AA Batteries That Charge Via USB
I saw these USBCell AA batteries and got to thinking, how come more handsets don’t come with the USB cable built-in? I mean, how cool would it be for your phone to have a USB plug on a short 3″ lead that pulled out of your handset? You could easily plug it directly into any computer as a mass storage disk or to charge.
Obviously, you’d still need a wall charger to be in the package, but it could just be a USB extension cord, really, which plugged into the phone.
Makes you wonder what other little things could potentially be built into a handset, doesn’t it? What about that patent (I think it was for Sony Ericsson) to have the Bluetooth headset built into the phone? Why not put a solar panel on the whole back of a handset? Or a pop-out stand to prop the phone up for video viewing?
I wonder if someone in some lab somewhere has already tried this, or if they’ve even thought of it before?
It seems like there would be a nice after market for USB to your-model-cell phone devices.
Posted by Joe on December 28th, 2007 at 5:17 am.Are you aware of Backupower?
Posted by Moshe Maeir on December 28th, 2007 at 12:18 pm.They have designed a solution where you install a AAA battery in a cavity in the phone, so you can always
have backup power.
Energizer has invested in the company and Phillips is already producing a phone with the cavity built in!
http://www.uberphones.com/2007/03/others/xenium_phone_lasts_even_longer/
Rock on, Moshe, thanks for the link. That looks AWESOME. I do hope that more manufacturers include that little slot. Obviously it won’t power a phone all day, but it would at least offer a few hours of backup if needed.
Posted by Ricky on December 28th, 2007 at 8:46 pm.So let me get this straight, people don’t mind having a phone with all that empty space in it if they can insert a AAA battery? Whereas if the space was used for a bigger lithium ion cell the battery life would probably be doubled anyway. And you wouldn’t have to buy AAA cells all the time (I can see why energizer likes this idea).
Seems like a solution in search of a problem to me.
Don’t get me wrong - I like the idea of accepting disposable batteries as well as lithium ion cells, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of making the phone bigger.
My Ricoh GX-100 camera has the right idea. The battery compartment accepts either a lithium ion cell or two AAA cells. Since they fit in the same compartment the camera isn’t any bigger than it would be with just the lithium ion cell.
Posted by John on December 29th, 2007 at 2:05 am.