Re: AAs
When I talk to people about the battery thing there is only one real argument they have against AAs - Lithium batteries are more energy-dense, so a device using Lithium batteries can be smaller and/or lighter.
There is another subtle problem that most people don't seem to clock, and that is that for best results, individual cells (nothing much will run on a single AA) need to be charged separately, not in a string, so using AA rechargeables necessitates using an external charger.
As I said, from my point of view, the fact that we can go on holiday and I only have to pack one charger and a couple of sets of spare AAs to cover five cameras, the torches and a portable radio makes my bag-of-bits a lot more manageable. Of course it still has to have the charger for my wife's camera and (if we take it) the laptop, but even phones are more-or-less sorted these days thanks to some far-sighted regulation. A single plug-in USB charger takes care of the half-dozen phones and the battery bank(s). The video camera (doesn't run on AAs) will charge through its USB port (an awful lot of devices won't - e.g. the wife's camera - and I don't understand why) and even the charger for the AAs can work from a USB socket, though nowhere near as quickly as if it's plugged into the mains or a 12V car socket.
M.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
