charging

Thirty minutes used to be the gold standard when it came to charging electric-car batteries. But JFE Engineering, a Japanese energy technology company, has unveiled a way to recharge batteries in one-tenth of that time.

In only three minutes, the company claims that it can recharge a battery up to 50 percent of its capacity, and in five minutes recharge the battery up to 80 percent, according to an article in CrunchGear.

The Mitsubishi iMiev had a 50-mile range after a five-minute charge in testing.

In contrast, the Nissan Leaf using 440-volt fast-charging stations takes 26 minutes to achieve an 80 percent charge … Read more

This shouldn't come as news to anyone: As iPhones age, their batteries wear out. It's just the unfortunate nature of rechargeable power cells.

Sadly, Apple makes it pretty difficult to swap in a new battery--not without some warranty-voiding surgery, anyway. But you can connect an external power supply, which is cheap, easy, and affordable.

In fact, it's more affordable today than I've ever seen: Meritline has an 1800mAh iPhone backup battery for $8.99 shipped. It's compatible with all iPhone models (the iPhone 4 isn't specifically mentioned, but it stands to reason the battery … Read more

General Motors will offer the first 4,400 buyers of its Chevrolet Volt the option of having a 240-volt charging station installed in their home when the car is released this fall, the company said Thursday.

The Volt is General Motors' upcoming plug-in electric car that promises a range of 40 miles on electricity alone before one is forced to switch to gas for fuel. GM refers to it as an extended-range electric vehicle, or EREV, instead of a hybrid because the gas engine generator is not directly tied to the car's transmission.

The 240-volt charging stations will be … Read more

Drivers who buy electric cars will need a quick, convenient place to recharge their batteries. And the industry is ramping up to fill that need, says a report released Tuesday by Pike Research.

As automakers move toward electric vehicles, the number of charging stations around the world is forecast to surpass 4.7 million over the next five years, says Pike's "Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment" report. The United States alone is likely to be home to almost 1 million charging points by 2015.

That need will be fueled by the more than 3.1 million electric vehicles (… Read more

We asked a few gamers around the office the very same question and the answer was predominately "no." That aside, it sounds like Nintendo is considering a similar online gaming business model like the one that has worked so well for Microsoft's Xbox Live.

Of course that gut-reaction "no" is probably because preexisting pay services like Xbox Live provide a far more superior experience than what Nintendo currently offers. To even be taken seriously, Nintendo would have to redesign its entire online infrastructure.

According to Edge, the company's head of Entertainment Analysis and Development … Read more

Thin-and-light laptops were a major trend in 2009, but is that still the case in 2010? A recently circulating series of photos from Vietnamese tech Web site vozExpress show what looks like a soon-to-be-announced Toshiba laptop, one that promises to be both the thinnest and lightest 13-incher on the market. Based on the corner we can see, it certainly looks attractive. As to whether it's truly useful remains to be seen.

We've gone down this road before with the Dell Adamo, MacBook Air, MSI X340, and the Dell Adamo XPS. Being extremely thin and light can be attractive … Read more

Electric car charging is set to get a whole lot quicker--at least if Infracharge gets its way. The company, which supplies roadside charging station to London boroughs, will shortly be rolling out a new set of roadside and home charging stations that it says can recharge electric cars in as little as 2.5 hours.

The first of its products is the Chargemaster FastCharge, which is designed for use in public places. This bad boy chucks out a whopping 32A (7kW) current, more than twice the amount offered by today's charging posts. The extra power reduces the time it … Read more

This shouldn't come as news to anyone, but the older your iPhone or iPod gets, the worse its battery performs. Don't blame Apple: it's just the nature of rechargeable batteries.

OK, you can blame Apple for one thing: You can't just swap in a new battery--not without some warranty-voiding surgery. However,  you can plug in external power, which is cheap, easy, and affordable.

For example, HandHeldItems.com has a pair of 1,000mAh iPhone backup batteries for $13.99 with free shipping. That's after applying coupon code 2x1000mah at checkout.

Since you will usually … Read more

Visa, one of the world's largest credit card companies, is taking aim at "scam" marketing practices that were quietly used by some of the Internet's largest retailers in recent years.

Retailers will no longer be able to allow third parties to charge a customer's card without the card owner re-entering credit card information, Visa said Tuesday. This is Visa's response to one of the biggest scandals to rock online retailing in years.

Last year, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation launched an investigation after learning that thousands of consumers had … Read more