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Mobiles phones, remote controls, and other gadgets are generally convenient--that is, until their batteries go dead. For many consumers, having to routinely recharge or replace batteries remains the weakest link in portable electronics. To solve the problem, a group of European researchers say they've found a way to combine a thin-film organic solar cell with a new type of polymer battery, giving it the capability of recharging itself when exposed to natural or indoor light. It's not only ultraslim, but also flexible enough to integrate with a wide range of low-wattage electronic devices, including flat but bendable objects like a...

A man has been accused of trying to buy batteries that power Hawk surface-to-air missile systems for export to Iran, US Immigration officials said. Robert Caldwell, 56, who owns an export brokerage company, was a middleman in a scheme to smuggle Hawk missile parts to Iran, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents alleged in an affidavit. (AP)

A Texas company says it can make a new ultracapacitor power system to replace the electrochemical batteries in everything from cars to laptops. A secretive Texas startup developing what some are calling a "game changing" energy-storage technology broke its silence this week. It announced that it has reached two production milestones and is on track to ship systems this year for use in electric vehicles. EEStor's ambitious goal, according to patent documents, is to "replace the electrochemical battery" in almost every application, from hybrid-electric and pure-electric vehicles to laptop computers to utility-scale electricity storage. The company boldly claims that its...

DETROIT -- The Big Three auto makers have asked the federal government to spend roughly $500 million over five years to subsidize the development of advanced batteries required to power future vehicles such as the electric prototype generating buzz for General Motors Corp. In a follow-up to a November meeting between President Bush and their chief executives, GM, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group last month submitted a white paper to a White House technology adviser saying the U.S. is trailing Japan in development of batteries for fuel-efficient automobiles and could suffer economically if the government doesn't help...

AT&T says it is still investigating what caused one of its access equipment cabinets to explode and catch fire in a suburban Houston neighborhood nearly two weeks ago. According to residents in the 8200 block of Clover Gardens Drive, the explosion shook one nearby house, damaged a fence and some siding, and destroyed several thousand dollars worth of telecom gear, including a DSLAM, installed as part of AT&T's Project Lightspeed. "We're looking into all the possibilities for this fire, including a gas leak, electrical issue, or an act of vandalism," says AT&T spokesman Wes Warnock, in an email response to...

TOKYO (AP) -- Sony urged a dozen laptop computer makers Friday to recall more of its batteries that could overheat, the latest headache for the electronics company struggling to regain its luster as the world's premier electronics brand. With two new recalls announced Friday, the number of lithium-ion batteries that are being replaced now stands at about 7 million worldwide, Sony spokesman Takashi Uehara said. He refused to estimate how much it would cost the company.Toshiba Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd. were the latest to tell customers to return batteries. A day earlier, IBM Corp. and Lenovo Group announced a recall...

Tokyo, Japan, Sept 28, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - Sony Corporation will initiate a global replacement program for certain battery packs that utilize Sony-manufactured lithium ion cells used by notebook computer manufacturers in order to address concern related to recent over-heating incidents. Sony always strives to deliver the highest level of satisfaction to its customers and all consumers. We believe that this program is in the best interest of both our customers and all consumers. Sony is discussing this plan with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and will coordinate with other government authorities as required. We will announce...

At first glance, Mike Willmon's 1988 Mitsubishi MightyMax looks like any other pickup cruising Anchorage's streets. But instead of the rattling and rumbling sounds that typically go with old pickups, Willmon's rig emits a gentle whir that gradually fades as he eases it to a stop at a traffic light. And there's no sight or smell of exhaust fumes as he waits for it to turn green. That's because Willmon, an electrical engineer, overhauled the truck, replacing its gasoline engine with an electric motor that runs on batteries. He's part of a small but growing group of people nationwide who...

Cyber attack depletes cell phone batteries Peter Weiss Bad guys armed with computers might remotely and secretly drain the batteries of cell phones, a new study shows. By commandeering communications channels that cell phones use to capture images and video from the Internet, attackers might repeatedly awaken an idle phone from a low-power slumber into a state of readiness that saps its electric power. In multiple tests on a Nokia 6620 phone, computer scientists Hao Chen, Denys Ma, and Radmilo Racic of the University of California, Davis used a fake server to repeatedly send information to the phone, depleting the...

Scientists at Tel Aviv University have developed new technology to greatly improve battery performance and decrease the risks associated with the lithium-based batteries currently used. Batteries are the bottle-neck for electronic devices' ability to operate effectively, the project's head, Professor Menachem Nathan told Israel21c.org. Mobile devices need more and more battery power, and consumers are seeking products that take the shortest amount of time to charge. The demand has resulted in lithium-heavy batteries that heat to high temperatures, posing a fire hazard. "The problem we're dealing with here is the flammability of lithium batteries. There have been a few dozen...

