Energizer has launched a new range of portable batteries for gadgets of all shapes and sizes, as it continues its move away from traditional AA and AAA batteries.

The new range called Energizer Energi To Go has just had a US launch with the promise of making it over to the UK in time for Christmas.

The branded rechargeable power packs and emergency charger products will range in size and capability with the smallest offering starting at 600 mAh for phones to a 18,000 mAh charger that can power up to three devices at once, including a laptop.

Each battery will come with a series of power “tips” in the box that lets you connect and charge most devices, with the company going as far as to say that they’ve got virtually every device built in the last 10 years covered.

If you do manage to out smart them, Energizer says that it will build you one at no extra cost.

So keen is the company to appeal to gadget fans, they are even promising two free tips a year for the life of the Energi To Go product to ensure that as consumers purchase new devices they will have the right tips to charge them.

Apple has issued a warning to iPhone 3GS customers that their spanking new mobile phone might be prone to over heating.

The warning appears on an updated support document from Apple suggesting users should be careful about using the device.

Some owners have already reported that their white 3GS models are starting to turn pink or brown through overheating.

Apple suggests users should “Operate iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in a place where the temperature is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F),” suggesting that “Low- or high-temperature conditions might temporarily shorten battery life or cause the device to temporarily stop working properly.”

Not much help when the UK is currently experiencing its worse heatwave for the last 3 years.

Apple recommends that users “Store iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in a place where the temperature is between -20º and 45º C (-4º to 113º F),” as well as suggesting users “Don’t leave the device in your car, because temperatures in parked cars can exceed this range.”

The comments area far cry from Nokia’s testing procedures which bake their phones to a high 85 degrees Celsius heat, before freezing them in a -40 degrees Celsius cold freezer as part of the testing process.

Apple warns users of the phone that has already sold 1m units worldwide that “If the interior temperature of the device exceeds normal operating temperatures, you may experience the following as it attempts to regulate its temperature:

- The device stops charging
- Display dims
- Weak cellular signal
- Temperature warning screen appears with the message “iPhone needs to cool down before you can use it”

Quick Tip

If the recycle bin icon on the Windows Vista desktop has been mistakenly deleted here is how to get it back.
Right-click on an empty space on the desktop and choose personalize ,in the new window select the option on the top left hand corner that says Change desktop icons then go to the Desktop Icon Settings section and check the option Recycle bin ,click OK when done.

I had been stuggling to get the sound working on mine

Sound

The Revo is a quiet box, however on installing Ubuntu it was a bit too quiet, not producing any audio at all! We need to do three things to rectify this: 1) tell Ubuntu what type of sound card is in the machine, 2) Unmute something that should not be muted, 3) make sure all audio is going out through the HDMI socket. I managed to get all of this working, but the headphone socket no longer works so I might look at some point to see if that can be rectified. In the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base add this line:
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack-6ch-dig

You may have to reboot here to get Ubuntu to pick up the right sound card. Now go to Sound Preferences (System → Preferences → Sound) and under Devices make sure that “HDA Nvidia NVIDIA HDMI (ALSA)” is selected for all non-capture options and click Close. Open a terminal and enter alsamixer you should find that “Generic 10de NVIDIA MCP7A HDMI” is showing as the chip. Press the right arrow until an entry named “IEC958 1″ is highlighted and make sure it is not muted. If it is press “m” to unmute it. Press Escape to leave alsamixer. If you try the sound tests under Sound → Preferences → Sound you should find that they now work.

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