battery

I finally invested in the Clarisonic device that Bella has been raving about and rushed home to try it, only to find the instructions suggest charging the device for 24 hours before its first use. It was the ultimate luxury gadget letdown — all I wanted to do was test it, and I had to wait patiently.

Most battery experts claim you can prolong battery life by charging them fully before their inaugural use. It makes sense, but it's not always feasible (or fun!) to wait. Do you fully charge your gadgets before your first use?

I consider myself a fairly eco-chic kinda gal, but I'm always looking for ways to be greener. Living in San Francisco, I try to utilize all the amazing services that offer to reuse or recycle your old gadgets, but it isn't easy keeping track of which ones take which (batteries, or cell phones or televisions). . . If only it was as simple as mailing your cell phone away to cell phones for soldiers! Thankfully this handy dandy piece of mail arrived at my doorstep the other day. The SF Environment has created the EcoFinder as an easy reference manual for all of us trying to figure out what the best way is to dispose of and recycle our electronics. It's fantastic and going straight on my fridge — check it out below and visit SF Environment to get your very own!

Watch out all you Nokia cell phone users! According to the New York Times, Nokia has just warned customers that a whopping 46 million of its BL-5C cell phone batteries could potentially overheat. Due to a possible short-circuit while charging, the battery can easily shift and cause many problems. Currently 100 incidences have been reported, although there hasn't been any mention of any serious injuries. Nokia is still in talks with the battery maker Matsushita to negotiate whether batteries should be replaced. This doesn't sound overly serious. Just another battery over-heating, what else is new? Image Source

PartySugar's slightly robust first generation iPod has been sitting at geeksugar central for longer than we want to admit. (We joke with the "robust" comment - Party gets major vintage geek points for owning and still using the first gen iPod!) Despite our fear of blood, we finally decided to perform the surgery. You'll be pleased to know it went well.

We followed a combination of the Wired's How To Replace Your iPod Battery, the directions on the FastMac Premium iPod Battery kit and inherent geek skills. The kit, which costs $18-$25 depending on your iPod generation, includes two plastic screwdrivers, the battery and instructions. It will save you the $66 you'd have to send Apple if your iPod is out of warranty. The entire process shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.

For additional images and step by step instructions for changing your battery, read more

Soda is bad for you for a variety of reasons, but did you ever think about what it does to your teeth. I recently stumbled across this interesting table from DentalGentleCare.com that shows the acidity of different common beverages.

The reason this is so disheartening is that the PH in our mouth is normally about 6.2 to 7.0 slightly more acidic than water. Therefore, a PH of 5.2 to 5.5 or below the acid begins to dissolve the hard enamel of our teeth. -- Yikes.

If all goes well, I should be going on a weekend sailing adventure with a few of my friends in June, which is an amazing, sun-soaked experience the group looks forward to all year. It's heaven save for one thing - there are no electrical outlets so we are limited to charging our cell phones, computers and gizmos when we're docked at night. This year I'm coming prepared. I was planning on relying on the TuneJuice2, an iPod charger that runs off AA batteries and can provide up to 14 hours of additional audio play, but I found the Proporta Mobile Survival Kit, which will charge all my gadgets.

The kit is essentially a little USB rechargeable battery that plugs into any USB powered mobile device (phone, PDA, GPS, iPod, digital camera, etc.) and gives it that recharge juice it needs to keep working. In fact, the makers claim a fully charged Proporta Mobile Device Charger should be able to charge most mobile devices between three and five times from completely empty.

Apparently, "hard to charge devices," like the iPod 5G will recharge and play for up to three times longer when connected to the charger. A plus is the fact that the kit comes with adapters for Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones, and can be connected to UK, European, Australian and US region adapters (not included). This means so long as the charger has power (it is charged via USB on your computer), so will all the rest of your gadgets. The kit costs 44.95 and it's worth every penny.

To check out more pictures of the kit in action,  read more

We've all seen plenty of plain but inventive iPod shelf and charger devices where your gadgets just sit in a little charging dock, but the Battery Shelf designed by Simon Spagnoletti offers a new, more spaghetti-like charging experience for your favorite gizmos.

The cord is woven through the openings in the shelf, creating a little cord bridge for your gadget to rest on. Anything to keep my wires from getting tangled.

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Fuel cell technology that is currently in development boasts the ability of extracting energy from virtually any sugar source to power portable electronics like cellular phones, laptops, and sensors, says PC Magazine. The new technology is expected to be biodegradable, environmentally friendly and more energy efficient than current options and will provide a green alternative to current Lithium-ion batteries.

The cell operates at room temperature and uses enzymes to oxidize sugars, which generates electricity. Apparently researchers have already run the batteries on glucose, flat soft drinks and sweetened drink mixes.

Researchers say the new batteries will operate three times longer on a single charge than current battery technology. Coupled with the news of the new Sanyo rechargeable NiMH batteries that can be charged up to 1,000 times these are pretty exciting times for batteries!