For awhile there batteries were getting recalled fairly often, but now it’s been quite awhile since we’ve seen a major recall involving laptop batteries. Sadly, its back in the news. Today, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard, has issued a voluntary recall of about 70,000 Li-ion batteries.

Apparently, these cells can “overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers,”. Thus far, the firm and CPSC have received two separate reports of batteries overheating and rupturing. The result is “flames/fire that caused minor property damage.”

Battery Snaps are an interesting little gadget that turns a regular 9volt battery into a single-LED flashlight, by snapping onto the top. Just snap it on and use the button on top to turn on the LED light. Instant flashlight.

When the LED light stops working, that’s when it’s time to replace the battery. For $5, it comes with a 9 volt battery included. It isn’t going to light up a whole room or anything, but these would be handy to have for power outages.

Typically a battery functions with lithium ions flowing between a negatively charged anode, usually graphite, and the positively charged cathode, usually cobalt oxide or lithium iron phosphate. But three years ago, an MIT team reported that it had engineered viruses that could build an anode by coating themselves with cobalt oxide and gold and self-assembling to form a nanowire. The “virus batteries” have the energy capacity and power performance similar to rechargeable batteries.

The prototype battery is a coin battery, but the idea is that cell and larger batteries could be made from this process and that one day it will power cars, boats and everything else. As it stands right now, it can go at least 100 charges before performance goes down. That will change of course.

Want some batteries that you can put out in the sun and power up? Knut Karlsen constructed his very own solar rechargeable batteries that soak up the sun’s rays and convert them into power. If you want to try your hand at making some, he has documented the DIY project to create the prototype SunCat battery. If you can get your hands on some flexible solar cells.

Knut has some connections at the Institute for Energy Technology, so it wasn’t a problem for him. Basically Knut attached the solar cells to old rechargeable NiMH batteries and used contacts from an old camera to connect the negative pole to the photo voltaic cells. And just like that you have batteries that can sit out in the sun and store up energy.

Kensington recently introduced a new USB charger powered by AAA batteries. The gadget will compete with similar products from Energizer, Duracell and IOGear. The dual-function charger can be used to power your cell phone when you don’t have access to power outlets.

Just realize that the AAA batteries inside are not going to satisfy power hungry phones like the iPhone. It’s more for entry-level handsets. The device comes with adapter cables and two sets of batteries so you can rotate them. It’s great for wireless mice and keyboards and is a good gadget to have around for emergencies.

Energizer’s Solar Recharger looks like an odd device. It looks like it could be an iPod battery extender, a AA charger or even a Solar adapter. And it actually is all of the above. Mainly, it’s a battery charger for standard rechargeable AA and AAA batteries and is primarily powered by an AC jack that’s assisted by a flip-out solar panel. The USB port can power your connected gadget and the Solar Charger will act as an extended battery for almost any USB-powered device, like your iPod for instance.

The beauty of this device is that through the use of cheap rechargeable batteries, Energizer sell it for just $50, with 2 AAs included. Some other features include weatherproofing and a rotating solar panel.

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.

Throwing away batteries is a serious crime against nature. At least that’s what some hippies told me once in a dream, when I drank too much cough syrup. So what are we expected to do with batteries if we can’t throw them out? That’s always been our conundrum. Well, the Energy Seed concept by Sungwoo Park is the answer.

You collect all the batteries that no longer power all of your gadgets and you deposit them in the base of this lamp. The lamp then glows, because even a “dead” battery will be able to power an ultra-efficient light source. What we need are battery recycling programs where people can drop their batteries, so that they can power certain lights used around any given city. Pretty cool.

There are many eco-friendly gadgets that wind up. But having a remote that winds up to charge the battery is the best idea yet. How many batteries have your various remotes killed over the years. And it’s a pain replacing them. Some are AA some are AAA. Sometimes you only have one good battery and the thing takes two!

Well a wind up remote like this eliminates all of that hassle. Just wind the dial and 30 full turns is enough to provide a full charge, which should last you about a week. Supposedly it works with hundreds of brands, including Samsung, Sony, Phillips, Panasonic so it should have you covered. It costs $39 but will pay for itself quickly by never needing batteries.

What’s the one thing we need more of in the 21st century? If you said that we need more robots performing daring feats, you’re in luck. It just so happens that on Saturday, the Panasonic Evolta battery robot, a 17-centimeter tall super-hero looking bot and all around bundle of cuteness, scaled a 500-meter cliff at the Grand Canyon.

It was a publicity stunt of course, to show-off the endurance of the Evolta AA alkaline batteries. The Guinness Book of World Records already recognizes the batteries as the longest-lasting of their kind. The robot, powered by just a pair of Evoltas, pulled itself up 530 meters of rope, finally reaching the top after 6 hours and 45 minutes. I don’t know about you, but if you show me a cool robot doing cool stuff I’m gonna buy your batteries.

The thing that sucks about electric cars is that they need to be plugged in every day. Most people don’t have a plug in their garage or their driveway. That being the case, you are going to have an extension cord mess somewhere.

That won’t be a problem with the MIRA HAV, an electric car that’s designed a little smarter. It allows you to remove the batteries and charge them up in your home. That’s where your outlets are after all, so it makes sense. Obviously moving large batteries to and fro is not ideal either. They have some flaws to work out, but hey, it’s an option that has to work for some people.

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.

Even though we don’t see them in most devices, AAA batteries can be pretty darn useful, aside from powering remote controls and toys. Philips thinks so too, that’s why the Philips Xenium 9@9j has a AAA battery slot at the base. This is very likely the first cellphone that supports a AAA battery. It supposedly gives it up to three hours of talk time. It still has the standard lithium ion rechargeable battery, but the AAA is a backup.

It does add some bulk, but what is a backup worth to you? The 9@9j should be around in April. The technology is from the Israeli firm Techtium, and they are calling it Backupower. If your main battery goes dead, the backup battery takes over.