Batteries

Japan's Panasonic is introducing a double-A household battery that will keep gadgets running 20% longer than rival alkaline batteries do. The new Evolta -- whose name is derived from "evolution" and "voltage" -- has proved its mettle against products from Duracell and Energizer, as well as Panasonic's own Oxyride batteries, according to Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products. Evolta's 10-year shelf life -- as much as 60% longer than rivals' -- results from more material being packed inside it, the new materials it's made with and a sturdier seal than predecessors had, Matsushita said.

John Travolta is now facing allegations of assault and sexual battery from a second anonymous male masseur, according to an amended complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court. Similar to the complaint filed Friday, the amended civil complaint goes into graphic detail about Travolta's alleged behavior - including unwanted touching and inappropriate nudity - while he was on the table for an in-room massage. While the first John Doe described events alleged to have taken place in Beverly Hills on Jan. 16, the second referred to an alleged encounter in Atlanta on Jan. 28, according to a court document obtained and published by Radar Online (Caution: Document contains graphic material)

U.S. engineers have found a way to make lithium batteries that are smaller, lighter, longer-lasting and capable of recharging in seconds -- potentially opening up new applications, including better batteries for electric cars. The new batteries, which have an altered base material that allows lithium ions to move more quickly, could be available for sale in two to three years, a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.

LAS VEGAS — The volatility that defines Floyd Mayweather Jr. is rooted partly in the complex relationship with his father. Floyd Mayweather Sr.'s boxing lessons helped propel his son to unimaginable riches. The younger Mayweather gets another huge payday Saturday for his title bout against 154-pound champion Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But there's tragedy in the familial connection, too, of lessons outside the ring that were left for the son to learn painfully on his own. On June 1, Mayweather Jr., 35, is scheduled to report to Clark County (Nev.)

When electric car maker Coda Automotive Inc. introduces its first model this year, the independent Southern California manufacturer will pioneer a new EV profile: the unassuming four-door five-seater. If cars came in flavors, Coda's debut would be classic vanilla. Understated by design, it's a car for do-gooders who don't need to flaunt their green credentials. Think Honda Civic, only all electric and homegrown. Today, Coda is opening its first-ever storefront on L.A.'s Westside in the Westfield Century City mall.

For General Motors Co., the Chevrolet Volt may be generating the wrong kind of spark. Federal officials on Friday launched a formal safety defect investigation into GM's plug-in hybrid vehicle after crash tests on several Volts and their batteries resulted in fires. In one case, a fire that started in one of the test vehicles consumed three others parked nearby. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was "concerned" that damage to the Volt's batteries sustained in tests designed to replicate real-world crash scenarios resulted in the vehicles' catching fire.

When Honda Motor Co. rolled out its latest-generation Civic hybrid, it was sold as the automaker's green car of the future. But five years into production, Honda has discovered that its high-tech batteries can die years early, a potentially expensive flaw that the automaker has been addressing with a software update that many owners claim has made the car less environmentally friendly. Jason Marchesano of Overland Park, Kan. said the battery in his 2007 Civic hybrid started losing its ability to hold a charge last year.

The new, high-octane iPhone 3GS is loaded with features that could light up your life -- but its battery isn't one of them. Buyers are finding that the device, introduced two weeks ago, has trouble making it through a workday without a rest stop at the electrical outlet. It's proving to be something of an Achilles' heel on Apple Inc.'s flagship device, more than 1 million of which were sold in the first weekend.

Tesla, the San Carlos, Calif.-based electric car company, said Tuesday that it had been selected to provide the batteries and chargers for Daimler's Smart EV electric car and would deliver 1,000 of the batteries this year and next. "Daimler just gave me permission this morning to announce the news," said Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, best known as the co-founder of PayPal.

Tenderly, the lover caressed his beloved. So pale, so smooth. He tilted his head forward, the better to inhale that scent - rich and enticing. Fingertip to spine, feeling every contour, he pressed his face closer - and turned a page. I don't know what you were thinking about, but I was talking about a book. A real book. The Kindle and its ilk are just gizmos with pixilated screens. Hit the off button and its borrowed character vanishes. A genuine book has a soul of its own. It is tactile, beautiful, accessible.

