Finally, some sensible advice on prolonging batteries! I know that batteries will lose their ability to hold a charge no matter what, but that doesn’t mean you can take steps to make it last for a few extra charge cycles.
Slate’s Farhad Manjoo recently interviewed Isidor Buchmann, the CEO of battery-testing equipment manufacturer Cadex Electronics, about characteristics of contemporary gadget batteries and how to use them to your advantage. Note that the tips below only apply to Lithium-Ion batteries, the most popular type used in gadget today:
Keep Your Batteries Away From Heat. Heat lessens a battery’s lifespan, and unfortunately many gadgets …read more

So how long does the battery of the Nokia N97 last on a full charge? Turns out much longer than the N96 and N95: “For now though, one thing is clear: based on my (admittedly undemanding) usage, the Nokia N97 almost lasted for two days. A definite improvement over the N96!”

A complete log of the phone’s usage over two days, accompanied by frequent updates on remaining battery life, is available on Philippine affiliate Technograph.

Savvy laptop owners learned a long time ago that manufacture claims on laptop battery lives were essentially best-case scenarios. An XPS M1330 for instance never reaches the promised 3 hours—even with all connectivity off and the screen dimmed to minimum.
But why, you ask? Here’s Daniel Lyons’s theory
These battery-life numbers are based on a benchmark test called MobileMark 2007 (MM07). The test was created by a consortium called BAPCo (Business Application Performance Corp.), whose members are—you guessed it—computer makers and other tech companies.

The concept is easy to understand: design a system that can create power from radio frequency energies to charge batteries. The potential for this is huge, since RF devices are practically ubiquitous—at least for those who need to charge batteries on a regular basis. WiFi and cellphone antennas are just some of the examples of RF-creating items that the proposed charging system can utilize. The full news report below:

Nokia Prototype Generates Power from Ambient Radiation
Shane McGlaun
Future Nokia devices may charge batteries without needing an AC outlet
Markku Rouvala, a researcher from the Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, U.K., and a group …read more

Though the brand of the affected Lithium-Ion batteries are Sony, affected customers include owners of HP, Toshiba, and Dell computers. The models listed below may use the affected batteries, which were manufactured in Japan.
If you happen to be an owner of any of the following:

HP Pavilion: dv1000, dv8000 and zd8000
Compaq Presario: v2000 and v2400
HP Compaq: nc6110, nc6120, nc6140, nc6220, nc6230, nx4800, nx4820, nx6110, nx6120, nx9600
Toshiba Satellite: A70/A75, P30/P5, M30X/M35X, M50/M55
Toshiba Tecra: A3, A5, S2
Dell Latitude: 110L
Dell Inspiron: 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150, 5160

Read the full “voluntary recall” press release now. If you need more reason, here’s the incident/injury report summary: “There …read more