Common Paradox Tech Blog

If you’ve bought the Energizer DUO USB battery charger, you might want to uninstall the software immediately. Why? Because it comes pre-loaded with a backdoor that can let someone remotely access your computer.

The United States Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) has warned that the software included in the Energizer DUO USB battery charger contains a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access. In an advisory, the US-CERT warned that he installer for the Energizer DUO software places the file UsbCharger.dll in the application’s directory and Arucer.dll in the Windows system32 directory. An attacker is able to remotely control a system, including the ability to list directories, send and receive files, and execute programs. The backdoor operates with the privileges of the logged-on user.

What the fuck, Energizer? You’ve gotta wonder how something like this happens. At least when Sony installed rootkits on people’s computers they were doing so in the name of DRM. There’s not even a poorly-justified excuse for this. [ZDnet via Make]

How do you build a safer battery? By doing horrible things to it. At Sandia National Laboratories, lithium-ion batteries—the kind that are you inside your laptop and cars—are pulverized, overcharged and just plain exploded.

The idea’s to find faults in the batteries so battery makers can fix them. What’s depressing is that the lab’s underfunded and apparently still looks like it’s out of the Cold War, with ancient equipment and tinfoil wrapped around lines for safety. This is even as the lab has alerted battery makers to the kinds of serious problems that cause batteries to you know, explode—leading the industry to create backup systems like mechanical circuit breakers when batteries get too hot.

Check out the full profile at the WSJ, it’s eye-popping, and not just for the detailed descriptions of how the lab tortures the hell out of batteries. [WSJvia Techmeme]

Kickstands are enjoying something of a renaissance lately as tablets have jumped to the forefront of everyone’s attention, so it’s only natural that the HD2, the most tabletesque of smartphones, is getting a combination kickstand/battery pack of its own.

The battery definitely adds some bulk to the skinny HD2, but if you’re looking to take advantage of its 800×480 screen to do some video-watching on the go, then an extended battery and a sweet kickstand are two things that could suit you well.

Taking part in the zeitgeist will only cost you £41.11 when the battery pack is available in March. [Cool Smart Phone via Engadget]

Do you know how often we hear about promising new battery technologies every year? Over 4 million times. That’s what it feels like, anyway, even if we’re way off in our estimation. But here’s another number: One. That’s how many battery breakthroughs we expect to materialize in an actual product in 2010.

The technology we’re referring to comes from a Japanese company called Eamex, who says it has discovered a way to increase the life of high-capacity lithium-ion batteries. We tend to give this one a bit more credibility, if only because Eamex isn’t talking about a theoretical tech that could eventually lead to the demise of lithium-ion.

What Eamex has done is figure out a way to stabilize the electrodes and prevent the deterioration of tin. Why’s this important? Because it means the batteries can withstand a lot more charge and discharge cycles. We’re talking about over 10,000 cycles with a shelf life of 20 years. By comparison, Apple says a MacBook or MacBook Pro battery can withstand about 1,000 cycles over about 5 years of constant use.

Unlike other battery technologies, you don’t have to wait a decade for this one to come to market. Eamex says it will ship a battery with about 10,000W of power per kilogram (suitable for electric cars and scooters) by the end of 2010.

Image Credit: energy.cleartheair.org.hk

Forget PowerMats and wireless charging and the like, because the Airnergy wi-fi signal harvester is my new front runner for the future of gadget charging.

It’s not exactly new tech, as ohGizmo notes, but it’s the first application that’s of any real use to consumers. Put simply, Airnergy takes the energy created by wi-fi signals and stores it in a rechargeable battery. At CES, the device was able to charge a BlackBerry from 30% power to full power in about 90 minutes.

Pretty handy, and supposedly available this summer for $40. Not too shabby, and very appealing considering how ubiquitous wi-fi hotspots are these days. Very simple, somewhat cheap and incredibly useful if it works are advertised—by far one of the coolest things I’ve seen come out of CES this year. [OhGizmo]

We’ve seen batteries charged by outlets and by cranks, but this concept from designers Song Teaho and Hyejin Lee is the first that charges with a twirl.

However, like all things tagged concept, this battery doesn’t *technically* exist yet.

Still, Teaho and Lee both hypothesize that this battery, should it become the real deal, would require about 130 twirls for two-minutes talk time.

From what I’ve seen of crank-charged batteries, that seems relatively plausible (and tiring). Get to work, fellas. [design(dot)fr via Engadget]

They stormed their way into our hearts last year, and at CES this week have announced a further line of products, throwing out the $40 cases needed per phone with their new swappable batteries.

Owners of HTC, Blackberry, Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson phones no longer need Receiver cases, instead Powermat is offering up batteries which can be inserted into the back of the phone, and charge wirelessly just by sitting on a mat. If you still need a Receiver, they’re now offered in silicone.

The Powermats themselves have been given an overhaul, now coming with enough space for either one, two or three gadgets, conveniently named the Powermat 1X, Powermat 2X and Powermat 3X.

Those Powermats also come in portable sizes for moving between between countries, in single and double options they come with a carrying case and international power plugs.

A charging station for netbooks, called the Powermat 3X Netbook, charges both a netbook and two other gadgets at once. Car owners will rejoice at the news of the Powermat Car Charger, unless of course their car already comes with a charger—or a lighter. No prices or availability deets yet. [Powermat]

Great news: Panasonic not only started mass producing laptop type battery with a record setting rating of 3.1 amp hours this December, but in the next few years, will make these cells with up to 4.0 amps in 2013. Yowzer.

Part of the secret is to use nickel instead of carbon for the positive terminal in each cell. The previous record at Panasonic for type cells were 2.9 amp hours, and a quick search shows that most are in the 2.2 amp range.

Battery tech still remains one of the slowest developing sectors in technology, which is why Obama put billions of dollars in grant money towards its research. And why this is great news for all. [Panasonic]

Release date: Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:24:00 GMT

Yeah, it’s significantly (22 pounds) lighter than its lead acid counterpart, but the trustworthy car geeks at Jalopnik insist there’s no way this thing is worth the $1,700 upgrade price. The phrase “overpaid, insecure idiots” came into play. [Jalopnik]