• 11Mar

    You’re on an airplane. You’re in the park. You’re nowhere near an outlet, and you desperately need to squeeze the maximum endurance out of your notebook so you can finish what you’re doing before your PC’s energy well runs dry. You’ve probably heard that certain tricks—such as lowering your screen brightness all the way or changing your wallpaper to black—can give you a few more crucial minutes of battery life, but do any of these things really work?

    To find out, we took four possible battery-saving settings and measured the effect each one had on our test notebook, the Toshiba Satellite M505. This Intel Core i3 system’s initial time on the Notebook batteries provide power to the system whenever it’s unplugged.

    Learn MoreLAPTOP Battery Test was more than a little disappointing. On our standard test, which features continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi at 40-percent brightness, the 14.0-inch laptop lasted a measly 3 hours and 11 minutes. We made the following changes and measured the effect each had on that initial time.

  • 11Mar

    PC Power & Cooling (now owned by OCZ) is likely the most respected name in PC power supplies. I’ve interviewed the company’s founder Doug Dodson twice and walked away both times stunned by his deep knowledge and devotion to product quality. I know that sounds like I’m pumping the product, but it’s true. He’s an old hand in the field and the real deal, plus PC Power & Cooling is the only American power supply manufacturer.

    Pro-Source is PCP&C’s line of uninterruptible power supplies (UPSes). The most notable feature in this series is its use of sine wave rather than step wave output. Most consumer UPSes use a step pattern, which looks on an oscilloscope just how the name implies—like a series of rising and falling stacked blocks instead of a smooth curve. Fortunately, your PC only has to run for a few seconds to minutes on battery power, but even in this brief time, running on step wave power can be very rough on your system’s electronics.

    Have you ever gone to UPS power and heard a buzzing from your power supply? This is usually because it’s being forced to run on step power. It’s not lethal, but it’s not good. More importantly, some power supplies that use active PFC are averse to step sine. As one example, Antec publicly stated last summer that all of its active PFC power supplies except the BP-350 require pure sine wave input. Step wave input will not work and will result in the PC shutting down. Whoops.

    The bad news is that true sine UPSes cost more. The good news is that not only will true sine UPSes actually work with your system in the event of power loss, but the output power is gentler on your electronics and will help reduce wear on your system if you’re in a bad power area and experience occasional to frequent outages.

    This particular model is a 1,500VA unit (1,440VA with a standard plug) capable of delivering 900 watts, which should be more than enough for an enthusiast system not running under an insane load. At 900W, expect three minutes of runtime; at half-load expect 12 minutes. The three 12V, 7Ah rechargeable batteries are fairly simple to replace, and the UPS runs at 97% efficiency while on AC power. I also like that PCP&C bundles remote management software so you can use the Pro-Source’s USB port to check on battery levels or respond to emailed outage alerts.

  • 05Mar

    National People’s Congress, Zeng Qinghong, general manager of Guangzhou Automobile Group to submit motions to the two sessions, he suggested that should speed up the development of new energy vehicles and accelerate the development of high-energy battery industry, and the recycling of used batteries and the use to be a high priority.

    Motion reads as follows:

    To accelerate the development of the proposed new energy vehicles

    Summary

    The global non-renewable resource extraction of oil threatens the extinction crisis, China is relatively poor country’s oil resources as soon as possible the development and popularization of new energy vehicles, China’s urgency than any other country should be more intense, but also in the near future to face the Chinese society and solve problems. Faced with a Toyota hybrid vehicle produced in the one million or so, lithium iron phosphate batteries in China have not yet used in computers, mobile phones, but no large-scale used in hybrid cars, we can see the gap between our country in this respect the seem particularly great. Proposed to use state subsidies to encourage policy and mandatory technical standards, a combination of forms, ranging from low hybrid start, fuel-efficient by increasing the mandatory technical standards and continuous changes of state subsidy to encourage a combination of policies to speed up China technological advances and the speed of promotion of new energy vehicles; right bike to subsidize high-energy batteries to accelerate the development of high-energy battery industry; If the battery does not do a good job recycling, electric cars than gasoline models of systemic contamination should be high on the hundreds of thousands of cars times, so from now on should be immediately used batteries for recycling laws and regulations, economic incentives and public education make great efforts to ensure the promotion of electric vehicles, non-pollution disaster to humanity.

