Energizers Duo really stood by its products name. Should you have been one of the lucky purchasers of the Energizer Duo battery charger you may have inadvertently downloaded a virus along with the software that allows you to watch your batteries charge. It basically Duo’d as a charger and virus spreader.

It seems that the download-able software program will infect windows PC’s with malware that opens up the 7777 port to telnet and the like. This can potentially allow hacker types access to the users computer to list, download, upload and execute files. None of which you generally want to allow them to do.

It uses UsbCharger.dll to run Arucer.dll and also ensures that the Arucer.dll runs every time the computer starts up. If you uninstall the Energizer charger software it will remove the UsbCharger.dll which stops the Arucer.dll form being called, though it remains on the hard drive. You can go and delete the Arucer.dll file after uninstalling and when you restart it’ll be gone for good.

For more information you can check out the Energizer Press Release.

Like any truly great gadget the Powermat is based on science that has a lot of Greek symbols in it while remaining easy to use. The Powermat uses Electromagnetic Induction (which apparently we found out about around 1831 Electromagnetic Induction on Wikipedia ) to charge all your handheld devices without wires…. Sort of.

It’s not entirely wireless, you need to plug in the mats themselves and any device that they don’t make a receiver for needs to use the “powercube”. The powercube comes with mini & micro USB tips standard, though you can get others as you need them. It then sits on the mat, wirelessly, while your PSP for example will be plugged into it via the USB connection. So while not entirely “wireless” it’s probably less hassle than having all those plugs lying around beside your bed for everything you need to charge.

The real appeal of the Powermat comes in when you have a device that comes with a receiver. The receiver allows your device to charge directly from the mat. They’re either a sleeve in the case of the iPhone 3G and iPod touch, a dock for iPods and iPhones or for Blackberry devices a new battery door. The Blackberry door replacement has the least impact on the overall feel of the phone while the dock is pretty much the standard iPod type of dock.

When you’ve got your receiver in place all you need to do is drop the phone down onto the Powermat in the right place and it starts to charge. It gives off a bleep and the LED’s light up (Both of these functions can be switched to either On, Half or Off). One caveat though is that you have to be fairly precise in your positioning of the device over the charging spots on the mat for it to activate properly, though there are magnets in the mat to help you find the sweet spot.
As for the mats you have two choices. There’s the Home & Office mat which is the more stylish option, but doesn’t have the practicality of the Portable Mat. The portable mat folds up into three sections, comes with its own carry case and means that you’ll only have one charger to forget when you travel rather than 5.

The Powermat system isn’t cheap though. The mats are $99 and when you add the price of a couple of the receivers at between $20 and $30 things get expensive fast. That being said though, the system is both innovative and pretty nifty. Anyone who has a coffee table in their bedroom set aside as a shrine to their DS, iPod, iPhones and Blackberry chargers will instantly be able to see the benefits that a system like this can bring. As an added bonus it’s a stylish looking piece of tech in its own right and it actually works!

With Technology taking over in pretty much all aspects of life, its no surprise that books have lost there place in our world today. The enjoyment of curling up to a warm fire with a cup of hot cocoa or glass of wine on a rainy day will soon be a thing of the past. Even the sound of the cracking from the binding of opening a new book and the touch the crisp pages of a book fresh from the press have lost there share of the market. Now I don’t know any statistics at the moment; however, I do know the Kindle, iPod and other eBook readers are becoming more prevalent with a huge market places like Amazon selling eBooks.

I am not opposed to change or technology as long as it is for the better. I had the pleasure of speaking with Monique Tilford, co-author of Your Money or Your Life. We spoke about another project that she is working on but it was a great to find her book on Amazon in an Kindle Edition. Which was a great reminder that because the shift to ebooks has begun that doesn’t mean that the quality of books has diminished. If you wanted to find out more about her book, check out her blog at Your Money Or Your Life.info

So what does this all of this have to BatteriesInAFlash? The Kindle battery has been a very hot seller for us and we have not been able to keep them on the shelves. We have literally sold out of the batteries the same day they arrive. The Kindle 2 has just been released (ironically the battery is unknown to us at the moment) and has been selling out as well.

Although, the Kindle is not alone in the world of eBooks. The iPod Nanos and above have the ability to load eBooks and the iPhone or iTouch have Apps that make eBooks possible and even Sony has the eBook Reader. So with all the options out there where do you stand?