Also known as | A1360 |
---|---|
Developer | Apple Inc. |
Type | Battery Charger |
Release date | July 27, 2010 [1] |
Discontinued | 2016 |
Website | Homepage at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-01-25) |
The Apple Battery Charger is a battery charger which was sold by Apple Inc. and bundled with six AA batteries. It was introduced in July 2010 and marketed as a way to charge Apple's wireless Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad and Apple Wireless Keyboard. [2] The charger was discontinued around 2016, [3] after Apple revised their peripherals with built-in batteries that can be charged with a Lightning connector. [4]
The charger has a white design, with a small indicator light on top that glows amber while the batteries are charging, and green once they are charged. It can charge two NiMH batteries at once, [2] and takes five hours for a full charge. [5]
Apple's main marketing claim for the product was that the charger had a standby power draw of 30 mW, compared to an industry average of 315 mW. [2] [6] [7]
The charger was sold with six rechargeable AA batteries that use low self-discharge NiMH technology, [8] have a silver design and no Apple branding, and have an advertised capacity of 1,900 milliampere-hour (mAh). [2] Czech website SuperApple identified the batteries as likely being rebranded Eneloop HR-3UTG 1.2 volt batteries manufactured by Sanyo. [8] [9]
According to Apple, these batteries were designed to have a service life of up to ten years and retain 80% of their capacity even after being stored for a year. [10] Engadget says the Sanyo Eneloop batteries are able to retain 75% of their charge after three years. [8]
Engadget criticized Apple for selling their charger and six batteries for $29 when Sanyo sold a charger and eight batteries for the same price. [8] SuperApple noted that Apple's then-current wireless peripherals used two AA batteries, but older Apple Wireless Keyboards used three; Apple's charger could only charge two at once. [5]
Apple marketed its battery charger as environmentally friendly due to a lower standby power draw, although Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineering professor Gerbrand Ceder criticized Apple for shipping peripherals that require disposable batteries, instead of non-removable lithium-ion batteries like many of Apple's competitors. [11]
A nickel metal hydride battery is a type of rechargeable battery. The chemical reaction at the positive electrode is similar to that of the nickel–cadmium cell (NiCd), with both using nickel oxide hydroxide (NiOOH). However, the negative electrodes use a hydrogen-absorbing alloy instead of cadmium. NiMH batteries can have two to three times the capacity of NiCd batteries of the same size, with significantly higher energy density, although much less than lithium-ion batteries.
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., stylized as SANYO, was a Japanese electronics company and formerly a member of the Fortune Global 500 whose headquarters was located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo had over 230 subsidiaries and affiliates, and was founded by Toshio Iue in 1947.
Duracell Inc. is an American manufacturer of alkaline batteries, specialty cells, rechargeables and smart power systems; it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. The company has its origins in the 1920s, through the work of Samuel Ruben and Philip Mallory, and the formation of the P. R. Mallory Company.
A primary battery or primary cell is a battery that is designed to be used once and discarded, and not recharged with electricity and reused like a secondary cell. In general, the electrochemical reaction occurring in the cell is not reversible, rendering the cell unrechargeable. As a primary cell is used, chemical reactions in the battery use up the chemicals that generate the power; when they are gone, the battery stops producing electricity. In contrast, in a secondary cell, the reaction can be reversed by running a current into the cell with a battery charger to recharge it, regenerating the chemical reactants. Primary cells are made in a range of standard sizes to power small household appliances such as flashlights and portable radios.
The AA battery is a standard size single cell cylindrical dry battery. The IEC 60086 system calls the size R6, and ANSI C18 calls it 15. It is named UM-3 by JIS of Japan. Historically, it is known as D14, U12 – later U7, or HP7 in official documentation in the United Kingdom, or a pen cell.
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A battery charger, recharger, or simply charger, is a device that stores energy in a battery by running an electric current through it. The charging protocol depends on the size and type of the battery being charged. Some battery types have high tolerance for overcharging and can be recharged by connection to a constant voltage source or a constant current source, depending on battery type. Simple chargers of this type must be manually disconnected at the end of the charge cycle. Other battery types use a timer to cut off when charging should be complete. Other battery types cannot withstand over-charging, becoming damaged, over heating or even exploding. The charger may have temperature or voltage sensing circuits and a microprocessor controller to safely adjust the charging current and voltage, determine the state of charge, and cut off at the end of charge. Chargers may elevate the output voltage proportionally with current to compensate for impedance in the wires.
A rechargeable alkaline battery, also known as alkaline rechargeable or rechargeable alkaline manganese (RAM), is a type of alkaline battery that is capable of recharging for repeated use. The formats include AAA, AA, C, D, and snap-on 9-volt batteries. Rechargeable alkaline batteries are manufactured fully charged and have the ability to hold their charge for years, longer than NiCd and NiMH batteries, which self-discharge. Rechargeable alkaline batteries can have a high recharging efficiency and have less environmental impact than disposable cells.
A CR-V3 battery is a type of disposable high-capacity 3-Volt battery used in various electronic appliances, including some digital cameras. It has the shape and size of two side-by-side AA batteries. This allows CR-V3 batteries to function in many devices originally designed for only AA batteries. An RCR-V3 battery is a rechargeable 3.7 V lithium-ion battery.
Inductive charging is a type of wireless power transfer. It uses electromagnetic induction to provide electricity to portable devices. Inductive charging is also used in vehicles, power tools, electric toothbrushes, and medical devices. The portable equipment can be placed near a charging station or inductive pad without needing to be precisely aligned or make electrical contact with a dock or plug.
Eneloop is a brand of 1.2-volt low self-discharge nickel–metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries and accessories developed by Sanyo and introduced in 2005. Panasonic acquired a majority stake in Sanyo in 2009, and Eneloop batteries were thereafter branded, but not manufactured, by Panasonic.
A battery is a source of electric power consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections for powering electrical devices. When a battery is supplying power, its positive terminal is the cathode and its negative terminal is the anode. The terminal marked negative is the source of electrons that will flow through an external electric circuit to the positive terminal. When a battery is connected to an external electric load, a redox reaction converts high-energy reactants to lower-energy products, and the free-energy difference is delivered to the external circuit as electrical energy. Historically the term "battery" specifically referred to a device composed of multiple cells; however, the usage has evolved to include devices composed of a single cell.
The Magic Mouse is a multi-touch wireless mouse that is manufactured by Foxconn and sold by Apple Inc.. The first-generation Magic Mouse was released on October 20, 2009, and introduced multi-touch functionality to a computer mouse. Taking after the iPhone, iPod Touch, and multi-touch MacBook trackpads, the Magic Mouse allows the use of multi-touch gestures and inertia scrolling across the surface of the mouse, designed for use with macOS.
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This is a list of commercially-available battery types summarizing some of their characteristics for ready comparison.
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The initial versions of the USB standard specified connectors that were easy to use and that would have acceptable life spans; revisions of the standard added smaller connectors useful for compact portable devices. Higher-speed development of the USB standard gave rise to another family of connectors to permit additional data paths. All versions of USB specify cable properties; version 3.x cables include additional data paths. The USB standard included power supply to peripheral devices; modern versions of the standard extend the power delivery limits for battery charging and devices requiring up to 100 watts. USB has been selected as the standard charging format for many mobile phones, reducing the proliferation of proprietary chargers.