Ed Mechem writes, "Good news for Mac Portable users. There is a third party battery replacement available from Shadow Technologies, and it provides twice the life of the original battery. I've used my (non-backlit) Portable with the hard drive running continuously for close to five hours, and the battery still had some juice in it. My Portable has 9 MB of RAM (mostly low-power pseudo-static), and a 120 MB Connor 30100 hard drive. Shadow Technologies also makes PowerBook and Portable RAM (including the only user-expandable card that can hold up to 8 MB, to my knowledge)."

[I talked to Shadow Technologies about this, and the battery, which retails for $149, should start shipping in quantity soon. They estimate that it will provide two and half times the battery life of Apple's batteries due to different lead-acid cells. In addition, you can disconnect the battery for storage by simply removing it, flipping it 180 degrees, and reinserting it, rather than removing it or putting mylar between the contacts. Shadow Technologies has other products for the Portable and the PowerBooks in the works, including a $550 backlighting upgrade for the Portable and some other possibilities they didn't want to announce yet. -Adam]

Shadow Technologies -- 510/548-0130

Information from:
Ed Mechem -- ejm@well.sf.ca.us
Shadow Technologies representative