Car shoppers will soon find two Ford Focus sedans sitting side by side when they visit the dealership — one with a gas tank and another with batteries. In a milestone for the auto industry, an automaker will give consumers an option to purchase the same model of a vehicle with either a traditional combustion engine or one powered only by electricity. It will mark the first time that buyers can compare the different powertrains on the same car. An electric Focus, next to the gas version, provides, "more transparency to what it means to pay for an electric vehicle," said Thilo Koslowski, an automotive analyst at research firm Gartner Inc. Ford Motor Co.'s strategy of producing an electric car that shares the platform, body style and many components of the standard gasoline model is a departure from other automakers pioneering the electric car market.

CHICAGO — Batteries made in America for America and backed by America. That's how politicians hailed Ener1. The company tapped the country's top scientists at Argonne National Lab in Illinois, and U.S. taxpayers pledged up to $118 million in federal stimulus funds and $80 million in state and local incentives to help Ener1 produce cutting-edge battery technology for electric cars and the U.S. military. "This is about the future. And the question is which nation is going to seize the future.

Tenderly, the lover caressed his beloved. So pale, so smooth. He tilted his head forward, the better to inhale that scent - rich and enticing. Fingertip to spine, feeling every contour, he pressed his face closer - and turned a page. I don't know what you were thinking about, but I was talking about a book. A real book. The Kindle and its ilk are just gizmos with pixilated screens. Hit the off button and its borrowed character vanishes. A genuine book has a soul of its own. It is tactile, beautiful, accessible.

BMW will recall 1.3 million luxury cars, including 367,000 in the U.S., because of a potential problem with a battery cable connector. It is BMW's largest recall ever, company officials said, and it is big by industry standards, rivaling some of the large recalls issued by Toyota Motor Co. as it dealt with quality issues over the last two years. The recall includes all BMW 5 Series sedans and sport wagons produced from June 1, 2003, to March 31, 2010, and 6 Series coupes and convertibles produced from Sept.

It's not an Apple product launch without a swirl of some breathless controversy , and the new iPad hasn't disappointed, including criticism that it either overheats or undercharges . On the latter, Apple recently responded to criticism that the iPad's battery indicator is misleading . Apple agreed that the battery indicator does, in fact, show 100% before it's actually crossed that threshold. In an interview with AllThingsD's Ina Fried, Apple Vice President Michael Tchao said, “That circuitry is designed so you can keep your device plugged in as long as you would like.” The battery icon on iPads -- and iPhones and the iPod Touch -- appears fully charged, but continues a little dance between discharging and charging until the device is unplugged; having the icon display "100%" is to avoid confusing owners, Fried explained in her post.

Are you damaging your new iPad just by charging it? That seems to be what Apple is suggesting in response to questions about whether the third-generation iPad continues to charge even after the battery indicator reads 100%. Last week, DisplayMate Technologies reported discrepancies between the charge indicator and the power available. According to DisplayMate President Raymond Soneira, if you stop charging the iPad when the indicator reads 100%, you're really only about 90% charged . This means you probably won't get the maximum running time you'd expect from a fully charged device.

A word of warning: Smoke detectors in motel rooms may not have batteries. My daughter and I discovered this after escaping from a 4 a.m. fire in British Columbia. We heard no alarm--someone knocked at our door and saved many lives. At our next stop the motel manager said the motel had detectors. Unfortunately, there were no batteries in them. PATRICIA MELNIKER Los Angeles

Note to pediatricians: Swallowed batteries damage children's insides alarmingly fast and need to be treated as quickly as possible, say the authors of a study in the September issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery. Though batteries should not be part of your child's food pyramid, they're increasingly becoming an issue in our high-tech environment, as Melissa Healy previously pointed out in a blog post on lithium batteries. Disc batteries, easily gobbled by a curious toddler, can cause those children to choke.

With "Desperate Housewives" winding up its lucrative eight-season run on ABC, its creator took a moment last week to distill what he called the show's "original blend" of television genres. "Part comedy, part drama, part mystery," Marc Cherry said. To the audience he addressed, a Los Angeles jury in a lawsuit brought by a former actress on the show, the concept of watching something that was by turns funny, sad and confounding was not a foreign one. The two-week trial set for closing arguments Tuesday often seemed a black comedy about a black comedy.

This post has been updated. See note at the bottom for details.  A retired British businessman was expected to make his first appearance in a federal court in El Paso on Monday after he was extradited last week on charges that he tried to sell missile batteries to Iran in 2006. Christopher Tappin, 65, turned himself in Friday after fighting extradition for two years and was taken to El Paso by federal marshals. Daryl Fields, spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, told The Times that Tappin was scheduled to have an initial hearing on Monday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Castañeda.