Apple NiMH AA + Battery Charger

[Sugarboy]

Apple Battery Charger

http://www.apple.com/battery-charger/

"More charges. Less waste.

The Apple Battery Charger has one of the lowest standby power usage values — or "vampire draw" — of similar chargers on the market.1 That's the energy most chargers continue to draw after their batteries are fully charged. But the Apple Battery Charger senses when its batteries are done charging and automatically reduces the amount of power it needs. In addition, the reusable batteries that come with each Apple Battery Charger are designed to maintain a high charge capacity for hundreds of charges, so you no longer have to buy new batteries or toss them every few months.

Standby Power Usage
After your battery charge cycle is complete, the Apple Battery Charger reduces its power intake to 30 milliwatts — that's more than 10 times better than the industry average.1

30 mW
Apple Battery Charger
315 mW
Average Battery Charger

The smarter way to charge.

When the Apple Battery Charger recharges your batteries, it not only maximizes battery performance and lifespan, it also conserves energy. Thanks to an intelligent power management system, the Apple Battery Charger uses less power once your batteries are fully charged, making it one of the most energy-efficient rechargeable battery solutions ever. The Apple Battery Charger can recharge one or two batteries at a time. It's optimized for Apple-supplied batteries and it works with AA NiMH batteries from other companies, too.

Fully loaded. And then some.

Each Apple Battery Charger comes with six high-performance AA NiMH batteries: two for your keyboard, two for your mouse or trackpad, and two for charging. Unlike many other reusable batteries, these batteries have an incredibly long service life — up to 10 years.2 Which means you can finally break the cycle of buying and disposing of those single-use alkaline batteries. The batteries that come with the Apple Battery Charger kit also have an extraordinarily low self-discharge rate. Even after a year of sitting in a drawer, they still retain 80 percent of their original charge.3 That way you always have backup power when you need it.

It's a beautiful fit.

The Apple Battery Charger is as well designed on the outside as it is on the inside. It has a sleek, compact shape so you can plug it in between tangles of desk wires or pack it neatly in your computer bag when you travel. And like Apple power adapters, the Apple Battery Charger is designed with a removable AC plug, so you can replace it with plugs that fit different outlets around the world."


Did anyone try it? Are they just yet-another rebadged Eneloops?

 

[csshih]

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=284975

 

[jcw122]

I'd never try something like that. CPF members know enough about battery technology to realize that Apple is a company that is not for people who actually know how electronics work.

 

[Sugarboy]

Heres a link to the manual (which tells pretty much nothing on the actual specs):

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Battery_Charger_UG.pdf

 

[Chrontius]

I'd never try something like that. CPF members know enough about battery technology to realize that Apple is a company that is not for people who actually know how electronics work.

I'll have you know I'm typing this from a MacBookPro5,3 and use it regularly to play TF2 and such heavy-duty games. The battery used is an exceedingly large, high-quality LiPo with the sort of advanced regulation that us hobbyists can only dream about (and ***** about when someone :fail:s to include it!). The headphone and mic plugs are both MiniTOSlink fiberoptic ports, if you swing that way, and the headphone jack also parses microphone input from a single-plug headset - plus volume and play/pause signals, too. The USB ports all supply four times the USB spec required current, if the device is willing to ask for it. DisplayPort is the new VESA standard for a follow-on to DVI, with a sideband for audio like HDMI, but also sidebands for USB which are yet to be implemented, and something like four times the bandwidth of HDMI without any of the signal quality issues. The touchpad is not only the biggest, but the best you will find, and it took the industry like a decade to catch up to Apple's backlit keyboards, four or five years for the LED backlit screens, and they still don't have standard Bluetooth or webcams, the use of which only becomes apparent when everyone has one.

Also, it's the only 1" thick desktop replacement under 5 pounds I know of, and the magnetic power plug has saved me from replacing three or four laptops.

Phew.

Also, this is not the first Apple NiMH charger; the first came with Apple's digital camera offerings way back in the stone age. What you missed, is the part about how these are 1,000 cycle low-self-discharge NiMH cells. Basically, Apple is selling Eneloops with a 2-slot compact multivoltage smart charger.

Sorry, thanks for playing.

Edit: Assuming eneloops, it charges at 400 mA

Also,

Don't try to charge nonrechargeable AA batteries (alkaline, lithium, or NiCad) in the charger.

Emphasis mine. Apparently, they're not fond of Ni-Cd either.

