BatteryLife
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Samsung Sliding PC 7 Series now available for $649 Amazon pre-order (update)
Samsung has yet to announce a revised release date for its Sliding PC 7 Series tablet / laptop hybrid, but the 2.2-pound netvertible slider is already available for pre-order on Amazon. According to Amazon's listing, the 7 Series should ship with many of the same specs we noticed at this year's CES: a 10-inch touchscreen with 1366 x 768-resolution, dual front and rear cameras (1.3 and 3.0 megapixels, respectively), a 32GB SSD, 2GB of RAM and, of course, Intel's 1.5GHz Atom Oak Trail Z670 processor, which was originally scheduled to launch in March, before being pushed back to May. The slider will also run on Windows 7 Home Premium, and come equipped with 802.11b/g/n WiFi. When it debuted earlier this year, the Series 7 boasted optional 3G and WiMax features, as well as a six-cell battery that claimed to last up to nine hours on a single charge. Amazon doesn't mention either of these specs in its listing, but everything else checks out with what we've already heard. And, at $649, it's even a little cheaper than we expected. Update: Looks like you'll have to wait a bit longer to order your Sammy slider, as the Amazon source link now leads to nowhere. [Thanks, Jake]
External batteries benchmarked, the portable juice is loose
A lot of portable PC power cells last for only four or five hours, after which you'll find yourself chained to a wall socket. Good thing there are external batteries to keep us in current when a plug's nowhere to be found, and Tom's Hardware has done some benchmarking on a slew of such devices so you'll know which one's suited for you. A Dell Vostro 3300 and an Inspiron Mini 10 running Windows 7 were used to put packs from Amstron, Brunton, Digipower, Electrovaya, Energizer, Lenmar, PowerTraveller and Tekkeon through some real-world paces -- we're talking word processing and web surfing, not fragging and film editing. So if you're in the market for a mobile power unit, hit the source link and get the down and dirty on which external battery's best.
The Moov wireless case for iPhone streams video to TV
A company named Olion has introduced a neat add-on for the iPhone called The Moov. It's a case for the iPhone 4 that connects to the dock and streams out video wirelessly. The presenter in the video (which you can watch after the break) calls it the "first mobile to TV solution," but of course, that's not true -- we've seen lots of ways to get video out of the iPhone and onto the TV. Still, this one's pretty elegant, and it's all wireless, even though that means it's limited by about three hours of battery life. The speed in the video looks good, and the case sends off a signal to any WHDI receiver. Olion doesn't have a price or release date yet -- the Israel-based startup is still looking for manufacturing partners, apparently. But it's a cool idea with what seems to be a nice implementation. We'll keep an eye out for it. [via Engadget]
Logitech ratchets up the competition with M325 wireless mouse
You know that pseudo-tactile feeling you get when you fondle your mouse's clicky scroll wheel, the one that satisfies your obsessive need to touch everything? Logitech wants to give you more clicks, and smoother scrolling to boot. This M325 wireless mouse's new "micro-precise" scroll wheel features 72 tiny ratchets, making our self-counted 22-ratchet mouse wheel seem downright barbaric by comparison -- not that we ever really considered the number of teeth our mice had before now. The rodent's 18-month battery life won't quite live up to your 2-year Couch Mouse, but at least they can share a Logitech Unifying Receiver. Your scroll wheel of tomorrow can be had for $40 later this month, or £30 right now for lucky folks in the UK.
IE9 is the most energy-efficient modern browser, according to Microsoft's own testing
Of all the battlefields we've witnessed in the browser wars, this one's never really crossed our minds before: energy efficiency. Yes, the power efficiency of a piece of software, not hardware, is being touted by Microsoft as a differentiating feature for its fresh new Internet Explorer 9. It's thrown together the top five most popular browsers and put them through a cycle of benchmarks -- including Microsoft's own FishIE Tank graphics acceleration test, but not the somewhat popular Adobe Flash -- while measuring how much power they use beyond what the underlying Windows 7 system needs to keep itself going. Shockingly, IE9 was the winner each and every time and there's a tenuous conclusion drawn that if you want good battery life, you'll be going with Internet Explorer. Oh well, whether you consider them a good laugh or really valuable buyer's advice, there's plenty more of these power consumption comparisons at the source link below.
