We're tired of throwing batteries away. So many of our devices still use batteries, and we still have never committed to the investment of rechargeable batteries. These, however, may help us change our minds (and our lazy environmental practices.)
USB Cell Batteries are rechargeable AA batteries that charge using your USB ports. No need for clunky chargers laying around your apartment, just plug the battery into your computer. We think these would be great for our digital cameras and other devices that we use regularly.
I am not sure how your USB ports are arranged, but try charging more than one of these at once. And how much fun is it to charge enough of these individually? Suck it up and get some real rechargeable batteries!
Based on the way the USB ports are placed on every computer I've ever used (aka too close to use more than one oddly shaped USB dongle at once) you'd probably be stuck investing in a USB hub as well... Personally, I don't see this as being a particularly practical solution as far as rechargeable batteries go... but if you're going for nerdy street cred, I don't suppose that matters.
"No need for clunky chargers laying around your apartment,"
Should be "lying", not "laying". Sorry, pet peeve.
Actually, I don't think you'd necessarily need a hub to charge these batteries. On my PC at work, I've got two USB slots on the front, four on the back, and at least 4 slots on my monitor. I know that on laptops and smaller computers (like my Mac Mini at home) it might be more challenging to keep multitudes of these batteries fully charged, but if you're diligent about it, I imagine that you wouldn't run into too many problems.
really, what hi-tech gadgets use AA batteries. my digital camera's got its own recharg. batt, so does my phone and everything else that uses batteries. I only buy AA batteries now for my almost obsolete mini mag-lite.