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Charge Phone and PDA Batteries without Electricity

F or businesspeople on the go, it can be difficult to find a place to recharge the batteries of the tools that make doing business on the go possible. These gadgets broaden office walls to include all kinds of new locations for conducting meetings and sealing deals, as long as there's electricity to make them run.

Whether conference calling on your cell phone in the airport or checking e-mail on your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) from the beach, batteries run low and need to be recharged. And when the juice ran low, your electronic devices had to be plugged into a wall outlet for charging - until now.

Electronic Fuel Corp.'s Instant Power Charger is the perfect portable solution for business trips - and emergencies when the electricity is out. Instant Power Charger is able to recharge cell phones and PDAs with as many as three full charges without electricity.

Each Charger is made up of four zinc fuel cells. Holes in the cartridge cases allow air to be drawn in, setting off a chemical reaction between the zinc and oxygen in the air. The energy released is transferred instantaneously to the phone or PDA through a power cord. A complete recharge takes about an hour and a half, depending on device, climate and usage.

PDAs will receive a full charge and continue to work, allowing their use on dead batteries, when they're connected to the Instant Power Charger. Cell phones must be turned off to receive a full charge but can be used to make calls without electricity while plugged into the Charger.

The Chargers are compatible with PDAs from Palm, HP, Compaq, Casio, Sony and Novatel and phones from Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Audiovox, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Philips and others.

Electronic Fuel donated more than 500 Instant Power Chargers and cell phone batteries to personnel at the World Trade Center rescue site following the September terrorist attacks, demonstrating that the Chargers can be essential elements in life-saving tools as well as convenient for conducting business.

The batteries and charger cartridges have a shelf life of three years in their original packaging and active life of about three months after being removed from the packaging, if stored in the reclosable pouch supplied with the Instant Power products.

Electronic Fuel makes battery rechargers for cell phones and PDAs and expects to release a similar product for laptop computers in about a year. The company also makes cell phone batteries, backup batteries for digital cameras and camcorders, a two-in-one charger that works through a car cigarette lighter or the fuel cell cartridge, and a fuel cell bus introduced at Comdex Las Vegas in November 2001.

Electronic Fuel is based in Delaware. For more information about its products, visit www.electric-fuel.com.