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USB Batteries

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the novelty-items dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Tired of paying for new batteries all the time? Tired of searching for the charger for your rechargeable batteries? Worry not, because these new AA batteries will recharge direct from your USB port! This is such a cool idea, that I cant believe that no one has done it before." At $24 each I would hate to lose or break them on a regular basis.

5 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. not as useful as first thought by Frag-A-Muffin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I thought this might be useful, then I looked at some of my toys that take AA. My old Canon A70 takes 4AA. I use NiMH. I have a charger that can charge 4 batteries at a time. Ummm ... I don't think I even HAVE 4 USB ports :) and even if I did, I don't think they'd all fit. (Because you know how they like to cram a bunch of USB ports together and if you plug in something larger than a regular cable, the slot next to it is wasted)

    So really, it's only useful for say, an MP3 player that takes a single AA battery. But then again, my brother's little samsung mp3 player has a built-in Li Ion battery and a USB plug built in that can flip up. And it's hardly bigger than a AA battery.

    Hmmm .. I'm back to "I can't think of anything useful for it" :)

    --

    AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
  2. Um.... why? by Kenja · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In most cases, if you have USB power you have an outlet. In rare cases where your out in the middle of no where with nothing but a notebook and a GPS unit running on AA batteries, and you need to keep the GPS charged so you can make it out there before dark, I guess these would be of use. Cant realy think of any other time.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  3. A bit risky by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Unless the electronics are really well engineered (aka foolproof design) then a failure could result in a damaged motherboard, especially considering the amount of current these things are capable of drawing. Surface mount fuses aren't much fun to replace, especially in laptops. I'd wait a while to see if any horror stories surface before plugging that thing into my machines.

    On a related note, the Motorola Razr cell phone's power connector is mini-USB, so it can charge off of your USB port as well.

    Dan East

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  4. Y'know what would be more useful by AC-x · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A USB batter charger . This way you can use 2500mAh batteries rather then having half the capacity taken up by the usb port and charging circuit.

  5. What if they integrated storage too? by mr_zorg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now, throw in a couple-o-dozen megs of flash built in and you might actually have something. I could store the device drivers for my peripherals in the very same batteries that run them. No more hunting for driver discs. Oh, that and increase the mAh capacity.