגנית מכלורופיל שנטענת בכל נוזל

פרופסור טאיוואני בשם ליאו (Chungpin Hovering Liao) טוען שיצר את הסוללה האורגנית הראשונה שמבוססת על כלורופיל (החומר הירוק של הצמחים - פוטוסינתזה למי שזוכר משיעורי טבע).

לפי טענתו של הממציא הסוללה נטענת תוך 10 שניות ונטענת בכל נוזל (כולל שתן). יכולת הקיבול שלה כפולה מסוללת תאי הדלק היפנית שמקור כוחה הוא מים אך מצד שני העוצמה שלה היא כמחצית מסוללה סטנדרטית. לא ברור כרגע באיזה אופן הסוללה מפיקה את כוחה ונטענת.

מחיר הייצור שלה אמור להיות מאוד זול 3-6 סנט ליחידה וכמובן שניתן להשליך אותה לכל פח זבל אורגני בתום חייה, שאגב לא ברור מה אורכם וכמה הטענות הם כוללים.

[דרך Gizmodo]