Rechargeable AAs and AAAs are nothing new. As long as you have a compatibly-sized charger, you should be able to replenish your depleted batteries at will. These Lightors, however, offer a different take, sporting micro-USB slots that let you replenish the batteries directly from a USB port.
Like disposables and traditional rechargeable cells, the batteries can be used to power your remotes, flashlights, and toys. Unlike them, there’s no need for a dedicated charging dock to get a batch of AAs and AAAs topped up. Instead, you simply plug it into an available USB port and it will start siphoning juice immediately, ensuring you can recharge your batteries from any computer, power bank, or 220-volt port.
Only two types of Lightors will be available initially: AA and AAA. The former comes with a 1500 mAh cell, while the latter sports a smaller 600 mAh. Both produce 1.2 volts, rather than the standard 1.5 volts put out by disposables, which allows each charge to last much longer, although it makes them potentially incompatible with legacy devices (e.g. your grandma’s vintage radios). It comes with a LED indicator that displays red when charging and blue when full, with a full charge taking around eight hours on a computer’s USB port (six hours on a 220-volt USB adapter). The length a full charge of the batteries can power a device will depend on specific consumption, although they estimate a wireless mouse should be able to run an entire month on a single charge.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running to fund Lightors. Pledges to reserve a unit starts at $8 for a pair.