Filed Wednesday, June 24. 2009
Lithium-ion technology can be used on a more personal level. While it’s becoming more well known that lithium-ion technology is being used for next-generation cars, there are applications on a more personal level that the average consumer may be able to use in powering their phones and cameras.
The Jumpstart product from DigiPower is based on lithium-ion technology and is used to help recharge cell phones, PDAs and smartphones. DigiPower has a family of charger products including ones for digital cameras and phones. I was sent a Jumpstart travel charger to review. They include many possible adapter plug-ins to charge up various phones and devices. It’s a two-ounce rechargeable unit that also has an AC adapter. Unlike the batteries being designed for use in a car, this is a battery the average person can use today on a daily basis for consumer devices. Eliminate Call Evaporation The need for having a battery pack like this is when you’re away for an extended period of time from any AC power supply. How many times have you been out in a remote place camping, cycling or on a boat when you get into a long call and the battery runs down to nothing? How many times have you been on an important call and you hear those beeps in your ear signaling you that your battery is about to run out? Running out of battery always comes at the wrong time. It’s frustrating to have to wait until you can get to another phone or get to plug in your phone to an energy source. This has happened more than once to me, and as more time is being spent not just on calls but on other search applications, you need a longer-lasting battery. There was a lawsuit about 10 years ago where four people drowned in Kenosha, Wis. from a boat that lost all power. Their radio didn’t work and the only thing left was a cell phone with little battery remaining. If they had a device like Jumpstart, they could have stayed in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard and would have gotten rescued. Having something as simple and small as a two-ounce backup power source makes a lot of sense. With more people moving to smartphones like the iPhone 3G S, Samsung Omnia and the BlackBerry Curve, the need for backup power is becoming just as critical for those devices as it is for PCs. Having a device that’s more versatile than just a phone for voice calls means you’re going to be using it a lot more. Doing searches online, reading articles and just gaming around means using up more power. Another Application As lithium-ion technology becomes more commercialized, competitors are starting to redesign their products to compete. IDX has introduced a line of lithium-ion batteries geared toward HD cameras. The use of lithium-ion technology to provide a longer-lasting power supply is the latest for HD cameras including one of their products – the E-HL9 – in which you can link two batteries together to give even more capacity. The idea of linking batteries together goes back to central office technology at the phone companies where you would link many batteries together to provide power to a central office. Those batteries were the size of a miniature refrigerator and weighed more than 200 pounds a piece. You could have a roomful of 100 of these batteries linked together. The idea was to provide a long-lasting and solid stream of power. As more people use smartphones for more applications that demand longer capacity and cameras demand more power for longer shoots, batteries have to be redesigned to provide a longer charge. This is happening with lithium-ion batteries. As more of these applications become uncovered, more variations will start to be introduced by battery manufacturers. That concept has now been miniaturized to apply to handheld devices. If you can link two together today, what will be the configuration for products down the road? Will there be more powerful single batteries or small ones that can be daisy-chained to increase capacity? Will next-generation devices use a 4-, 8- or 16-link battery backup system? What about devices like lawnmowers and snow blowers? Lithium-ion technology has many applications. The more creative we are in applying it, the more versatility will be engineered into next-generation products from several industries. Carlinism: Running out of power always seems to happen at the wrong time. Not modified
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