Disposable battery booster

[Curious Cat]

How about one of these for the iQue? It shouldn't be hard for the company to change this to work for PDA's.

Here (http://www.thetravelinsider.info/roadwarriorcontent/cellboost.htm)

Edit: Don't buy one if they come out with it, I am totally against anything disposable. :D

[coop]

I just hate disposable anything... The last thing we need is more stuff in the trash.

Every time one of these is used up, the battery and plastic is headed for a landfill somewhere.

I like the idea of some kind of holder for AAA or AA batteries instead. The holder is not discarded with each use, and the batteries are easily removed and diverted to a recycling centre.

Yes, I know that they exist...

I realise that making that decision (to make the slight extra effort to recycle the batteries) is still an extra step in most places, as you have to go somewhere to drop the batteries off, but I don't like a product that precludes that option.

I'll get off my soapbox now, and get back to lunch!

coop

[Franklee]

Originally posted by coop
I just hate disposable anything... The last thing we need is more stuff in the trash.

Every time one of these is used up, the battery and plastic is headed for a landfill somewhere.



Hey, hey if you don't like it you can always throw it away. :D

[JMckie]

A little more eco-friendly but useless in the dark.

http://www.oselectronics.com/ose_p129.htm

[funbob]

I too prefer the idea of something with replaceble batteries. I saw a commercial for this thing a few days ago and I thought the same thing as coop did... "great, more crap to throw away". I don't really see something like this as something anyone really needs. I mean, how badly do we NEED to talk on our cell phones? And for those that absolutely have to be in touch all the time, they should have a spare battery nearby anyway. And I think I can go without my iQue for a little while until I get back to the car and put it back in the auto nav cradle to charge.

[rocket666]

Well, I too don't like the idea of disposable batteries, since the rechargables today are so much improved and more economical.

But I never did understand the argument against throwing away things into holes dug in the earth, as though anything we throw away didn't begin by being dug out of the earth anyway? Well, maybe somebody is making things out of martian meteorites, but not batteries.:)

[Wolfreak]

Geeze come on people. Worring about the environment is soooo '80s. Get with the times. Throw away wipes, throw away packaging, throw away Swiffer towels, throw away extra strong plastic dinnerware, gas guzzlin SUVs, AOL CDs. Garbage is back! That environmental fad was so freaking annoying and tiring. All that reducing and reusing and recycling took so much damn time and effort. Don't bring back that fad.

Yes I'm being sarcastic. Whenever people (myself included) are doing something that goes against the 3 Rs I like to joke about how great it is that that 80s fad is gone. I also like to point out that I don't like traffic, overcrowding, urban sprawl, and pollution, so obviously, I'm not having kids. This way I can be as bad as I want to the environment and still have less impact in the long run then the most conservative minded environmentalist living in the city with children.

And to keep on topic!:

I don't want to think about where all our RMA'd iQues went, or at least, all their defective parts...

[Bokkie]

Sod the environment! Once it's well and truly buggered then we don't have to worry about it. Let's get the job done, and let's do it well.

I'm for disposable everything. Honey, have you seen the kids anywhere?

Honey?

Hon?

Whoa! Hold back that refuse truck...:rolleyes:

[Curious Cat]

Originally posted by Bokkie
Sod the environment! Once it's well and truly buggered then we don't have to worry about it. Let's get the job done, and let's do it well.

I'm for disposable everything. Honey, have you seen the kids anywhere?

Honey?

Hon?

Whoa! Hold back that refuse truck...:rolleyes:

Soylent Green?

[Wolfreak]

While we're off topic, I have a solution for some of the homeless people to make them less unsightly. The crazy ones that talk to themselves should be dressed up in nice suits and given cell phones. That way they'll help cities look more like they're even more rich and prosperous. Oh, and the ones that play air instruments and stuff could be dressed up and given iQues to tap away at. Yey! On topic again. We're so lucky to have the luxury of being able to whine and complain about the iQue's shortcomings instead of actually having real problems. *G*

[funbob]

My city would go broke buying suits and iQues :D

[bhspdx]

Originally posted by funbob
My city would go broke buying suits and iQues :D

No, no, no, Funbob. The Brits (being Old Europe and in a rainy climate and all...)* would need suits. In Albequerque I'm guessing you could just have Khakis and polos. You'd save on the relaxed dressing style.

