Energizer now selling tiny batteries

By Tim Clodfelter
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: June 21, 2008

Consumers have gotten used to batteries in AA and AAA sizes, but Energizer has just started selling a new size, AAAA.
“Energizer says that the new battery will work with Bluetooth headsets, noise-canceling headsets, flash audio players and ‘other cutting-edge devices still in development,’” according to a report from technology lifestyle Web site ElectronicHouse.com.
The AAAA battery weighs about 6.5 grams, compared with 11.5 grams for AAA batteries. Until now, AAAA batteries have been used only in a few devices such as LED penlights and glucose meters, and they have been hard to find.
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A South Korean company called Audizen is hoping to challenge the popularity of the MP3 digital audio format with a new format, the MT9.
The format, commercially known as Music 2.9, “splits an audio file into six channels, such as vocals, guitar, bass and so on,” according to a report in Billboard magazine.
“Users playing the track can then raise or lower the volume on the different channels like a producer on a mixing board, to the point of isolating a single item.”
Audizen faces an uphill battle, though, in dislodging MP3, which can be played in most every digital media player, as well as other popular formats such as WAV, WMA and AAC.
“Implementing a new digital music format would require an unprecedented level of cooperation among the labels, digital retailers and manufacturers,” Billboard noted. The Motion Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) will meet later this month in Germany to consider making MT9 an international standard.
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Almost 70 percent of U.S. households will own at least one digital television set by the end of 2008, according to a new survey by the Consumer Electronics Association. That is up from 50 percent at the end of 2007.