    Text

    I. Current Situation of China’s new energy vehicle development

    As the world increasingly serious environmental pollution and energy shortages gradually, global begun to focus on environmental and energy issues, while the automobile industry is caused by energy consumption and environmental pollution in key industries. Motor vehicles consume 85% of domestic oil output, while a large number of car use is harmful exhaust pollution. How to reduce cars on the oil consumption and environmental pollution problems in the long run, the final solution not to limit development of automobile industry, but to find alternatives to oil, develop new energy vehicles.

    Back in the early eighties our research and development for electric vehicles has been initiated. 2000, countries have developed a “15″ economic development plan, promulgated the “Automotive Industry Policy” to require the automotive industry in the “Tenth Five-Year Plan”, explicitly put forward the “promotion of electric vehicles, hybrid research and development, speed up to promote the use of alternative fuel vehicles to promote the automobile industry by leaps and bounds. ” In recent years, BYD, Chery, FAW, Changan, SAIC, Dongfeng, hippocampus, Geely cars and other brands have stepped up the prices of hybrid cars and electric vehicles to promote the field of speed, with a view to account for competition in the future too opportunities.

    In order to develop new energy vehicles cause, our government has taken financial subsidies and tax concessions, preferential policies, the next three years the government will invest 100 billion to support the new energy vehicle development and technological innovation, as well as specific parts of the R & D, with an average annual investment 3.3 billion, in addition to the individual purchase of electric vehicles will also have different forms of subsidies. In March 2007, the National Development and Reform Commission published the “new energy vehicles access to the management of production rules (draft).” “Rules” to define the concept of new energy sources for motor vehicles: the so-called new energy vehicles refers to hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), a pure electric vehicles (BEV, including solar cars), fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), other new energy vehicles (such as the Super electric motor). December 18 the same year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued “adjustment of industrial structure to guide catalog (2007 version),” new energy vehicles officially entered the Development and Reform Commission to encourage industry catalog. Consumers to buy new energy vehicles will be concessions in terms of taxation. In December 2008, the Ministry of Finance said that in the future purchase of new energy vehicles will take direct financial subsidies to consumers and, through tax policy from the production and use of links to the new energy vehicle development support, initially expected by 2012, the Financial Department will promote the use of new energy vehicles invested more than 200 billion yuan, to stimulate the new energy vehicle development and production.

    Second, China is more urgent than any other country to promote new energy vehicles

    In developed countries, development process, with the exception of only a small place, rely on international tourism, international trade and resource export to survive, the population density of more than 2,000 people per square kilometer countries and regions, are the first car to enter a high degree of social , then to enter the ranks of developed countries. Population of more than 10 million, and mainly rely on domestic economic development of the country, so far there is no one country can bypass the car society, access to developed countries. Because in the developed countries, there is no kind of product can replace cars, as high-value consumables for consumption, to use their vast spending to boost the economies of operation and ensure employment. Large consumption of automotive oil recoverable reserves have been dwindling, energy has become the most important countries for the various powers, resources and the overall upward trend in oil prices has been irreversible, so developed countries have to develop new energy vehicles as an important scientific and technological innovation strategy and social sustainable development strategy in promoting in order to protect the current standard of living did not decline.

    Motor vehicles are by millions of technical staff, one hundred years of accumulated numerous inventions and innovations result, alternative Hyundai Motor power is extremely difficult, even though alternative energy-saving emission reduction the new impetus for a lot, but manufacturing costs are high, and energy – Pai is a government matter, it is difficult to approval by the user’s money and votes, then only a gradual small steps forward. Small steps forward can only be a first step in a low degree of hybrids, which is powered by the fuel through the low efficiency of the thermal power generation efficiency, the existence of the battery power in case of need for the auxiliary drive vehicle. Therefore, hybrid cars can be seen as an automotive fuel a transition to electric vehicles models. In addition, not all cars can be translated into electric vehicles, because of excessive weight batteries for heavy-duty trucks, the battery cost, weight, heavy-duty trucks are impossible to power into electric vehicles, so the current focus of the work should be is constantly increasing the existing fuel based on engine efficiency, primarily in ownership in the largest passenger vehicle to the electric car into.

  • 05Mar

    HP, Foxconn, Inventec, Quanta laptop project … … a large number settled in Chongqing, the potential business opportunities for friction to help big brother whom also tempted. The next five years,battery, Chongqing will form an annual output of 80 million Taiwan notebook industry chain output of more than 700 billion yuan, 300 thousand new jobs were the computer industry clusters, and strive to become Asia and the world’s largest notebook computer production base.

