GadgetReview

Amazon has the La Crosse Technology BC-9009 AlphaPower Battery Charger for $69.95 – $29.96 instant savings + free shipping = $39.99 shipped! This charger comes with 4 AA and 4 AAA and has LCD displays for each battery being charged, plus over heating protection.

I’m a big fan of Sanyo’s Eneloop batteries.  I bought a Costco pack which includes 8 AA, 2 AAA and a bunch of adapters for those pesky larger sizes.  For the most part they work fantastically well and to this day most of them haven’t lost there charge, though sometimes I believe some to last longer than others.  The versions I own are good for up to 1000 chargers.  Yesterday, Sanyo announced a second iteration of their NiMH rechargeable batteries that are now good for up to 1,500 charges and will hold at least 70% of its charge for 3 years.

So what did we learn?  Invest in Eneloops.  You’ll totally get your money back and if you buy them from Costco you can return them once they start to fade.

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Yesterday, Sony announced a new battery technology that offers vast improvements offer current rechargeables on the market today.

The technology inside the battery is called ‘olivine-type lithium iron phosphate’, and according to Sony they have the ability to be charged to 99% capacity in just 30 minutes.  Compare that to today’s rechargeable, even Sanyo’s Enloops and we’re talking significant improvements.  Even better, Sony’s new batteries can be charged up to 2,000 times before they lose more than 80% of their effectiveness.

But, and yes there is a but, the olivine-type lithium iron batteries are slightly longer than the standard AA, which means that they can only be used in future products or products that accept changeable battery packs, such as power tools.

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If the X-Power 1 promises to be all that it can be then it looks like one exciting piece of kit.  Announced today, the device at first glance appears to be a regular old USB cable for your iPod or iPhone, but with closer examination you’ll notice what the maker says is a AAA battery sized battery pack smack in the middle of the cord.  So, much like the PowerDuo Reserve we just reviewed, the X-Power1’s built-in battery charges while you charge your iPhone and the next time you’re in need of some juice out and in about, you can just plug it in. Remembering to take my USB cord everywhere I go might be a bit of a learning process, but from a practical stand point it makes much more sense than carrying around an extra battery.

Spec wise they say it can boost your iPhone’s talk time by 4.5 hours, which is slightly more than a 3rd of the iPhone’s 3GS’ battery.  It looks to be available now for $29.95 and comes in sizes 6-inches, 20-inch and 30-inch and is also available in a retractable cord format as well.

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The iPhone has become one of the most popular smartphones on the market today.  But, like many of today’s handsets that boast powerful processors, wireless connectivity and large touchscreens, the iPhone is plagued with a sometimes unreasonably short battery life.  To help you extend your iPhone’s battery, especially when in a pinch and short on space, here’s our list of top 5 iPhone battery backups.

Mophie JuicePack Air

As the slimmest full fledged battery pack on the market for the iPhone, the Mophie Juice Pack Air is clearly the leader.  It’ll provide more than 1 complete charge for your iPhone and won’t add that much bulk to the handset’s slender build. It also features an on/off switch so you can choose when to use the juice and on its rear is a set of battery indicator lights that are so Apple.  Available in purple, black and white for $80.  Check out our full review.

Griffin PowerReserve Duo

The PowerReserve Due combines a car charger, wall charger and backup battery pack in one for your iPhone.  The battery pack, which magnetically attaches to either unit (how cool is that?) charges while you charge the iPhone.  It won’t restore more than 25-30% of your iPhone’s battery, but it’s small, charges quickly, features LED battery lights and is great in a pinch.  It’s $60.  Check out our full review.

Incase PowerSlider

The  Incase Powerslider is similar to the Mophie Juice pack but offers a bit more protection for dings and bumps to your iPhone.  On the back of the case are 5 LEDs which indicate how much battery juice is left.  The bottom features a mini USB plug for syncing your iPhone and charging the battery pack, which means you never have to remove the case. It’s $80.

Casemate Fuel

The Casemate Fuel probably isn’t the most stylish iPhone battery pack, but it is the only one in this list with the always nerd certified clip.  The maker claims an additional 9 hours of talk time which almost doubles the iPhone’s battery life and unlike some of the others, there is an on/off switch for engaging the extra juice when you choose to.  It’s $79. Check out our full review.

iPWR SuperPack External iPhone Battery

Like some of its competitors the iPWR Superpack also more than doubles the iPhone’s battery life.  Unfortunately, it greatly extends the length of the iPhone making it not so portable.  But on the contrary.  You see, the iPWR is actually the smallest and full powered of all the battery packs making it ideal for slipping into a pocket.  You can grab one in white or black for $60.

At this point every iPhone owner should be aware of the rechargeable battery pack.  Several companies have their own take on the product thus giving the consumer a bevy of choices.  GadgetReview has reviewed the last two incarnations of the Mophie Juice Pack and today we’ll take a look at the Juice Pack Air for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. …Continue reading: Mophie Juice Pack Air Rechargeable Battery Case Review

Clearly one of the downsides of any touchscreen phone is a short battery life.  And since the iPhone is THE touchscreen phone it’s only fitting that we see an endless array of accessories to address this and other issues.  Just recently iPWR introduced its new iPWR SuperPack external battery charger.  Unlike the Mophie juice packs, the iPWR attaches to the bottom of the phone significantly extending its length.  Sure it makes the iPhone (or iPod Touch) far less portable, but the iPWR SuperPack probably fits neatly in a pocket making itself more portable than the competition.  The company claims that the 1800 mAh capacity battery more than doubles the iPhone’s battery life, takes just 2.5 hours to fully charge the handset and will hold a full charge for up to 12 months.

It’s available now in black or white for $60.

[via iLounge]

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Saving the earth 1 battery at a time.  Meritline has a deal that you can pass up on the MaximalPower AA/AAA Battery Charger + 4 x 2700mAh Nickel Metal Hydride Rechargeable Batteries.  It’s $10 + free shipping = $10 shipped!

Features:

• Charges AA and AAA NiMH batteries
• Includes 4x NiMH AA batteries

Super Deal, via Amazon has the SANYO eneloop 4 Pack AA NiMH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries for a good low.  It’s $9 + $2 S&H = $11 shipped!

Features:

• Full charged when they arrive
• Life cycle much longer than typical rechargeable
• 85% of charge remains after 1 year

In this day and age it’s probably a good idea to always have emergency back up power for your mobile devices. The only challenge is remembering to charge it and bring it along. Enter Kensington’s Rechargeable Pocket Booster. It can not only charge any AAA NiMH rechargeable batteries simply by inserting the batteries and plugging it into any powered USB port, but it can also send juice from said charged batteries to any compatible device. Kensington includes a mini USB charging cable for RIM devices, but failed to hook up us iPhone users. According to the product page the Rechargeable Pocket Booster will extend talks times up to 3 hours on one set of AAA batteries.

No word on availability, but price is set to be about $25.

[EverythingUSB]