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OnePlus phones will optimize charging based on your sleep habits
OnePlus is working on a new OxygenOS feature called Optimized Charging that will attempt to extend the life of your phone's battery by taking your sleep schedule into account. When you put your OnePlus phone to charge before going to bed, it will refill its power cell to 80 percent of its maximum capacity and then temporarily stop. A hundred minutes before you usually wake up, your first alarm or event of the day, the phone will then charge to full. The idea here is that by preventing the battery from staying at full capacity for too long, OnePlus can slow how quickly it degrades over time.
New lithium-sulfur battery could let phones last five days between charges
Lithium-sulfur batteries have been in the news for years, but a new design might be worth your notice. Monash University researchers have crafted what they claim is the most efficient lithium-sulfur battery to date. An appropriately-sized unit reportedly has enough of a charge to run your smartphone for five days, while a car-sized pack could theoretically keep an EV driving for more than 621 miles. It has a reduced environmental impact and an "extremely low-cost" manufacturing process, too.
IBM’s cobalt-free EV battery uses materials extracted from seawater
Electric vehicles will play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but they are not yet a perfect solution. Today, most EVs run on lithium-ion batteries made with heavy metals like cobalt, of which there is a limited supply and less than ideal mining conditions. The IBM Research Battery Lab may have a solution: a new battery built without heavy metals. It's made, instead, with materials that can be extracted from seawater.
GM and LG team up to build EV batteries in the US
In a call today with reporters, GM CEO Mary Barra announced that the company would be teaming up with LG Chem to supply battery cells for the automaker's upcoming electric vehicles including EV trucks. Overall, the company is expecting to have 20 EVs for sale by 2023.
Apple's iPhone 11 battery case includes a dedicated camera button
Apple has introduced new versions of its Smart Battery Cases for the latest iPhones, but this time there's a better reason to buy than just the extra longevity. Its newly-released cases for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max all include a dedicated camera button that can launch the Camera app, take a photo or (if you hold it) record video. The concept of a camera button on an iPhone case certainly isn't new, but this is an official option -- and it's hard to find a case that also extends your battery.
Berkeley scientists develop better batteries for storing renewable energy
Switching to renewable energy sources is key for lessening our dependence on fossil fuels and protecting the environment, but there's a catch with deploying greener solutions at scale. When the wind drops or the sun sets for the night, we need a way to store energy as part of the electrical grid so it's available for use.
Tesla warns California customers to charge their EVs ahead of outages
With dry weather and windy conditions on the horizon, California's Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) utility is planning a mass power outage to prevent electricity lines from sparking wildfires. That could be bad news for electric vehicle owners, so Tesla is taking a proactive approach. The company issued an in-car alert warning owners to charge their vehicles fully ahead of the outage. Tesla is also activating the 'Storm Watch' feature on its PowerWall to store excess electricity before the lights go out.
Tesla acquires battery expert in bid to make its own cells
Tesla appears to be pushing forward with plans to make its own battery cells. Electric Autonomy has discovered that Tesla quietly acquired Hibar Systems, a Canadian company with expertise in automated battery manufacturing for electrified vehicles, laptops and "similar products." It was recently working on a "high-speed" lithium-ion battery production system. It's not certain just when the purchase took place, but Tesla only listed Hibar as a subsidiary on October 2nd, and Hibar stripped its website down to a single page sometime after September 16th.
Google’s Pixel 4 will feature something called a ‘Pixel Neural Core’
Another day, another Pixel 4 leak. After a veritable deluge of feature reveals, including accessible Face ID, car crash detection, an updated Recorder app and touchless gestures, we now know its official specifications -- and they pretty much confirm earlier spec rumors that, like everything else about the phone, were also leaked ahead of the official Pixel 4 event.
Bosch will use tiny explosions to make EVs safer in a crash
Electric vehicles have obvious benefits, but they also pose new risks. In the event of a crash, there's a chance that damaged wiring could allow current to leak from the EV's battery into the metal frame, posing a risk to occupants, rescue workers and first responders. Electric vehicles automatically turn off when a crash is detected, but to go a step further, Bosch has created an explosive device that automatically cuts off the high-voltage battery.
Eco-friendly aluminum batteries might power solar and wind farms
Renewable energy might soon have storage batteries that are more environmentally friendly in their own right. Researchers have developed a new form of aluminum battery with twice the energy density of previous designs, making the technology more practical for large-scale projects like solar and wind farms while using more sustainable materials. The trick was to replace the usual graphite cathode (the positive electrode) with anthraquinone, an organic carbon-based molecule that ups the density by storing positive charge carriers coming from the electrolyte.