    DragonSoft News (Reporter Wenfeng DAI Juan) Hewlett-Packard, Foxconn, Inventec, Quanta laptop project … … a large number settled in Chongqing, the potential business opportunities for friction to help big brother whom also tempted. Yesterday, the CPPCC National Committee member, Chairman Zuo Zongshen Zongshen Group, told reporters Zongshen ready to work with Boston, Inventec together, “partition” notebook computer battery market this huge cake.

    The next five years, Chongqing will form an annual output of 80 million Taiwan notebook industry chain output of more than 700 billion yuan, 300 thousand new jobs were the computer industry clusters, and strive to become Asia and the world’s largest notebook computer production base.

    “One laptop need a battery pack, a battery pack with 3-4 cell batteries, each battery cell of about 30 yuan. 80 million computers, you need two 300 million battery cells, which is what a market?” into the notebook computer market, Zuo Zongshen are getting a long time.

    According to Zuo Zongshen revealed that, at present, Zongshen has the world’s leading supplier of notebook computer batteries U.S. Boston Scientific Corporation, Inventec Group, reached a preliminary intention, plan to jointly funded the establishment of a joint venture, joint production of notebook computer batteries, landing the next big notebook battery market.

    “Not only co-production of notebook computer batteries, but also the development of clean energy.” Zuo Zongshen idea was that with Boston, Inventec joint R & D, production and motive power batteries, and providing support for the electric car market. This idea, the three parties coincide.

  • 04Mar

    If you’ve been working in electric transportation for a while, you’ll know the name EEStor.

    The company says it has a supercapacitor, which is sort of like a solid state battery, which could replace gas engines. Moreover, unlike lithium ion batteries, the supercapacitor won’t take hours to recharge. It recharges rapidly.

    But those are the claims. When it comes to discussing the fine points of the technology, the company clams up. I’ve contacted them several times and they have not responded. During a business trip to Texas in May, one reporter asked me just to do a drive-by and see if they would answer the door. He’s also been rebuffed several times.

    I’ve talked to potential customers and investors who visited the company–when it came time to talk technology, the company clammed up. “Weird”, “mystery” and a shrug of the shoulders were some of the comments I got from visitors.

    Most of the articles on these guys have been vague, but upbeat. Last year, the Toronto Star had a bit more detail, and EEStor threatened them, according to this post. The links to the original story no longer work.

    The facilities, though, are supposed to be state-of-the-art. The place looks like a lab set up by DARPA, I’m told. That’s where a lot of the money from Kleiner, Perkins apparently is going apparently.

    The company in January said it hit a production milestone for the chemicals inside the unit. (Unfortunately, the minimal company Web site, which functioned in May, has gone AWOL. Still, you can find the release on the Web in other places) Rumors say that it may reveal more in September.

    Then again, this Howard Hughes vanishing act could be the sign of something other than a run-up to a coming out party. EEstor wouldn’t be the first alternative-energy company to come up with a delay. Miasole (another Kleiner, Perkins company) and Greenfuel Technologies have recently delayed.

  • 04Mar

    Beginning January 1, new Department of Transportation rules about lithium and lithium ion batteries in checked and carry-on baggage in airplanes supposedly went into effect. The announcement generated some fevered commentary at the time. This was in part because the rules were in the form of government writing commonly known as bureaucratese, leading a lot of people to think that they were far more onerous than they in fact are. (I discussed the new rules in an earlier posting.)

    Well, I recently returned from a trip to California and there’s no evidence that the new restrictions are being enforced in any way. No screening. No signs. No notices. Nada. When I arrived home I did some poking around on the Web and, as far as I can tell, nobody else has run across any noteworthy changes to battery screening procedures either. For example, under the new rules, loose batteries are now supposed to be placed in individual plastic bags or otherwise stored in a way that their contacts can’t be shorted out. I’ve seen no evidence that anyone is paying any attention to this requirement.

    Your mileage may vary, of course. Especially if you’re transporting multiple large batteries for professional video equipment and the like (which is the sort of thing that the rule change really targeted), it may still be worth trying to get some clarification–for whatever good that will do. However, it certainly appears that the government has effectively shelved putting the new safety regulations into practice for the time being.

  • 03Mar

    In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Friday, Grove said he is urging Intel to invest in battery manufacturing as a way to diversify from its core chip business.

