We’re used to seeing our gadgets come in a variety of colors, but rechargeable batteries are generally dull and boring. Not anymore. Sanyo’s latest Eneloop Tone batteries introduce bright colors that they hope will entice you to buy some.

Sanyo’s Eneloop batteries are capable of being charged about 1500 times, and are sold already charged up without losing much of their original charge by the time they get to you.

Sanyo’s line of Eneloop batteries are as green a battery as you will find and they have some more improvements to make them even more Earth friendly. These newly upgraded Eneloops can be recharged around 1,500 times, which is said to be a new record for the industry.

The batteries come pre-charged from the factory using clean energy from renewable solar power. If we had to guess, we would say that the other big names in batteries are watching very closely indeed.

As most readers of The Brick, I am a big gadget hound which means I always seem to be in need of batteries. For some of my gadgets, like digital cameras, I prefer plain AA or AAA batteries over rechargeable. That way, if I run out of juice away from home more power is but a flick of the battery door away.

Fuji has announced that its EnviroMAX eco-respectful batteries are now available in retail chains across the country including Ace, Tru Value, and ACO Stores. I guess eco-respectful is sort of like eco-friendly. Then you can be respectful without being friendly so who knows.

The battery is one of the key points of improvement technology wise for a range of devices from electric cars to our notebooks and cell phones. As battery technology improves, we can get longer runtime from our gadgets and smaller, more attractive designs as batteries take up less space.

Boston-Power announced its Sonata battery technology a while back that promises to deliver like-new performance for up to three years and recharge much faster than comparable batteries available today. The biggest claim that has notebook user excited about Sonata batteries is that they can recharge to 80% of the full capacity in only 30 minutes.

Chances are you have quite a few spent AA batteries lying around. Probably because you played with your WowWee robots too much. Well, here’s an interesting concept for quick and easy re-charging of all your AA batteries.

The Febot is a design by Ji-yun Kim, Soon-young Yang and Hwan-ju Jeon out of Korea. It would be suction mounted to your window so it can catch the breeze and recharge your single AA inside. A pretty interesting solution. I have a feeling it may take a while though, unless you are in a hurricane.

Christmas is coming and between your kid’s toys and your own toys, you’re gonna need some extra batteries. Why not take this opportunity to go green and buy some unique rechargeable batteries instead of environmentally hazardous alkaline batteries.

Like these Moixa USB batteries for instance. These are run of the mill NIMH batteries with a unique slant. They can be charged in your USB ports, making them pretty damn handy to use. They do look like they have the potential to break easily however.

I find that I surf the Internet and watch YouTube videos on my iPhone much more than I ever thought I would. The bad part is that it seems like if I watch a few videos the phone is dead before I know it. Since the iPhone has no user replaceable battery you are out of luck when it goes dead and a charger isn’t handy.

Richard Thalheimer of The Sharper Image fame (or is it infamy?) has a new website where he sells gadgets called Richard Solo. While the site is apparently named after Han’s little brother, one of the first products is interesting. The Battery Backup for iPhone/iPod retails for $49.95 and is a 1200mAH lithium-ion that charges 100% in 3.5 hours via USB. The battery weight is 2.76 ounces and it measures 1.77” x 2.83” x 0.49”.

An outfit by the name of PDASmart has announced a longer running battery specifically designed for the iPod 5G 30 GB model. This battery upgrade will run you around $75.

PDASmart says its upgraded iPod 5G 30GB battery will let you enjoy “over 45 hours on continuous song playing and an impressive 24 hour video playing time.” It installs obviously where the current battery is and also being made available by PDASmart is a special rear casing which slightly expands this particular iPod’s size to accommodate the battery.

Cali-based Tekkeon is a maker of an array of stylish looking mobile accessories and has just announced a new device to power your mobile gadgets which runs off of your own AA batteries. The TekCharge MP1550 is a mobile power accessory that is juiced up by either two or four AA batteries (rechargeable or not) and can extend the life of your mobile phone, PDA or media player by connecting via USB.

Tekkeon estimates the little device can add as much as 16 hours of phone conversations, 5 hours of PDA use or 20 more hours of watching iPod videos. It also comes with 7 different adapter tips letting you use this same device for multiple gadgets. Once the AA batteries run dry you have the option of simply picking up some more or buying rechargeable AA’s. When the TekCharge is plugged into your computer it will actually charge up the rechargeable AA’s. The device is available now, retailing for around $25.

It’s not uncommon for a laptop user to tote along an extra battery or two for those long flights, especially with the possibility of in-flight internet access coming soon. Starting January 1, 2008 the U.S. Department of Transportation will start placing restrictions on the number and size of lithium batteries that can be brought along on a U.S. flight giving you one more thing to remember before boarding a plane.

Lithium batteries are a very common type of battery used in many kinds of portable electronic devices such as digital cameras, media players and notebook computers. The new restriction will not affect batteries that are installed in their intended electronic devices, but only spare batteries that are brought along. Loose, spare batteries will no longer be allowed to be placed in checked luggage, and any spare batteries that are carried on must be in the original packaging or placed in a plastic bag to prevent contacting metal parts and the possibility of a resulting fire.

Sometimes the most ingenious solutions are the simplest. Anyone who has a junk drawer can immediately appreciate the Battery Caddy in all it’s simplistic glory. My own junk drawer is practically overflowing with batteries of various sizes. Well, now I have an easy way to organize them before they lose their juice and are disposed of.

These were originally designed for Pilots to carry batteries in their flight bag in a convenient manner. The caddies have flexible teeth so the battery won’t fall out, even if it is tossed around a bit and they even protect the terminals on each end of the batteries.

If you are looking for a more environmentally friendly battery, urine luck. NoPoPo batteries are powered by urine. I can only assume that the name NoPoPo has to do with the fact that PoPo isn’t used, where as PeePee is.

Beer drinkers everywhere should never have to buy AA or AAA batteries again. Well, Duracells are more sanitary I suppose. The batteries come with a plastic pipette(like an eye dropper) that allows the user to inject urine into the battery chamber.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be environmentally friendly with rechargeable batteries AND have them retain the charge for a long time? That’s the idea behind Duracell’s new Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries, available this month for around $13 for a four-pack.

The Duracell Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries can retain power up to a year while not in use, said Duracell. These nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries are charged and ready to use out of the package as well and can reportedly be recharged hundreds of times in any NiMH battery charger.

A spokesman from Toshiba announced today that the company is recalling a batch of Sony-made batteries for some of its notebooks. Fortunately the count in this recall is only about 5,100 which is significantly less than the 8 million that Sony recalled last September.

The batteries in the recall list are installed in 10 different models of Toshiba computers that were made in December of 2005 and placed in the notebooks between Jan and Apr of 2006. They were put on a recall list due to a few reports of the batteries becoming too warm, but there were no injuries involved.

Toshiba is planning to post a utility on their website that notebook owners can download to identify if their battery is part of the recall, or users can use a list to identify the batteries serial number manually.

Source: WashingtonPost