There is a rechargeable battery pack & charger for it, but they have to be bought separately if you're getting the retail set. They come included in the Educational version.

Yes, of course. The question is how. I have yet to try data logging with it, but it may be possible that the built-in data logging files could be transferred to a PC and displayed on excel. Real-time would be a different matter.

Hi Guys,

I've been looking for details on this, but I really want to buy Mindstorms EV3, but my question is about the brick and programming etc. I've seen this site on mindstorms http://www.squidoo.com/your-own-robot-w ... storms-ev3 and looks cool, but how easy is it to do the programming side of it?
I'm not a total fool on the computer, but with actually getting the robots to do stuff, is it easy enough for a total newbie like me to do?
I'm completely fine with the building side of it, it's just this that worries me.
Appreciate any help.

Programming a robot is easy for some and hard for others. It also depends on the task you wish to complete. Making a robot display a message on its screen is easy, whereas making a robot solve a maze is more challenging. A math major would have no trouble making a robot throw balls into goals (using trigonometry), but he may struggle with getting a robot to interpret voice commands. Also, let's face it, some people are just not good at programming whatsoever. You must have creativity to problem solve and yet also have rigid analytical skills to program by the rules.

So, the short answer is it depends