Charge your AAs over USB

I love innovation – who doesn’t? That said, my tastes lie specifically in the kind which make my life simpler and easier. We’re talking email over post, wireless over wired, LCD over CRT and potentially now ‘USBCell’ batteries over your traditional AAs.

Released as a teaser to the IT press over a week ago with the tagline ‘Time to recharge the battery market’, the details are finally out and they are oh so logical yet very cool.

Produced by Moixa Energy, USBCell batteries are simply batteries that recharge from any USB port. They require no separate recharging devices, cradles or cables and can be used exactly like a normal battery. The design itself is rather like a typical memory stick with its flip top lid and they could be set to deliver the same killer blow to the battery market that memory sticks did to floppy discs.

USBCell batteries have a capacity of 1300mAH which is in line with most NiCd and NiMH batteries though some do go all the way up to 2500mAH. It takes five hours to charge a completely flat battery and an LED on the side will light up to indicate charging, flash for 10 minutes after charging is complete as an alert and switch off after that.

Available now and costing just £12.99 for two AA USBCell batteries (including VAT and delivery from the company’s website) I’m forced to say something I never thought would pass my lips: I’m quite excited about batteries!

You can grab the batteries from the USBCell website. Let us know your thoughts over in the forums!