batterydrain
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Update Facebook on iOS now to keep it from draining your battery
Facebook users on iOS have had a sneaking suspicion that the app was starting to misbehave, to the detriment of their phone's battery life. After saying it was looking into the issue, Facebook has now confirmed the problem and pushed out an update to the iOS app to help offer some relief. Facebook engineering manager Ari Grant said as much in a post today on (where else) Facebook, saying that the company "found a few key issues and have identified additional improvements, some of which are in the version of the app that was released today." While there's more Facebook says it can do to lessen battery draing, updating the app today should provide some immediate relief.
Android apps that use power control APIs are often 'battery killers,' oh the irony
If there's one thing Purdue University researchers can't stand, it's an inefficient Android app. They've already revealed how some titles burn huge amounts of energy just by running ads (e.g., Angry Birds uses 63 percent of its resources for flogging stuff rather than flinging stuff), and now they've confirmed something else that has long been suspected: many offerings on Google Play also contain serious "energy bugs." Specifically, these are apps that use Android's power control or wakelock APIs to prevent a phone going into sleep mode. The majority of developers use wakelocks properly, but around a quarter make mistakes in how they juggle different APIs, which can cause a fully-charged phone to drain "in as little as five hours." Out of 187 wakelock-exploiting apps tested, 42 contained errors -- although the academics stopped short of naming and shaming. There's a chance they'll list the culprits when they present their paper next week, which will also propose an automatic method for detecting the glitches. Will that be another app?
Researchers put smartphones on a power diet, drastically improve battery life
Nokia's Asha handsets already use browser compression to reduce data costs and power consumption for customers in the developing world, but the company's Finnish neighbours over at Aalto University have taken a totally different approach. By using a network proxy to squash traffic into bursts rather than a constant bit rate, and by forcing a smartphone's modem into idle mode between each burst, the researchers claim they can cut 3G power consumption by 74 percent. Now, we're fortunate enough to be surrounded by power outlets over here, but even we could use some of that.
SleepWell forces WiFi to wait its turn, keeps gadgets well-rested (update)
Ever feel like your WiFi devices' battery-lives are better off when not surrounded by peers and passersby? According to Duke University grad student Justin Manweiler and assistant professor Romit Roy Choudhury, this phenomenon is due to gadgets constantly fighting to retrieve the same data. Their Systems Networking Research Group has created a program dubbed SleepWell to alleviate the congestion; it puts WiFi to rest until the path is clear for accessing the specific data it needs, and provides improved power management all the while. The tech was shown off at MobiSys 2011 this past week and reportedly works well "across a number of device types and situations." Notably, Microsoft and Nokia (amongst others like Verizon) are backing up the project, which makes us cautiously optimistic that it could be headed for WP7 (or Windows 8, for that matter) in due time. There's no info on whether SleepWell will ever be distributed commercially, but may we suggest an LTE version to help out big V's poor ol' T-Bolt? Update: We'd like to clarify that this software currently works from the accesss point side rather than the individual devices. You'll a find an additional PDF about the project in the source links below. [Thanks, Daiwei Li]
Sony's VAIO CW draining the battery while asleep?
Thinking of picking up a VAIO CW over the weekend? You might want to hold those horses just a bit, at least until Sony (or someone) figures out what exactly is causing the batteries on these to zap themselves while asleep. Based on a raft of complaints -- nine pages strong and growing -- over at Notebook Review, it sounds as if the batteries within the outfit's new CW series (at least those with Core i3 CPUs and the 330M GPU) are fading inexplicably quick while resting, leaving many with next to no juice once they crack open the lid the next morning. All sorts of theories are flying, but one in particular seems to note that a bundled Sony battery management application could be causing cells to only charge to a certain percent even when the machine is "off." For now, some folks are actually flipping the battery out for a fraction of a second and popping it back in after putting it to sleep for the night in order to prevent the drain, but we get the feeling that a less janky fix should be in order. Right, Sony?
Microsoft says it's looking into laptop battery issues with Windows 7
We've already seen some evidence that suggests Windows 7 puts a particularly hard drain on at least some laptop and netbook batteries, and it looks like Microsoft has now heard enough complaints itself to open an investigation into the matter. Details are otherwise a bit light, but Microsoft is apparently looking into the issue in collaboration with its hardware partners, and says that the problem is likely related to the computers' BIOS, which Windows 7 relies on to determine if the battery needs to be replaced. Needless to say, there isn't much in the way of solutions in the meantime, and Microsoft isn't offering any indication as to when one might be forthcoming.