Turns out Tesla police cars run out of 'gas' mid-chase, too
If you're a cop involved in a high-speed pursuit, the last thing you want to see on your dash is a notification that your car is about to run out of gas -- or in the case of one Fremont police officer, battery life. But that's what happened to Officer Jesse Hartman last week when his department's Tesla Model S patrol car warned him it had just six miles of battery left -- in the midst of a 120mph felony chase down the highway.
iFixit teardown takes a look inside the Note 10+ 5G
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G will be available online and in stores tomorrow. Just in time, the folks at iFixit are sharing a peek inside the new device. Most notably, the phone borrows one major design queue from the iPhone, and it won't be super easy to repair.
OtterBox reveals a portable and stackable wireless charging system
OtterBox has a solution to limited battery life. Today, the company revealed OtterSpot, its Qi wireless charging power bank, and stackable batteries. The OtterSpot Charging Base looks a bit like a thin hockey puck. It's designed to be stackable, meaning you can pile up to three puck-like OtterBox Wireless Charging Batteries and a device on top of it and charge all of them simultaneously. Each battery can then power any Qi-enabled device and support wired charging via a USB-C port. The battery packs come with 5,000 mAh of capacity and up to 10-watt wireless charging speeds.
Project Athena gets its own version of the 'Intel Inside' badge
Intel teased Project Athena at CES at the start of this year, then in May the company revealed what the program really hopes to achieve: super long battery life, fast charging and 5G all packaged neatly into ultra slim, lightweight devices aimed at today's "mobile go-getters." Now, the company has unveiled its visual identifier, which will indicate which laptops meet Athena's high specifications.
Bird's latest rideshare scooter is designed to thwart vandals
Rideshare scooters are designed to be a quick and convenient way to get around town, but because we're not allowed to have nice things, many are falling foul of damage and vandalism -- there's even an entire Instagram account dedicated to trashing them. But Bird is taking a stand, and has unveiled its next generation e-scooter that boasts an arsenal of anti-vandalism features.
Tesla's Megapack is a battery built for the electrical grid
Tesla's utility-sized energy storage has become a practical reality. The tech company has introduced the Megapack, a container-sized battery meant for "large-scale" storage that could help quickly deploy renewable energy and even replace conventional "peaker" power plants that come online when there's high demand. A single Megapack has up to 3MWh of storage, or roughly 14 times the 210kWh of a Powerpack. That, in turn, leads to very rapid deployments. Tesla claimed it could deploy a clean 250MW, 1GWh power plant in less than three months, or four times faster than a similarly-sized fossil fuel plant.
Tesla CTO and co-founder JB Straubel will step down
During Tesla's earnings call today, the company announced that one of its longest-tenured executives -- outside of CEO Elon Musk -- is leaving the company. CTO JB Straubel is credited with helping to create the company's battery technology, and according to his company bio helped launch programs like its Supercharger network and the Tesla Energy business. More than a decade ago, when the company had only produced 27 vehicles, he was talking about building a $20 - $30,000 electric car, and Tesla has come considerably closer to doing just that. On the call Straubel said he wanted to make sure people knew this wasn't " some lack of confidence in the company or the team or anything like that." He joins a long list of executives to leave Tesla in recent weeks, months and years, however many weren't announced so publicly. Elon Musk announced that former VP of technology Drew Baglino will take over his duties.
Apple recalls older MacBook Pros for risk of overheating
Apple issued a voluntary recall for a "limited number" of older 15-inch MacBook Pros. According to the company, the laptops contain a battery that may overheat and pose a safety risk. The recall "primarily" affects the 2015 model of the 15-inch MacBook Pro sold between September 2015 and February 2017, and they can be identified by their product serial number. If you're having a hard time keeping track, that's the model prior to the redesign which introduced the controversial new keyboard design and Touch Bar.
Scientists make a lifelike robotic fish using multipurpose 'blood'
There's no question that robots have come a long way since their cold, clunky, cumbersome inception. Nowadays they're smart, agile and responsive -- but they're still missing the tactile, multipurpose elements that make living creatures flexible and autonomous. Until now. In a bid to make robots more lifelike, scientists have created a soft robotic lionfish and have pumped it full of life-giving "blood."
