My Samsung Galaxy S II had been great to me. It's a thin, light phone with a gorgeous display and a dual-core processor that handles Android with ease. When people asked me if I'd ever return to an iPhone, my answer was a cheery "nope!" That was until last week, when AT&T delivered an Android 2.3.6 update to the Galaxy S II that destroyed its battery life.
Duracell? Energizer? The cheapie packages of AAs at the dollar store? Tired of dumping money blindly on batteries for Wii remote controllers, flashlights, Nerf guns, and the like, a physicist decides it’s time to investigate which batteries truly give the most bang for the buck.
Is there hope for breakthroughs in battery technology, or are we doomed to need to recharge all our gadgets on a daily basis? There are several things happening that I want to highlight, along with emphasizing that more still needs to be done.
The lowly battery: It’s one of the most important parts of any modern-day gadget, yet it’s been one of the slowest pieces of the technology puzzle to evolve. That smartphone in your pocket is exponentially more powerful than the first computer you ever used, yet you still have to plug it in every night.
This almost makes too much sense.
Should lithium batteries be regarded as “hazardous material” by the U.S. government? It’s what the Obama administration wanted, but a House bill passed last week bars limits that exceed international standards on shipments of lithium cells and batteries–a move expected to save companies like Apple, Panasonic, and Samsung billions in packaging, shipping, training, and related [...]
We all had a good laugh a couple of weeks ago when Lenovo and HP announced laptops that were capable of eclipsing 30 hours of battery life on a single charge. Think of all the overworked office drones slumped over in their $49.99 task chairs after a 30-hour mail merge marathon!
Attention, laptop-toting members of the global workforce: In an effort to maximize potential productivity to stratospheric levels, new portable computers with 30+ hour battery life will soon be entering the market.
Kensington’s $40 Pocket Battery for Smartphones is roughly the length and width of a credit card, with a thickness of just over 1/4 inch.
You know how you have to load batteries into products a certain way? Get ready to have your minds collectively blown. Microsoft has developed what it’s calling InstaLoad battery installation technology, “which allows users to easily install a battery without regard to positive and negative polarity.”
