Tech & Gadget Stream

Most devices these days need to do more than just one thing, otherwise they'd be scowled upon as something worthless. The IF Battery concept certainly fills up this niche pretty nicely - it not only juices up your devices once plugged, it also comes with pins on the side which allows you to hook up to a nearby power outlet for recharging should the IF Battery start to run low of its reserves in the process. While this does away with the need for a recharging station, the drawback would be the ability to juice up only one battery at a time.

Alcatraz, or better known as The Rock, sees up to 3 million visitors each year, and all of them are ferried over from San Francisco's bay area. When you think of all the trips taken, the carbon footprint left behind is no longer negligible, which is why Alcatraz Cruises has just rolled out their own green solution in the form of the Hornblower Hybrid ferry. This multi-hulled hybrid boat relies on a couple of wind turbines and a solar array in order to power its navigation tools, lighting as well as a segment of its propulsion system. Maximum passenger capacity stands at 160 people, and whenever the Hornblower Hybrid is idling or in low propulsion mode, it will sip juice from its batteries. When power is required, it will kickstart its Tier 2 marine diesel engines that are touted to be cleaner in comparison to standard catamaran engines. Nice to see the tourism industry take yet another step in keeping the earth green - let's hope other cruise agencies follow suit.

Even when gas prices have come down to saner levels, that doesn't give us the license to pump it up without a thought of how much it will cost us. The 2010 Prius has made its debut in Detroit and offers a combined rating of 50 mpg - according to Toyota's internal testing, of course. This is an improvement compared to its predecessor's 46 mpg rating, courtesy of its larger and more powerful 1.8-liter Atkinson-cycle, four-cylinder engine. If that comes across as counterintuitive, Toyota debunks that, claiming that higher torque equals to lower rpm on the highway, and highways are not the most optimal place for a hybrid to be on. The new Prius features Eco, EV-Drive and Power driving modes, where the Eco mode enables battery-only operation "at low speeds for about a mile, if conditions permit." In addition, the 2010 Prius boasts the first air conditioner in the world that operates on battery power alone - neat!

The NHC Ecolong is a miser when it comes to power consumption - this tiny digital audio player offers an amazing 85 hours of playback time all from a single AAA battery, making it perfect for those who have a long road trip up in their itenary. Other than superior battery life, the Ecolong isn't really special in other aspects, offering MP3 and WMA (non-DRM) support and a measly 1GB of internal memory. I would've been nice to see a memory card slot of some kind included, but that would then be reflected in a price that's higher than the current $52. The NHC Ecolong measures 78mm x 36.6mm x 18.5mm and weighs 36g.

Sony has announced a new fuel-cell battery that runs on glucose. It works by breaking down carbohydrates with enzymes, in much the same way as us humans do. It doesn't seem to be ready for release yet, but the video after the jump shows that it's already capable of powering an MP3 player. Sony are claiming 50mW per cell, so it's still not very powerful. Even the MP3 player requires a few devices daisy-chained together, so it will be some time before this is portable enough to be practical.