Apple Computer Inc. will recall 1.8 million lithium-ion notebook computer batteries after nine devices overheated, causing minor burns to two users, U.S. safety regulators said on Thursday. The recall is the second-biggest in U.S. history involving electronics or computers. Just last week, No. 1 PC maker Dell Inc. recalled 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries. In both cases, the batteries had power cells made by Sony Corp..

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. will recall 1.8 million lithium-ion notebook batteries after nine devices overheated, causing minor burns in two users, U.S. safety regulators said on Thursday. The recall is the second-biggest in U.S. history involving electronics or computers, after No. 1 PC maker Dell Inc. recalled 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries last week, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. In both cases the batteries had power cells made by Sony Corp. Cupertino, California-based Apple will recall 1.1 million batteries sold with notebooks in the United States and 700,000 abroad, the safety agency said. They were...

WASHINGTON — Did laptop batteries aboard a UPS cargo plane catch fire, causing it to ignite into flames? The National Transportation Safety Board began looking into the question at a hearing Wednesday. All three crew members on the plane owned by the Sandy Springs-based delivery giant were treated for minor injuries after it made an emergency landing shortly after midnight Feb. 8 at the Philadelphia airport. The crew declared an emergency on approach into Philadelphia. Fire and rescue crews met the four-engine jet, a DC-8 that originated in Atlanta, when it touched down shortly after midnight. Firefighters said the blaze...

Ever wish you could charge your cellphone or laptop in a few seconds rather than hours? As this ScienCentral News video explains, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a battery that could do just that, and also might never need to be replaced. The Past is Future As our portable devices get more high-tech, the batteries that power them can seem to lag behind. But Joel Schindall and his team at M.I.T. plan to make long charge times and expensive replacements a thing of the past--by improving on technology from the past. They turned to the capacitor,...

June 4, 2006 -- The pink Energizer Bunny better watch its back. Electronics giant Panasonic, looking to crack the $4 billion disposable-battery market here, is taking aim at the fluffy-tailed advertising icon. In an effort to promote its year-old Oxyride Extreme Power batteries - aimed at use in MP3 players and cameras and are supposed to last longer than the alkaline batteries hawked by the bunny - Panasonic launched an "educational" campaign called "Neuter Your Bunny."

A new lithium-ion battery from startup A123Systems promises five times as much power for 10 times as long as competitors. November 2, 2005A123Systems launched a lithium-ion battery for a new line of Black & Decker power tools Wednesday that the battery startup says will last 10 times longer than traditional lithium-ions and provide five times as much power.  Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used in phones and laptops. A123 uses a nanotech material called doped nano-phosphate, and the Watertown, Massachusetts-based company says its battery will recharge 90 percent of its capacity in five minutes. The battery is also lightweight, weighing in...

In this month packed with holidays and special observances - Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, Presidents Day, National Grapefruit Month, Thank A Mailman Day, Ronald Reagan's birthday - there is one you may have missed, a deadline that affects virtually everyone living in California. It arrived this week with little fanfare, which is puzzling, considering the scope of the deal. Beginning today, anyone with a used battery, fluorescent light tube, old cell phone - the list goes on and on - can no longer toss the thing into the trash, bound for the landfill. One stroll through a kid's bedroom or...

Okay, I want to get some people's opinions. Who do you think is the best seller of laptop batteries out there? I'm looking to get a new battery for my wife's Dell Inspiron 8200 and I have no problem finding batteries on the net that will work, but who would you go with in terms of reliability, honesty, price, return policy, etc?

Carbon nanotubes are like minute bits of string, and untold trillions of these invisible strings must be assembled to make useful macroscopic articles that can exploit the phenomenal mechanical and electronic properties of the individual nanotubes. In the Aug. 19 issue of the prestigious journal Science, scientists from the NanoTech Institute at UTD and a collaborator, Dr. Ken Atkinson from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), a national laboratory in Australia, report such assembly of nanotubes into sheets at commercially useable rates. Starting from chemically grown, self-assembled structures in which nanotubes are aligned like trees in a forest, the...

Physicists in Singapore have succeeded in creating the first paper battery that generates electricity from urine. This new battery will be the perfect power source for cheap, disposable healthcare test-kits for diseases such as diabetes. This research is published today in the Institute of Physics’ Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. Scientists in research groups around the world are trying to design ever smaller “biochips” that can test for a variety of diseases at once, give instant results, and, crucially, can be mass produced cheaply. But until now, no one has been able to solve the problem of finding a power...