Smart Fortwo ED gets official EPA ratings: 94 MPG city, 79 MPG on the highway
Looks like "Team 250" is primed to add a few new members now that the EPA has revealed its official MPGe ratings for Smart's Fortwo EDs. Rated at 94 miles-per-gallon in the city and 79 on the highway, the car takes motorists 63 miles per charge -- making it slightly less able than Nissan's Leaf with its 73 mile range, 106 MPG in town, and 92 MPG on the open road. Now that the Fortwo ED has its governmental blessing, interested parties can lease one from selected dealers -- sorry folks, buying's not an option -- for a hefty $599 per-month, which seems staggeringly high compared to the $349 monthly lease rate for the larger, more capable Leaf. Perhaps the Smart squad won't be getting many new teammates after all.
Verizon and HTC offer Thunderbolt extended battery, give your phone dumps like a truck
Though never confirmed by Verizon, it seems likely that battery life (or more accurately, the lack thereof) played a part in the series of delays preceding the Thunderbolt's launch. To combat this problem, Big Red and HTC are offering a rather unsightly extended battery pack that nearly doubles the handset's capacity from 1400mAh to 2750mAh. All that extra juice will certainly come in handy for folks leaning heavily on the phone's LTE radio. However, the device costs $50 and adds an ounce of junk in the trunk -- on a device that isn't svelte to begin with -- so why not buy another standard battery for ten bucks less instead? Then you can use the Qi-compatible back and induction charging station Verizon's releasing in April -- both are pictured after the break. It's just under $100 ($29 for the back and $69 for the pad) for those who want to cut the cord and don't mind the expanded waistline we assume comes with the privilege.
Range anxiety gets real: Nissan Leaf drivers run out of juice on the road
Fears of range anxiety have loomed over EVs since their inception, and those fears were validated courtesy of a couple unfortunate souls whose Nissan Leafs apparently died on them while driving. The drivers put their faith in the Leaf's remaining range calculation, and were sorely disappointed when the car's dash said they had enough juice to go 10+ miles, but the batteries had other ideas. Turns out, the Leaf needs some time to get to know you and your lead foot before it can accurately determine the bounds of its own range. Nissan sent engineers out to check the cars and found no technical faults -- but one driver reckons the cold sapped some of the batteries' power (a theory that Mini E drivers would disagree with) and the car's software didn't factor that in when making its range estimates. Who's to blame? We suspect that while there was some user error, Nissan should rework the Leaf's software to improve range calculation -- else we may be talking about the death of EVs instead of internal combustion.