 

[red02]

I'll have you know I'm typing this from a MacBookPro5,3 and use it regularly to play TF2 and such heavy-duty games. The battery used is an exceedingly large, high-quality LiPo with the sort of advanced regulation that us hobbyists can only dream about (and ***** about when someone :fail:s to include it!). The headphone and mic plugs are both MiniTOSlink fiberoptic ports, if you swing that way, and the headphone jack also parses microphone input from a single-plug headset - plus volume and play/pause signals, too. The USB ports all supply four times the USB spec required current, if the device is willing to ask for it. DisplayPort is the new VESA standard for a follow-on to DVI, with a sideband for audio like HDMI, but also sidebands for USB which are yet to be implemented, and something like four times the bandwidth of HDMI without any of the signal quality issues. The touchpad is not only the biggest, but the best you will find, and it took the industry like a decade to catch up to Apple's backlit keyboards, four or five years for the LED backlit screens, and they still don't have standard Bluetooth or webcams, the use of which only becomes apparent when everyone has one.

Also, it's the only 1" thick desktop replacement under 5 pounds I know of, and the magnetic power plug has saved me from replacing three or four laptops.

Phew.
......
Sorry, thanks for playing.

I could easily and successfully argue that only 1 of those 9 improvements are anything more than marketing gimmicks. However, I don't want to be responsible for closing this thread.

on topic:
Does this thing have a indicator light? Its probably easier to forget about your batteries without one and cancel out the power savings that this charger offers.

 

[Sugarboy]

Does this thing have a indicator light?

Yes

[/URL]

 

[Chrontius]

I could easily and successfully argue that only 1 of those 9 improvements are anything more than marketing gimmicks. However, I don't want to be responsible for closing this thread.

on topic:
Does this thing have a indicator light? Its probably easier to forget about your batteries without one and cancel out the power savings that this charger offers.

I'm sorry I laid into you like that, but there's a significant number of mac users who are after a friendly Unix machine, or who specifically like one of the technical improvements Apple has made. In my case, I got out of doing daily windows updates shakehead) and three or four different scans a day to keep my machine performing like it should have been. I'm just getting sick of being snidely referred to as stupid, ignorant, or technologically helpless when I'm really just lazy and have other more important things to do with my time than baby along a computer that's not doing what I need it to do. If I come off as a little bitter, I am, and I'm sorry I had to vent like that.

 

[LEDninja]

What Apple products use AA batteries?
Most Apple products require you to send the unit back to Apple to swap batteries.

This product requires me to plug it in the wall? Not into my iMAC USB port? Even DX sells AA chargers that plug into my iMAC USB port.

I can see the late night talk show hosts having fun with this. "Just remember you'll have to hold the iCHARGER4 the Steve Job's way or it won't charge."

 

[fishinfool]

Has anybody ordered these yet?

 

[Chrontius]

What Apple products use AA batteries?
Most Apple products require you to send the unit back to Apple to swap batteries.

This product requires me to plug it in the wall? Not into my iMAC USB port? Even DX sells AA chargers that plug into my iMAC USB port.

I can see the late night talk show hosts having fun with this. "Just remember you'll have to hold the iCHARGER4 the Steve Job's way or it won't charge."

Mouse, keyboard, bluetooth trackpad - off the top of my head. Plus iPod things that charge internal batteries from AAs. Also, things like Flip cameras - and really, any other kind of camera that eats AA cells.

 

[GarageBoy]

I'll have you know I'm typing this from a MacBookPro5,3 and use it regularly to play TF2 and such heavy-duty games. The battery used is an exceedingly large, high-quality LiPo with the sort of advanced regulation that us hobbyists can only dream about (and ***** about when someone :fail:s to include it!). The headphone and mic plugs are both MiniTOSlink fiberoptic ports, if you swing that way, and the headphone jack also parses microphone input from a single-plug headset - plus volume and play/pause signals, too. The USB ports all supply four times the USB spec required current, if the device is willing to ask for it. DisplayPort is the new VESA standard for a follow-on to DVI, with a sideband for audio like HDMI, but also sidebands for USB which are yet to be implemented, and something like four times the bandwidth of HDMI without any of the signal quality issues. The touchpad is not only the biggest, but the best you will find, and it took the industry like a decade to catch up to Apple's backlit keyboards, four or five years for the LED backlit screens, and they still don't have standard Bluetooth or webcams, the use of which only becomes apparent when everyone has one.

Also, it's the only 1" thick desktop replacement under 5 pounds I know of, and the magnetic power plug has saved me from replacing three or four laptops.

Phew.

Also, this is not the first Apple NiMH charger; the first came with Apple's digital camera offerings way back in the stone age. What you missed, is the part about how these are 1,000 cycle low-self-discharge NiMH cells. Basically, Apple is selling Eneloops with a 2-slot compact multivoltage smart charger.

Sorry, thanks for playing.

Edit: Assuming eneloops, it charges at 400 mA

Also,
Emphasis mine. Apparently, they're not fond of Ni-Cd either.

