I know several people from big cities like New York and Chicago who don’t own cars. They don’t own cars because they don’t want the expense of parking or the hassle of trying to find parking coupled with the massive amount of traffic the cities have. That leaves them with the options of public transport, walking, or riding a bike.

Public transport like a city bus works okay, but you never know who you will have to sit by. Riding a bike or walking is all fine and dandy, as long as you don’t get sweaty by the time you get to the office. For the sweaty types that are looking for something that doesn’t require as much effort as biking or walking to work, and still doesn’t mean they have to sit next to Mr. Stinky on the subway, the Ultra Motor A2B electric bike is available.

The iPhone 3G does a whole lot more than its predecessor, and that means that the battery is going to drain much faster. All of those cool new apps will also suck up the juice. The iPhone 3G Solar Charging Case will offer some protection for your iPhone 3G and also has a built-in solar panel that will collect the sun’s rays and turn them into electricity.

Power is stored in a 1,500mAh battery that will give your phone a full charge. Recharge time is about 3 hours. It may not be the most beautiful of iPhone cases, but it’s a good option for those who are thinking green with their gadgets. The price is $54, while the sun’s rays are free.

The iPhone power station from Brando elongates your iPhone much like the iPhoneneck, while at the same time giving you some emergency juice should your battery get low. The LED blink lights look pretty neat, with an arrow pointing to your phone, just in case you can’t figure out where it goes for some reason.

No info on how much of a charge it gives your iPhone, but I’m guessing not much since they mention “1000mAh”. It will cost you $25.

I have a first generation iPhone and like it a lot. One of the worst things about it though is that if you watch many videos on it the battery drains very quickly, iPod owners have this same problem. This fact has led to the proliferation of back up batteries for the iPhone and the iPod. Some batteries are only for the iPhone like the iPhoneck we talked about before.

If you want something a bit more universal that will work for your iPhone, the iPhone 3G coming this week and your 30-pin connector iPod, i.Sound has the battery for you. Called simply the i.Sound Back Up Battery the little device is a 2-in-1 charger that can charge your phone and the internal battery at the same time.

As most of you know since most of the entire world by now owns an iPhone, it has a built-in battery. Which is fine, but when your iPhone runs out of juice, it can really suck. With other phones you can have a second battery handy as a back up.

Well, here’s the iPhoneck Backup Battery for the iPhone. It can charge up to 60% of your iPhone’s battery life when you let them mate. It’s design tries not to interrupt your iPhone’s design too much, by basically adding a bit of a neck to your phone. It’s available for $35.21 and is sure to come in handy, while making you look like you have the longest iPhone ever.

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.

Pssst. Hey. You. The guy with all the gadgets and the huge gut. Put down the comic book and the PSP, give me a sec. Wanna charge your gadgets and get some exercise at the same time? Maybe get a girl? Check this out.

This pedal-charging device from Japan is like a Power Stepper but even better. Apparently, it will produce enough electricity to power mobile phones, media players, or any number of other gadgets. Just don’t tell anyone you have it, otherwise you will be charging stuff like a hamster in it’s wheel.

Let’s say you drive around in an old heap and your battery dies. You need a jump, but you don’t have jumper cables and no one wants to help. With the Porta Jump, you won’t need any help at all. It doesn’t require jumper cables or helpful strangers.

Just plug it in your cigarette lighter and wait for the green light to turn on. It’s that easy. Done. You are back in the business of driving around in a heap. As an added bonus, it will recharge while you are driving. This is a good $20 spent. Ideal for damsels in distress as it’s much safer then asking a stranger for help and possibly running into a nutjob.

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.

This is the most convenient way to see how much “juice” remains in a device. Juice being battery life and in this case battery life being displayed with liquid. We don’t have many details, but this flask phone from NEC looks like it is liquid-powered and touch-screened. This one is so far out there that it must be a prototype.

According to NEC, it’s going to be released sometime in 2008, if you can believe that. It doesn’t get much cooler then being able to watch the liquid inside drain as you’re using the phone, so you can see how much power you have left. (Okay, that’s a lame hobby. But the concept is awesome.) Hopefully it will be available here in the U.S. The colors are obviously very woman friendly.