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AnonTechie wrote in with a PCWorld.com article on the batteriser, a scaled down voltage booster for small batteries.

From the article:

A completely new alkaline battery is rated to generate 1.5 volts, but once its output drops below 1.35 or even 1.4 volts, it effectively becomes useless to many devices. The battery's chemical cocktail is still loaded with juice, but the circuitry in many gadgets (especially more sophisticated ones, like Bluetooth keyboards and bathroom scales) considers the battery dead.

This is where Batteriser comes in. It's essentially a voltage booster that sucks every last drop of useable energy from ostensibly spent batteries. So, instead of using just 20 percent of all the power hidden inside of your Duracells and Energizers, Batteriser makes effective use of the remaining 80 percent.

Voltage boosters are nothing new, but Batteriser scales down the technology to the point where it can fit inside a stainless steel sleeve less than 0.1 mm thick. Roohparvar says the sleeves are thin enough to fit inside almost every battery compartment imaginable, and the combined package can extend battery life between 4.9x for devices like remote controls and 9.1x for various electronic toys.

"The Batteriser has boost circuitry that will boost the voltage from 0.6 volts to 1.5 volts and will maintain voltage at 1.5—which is a brand new battery," Roohparvar says. "There's actually no IP [intellectual property] in the boost circuitry. Our technology is really a miniaturization technique that allows us to build the sleeve. We have some IP in some of the IC circuits that are in there, but the key is we've been able to miniaturize the boost circuit to a point that no one else has been able to achieve. "

This seems like a great piece of tech, right? Almost too good to be true... When that happens alarm bells ring and it's time to investigate further. Here are articles from theness.com and EEVblog.com that say, "not so fast."

From theness.com article:

But can, then, the Batteriser extract 500% more life out of those AAs? I don't think so, and here's why. While it is true that the voltage of an alkaline battery (and all batteries) drops off as capacity drops, the big drop off doesn't occur until around 82% of the capacity has been drained, and therefore only about 18% remains.

So, can this nifty little device, when released, live up to it's claims? It seems doubtful, but if it's only at $2.50, it might be worth a shot.