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 today (especially laptops) can get very hot. The solution, aside from keeping the unit as cool as possible, is to always charge the battery when the gadget is off. When using laptops that are plugged in, remove the battery once it’s fully-charged.

Maintain an Optimum Charge Level. As Buchmann says, “you should try to keep your battery charged from 20 to 80 percent”. This means you should actually minimize letting a battery drain, and of course be mindful of overcharging it. Once the battery is full, unplug!

Charge Before Storing. Storing a battery drained of all power definitely lowers its lifespan. So if you plan to stow away that power pack for a long time, make sure to charge it to around 40 percent. Aside from prolonging the battery’s life, you’ve also got power for those emergencies.

Reset Your Battery Meter. This is tricky: some gadgets reset their power meter once you let the battery completely drain before charging it up back to full strength—a clear violation of maintaining an optimum charge level. But, if not done frequently (i.e., only when you think your gadget’s remaining power estimates are off), the damage to lifespan should be minimal.

Do you have your own proven tips on prolonging your gadget’s battery life? Remember, the longer our batteries last, the more efficient we become!

Source

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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.

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Courtesy jyrik

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.

Consortium member AMD recently turned tattletale, with marketing VP Patrick Moorhead citing three possible results of this apparently newfound awareness: “Either the industry regulates itself, or the FTC steps in and regulates us, or we get hit with a class-action lawsuit. I suggest the industry go with the first option.”

That third option sounds more appealing honestly: nothing like a windfall settlement to provide money for replacement batteries.

Seriously though, the real reason why battery estimates are usually off is due to good-old wear-and-tear. Disabling WiFi and lessening display brightness actually make those company-based battery life promises reachable (but still not attainable). Except of course for the reality that a battery loses capacity the more it’s used. Not only for laptops, but practically any gadget relying on rechargeable batteries.

That first marathon unplugged laptop session—usually employed after the battery has seen some use—drives this point home.

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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 of researchers are working towards a development that could lead to phones that are able to top off their batteries by harvesting power from ambient RF signals.

The type of radiation that the researchers are trying to harvest for the power comes from Wi-Fi transmitters, cell phones, TV antennas and other sources. Rouvala says that the prototype device that has been developed could harvest as much as 50 milliwatts of power. That amount of power would be sufficient to charge a phone that is switched off.

The current prototype is capable of harvesting only three to five milliwatts. Two passive circuits are required in the prototype device.

Rouvala said, “Even if you are only getting microwatts, you can still harvest energy, provided your circuit is not using more power than it’s receiving.”

Generating power in this method isn’t a new break through; the same method is used to generate power for wireless sensors and RFID tags. Technology Review reports that this year a researcher at the University of Washington developed a temperature and humidity sensor that was able to draw the power it needs to operate from a signal emitted by a 1-megawatt TV antenna 4.1km away, but the device needed only 60 microwatts.

Nokia’s plans are to generate much higher levels of power from ambient signals. To develop 50 milliwatts would need about 1000 strong signals and an antenna that can pick up such a wide range of frequencies would suffer from efficiency losses.

Researcher and physicist Steve Beeby works on vibrational energy. He said, “If they can get 50 milliwatts out of ambient RF, that would put me out of business.”

Nokia is mum on the details of its plan, but Rouvala says, “I would say it is possible to put this into a product within three to four years.”
The technology would not be used to power a phone alone; it would be combined with other energy-harvesting technology like solar cells. This sort of power generating technology would be especially welcome on Nokia handsets designed for emerging markets.

(Image courtesy Encyclopedia Britannica)

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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 have been 19 reports of the batteries overheating, including 17 reports of flames/fire (10 resulting in minor property damage). Two consumers experienced minor burns.”

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