New phase-change memory gets boost from carbon nanotubes, puts PRAM claims to shame
We've been hearing about the potential flash killer for years, and now a team of University of Illinois engineers is claiming that its new phase-change technology could make the PRAM of our dreams look quaint by comparison. Like so many groundbreaking discoveries of late, carbon nanotubes are at the heart of the this new mode of memory, which uses 100x less power than its phase-change predecessors. So, how does it work? Basically, the team replaced metal wires with carbon nanotubes to pump electricity through phase-change bits, reducing the size of the conductor and the amount of energy consumed. Still too much technobabble? How 'bout this -- they're using tiny tubes to give your cellphone juice for days. Get it? Good. [Thanks, Jeff]
Lenovo ThinkPad X220 and X220 convertible tablet official, 24 hours of battery life promised
Come on, you knew this one was coming! Yep, that leaked Lenovo ThinkPad X220 with all its SSD and display options is now the real deal, and it's one heck of an ultraportable. Just as we saw from that spec sheet, the new 12.5-inch (up from the 12.1-inch X201) laptop is configurable with that 1366x768-resolution IPS display, your choice of standard voltage Sandy Bridge Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, and up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM. There are no discrete graphics options, but you can opt to configure this one with USB 3.0 and a selection SSDs, including Intel's 80GB and 160GB offerings. The 720p webcam, dual digital microphones for noise cancellation, and the new buttonless touchpad (aka ClickPad) come standard. However, the real story Lenovo's trying to tell here is in battery life -- with the nine-cell battery the system is rated for 15 hours of endurance, but snap on the $179 ThinkPad external pack and it shoots on up to 24 hours. Thought Lenovo was going to leave the X Series tablet out in the cold without a refresh? Of course not, the X220T also sips from that same fresh Sandy Bridge well, though it doesn't claim that same 24 hour battery life feat -- the four-pound convertible is rated for 16 hours of run time when paired with the external pack. Oh, and did we mention that the multitouch screen is now available with Gorilla Glass? The X220 and the X220T start at $899 and $1,199, respectively, but won't actually be available until April. That said, our Core i5-2520M X220 and its extended battery just arrived in our "lab" so stay tuned for a full review with lots of endurance testing. Until then, hit the break for the full PR and the gallery below from some images. %Gallery-118550%
HTC Thunderbolt said to have terrible battery life, might explain delay?
We're hearing from... well, let's call them "people familiar with the matter" that HTC's Thunderbolt -- a phone that's supposed to be Verizon's first with LTE -- is experiencing positively miserable battery life that's making it difficult for testers to avoid carrying a second phone around as a backup. How bad? Two to three hours from full to empty in some cases. Of course, we wouldn't be surprised if battery life was really bad with the LTE radio left on -- the EVO 4G wasn't much different at launch with WiMAX lit up -- but the word on the street is that the power situation is largely responsible for the delays we've been seeing. In fact, our source tells us the phone is currently working on its sixth retail delay at the moment. More on this situation as we get it. Update: We've just heard from another trusted tipster that there's definitely a new firmware in the works to address battery life and signal issues (which -- you guessed it -- are interrelated). Thanks, HTC Kid!
Apple patent application points to denser batteries, improved charging technique
Some might think a ten-hour Macbook battery mighty fine, but we're happy to say that Cupertino's not quite satisfied. AppleInsider spotted a pair of Apple patent applications detailing a improved way of juicing up those lithium-polymer cells, which should greatly increase the number of recharge cycles they can endure -- or, optionally, allow Apple to use denser batteries that last longer on a charge. We'll break it down for you: the graph in the upper-left shows how Li-ion batteries currently charge, first very rapidly (constant current, increasing voltage) and then more slowly (constant voltage, decreasing current) to top the cells off. What Apple's proposing is the multi-step method depicted on the right, where current and voltage trade off, to charge the battery while being far less harsh on the physical chemistry of the electrodes inside. As you can see in the bottom graph, the multi-step CC-CV cells lose much less of their potential after 300 recharge cycles, but that's not all Apple's cooking up -- the company figures that it can increase the thickness of the electrodes to improve battery life (by as much as 28Wh/L, according to one chart) without negative effect thanks to the softer charge. Sure, we'd rather have plant-eating graphene supercapcitors, but this sounds like a plan for now.
