"Imagine the scene: You're in the middle of a particularly intense iPhoneography session, and the photos you're getting are gold. You snap one keeper after another and then shift over to SnapSeed or some such app to really spice things up. But you're so engrossed in the process of editing that you don't notice your iPhone's battery is almost dead until you get the dreaded pop-up warning."
At only $35.00 USD, it's not that bad of a price for some extra battery life from Mophie. I don't run into this problem myself but if I were on the road a lot and depended on my iPhone, I might pickup this thing for some extra peace of mind. It only gives you about 30% life but that might be all you need to get you to the next power outlet.
"One question that seems to come up regularly regarding the iPad 3: how can I get more out of the battery?"
Image Credit: 9to5Mac
I have this question myself, as it seems to run down a lot quicker than my 1st generation iPad did. However, I tend to use it more than I did the older one so that could be the major issue! Regardless, this is a great article that runs down what you can do to get yourself some extra battery life out of your iPad. Some seem to be no brainers, such as turning down the brightness and turning off the 4G when you aren't using it, but it's the simple things that get past you when you least expect it right? For me I totally forgot about location services on the iPad and turning it off helped a great deal. No biggie since I don't use it all that often.
"Apple is responding to concerns that the new iPad has battery issues. Today, the company's Vice President of iPad marketing, Michael Tchao, went on record saying consumers have nothing to worry about. In fact, according to Tchao there is no issue at all."
You can read the interview here, but basically it is working as designed. What that means is that you can keep your iOS device plugged in as long as you like, due to the way the circuitry is designed, without fear of it being damaged. Tchao says it has always been a feature in iOS. What are your thoughts?
"CNET reporter Eric Franklin spent his weekend torture-testing the battery of the new iPad, the iPad 2 and the Android-powered Asus Transformer Prime. He took each device, charged it fully and then drained its juice by continually playing a move. All these tests were conducted in airplane mode so WiFi, 4G or LTE connectivity would not affect these results."
What he found was that the iPad 2 lasted 14.2 hours, the new iPad lasted 12.8 hours and the Asus lasted 9.6 hours. The Asus did last 15.3 hours when tied to an external keyboard dock that had it's own battery, but why wouldn't it with extra juice right? You can read his report here.
"Apple has acknowledged that there is an issue in iOS 5 that effects battery life and said that the problem was due to some bugs in the software."
Those pesky bugs again, this time causing "a few" customers to have shorter than expected battery life in their iPhones, from what I gather just the 4S though. But a fix is in the works, as Apple acknowledged the problem and promised a software fix in a few weeks per All Things D. Have you experienced any battery problems after iOS 5?
Summary: Like power windows in a car, this little battery is the product you never thought you'd need, but once you have it, you won't want to live without it. The MP1860A gives you a pocket full of juice for your devices. Read more...
Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 07:30 AM
Please click on the video title above to watch it on YouTube in 1080p full screen video.
Who doesn't' want more battery life from their mobile device? I think we all do. I've been on a personal quest for years to find the best multipurpose external battery that I could find. I've looked at a few of them of the years (such as this one, and this one), but every one I've looked at has had limited functionality in some way. Usually it's that it's not compatible with whatever new laptop I'm using. The Tekkeon myPower MP3750, which sells for $119 in the Digital Home Thoughts Amazon.com store, is versatile battery in that it not only serves as a power source for a laptop, but with the USB port it can power a variety of devices. I was eager to take a look at it, and for the most part have been quite impressed with it. Read more...
"Just like the iPhone 4, the iPad 2 is more than half battery. It is interesting that these incredibly small devices are almost completely battery by size and weight."
It's no wonder then that they are able to get 10 hours of usage and a month of standby time out of this device. Amazing to me they still pack in all the other features yet get it 1/3 thinner than the original.
"Now that the news about the new MacBook Pros is out there, one thing that may disappoint someone just reading the spec sheet is battery life. Across the board, the Pro is now rated at 7 hours. While still very solid, this is actually a step down from the previous versions which were rated at 8 to 9 hours for the 15 and 17-inch models, and 10 hours for the 13-inch model. So what gives?"
When I was looking at the battery life on the new Macbook Pros, I noticed something curious: they're all listed as "up to 7 hours". I couldn't recall what the exact battery life specs were for the previous Macbook Pros, but I knew it varied from model to model. As the above text shows, Apple had quoted the battery life on previous Macbooks from 8 to 10 hours. Sandy Bridge processors are supposed to be even more power-friendly than the first-gen Core series processors. So what gives? Read more...
Posted by Doug Raeburn in "Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad" @ 08:36 AM
The MyPower from Tekkeon is a battery case that is claimed to be the lightest such case for the iPhone 4. It has several unique features that distinguish it from its direct competitors, the most important of which is a replaceable battery. And it fits better in your pocket than other cases that I've tried. It's available for $74.95 at Amazon.com (affiliate link) in black, red or white. Additional Ultra Slim Battery Modules are available from Tekkeon for $24.95, regularly $39.95; Ultra Power Modules are $49.95.
