I have used several ZAGG products over the years to protect my notebook and smartphones. The company makes a line of protective films that prevent scratches on your gadgets that work great. ZAGG has now announced its first external battery called the ZAGGsparq.

The ZAGGsparq is a small 3.5 x 3.5 x 1 inch external battery pack. Inside the case is a 6000mAh lithium polymer battery that can recharge up to four iPhones fully. The battery has dual USB ports for charging two devices at once.

I guess I always assumed that musical instruments that needed electricity were plugged into an AC outlet. Apparently, there are lots of the items that get power from batteries of one sort or another. Sanyo has announced a new battery pack for musicians.

The pack is called the Sanyo eneloop music booster and the device is a rechargeable DC 9V battery unit for music devices. Inside the case is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with 7.35Ah of power. The device has two outlets for two musical devices at once.

Well, Panasonic has officially taken over Sanyo and they aren’t wasting any time with a joint venture to develop a lithium-ion storage battery that can store enough juice to power an average home for a week. Sounds pretty impressive huh? We are talking Japanese homes here.

The battery will have a system that allows users to monitor their electricity usage through their TVs. The technology won’t be available until sometime in 2011, but we are eager to see how this powers American homes.

The huge battery recalls from a few years ago showed that a flaw in the battery could have serious consequences for computer makers and consumers. Several batteries short-circuited and caught fire leading to property damage on more than one occasion.

Panasonic has introduced new battery technology that not only offers longer run time for laptops, but promises to be safer too. The new batteries use a standard cell form factor and pack in 3.1Ah per cell compared to the 2.9Ah of current cells.

All of the battery issues that we have seen over the last few years have forced me to reconsider using a laptop actually in my lap. I don’t mind the heat from the computer nearly as much as I would mind a battery exploding on my gonads. Typically, these battery explosions have been mostly limited to Windows computers, but today a new report of a MacBook Pro battery blowing its top has come in.

Engadget reports that the MacBook Pro is a 17-inch non-unibody machine that was being used on a desktop at the time the incident occurred. According to the user, a strange noise began and then got louder.

The XP1 USB power cable is all you need to power and sync the iPhone and iPod. And with the XP1 you don’t need to carry additional adaptors and cables. Just use the USB port on your computer to charge the XP1 cable and carry the XP1 with you to power your iPhone or iPod on the go.

You can also use the wall adaptor to charge XP-1. The XP1 USB charge and sync cable has a 2500mAh lithium-ion battery. It’s a convenient solution that will always give you power when you need it.

I can always use more battery life from my iPhone. The thing is great but if you spend any length of time, playing games, or surfing the net the battery gets sucked down very swiftly. Today I am looking at a product called the iON Universal Mobile Power Bank that promises up to 50 additional hours of power for iPods and works with the iPhone as well. Read on for all the details.

There is a list of things that I wish my iPhone could do or did better. One of the top things on the list is that I wish the iPhone had better battery life. The battery is wiped out in under a day if you play lots of games or stream video.

A new external battery for the iPhone has tipped up called the iON from FSP Group USA. The battery will be available soon online at Newegg and at other retailers. The credit card-size battery has an included iPhone/iPod connector and a USB output cable.

This battery kit was originally announced back in November of 2007. The PSP Extended Life Battery Kit promised to give you about 20 percent more battery life for $45. Then, it seemed that Sony pulled the thing in 2008.

Anyhow, now it’s back. You can find the PlayStation Portable Extended Life Battery Kit back on Sony’s website for $44.99. Looks like they are Backordered at the moment, but you can always get in line. You can always use more battery life.

Mobile phone battery life is one of the most important factors to consider when buying a phone. And Philips has one that will last a long tme with the Philips X550. This phone apparently has a battery that can last up to a month in stand-by. Some sacrifices had to be made obviously.

No 3G connectivity here and it relies only on GPRS and EDGE for data transfers. Some other features are: A QVGA display with 262k colors, Bluetooth, FM radio with RDS, 3.2MP autofocus camera, MicroSD card support and up to 8GB memory. No pricing info yet.

Sanho’s Hypermac amounts to little more than a large external battery pack. Sure, it’s a great idea. And who wouldn’t want that kind of performance from a battery? We’re talking 32 hours here. That’s more than a full day.

But seriously, most of us have an outlet handy which is far less painful than dropping $500 on this 222Wh unit. But if this appeals to your need for power, it ships later this month. But ask yourself this. Do you even use your MacBook for 32 hours straight? Have you ever?

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.

Battery life in netbooks is the new thin. Everyone is competing to give you more juice. Toshiba is no different. Hence the 9-Cell battery version of the NB200 that claims to last for 9 hours, which is fine by us. That isn’t all it has going for it though.

The Toshiba NB200 has some other interesting features, like a 10.1″ TruBrite display, a 3D accelerometer, one always-on USB port for charging and a large touch pad. It only weighs 2.42 Lbs too, so you won’t be lifting weights.

A battery charger powered by a battery. You will be free and untethered, assuming you have some D-sized batteries to power it. Isn’t this like robbing Peter to pay Paul? Or robbing Duracell to charge Energizer. Something like that.

It “Uses up to 1000 disposable batteries”. How can you resist? This must have been dreamed up by battery manufacturers to sell more D batteries. I can’t remember the last time I used a D battery myself. We have no idea where to buy one. If you have this gadget let us know. It’s probably a joke. Well, we know it’s a joke, but you know…

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.