Posts Tagged ‘batteries’

2001 – With one version of the OS X under it’s belt, “Puma” – or OS X 10.1 is released to the public. Updates would include extended DVD support and the ability to burn DVD – RW. There were still a lot of people against this new version of software. A lot of Mac users still liked OS 9 and thought OS X is a “superfluous” upgrade.

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Other items in your Day in Technology History

• CERN is formed
• Lenovo recalls 526,000 batteries
• Zimbra Password exposure.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:24 — 5.2MB)

David Pogue discusses manufacturer’s claims of the longevity of laptop batteries in the New York Times. The post is here. It’s worth a read.

He discusses how the “tests” of laptop battery life are in no way connected to how persons use laptops.

A sample:

Another problem: Unlike CIPA’s camera tests, the MobileMark test protocol doesn’t reflect real-world use. Consider, for example, the screen. It’s the most power-hungry component of a laptop, so specifying how bright it is during your test is extremely important.

Well, the MobileMark test specifies that you have the screen set to 60 nits (a brightness measurement).

Not to nitpick, but at full brightness, the screens on modern laptops put out 250 to 300 nits.

Read the whole thing to see the extent of the disconnect between how you and I use our laptops and how manufacturers “test” battery life.

It’s not the newest news, being about two weeks old, but it’s fascinating.

Scientific Blogging reports on the St. Andrews Air (STAIR) Battery, which has the potential to smooth out the delivery of electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar, removing the peaks and valleys that happen when the wind dies or the sun sets. Read the report here.

The battery uses oxygen from the air to help it do its work, giving it a smaller footprint than other batteries, which are completely self-contained. There’s a neat diagram at the link.

An excerpt is below the fold.

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Why is Jackie of Griffin Technology holding a Block of Lucite? Well, she’s here to show off the Aircurve – an acoustic amp that will bring up the sound by 10 decibels. Andy McCaskey conducts this interview on how a small block can make something like an iPhone 10db louder.Best part – there is no extra plugs or batteries to be needed. It just works off of natural scientific principals.

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Wow. It was about a year ago I asked for people to send in thoughts as to what to expect in 2008. I also made some Technology predictions. But the real question was – How far off was I?

This is actually part 1 of a 2-part story. This first part reviews the predictions I made last year and how far off I was. Part 2 will have this years predictions, including predictions from CEO’s CTO’s TechPodcasters and even a Psychic.

So without any further ado, let’s pick apart my idiocy from last year:

OLPC will have some growing pains. The first part of OLPC will be the easiest. Maintaining the machines will be the trick. Microsoft coming onboard will muddy the water, but they might be able to do things like offer a better support network to third world countries.

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Last year we had one of the weirdest news stories come out. A man was thought to be killed by his LG phone battery when it exploded in his shirt pocket. There was a lot of controversy over this issue at the time – whether an item that is pretty volitile should be regulated and monitored more closely. It was then discovered…. well, you’ll have to listen to the Quickcast to find out what happened next.

Also, Microsoft is first spoken of, Fortran 2003 is released, Ken Jennings looses, Roxio buys Napster and so much more on the Quickcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.8MB)

Google Sky up. Is it wrong?
No Blu-Ray for XBox
The Dirty Jobs of IT
You mean that’s not Brittany?
Feature Content:
Another Sub Laptop?

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.4MB)