check out these AA batteries, USB rechargable :)

[Miyagi-san]

i doubt they pack as much juice as say a good set of NiMH batts, and they aren't really usefull to me,,,,,,but i figured someone on this board might find em usefull? charge 'em in the field with your laptop or something when you're in a pinch? .....i dunno, just throwin' 'em out there for ya.....

http://www.usbcell.com/

[TeeJay]

They seem incredibly high priced at £12.99 for TWO. You can get a good charger and set of batteries for that.

[ib2loud]

nifty idea, a little clumsy looking though

I'll stick with normal rechargeable AAs for now, but if this technology expands i may look into it

[fred5712]

Actually there is a review at http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?page=8617&head=0 and they seem to outpower alkaline cells dramatically in their camera tests, they also note that the US price is $20 + tax and will come down in future

[fitzhugh]

Yes, it is a nifty idea, just not sure when I'd find it easier to lug around or access a device with four (in the case of my a620) free USB ports than a regular charger, though many people would. 1300mAh is low these days, not surprising considering that a good deal of the space is taken up by the USB connector. Lastly, I'd worry that they haven't worked out their QC issues if one of four of those tested in the trusted reviews site failed. They say their coming out with cell phone batteries and I could see a bigger use for single battery devices like that.

Sanyo's new eneloop batteries sound great, but I haven't tried them. They hold charge indefinately, charge quickly, are relatively cheap, can use regular chargers or their own special faster one, etc.
http://www.eneloop.info or sanyo.com has a link
Anyone try them?

[SpeedInfusion]

pretty cool if it was cheaper....

[Jer]

Wow that is a cool idea - thanx for posting

[Changeling]

Wow that is a cool idea - thanx for posting
I really think the new "Eneloop" batteries from Sanyo, blow this away. Recharables that don't loose the charge , or by a very little !
changeling

[ChromeLibrarian]

The main thing I see is that if you are somewhere that you have access to a usb port, you also have access to an electrical outlet, with which you can use a real charger. The sole exception is if you are using your laptop. And do you really want to drain your laptop battery charging AA batteries? This is one of those clever ideas for which I can see no real need.

[Jon]

I agree it doesn't seem to meet a very urgent need, but I could see some circumstances where it'd come in handy. In a car (or airplane), where you may have a DC adapter for your laptop, or one of the cigarette lighter USB power sockets they're making now but not a 12V battery charger. If you're overseas and don't have enough adapter plugs for everything you need to plug in (or you don't have a dual-voltage AA charger). Or just that you don't have enough convenient outlets in a hotel room. I know I've lost at least one charger and its batteries because the only usable outlet was so out of the way that I forgot about it when packing to leave the next morning. I've since started packing an extension cord along with everything else and added the outlets to my pre-checkout patrol.