Intel talks Medfield: will ship in a phone and have the longest usage time
We had a feeling we'd be hearing about Intel's Atom for smartphones here at Mobile World Congress, and Intel did in fact take the stage today to talk about its forthcoming Medfield processor. The company has announced that it's starting to sample or test its 32nm Medfield processor for mobile devices with its customers (obviously, it's not telling us which ones) and more importantly that it will ship in a phone. Yep, Intel's Senior Vice President Anand Chandrasekher spoke quite firmly about how the platform will in fact ship in smartphones and that it will also support Android. He pulled out the phone above just as a proof point, and while he didn't say who made it, we have a sneaking suspicion it's that Aava Mobile phone we've heard about. Chandraskher also took direct aim at ARM (he even called out ARM's CEO Warren East), and hammered home Intel's focus on battery life. He didn't quote an exact run time, but he did say that "on active power we are the most efficient architecture on the planet." We actually believe he repeated that it will have the "longest usage time" at least three times -- we're thinking he's serious. What about standby? He was a bit more vague on that, but did say it would be competitive there as well. We'll be doing our best to track down that Medfield-powered handset up there, so stay tuned. Update: Our friend Chippy from CarryPad caught a bit of Anand's talk on video. Hit the break for that. Update 2: We asked Anand for clarification on the time frame of these Medfield handsets -- he wouldn't detail that exactly, but he did say that the platform will go into production this year. %Gallery-116548%
RIM tilts BlackBerry PlayBook keyboard on side, drops hints about TAT, module cavities and battery life
<div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.engadget.com/preview/rim-blackberry-keyboard-battery-tat-module-cavity/"><img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="0" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/02/2-3-11-blackberry-playbook-portrait-keyboard.jpg"/></a></div> RIM held a BlackBerry WebWorks developer event in San Francisco this evening, and while hard news was not in attendance, we did score a number of tidbits about the company's <a href="http://www.engadget.com/tag/BlackBerryPlayBook/">BlackBerry PlayBook</a>. First and foremost, there's most definitely a <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/03/blackberry-playbook-gets-demoed-in-portrait-mode/">portrait virtual keyboard</a> in the latest QNX tablet build, and we literally gave it a spin, watching as the landscape layout slowly switched to portrait mode as we changed the slate's orientation. Second, we may have gotten our first hint about what RIM's doing with the recently-purchased <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/02/rim-buys-tat-blackberry-ui-in-danger-of-becoming-awesome/">TAT</a> -- we overheard that the PlayBook's <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/blackberry-playbook-preview/">bezel gestures</a> actually aren't quite finalized yet, and that the astonishingly silent UI design division may be lending a hand. On the all-important subject of battery life we don't have much to add beyond <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/24/rim-playbook-battery-life-will-be-equal-or-greater-than-the-ip/">earlier boasts</a>, but a staffer did tell us that RIM's shooting for a "full work day" of juice. Last but not least, we were told that Jim Balsillie's <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/16/jim-balsillie-says-blackberry-playbook-has-a-module-cavity-hi/">module cavity</a> certainly exists, but it's not the user-upgradable slot or socket we'd hoped -- rather, it's a orifice deep inside the PlayBook for hardware enhancements at the factories where devices are built. Like <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/blackberry-4g-playbook-coming-to-sprint-network-this-summer-obv/">this one</a>, perhaps? Video after the break.
NJ EV owner with 50,000 miles logged dispels myth of cold weather battery woes
We see you in comments, chiming in on every EV post about how worthless they are in the cold. Charles Lane from The Washington Post recently did the same, saying things like "A change of ten degrees can sap 50% of a battery's output" and speculating that the EV industry is "just one well-publicized malfunction away from disaster." Not so, says Tom Moloughney, and he should know. He's spent the last 49,500 miles of his commuting life in an all-electric Mini E, an average of 2,500 miles per month. Now, this car is a prototype and a fairly early example of the modern electric vehicle, meaning it has no preconditioning tech to let you warm up the battery packs before you go. Despite that, Tom has logged every trip he's made in the car and indicates he rarely sees more than a loss of about five percent from the vehicle's usual range. More importantly, he's made his way through many a cold commute without getting stranded -- or freezing to death.