    Grove told the Journal that Intel’s “strategic objective is tackling big problems and turning them into big businesses.” He said Intel, with its cash resources, can invest in battery technology and manufacturing to bring down the cost of car batteries, which would drive adoption of plug-in electric cars.

    Batteries are the most expensive component in plug-in electric vehicles, a market being pursued by a few U.S. companies.

    General Motor’s 2011 Volt is testing batteries from lithium-ion maker A123 Systems. Other U.S. companies include Ener1 and Valence Technology. Notebook battery maker Boston Power also intends to enter the auto market.

    But battery makers and analysts say that U.S. manufacturers lack the financial means to meet the anticipated demand of electric cars.

    “The technology exists today to put (electric drives) into an automobile,” said Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer at last week’s Electric Drive Transportation Association’s Conference & Exposition. “But it is not doable without the ability to drive down the cost of manufacturing.”

    Intel has invested in battery technology through its venture capital arm and other energy-related firms. Earlier this year, Intel also spun out SpectraWatt, which intends to lower the cost of manufacturing solar cells.

    Grove has become an advocate for government policies that promote plug-in hybrid cars. This summer, he published a manifesto, called “Our Electric Future,” in The American magazine, where he called for transitioning the American auto fleet to electricity for national security reasons.

    “Because electricity is the stickiest form of energy, and because it is multi-sourced, it will give us the greatest degree of energy resilience. Our nation will be best served if we dedicate ourselves to increasing the amount of our energy that we use in the form of electricity,” he wrote.

    In a speech at the Plug-in 2008 conference in August, he called for a goal of putting 10 million plug-in vehicles on the road in 10 years.

  • 03Mar

    Description: Apple laptops ship with well-engineered battery systems that are advertised as providing some of the longest runtimes when compared with portable computers with similar specifications. Despite this, while some people are able to get times similar to those advertised by Apple, others are frustrated with their experiences of these runtimes being truncated by at least an hour from the advertised times, even on brand-new machines. This is mainly due to a difference in Apple’s testing conditions versus the way an average user will run the laptop. It’s best to consider the advertised battery times as being at the very high end of what’s achievable, since in Apple’s tests the environmental and computing conditions are optimal, and the batteries are fresh.

    There are many factors that can contribute to battery performance, including age, usage, calibration, environmental factors, and overall load. When someone goes to a cafe or library and browses the Internet while listening to music, even with seemingly minimal load on the computer, many tasks are performed that can quickly drain the battery. Bright screens and running multiple applications are just a few tasks that can affect battery life.
    Tips for basic computer usage
    For basic computer usage, here are some tips for how to run the computer to lengthen the battery life. This involves minimizing the computing experience, but if done correctly, you can increase the battery runtime, and sometimes well above the advertised times.

    1. Turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. If they’re not needed, turn off wireless technologies, since these will consume battery power to both broadcast and receive wireless signals. This will not only disable the hardware (or at least put it in a low-power mode), it will also prevent the system from running driver tasks to control these devices. If networking is required, you should use an Ethernet connection, if available.

    2. Dim the screen. The screen is one of the largest battery drainers in the system, and we recommend that you dim the screen as much as possible. Ideally, you should run the screen on the first brightness setting for the best battery life. This can take some getting used to, but the difference in the time yield between minimal brightness and full brightness can be hours.

    3. Turn off the screen when pausing work. Depending on what’s being done on the computer, there may be times where you are thinking about your work, or not actively looking at the screen and interacting with the computer. This can be for a few seconds or minutes, but one habit that will increase the battery life is to fully dim the display when not in use. For instance, before taking a break to stretch or chat with people, hit the dim key until the screen turns off completely. Then only brighten the screen enough to do the next few tasks and dim it again when done with those tasks. This habit can greatly increase the battery runtime.

    4. Turn off keyboard backlighting. As with the display, the backlight on the keyboard should be turned off unless you absolutely need it, and then only turn it on minimally.

    5. Put computer in sleep mode when taking long breaks. Avoid turning off the computer, since booting it up will drain the battery. Instead, if you are taking a break from you work for 5 to 10 minutes, put the computer in sleep mode. This can be done via the “Apple” menu, or can also be done by pressing the power button followed by the “s” key when the shutdown options appear. This may be a slightly faster way of performing this task than using the menus.