*Disclaimer: The Old Europe thing is meant in jest. If such jesting is inappropriate, then I would appreciate hearing about it, and would then apologize profusely. As for the rainy climate, read my location. "Nuff said.

[rocket666]

Well, as long as nobody is getting mad about the OT discussion, here is my 2c.

The NY Times actually had an editorial saying that the movie The Day After Tomorrow was raising our awareness about global warming. They probably also should study Emmerich's other social statement in his earlier movie about the dangers of atomic waste. After all, having Godzilla wonder around your neighborhood might just ruin your whole day (to quote from my favorite bumper sticker of the 60s)!

Seriously though, if you believe we are swimming in our trash, then why is it that for the price of an iQue, I can pay for 4 years of trash pickup. Ok, so we don't have a truly free market pricing system in a world in love with socialism, but hey, market pricing is still a fairly reliable measure of the economic cost of an activity.

In the past, oil was just an inconvenient mess that nobody had any use for. In 100 years people might find a commercial use for all the concentrated landfills and laugh at how primitive we were in the 21st century when we let pseudo science intellectuals scare us on every turn. Filling up the planet with trash is one of my favorites. I can just see it now though, there will be 22nd century conservationists screaming how we are using up all our valuable landfills and need to leave them in place for future generations to exploit. Science may improve, but people don't (unless we really do get a Brave new world).

[Wolfreak]

Are you volunteering your town to take all those defective iQue parts rocket666?

Actually what town do you live in? Michigan is getting tired of taking Toronto's garbage, and no place in Ontario has been jumping at the chance to take it either. Seems everywhere you go towns are full of freaking environmentalists. Your garbage friendly town would solve Toronto's garbage crisis, AND you'd piss off the environmentalists here that are insisting no one wants TOs garbage and that they should reduce waste! Please get in touch with Toronto before they find some way to force another place to take their unwanted trash. We sure as hell don't want it again.

Incidently, all my posts mention the iQue somewhere, so I am kind of keeping on topic, or so I am trying to convince myself. :)

[rocket666]

Originally posted by Wolfreak
Are you volunteering your town to take all those defective iQue parts rocket666?

Actually what town do you live in? Michigan is getting tired of taking Toronto's garbage, and no place in Ontario has been jumping at the chance to take it either.
....

Please get in touch with Toronto before they find some way to


force
-----

another place to take their unwanted trash. :)

As you point out, it really all does come down to force.

It would be a contradition in terms for me to "volunteer" my city for anything. What that statement really says is that I should force my neighbors to take the bad iQue parts. And if Michigan is getting tired, why don't they refuse, or is there some force going on here too? If you are forced to take my trash, at the $10 a month I pay (in Los Angeles) then I feel bad for you. You should be able to set your own price (or refuse entirely).

Ah, but I suspect you are probably more concerned about the public property where this trash usually goes, since it is quite rare that private owners would allow their own lands to be dumped on - well not for $10 a month anyhow. So the problem here is with "public" property. With no one accountable for it's misuse, it's understandable it would get trashed. Let those who wish property to remain in it's natural state, be permitted to buy up the property (at auction) and keep it that way. But leave it in public hands, and we have, well the problems we have now. If trash companies had to buy their "dumping" lands (or rivers, lakes, oceans etc.), then the price of trash removal would float to the true economic cost. Then we would all decide individually if it was worth the cost or whether we should recycle. As the costs rise, the market would probably find better solutions, just as Garmin supplies us directionally challenged folks with solutions we felt was worth the price we all paid for our iQues.

I am not saying that conservation and recycling is never desirable, but it should be an individual's free choice based on personal values. If the cost of throwing away batteries goes sky high, then I too will recycle. In fact, if you read my original post on this subject, I admitted to recyclying my batteries. I also do this every time I put my iQue in the charger (hah, back on topic .:D )

[bguy]

focus people.

On the original topic, I'd like to add, cell phones only take about 100ma, while the iQue can take over 600ma. So the battery pack that is advertised for 60 minutes on a cell phone, might only last about 10 on an iQue.

And the solor cells that were linked... well, you'd need at least 15 of the $5 ones to meet the demands of an iQue.