Consumers Stumble Over Battery Life & Storage Capacity: USA Today writer Michelle Kessler points out that consumers regularly are disappointed in battery life and storage capacity. Before digital technology became popular, many cameras needed only a set of AA batteries and a roll of 35 mm film. Digital camera owners today face a dizzying array of options. Drugstores have walls of batteries, including standard, long-life and rechargeable. And then, they need to know whether their camera takes xD, SD, CompactFlash, Memory Stick or another type. Next, they have to choose the size, which typically ranges from about 16MB to 1GB. Nowhere does it guarantee how many pictures a card will hold, because that varies wildly depending on the camera being used and how it’s set.
Matt Purdy thought his new digital camera would shoot stunning pictures of his honeymoon in the Dominican Republic. Instead, it conked out after a few hours.
Tech headache: Matt Purdy was unable to recharge his digital camera while on his honeymoon in the Dominican Republic.
Purdy, 26, had chosen the Kodak DX7590 for its quality and design. He planned to recharge its proprietary battery each night. But the Energy, Ill., graduate student packed the wrong power cord.
Finding a new battery — a special Kodak model that sells for about $28 — wasn’t realistic in the resort town. Purdy gave up. “I was so disappointed,” he says.
Purdy’s dazzling, dead camera for which he paid $370, represents one of two boring-but-crucial problems for consumer electronics: In an age of stunningly fast computers and sophisticated gadgets, battery life and storage capacity — its equally crucial cousin — can’t keep up.
[Read the complete Sept. 22 USA Today article, "Perpetual stumbling block: Battery life, storage capacity."]
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