    6. Optimize System Preferences settings. In the “Energy Saver” System Preferences, you should switch over to “Better Battery Life” graphics when running on the battery (for newer MacBook Pros), and also check the option to put the hard disks to sleep whenever possible. There are several additional system settings that can increase battery life:

    Turn off Spotlight by deselecting all items in the “Search Results” list of the Spotlight System Preferences.
    Turn off “Automatically adjust brightness…” in the “Displays” System Preferences.
    Disable screen hot corners (accessible in the “Screen Saver” or “Expose” System Preferences) to prevent accidental activation.
    Avoid using Spaces, Expose, or Dashboard. If you have already activated Dashboard, you can quit by restarting the Dock. To do this, enter the following command in the Terminal:
    killall Dock
    Disable the infrared remote control receiver in the “Security” System Preferences.
    Turn off unnecessary sharing services.

    6. Disconnect peripheral devices Any peripheral device will take some power to run, and we recommend you minimize the use of these devices. USB mice, hard drives, and even thumbdrives all will take some energy to run, and as such, will lower the runtime of the computer. In addition, avoid using the CD/DVD drive.

    7. Turn off unnecessary applications. Any open application will take up additional CPU cycles. Any antivirus programs, media players, menu widgets, and utilities that you have installed will use CPU cycles, and we recommend you quit these applications while on the battery. Minimize Web browsing, and when you’re done viewing a Web page, close the browser window.

  • 02Mar

    Although electronics manufacturers have made substantial strides in getting their devices to eke more life out of a battery charge, one of the chief complaints among consumers remains the perceived short run time of audio players, notebooks and other devices.

    “You can never be too rich, too thin or have enough battery life,” said Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD Techworld. “While everyone is focused on improving battery life, we still have a long way to go.”

    In many ways, it’s a Sisyphean task. On the one hand, technologies deployed over the past few years–deep sleep states, screens made of organic light-emitting diodes, chips that can regulate their speeds and energy-efficient software–have dramatically reduced power consumption and thereby extended battery life on a variety of devices.

    Batteries in notebooks, which five years ago typically lasted only two hours, now can run up to five or more hours.

    The Logitech MX 1000 cordless mouse, meanwhile, can run 21 days on a full charge, thanks to a wide variety of tweaks to virtually all of the internal components that use electricity, the company says.

    “We are about three times longer than when we started the cordless-mouse category,” said Ashish Arora, director of product marketing at Logitech. “It is a major component of the cordless experience.”

    What’s more, the Swiss-U.S. company incorporated features that seek to eliminate some of the frustrations common with battery-powered devices. Ten minutes in the charger gives the mouse enough energy to run a full day, while a full charge only takes about 3 hours. Surveys taken by the company also show that customers will pay a $10 premium in some cases for better battery life.

    “Almost across the board, every device you can buy this year is more efficient than last year’s by 10 to 20 percent,” said Richard Doherty, an analyst at The Envisioneering Group. Apple Computer’s latest iPod, for example, which has a color screen, can run longer than earlier black-and-white versions, he said.

    On the other hand, devices are getting more complex and requiring more power. Wireless connectivity and 15-inch screens, baroque excesses less than four years ago, are now standard notebook features. Customers also expect companies to live up to their claims.

    “Bottom line is, I really like my iPod Mini, but drawbacks on the iPod Mini for me are first, memory limitations, and second, battery life,” said Allen Latta, director of business development at VenCap International. “On the battery, I’m getting about six hours on a charge, not the full eight.”

    The effort to reduce energy consumption, which started in earnest in the late ’90s with notebooks, has become pervasive throughout the industry and touches nearly all the components that go into electronic devices.

  • 02Mar

    The new label will consist of a hologram and a hidden 20-digit authentication code that becomes visible when a portion of the label’s surface is scratched, the phone maker said. Users will be able to verify the code online or via short message service.

    As previously reported, the phone maker has blamed counterfeit batteries for explosions and incidents of overheating. It said it is continuing to work with law enforcement to take legal measures against companies involved with the sale of counterfeit products.

    Nokia said while batteries with new labeling have already begun shipping, they will reach markets gradually. Meanwhile, Nokia batteries without hologram labels will remain on the market for some time.

    “With this new Nokia authentication program, we are directly attacking the counterfeiters who manufacture potentially unsafe batteries,” Razvan Olosu, vice president of mobile enhancements at Nokia, said in a statement. “The hologram label enables consumers to identify that the battery they are using is indeed an original Nokia battery.”

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