Tag Archives: battery

It’s a brick!

Tesla Motors’ lineup of all-electric vehicles — its existing Roadster, almost certainly its impending Model S, and possibly its future Model X — apparently suffer from a severe limitation that can largely destroy the value of the vehicle. If the battery is ever totally discharged, the owner is left with what Tesla describes as a “brick”: a completely immobile vehicle that cannot be started or even pushed down the street. The only known remedy is for the owner to pay Tesla approximately $40,000 to replace the entire battery. Unlike practically every other modern car problem, neither Tesla’s warranty nor typical car insurance policies provide any protection from this major financial loss.

What’s kinda funny is that you can brick your electric car by letting the battery go completely flat.

I mean, have you heard of anything more hilarious?

[HOW TO] Calibrate Desire Battery – xda-developers

The following steps should significantly extend the battery life on your phone.

1. Please connect the phone to the charger with the phone powered on, and allow the phone to charge until the notification LED is green, indicating the device is fully charged.
2. Disconnect the phone from the charger, and power it off.
3. Reconnect the phone to the charger with the phone powered off, and allow the phone to charge until the notification LED is green.
4. Disconnect the phone from the charger and power it on.
5. Once the phone is powered completely on, power it off again and reconnect it to the charger until the notification LED is green.
6. Disconnect the phone, power it on, and use it.

You need to use this sequence only once.

via [HOW TO] Calibrate Desire Battery – xda-developers.

Apple’s 2009 MacBook Pro: Battery Life to Die For

There’s no other way to say this. If you care about battery life and portability at all, buy the new MacBook Pro. Go to the Apple store and buy one. While I only tested the 15” model, I’m guessing the 13” model should leave a similar lasting impression.

Ever since I first looked at the power consumption specs of Nehalem I thought it didn’t make any sense to buy a new, expensive notebook before Arrandale’s launch in Q4 2009/Q1 2010. While performance will definitely increase considerably with Arrandale, Apple just threw a huge wrench in my recommendation. The new MacBook Pro is near perfect today. If you need a new laptop now, thanks to its incredible battery life, I have no qualms recommending the new MBP.

[…]

Today I am more than comfortable saying that this is the best Apple notebook I’ve ever laid my hands on. The build quality is excellent, the base specs are solid and of course, the battery life. There’s no doubt that it could be better; toss in an SSD or drop the price even further, but as it stands the new MBP is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a Mac laptop.

Obviously, you can attain the same battery life with a cheaper notebook and one or two spare batteries. But there’s something to be said for increasing battery life by at least 50% without increasing the bulk or weight of the system.

I’m not sure there’s much else I can add other than Good Job, Apple.

via AnandTech: Apple’s 2009 MacBook Pro: Battery Life to Die For.

That’s a hell of an endorsement, especially coming from AnandTech.

Favourite quote comes from the fourth page (where the beef of the article is):

That’s a 51% improvement in battery life. It’s close enough to the max theoretical 46% improvement for me to think that the significant gains in wireless web browsing are due to improvements in idle power optimizations. It’s possible that all of the components in the new MacBook Pro have been optimized for lower voltages at idle.

The battery tests are repeatable however. I saw anywhere from a 50 – 100% improvement in battery life over the old MacBook Pro. Given the increase in battery capacity alone, you should see no less than a 46% increase in battery life. Exactly what is accounting for the expanded life above and beyond that, I’m not sure.

Either way, Apple’s 7 hour claim is well within reason. For light workloads, even on WiFi, you can easily expect 6.5 – 8 hours out of the new 15-inch MBP. As I write this article on that very system I’m told that I have nearly 8.5 hours left on my charge. If you do a lot of writing on your notebook, the new MBP is exactly what you’ll want; it will easily last you on a cross-country flight if you need to get work done.

Spectacular work, Apple. Thumbs up from this blogger 🙂

16 Links – The Catchup Edition

Right, so I actually hate it when I leave my computer alone for a day. It pretty much gaurantees that I’m gonna have 1500+ RSS items to read the next time I’m on, which means a solid hour of looking through them, trying to find ones good enough to post up on here. In any case, I’ve somehow managed to find 16 that are worthy of your attention today, in between all the Uni stuff, and all that. So enjoy. Or else.

6 Dreams Jobs That Would Actually Suck
Yet another list from Cracked. Interestingly, it’s all on the one page, instead of the idiotic “12 items spread over 4 pages” deal that they usually do. Props to them.

Usability Analysis of Apple.Com
It’s not so much usability, as it is transparency. If a site is usable, then all those “features” of usability will also be transparent to the user – if some site is harping on about how “usable” it is, then it probably isn’t.

A Pic of Some Girl’s Tee
While some would consider this inappropriate, what’s so inappropriate about a girl with a T-Shirt that says she loves G9? I have a couple of mates that love the Logitech G9, as well. (Thanks, Digg). Bonus points if you thought the other meaning – then noticed the amount of tatts on her arms. Ugh.

A Sith Lord Timeline
As much as I hate to admit this, I’m not that huge a fan of the Sith. Maybe it’s the fact that they’re all evil, or maybe i’s because all of them seem to adorn strange headgear – either way, the Dark Side just doesn’t do it for me.

I Survived The Bush Administration
…and all I got was: (tick all that apply)
crippling national debt
diminished civil liberties
illegally wiretapped
my shoes stolen at the airport
cavity searched
invaded
imprisoned without charge
abducted, then tortured
an economy in crisis
…AND this lousy T-shirt. (Thanks, Digg.)

How-To: Watch Movies In Your Terminal Window
This comes to you courtesy of Stupid Geek Tricks. The quality is horrendous, I wouldn’t recommed it. Also note that this trick is for Linux users only.

BBBBBBRRRRRRRAAAAAAAIIIIINNNNNSSSSS!
Funny. Comic.

The 30 Best Features of Windows 7
Most of these are actual valid features, unlike the “Why Windows  is better than Mac” article from the same people. Most of these features are also the reason that I’ll be running a Windows 7 gaming machine. Ooh, yeah.

iTunes App Sorting Concept
Apple – this would have worked from the beginning. Please, I’m sick of manually sorting apps on my iPhone, and it’s a major pain when you’ve got a couple of very full homescreens.

7 Ways To Make Your Laptop Battery Last Longer
Seriously? I expected “hacks”, not a list of common sense reasons.

Top 10 Halo 3 Kills, #15
An excellent montage of excellent Halo 3 kills. I had no idea some people could be so accurate with the sniper rifle!

The Kogan Agora, Android-phone.
Is it just me, or does that look like it’s made of incredibly cheap plastic? Fail.

Googly-Eyes Clock
If I could only figure out how to tell the time on them.

AT-AT Boombox
It’s awesome.

Space Invader Ice Cubes
Because you can, that’s why. And personally, why the hell not?

Why does this iBook have a BSOD?
Who knows. In any case, it’s a marketing fail. Everyone knows that iBooks can’t run Windows, therefore, no BSOD is possible.

Phew – that’s it. Apologies if my comments were getting a little rash as I approched the end – sometimes, you just have to click on the link to find out for yourself.

Comments below.