Too bad that is not what they advertise and instead go for the "social" side of computing

 

[carrot]

I'm sorry I laid into you like that, but there's a significant number of mac users who are after a friendly Unix machine, or who specifically like one of the technical improvements Apple has made. In my case, I got out of doing daily windows updates shakehead) and three or four different scans a day to keep my machine performing like it should have been. I'm just getting sick of being snidely referred to as stupid, ignorant, or technologically helpless when I'm really just lazy and have other more important things to do with my time than baby along a computer that's not doing what I need it to do. If I come off as a little bitter, I am, and I'm sorry I had to vent like that.

Hi Chrontius, I hear you, I'm in the exact same position.

At work I maintain, support, and do all sorts of processor-intensive work on Mac Pro workstations. Hardware-wise I don't know any features off the top of my head like Chrontius does but I do know that it is a piece of cake to work on them -- memory comes on daughterboards that slide out with ease, hard drives can be slid in and out and swapped without a screwdriver, and they run whisper quiet.

As a group that works heavily on both multimedia and software development, we do not use Mac Pros because we are some kind of Mac-enthusiast shop. We use Mac Pros because they deliver exactly what we need in order to be efficient.

A few examples where Windows or Linux would work for some but not every thing we do here:
- web development (we can test all major engines using OSX + VMWare Fusion)
- create custom solutions based on open source projects (often involves heavy use of *nix-only utilities)
- run large batch commands to process video, audio or image files (need ffmpeg)
- media creation (need Adobe Creative Suite & FCPS)

Running Macs and OSX gives us the flexibility to do what we do here. Again, we use them not because we are simpletons or fanboys but because nothing else comes close for our needs.

Garageboy, read the pages on Apple's website explaining the features of their machines. It's all there. Apple is a smart company that knows how to market itself. People who aren't technically-minded do not buy on specs, they buy products based on how they believe the products will fit into their lives. Apple shows in their ads how an Apple product fits into your life because that's what's effective. For instance, I watch Verizon "Droid" ads without even understanding what they're trying to sell. When I see an iPad ad it's easily understood that it's a product that will let you browse the web from the comfort of your bed, couch, or hammock.

 

[Chrontius]

Also, as someone who has been through Apple's training, you are usually taught three ways to sell any apple product. One for clueless noobs, one for hackers, and one for artists. Anyway, they give you examples of questions to ask first, any of which (or your own thus-inspired ones) should let you figure out what class you're dealing with, and shift gears. You'll find the webpage reflects this philosophy.

 

[Robert15]

I was at an Apple retail store this evening and I asked about the new charger and batteries.

Most of the staff hadn't heard of this product.

They haven't received any yet.

They didn't know any more details than the minimal information that's on Apple's web site.

 

[Robert15]

I was at the Apple store again today. They have the NiMH batteries + charger in stock now, and I ended up getting one.

There still aren't any useful specs on the Apple web page, and nobody in the store had any more details. They didn't have any of the batteries or chargers unboxed for demo either. So I'll do some testing with the limited equipment I have available.

Package: The product number on the box is MC500LL/AA. The box includes 6 batteries, the charger, and a little manual printed in a bunch of languages. (It's the same manual as the PDF link posted by Sugarboy earlier in this thread.) The box says "Made in China".

Charger: It says "Assembled in China".
The input rating is "100-240V 0.15A50-60Hz".
The 2-prong plug folds into the body of the charger for storage, like many of Apple's current power products. It's configured for a standard U.S. power outlet, but the prong part is detachable, and Apple's travel adapter parts could be employed to use it in other countries. I assume other versions are (or will be) sold outside of the U.S., with the right power prongs for each country.

Batteries: The manufacturer isn't printed on the battery. No Apple name or logo. The capacity is shown as "Min. 1900 mAH". The batteries are made in Japan, not China.

I checked all the batteries on my ZTS Pulse Load battery tester. This tester shows the remaining capacity as 0, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, or 100%. All 6 of these batteries showed 100% on the tester. This is different than the Eneloops I've tested in the past, which usually show either 80% or 60% fresh from the package. (But my Eneloops have generally been more than a year old when I received them, and these Apple batteries have probably been on the shelf a much shorter time.)

The first 4 batteries are on my Maha MH-C9000 WizardOne Charger/Analyzer. I'm doing a 100 mA discharge to measure the out-of-the-box capacity. I'll post the results when the discharge cycle is done.

 

[gswitter]

Batteries: The manufacturer isn't printed on the battery. No Apple name or logo. The capacity is shown as "Min. 1900 mAH". The batteries are made in Japan, not China.

Very encouraging. :thumbsup:

 

[fishinfool]

Lookin' and soundin' like Eneloops to me.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Lookin' and soundin' like Eneloops to me.

apploop in the hand is worth two in the charger

 

[Sugarboy]

From this youtube video, the batteries are made in Japan.. Eneloops?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc7knrf8Hj8&hd=1