"Steve Jobs has repeatedly insisted that Flash is a resource-hog. A review of the 11-inch MacBook Air conducted by Ars Technica shows he's quite right. The new Air shows a drop in battery life with Flash installed, at a cost of around two hours of use."
Losing about a third of your battery life to Flash is annoying, but you can just install ClickToFlash and solve that problem. Or you can use this fix from Daring Fireball to avoid Flash issues. It appears a bit is needed to initially set it up but it does solve the problem of having Flash running in the background. How do you work around Flash, or do you?
"Best known for its indefatigable bunny, Energizer launched a couple of cool charging products for the iPhone here at the CTIA mobile phone show."
I like the looks of this case, and it only takes about 30 minutes for a full charge on an iPhone 4, which is very quick. It is a silicon case, and over at the Energizer site for the AP1201 they have a pretty slick page set up with information on it, supposedly retailing for $70.00 USD or close to it.
"Today Kensington announced a selection of new iPad accessories including the Kensington PowerBack iPad case which includes a battery promising up to 5 extra hours of power and a kickstand that provides three different angles for working on your iPad."
Adding an extra pound of weight, and expected to cost a cool $129, the case includes a 4400 mAh battery and has a steel "kickstand" that allows the iPad to be used in three different positions (typing, landscape or portrait mode). It also allows charging in the case, has an LED battery life indicator, and an opening in the case to direct sound to the user. Availability is yet to be determined.
"Dieter's at the IFA show in Berlin, Germany and he's scored us a first look at mophie's upcoming juice pack air for iPhone 4. It's got soft touch paint and they claim ZERO signal degredation because the entire PCB board is on the bottom, so there are no electronics around the antenna."
I've been waiting for this to come out! I have one that I used on my 3GS with great results, and this one looks even better. It will sell for $79.95 USD and will be available within the week. They will also have it available in black red, white and green. From the pics it appears to add quite a bit of thickness to the iPhone 4 however, so I'll have to get a look in person at the real thing once it comes out (This one was prototype apparently.).
"The iPhone battery is designed to provide a significant amount of talk time, internet/app use, and data consumption. By using the phone properly and customizing a few settings you can dramatically improve how long your iPhone battery lasts."
For me, I found that running the battery out until the iPhone 4 died, and then recharging fully before using it seemed to slap the battery enough to fix the problems I was having. However, there are some other good tips in this article to improve battery life that I think anyone would find useful.
"Simple question - how's your battery life under iOS 4? We keep wanting better hardware and more features - and better battery life at the same time. How did iOS 4 deliver for you?"
We posted a story about this a day or two ago, related to iOS 4 battery problems, and personally I was rather disappointed in mine. I took the advice of one site and let it drain all the way down once and recharge fully before I used it again, and that seemed to fix my battery issues. While this isn't one of the options in this article, it does has several tips for you if you are also experiencing diminished battery performance.
"One of the major improvements of the latest MacBook Pros is in battery life: the 13-inch MacBook Pro is now boasting an impressive ten hour battery life, while even the more power hungry 15 and 17 inchers are promising eight to nine hours of mobile performance."
In order to get this battery life they are using something called "dynamic graphics switching" that switches between the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M and the Intel HD GPUs. Apparently they have had this capability since last year but it had to be a user selected preference. Now it is all automatic. The advantage to this type of switching is that the GPUs are never run at the same time, thus saving battery life. Ars Technica also has an interesting article related to the inner workings of the 13-inch MacBook Pro and why it doesn't have one of the Arrandale processors.
"We're still on the lookout for battery backup options to power recharge your iPhone, iPod touch or just about any USB mobile device. The market just got a bit larger with the introduction of the HyperMac line of batteries at Macworld."
The ones above, called the "Hypermac Mini" are currently on sale at the HyperMac website for $99.95 USD, a savings of $20.00 USD. These are rated at 7200 mAh and are supposedly able to give you enough capacity to charge your iPhone 6 times. They also claim the batteries will last for about 1,000 charges, and since they have inputs for USB, DC in and mini USB so you can also charge other devices. The other models are the Nano and Micro, rated at 1800 mAh and 3600 mAh respectively, with the Nano selling for $69.95 USD and the Micro selling for $89.95 USD.
"A quick note to inform you that Aliph has just released a new version of its premium Jawbone Bluetooth headset. Besides its top of the line design and an integrated new chip that allows it to make your voice sound creepy, the Jawbone Icon comes with an interesting new feature for iPhone owners."
I wish all the headsets did this, the one thing about the Apple headset that I miss (hated the headset itself, never fit correctly). I like the "Hero" version of the Jawbone Icon, but I can't see myself wearing the gold "Bombshell" version though can you? Ok, don't answer that...
"I'm always wondering how many Onion vodcasts I'll get though while waiting in line at the DMV before before my iPhone's battery shuts down and leaves me staring at the back of the bald guy's head in front of me."
Well now he doesn't have to wonder with Battery Gauge! Another app that also monitors your battery life, but has more functionality is called iStat. However, if you need a simple battery monitor that can learn your usage pattern and predict your battery life based on that, then this might be worth buying. Either app is only $0.99 USD in case you are curious.