RIM: PlayBook battery life will be 'equal or greater than the iPad with smaller battery size'
Hey, can everyone please stop talking about the iPad? RIM's been skirting around Apple's tablet, saying only that its upcoming PlayBook slate would have "comparable" battery life, but now it's dropped all pretense and called the iPad out by name. Specifically, the Canadian company's senior business marketing VP Jeff McDowell has promised that the PlayBook will offer "equal or greater" battery endurance to Apple's device, while using a smaller cell size. The latter part isn't hard to achieve, considering Apple filled most of its slate's innards with Li-Pol juice packs, but the promise of matching its autonomy from the wall socket is a big claim to make. Many people consider that to be among the iPad's foremost strengths, so RIM is surely aiming high by pledging to not only match it, but potentially better it. The PlayBook we saw in person wasn't quite up to that level yet, but there's still time until that March launch for RIM to turn bold words into a beautiful reality.
2002 Prius with 206,000 miles tested again, still gets (almost) the same mileage
Afraid that your hybrid or full electric vehicle will be dead after a few years? Well, we recently saw how rapid-recharging has a minimal impact on the longevity of a car's batteries, even after 1,500 iterations. Now we have some more good news: Consumer Reports decided to do a re-test a 2002 Prius, with 206,000 on the clock, and found that it delivered 46.3mpg, compared to 48.6 in the original test with a new car. Lower? Yes, but not bad for 206,000 miles. Not that bad at all. Full test results, including performance figures, are on the other end of the source link.
Nintendo 3DS good for only 3 to 8 hours of play time per charge
Remember those all-night Mario Kart DS and Advance Wars marathons? Looking to recreate the magic with the 3DS? Bring a wall charger. Nintendo's just unveiled its best-case scenario figures for the 3DS' battery life, and compared with its predecessors, it ain't pretty. The official numbers are three to five hours playing per game, or five to eight if playing an older DS title (and up to three hours 30 minutes to fully recharge). So... three to eight hours under the most ideal circumstances. Let's look at the family album: the DS is 10 to 14 hours, DS Lite 15 to 19 hours, DSi 9 to 14 hours, and DSi XL 13 to 17 hours (all figures also from Nintendo). Can't say we're entirely surprised; Haus of Mario Chief Satoru Iwata's own words back in October were "it is inevitable that Nintendo 3DS will be a device which requires more frequent recharging than Nintendo DS." Think of it as an extension of the warning label. You can never be too careful, you know.
Silicon nanoscoops to combine Li-ion's energy with supercapacitor power, make your electric car go vroom
Look, we don't know much about "science." We know it's a controversial subject, and we always try to steer clear of that sort of hot-button-issue stuff. Still, "science" can do some good in the world, you know, now and then. Some "scientists" at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have happened upon a "strain-graded carbon-aluminum-silicon nan oscoop anode" (whatever that means) that basically combines the advantages of long-lasting Lithium-ion with a supercapacitor's rapid fire oomph -- a common theme, but undoubtedly a noble one. Specifically, Li-ion's superb (and ever-improving) Wh/kg and supercapacitor's great W/kg. Now, don't ask us how -- again, "science" -- but the upshot should be faster charging and better performing electric cars, that can still manage a good amount of mileage. Hopefully we get more spectacular exploding laptops as a side bonus.
RIM: BlackBerry PlayBook battery life is still being optimized, won't cause delays
If you've been keeping an ear to the techie ground, you'll probably have heard some analyst chatter suggesting RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook may be delayed due to issues relating to its supposedly poor battery life. That scuttlebutt has now turned out to be mostly unfounded, with RIM clarifying the situation through a communiqué sent to Erictric: "Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented. RIM is on track with its schedule to optimize the BlackBerry PlayBook's battery life and looks forward to providing customers with a professional grade tablet that offers superior performance with comparable battery life." To be sure, it's not an outright denial that there may be PlayBooks floating about with disappointing battery performance, but the immaturity of the software on them is clearly such as to invalidate any conclusions drawn. Perhaps more important than the imprecise discussion of battery longevity (what does "comparable" even mean in this context?) is the note that the company is still on track to complete its software optimizations and deliver its first tablet on schedule. Guess we can all quit worrying now.
