Items tagged with Batteries
Apple introduced a bunch of new features with iOS 10 when it released a couple of months ago, but more recent incremental updates have given iPhone users more than they bargained form. There are complaints that installing the iOS 10.1.1 update is somehow making batteries drain faster than they normally would, as well...
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Samsung is unique among smartphone manufacturers in that it not only produces its own System-on-Chip (SoC) designs, such as the Exynos processor that's found in some of its handsets, but it is the only phone maker that performs its own battery tests. Unfortunately Samsung, that differentiating trait recently blew up...
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Tesla Motors is working feverishly to finish constructing its $5 billion, 3,200 acre "Gigafactory" located outside Sparks, Nevada (near Reno). It's already semi-operational with 1,000 construction workers toiling away seven days a week in two shifts. The factory, which is two years ahead of schedule, will help meet...
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Smartphone makers have been obsessed with making handsets increasingly thin and light, but what about battery life? After all, a smartphone isn't very useful if it runs out of juice. With that in mind, Microsoft is laying out some high expectations for its new Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL handsets, both of which it says...
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Today's mobile electronic gadgets run on batteries of one kind or another, and when they run out, you either have to swap the battery for a fresh one (if that's an option) or find an outlet to start the tedious process of recharging. Luckily, quick charging is a thing, and Chinese phone maker Huawei just took things...
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Most so-called breakthrough battery technologies we hear about come with tremendous claims, like quadrupling the amount of energy stored or being able to recharge 1,000 times faster. Heck, one day we might even run laptops on Mountain Dew (slight exaggeration). Samsung, on the other hand, makes a more modest claim...
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Elon Musk isn’t just content with revolutionizing the electric vehicle market; he also has a hand in revolutionizing rockets and cargo deliveries to the International Space Station (ISS) with SpaceX, and even has a [smaller] hand in the solar industry with SolarCity. Musk is now branching out into the home energy...
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We're always hearing about promising new battery technologies, though in the end, they're always too expensive, too big, or too whatever to make it into the mainstream. Eventually that's going to change and there will be a breakthrough that truly redefines the battery category, the question, who's going to do it?...
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Leaving the realm of science fiction behind, the super-fast charging mobile phone is inching its way ever more closer to science-fact. As reported in Stanford Magazine in advance of publication this week in the journal Nature, researchers at Stanford University have developed a high-performance aluminum-ion battery...
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In setting up a new lab, a group of research students at Purdue University were inspired to come up with a way to put the huge amount of packing peanuts they were receiving to good use. At the suggestion of Professor Vilas Pol, the researchers developed a potential new eco-friendly application for rendering the...
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If you can't beat 'em, and you don't want to join 'em, then what can you do? Settle, of course! Apple is currently in discussions with electric car battery maker A123 Systems on a settlement over a lawsuit the latter initiated, in which it accuses the former of poaching engineers and other top level talent to build a...
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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said this week there have been more than a dozen reports of ATG lithium-ion replacement batteries for the MacBook Pro catching fire, prompting Best Buy to issue a recall. There have been 13 documented cases so far, and in one instance, a faulty battery caused a "serious...
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Lithium-ion batteries have been powering our gadgets for more than 20 years and aren’t going away anytime soon, but serious competition may be emerging in the form of sodium and…sugar. Scientists at the Tokyo University of Science believe that sodium-sucrose-based batteries could deliver a 20%...
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Apple may have taken the time to officially reveal a new iMac, Mac Pro and 27" Cinema Display this morning, but two accessories that slipped under the radar are equally as interesting, if not more so. Scattered about the press releases for the new iMac and Mac Pro were mentions of a new Multi-Touch "Magic Trackpad,"...
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The next time you walk down the street and see some suit spazzing out, don't assume he's crazy (unless he's foaming at the mouth), maybe he's just recharging his digital camera, or any other electronic device that uses AA or AAA batteries. That's because the eggheads at Brother Industries Ltd. have put together vibration-powered generators...
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Earth Day was this week, and it seems that it was a much bigger deal in 2010 than in year's past. Maybe it had something to do with those tons of gallons of oil spilling off of the Gulf of Mexico (we're sure the Earth loved that), or maybe this is just what happens when everyone gets on the "green" bandwagon. Either way, PC Treasures and Digital...
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Let's face it: just about any gizmo worth using these days has a USB connector, and more often than not, it's actually charged over USB as well. But also, battery life has sunk in recent years as devices are made to be slimmer and hold less spacious batteries. The solution to this quandary? Sanyo's Eneloop Stick...
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Around here, there seems to be a never-ending debate surrounding batteries. You can't live with 'em, and you certainly can't live without 'em. Whether we're discussing just how disingenuous most battery life figures seem on modern day notebooks or just how great our lives would be if someone could develop an AA cell...
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Batteries seem to be a growing topic of discussion here at HotHardare. From netbooks with increasingly large cells to debates over the legitimacy of notebook battery life figures, it's safe to say that longevity away from the plug is an important matter for true PC enthusiasts. To that end, we couldn't help but take notice when we came across...
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It's been about two years since millions of Sony notebook batteries across many different OEM lines were recalled, due to overheating --- and fire problems. We assume you haven't forgotten about that, because here we are again. Here's hoping this isn't the beginning of another long list of recalls involving Sony batteries. At any rate, the...
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All those of you who are using generic, and in particular, high-capacity batteries with your Eee should watch out. It seems you might have an explosive combination. Second- and third-tier battery makers in China have begun to manufacture batteries designed to be used with the Eee PC. Some vendors are offering batteries with capacities...
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There was a fire in LG Chem's plant in South Korea in March of this year. "So what?" you might ask. Well, that plant makes lithium-ion batteries, and that's helping to limit the supply of laptop computers. "I think maybe the battery shortage may hurt every brand," said J.T. Wang, chairman of Acer, at the company's investor conference...
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