Green: DIY Back-Up Battery Solution?

Anyone out there have information on solutions for a back-up battery system for a home? Maybe a consumer product solution have created one for yourself?

I got to thinking about what's going in Japan with the earthquake, tsunami, and problems with their nuclear facilities, I think even in LA, there is something we can do individually.

After all, Japan is a first world country and look at what's happened since the 8.9 earthquake from last Friday. Though I cannot be certain if the media reports match the facts on the ground, you'd think this earthquake has broken the back of the Japanese society and economy.

My idea is to get going on a solar leash with one of those solar companies like Solar City. I'll be doing some research on this to see if this is the right solution for me. But if it does work out, my idea is this:

I want to create or buy (hopefully affordable) backup battery or something that can sustain my household needs a few hours at a time should natural disaster hit and we end up being without power for weeks.

Any help in point me in that direction would be great.

SSD Coming Along But Still Expensive

It's taken a while but solid state drives, SSD, are coming nicely. What I mean is that I see them more and more as an option from the major PC makers.

Everyone from Dell to HP to Apple, its MacBook Air being very popular over the Holidays and demand has not let up, are using them as a premium add-on.

Now we are seeing SSD sizes at more affordable prices. Not only that, the drives are bigger. Still, I am not quite ready to pluck down $1,500 to $2,000 for a 480GB drive.

For that kind of money, it would be more economical to get a whole new laptop. Say a MacBook Air with 256 GB or storage.

So what is in your laptop or MacBook? Have you moved onto a SSD or consider making the move in the near future?




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod touch

President Obama's Meeting With Tech CEOs: We Need A Steve Jobs Or Henry Ford For Green Tech

At the moment, at the writing of this post, President Obama is meeting with a few of Silicon Valley's heavyweights, Apple's iconic leader Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt. And though there are many thoughts and conjectures about what the meeting could or should be about, there is one thing that I think many missed.

Green tech. And right now even with tens of billions invested by the federal and state governments in incentives and grants and private investments, we are still a long way from getting off foreign oil and those pesky climate warming (or changing) coal.

What we need is a Steve Jobs for green tech. What we need is for President Obama to ask one of those tech visionaries to leave his current position and take up post at a new company that would revolutionize energy conservation and renewable energy production.

Imagine a healthy Steve being talked into taking reign of this new company. And it would have to be a private enterprise, perhaps with some grants from the government. That is as far as governmental involvement should be.

As a matter of fact, the Obama Administration should clear a path for this Steve Jobs led endeavor to succeed.

And how would Steve Jobs be convinced by this challenge? Better question is why would he do this?

Because Steve is Steve. The man who revolutionized computers, brought us the iPod, unleashed on the mobile market a device unlike anything they have seen before, and has once change how we work and play with the iPad.

Because it not him, who? Zuckerberg? Exactly.

And most importantly, Because Steve Jobs' ego is big enough for the challenge.

And yes, I am optimistic that Steve Jobs will beat what ailment he is offering from and has a lot of milage left to change the world again. Maybe even twice over.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod touch

Battery Saving Tips For Laptops

I found a 3-year old post on battery saving tips for laptop users. I came across it when I googled about the battery life saving potentials of adding extra RAM.

It's been a while since I've talked about battery life and tips. I was beginning to sound like a broken record. Having said that, battery life has increased in the last couple of years especially those offered by Apple (drawback is that they don't allow users to easily change out the battery). Typically, Macbooks ranges from 9-10 hours of use. I only see HP and Dell advertise use of 9-cell batteries which I think do well enough for most folks working under a normal load.

But more battery life the better I say. And frankly, this post ain't all that much more different anything that I have written up in the past year for laptops, iPhones, or other mobile devices. Dimming, defragging, conditioning. I'm sure you've heard all that before.

And while battery life has improved through a variety of technical advances, the fact that we are still using the same battery-saving techniques say volumes about the state of battery development. It's 2010 and we still haven't see methane-powered fuel cells. Or even hydrogen powered cell phones.

So, while I have also shared my opinions and news about green tech and the enthusiastic push from some quarters of the government and entrenpreurs, I like to see a mini stimulus for trying to make a giant leap forward for mobile devices. Perhaps we might see that in the course of researchers trying to find a way to store renewable energy source, miniaturization will still be required to apply any new technology.

For now, I leave you with a 3-year old post on saving battery life that is very much still relevant today.

More at Fried Beef (I know, weird blog name).

Batteries: Shake Them To Charge

I make an issue of batteries and I always try to share what I can see that are interesting and promising.

Now, Brother Industries from Japan has developed a battery that charges when you shake it. Called the "Vibrant Energy Cell" and they'll be showing it off at Techno-Frontier 2010 in Tokyo.

It comes in AA and AAA sizes so I suppose it works with just about anything that times these batteries. Even other chargers that use them to charge other devices.

Personally, I'm more of the solar and other renewable energy source kind of guy but if I had to buy an AA or AAA battery, and the VEC batteries work as advertised, why get anything else?

It's not going to power your laptop but it just might be enough to power an MP3 player. Image working out and you run out of juice. Shake it a bit and you get an extra 30 minutes or so, might be enough to complete the work out.

More at CNET.

Projecting Power: Future GPS Will Draw Less Power

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, battery, battery, battery.  Can't say enough about it.  I'm always looking to the day when mobile devices truly last a full day's worth of work, use, and fun.  That day, unfortunately isn't coming for a while.  See, new technology generally are a few years away before they're ready for application in real life use.  Since we have not heard anything in the last 4-5 years, that means we're still waiting for a breakthrough announcement in battery technology.

But humans are natural problem-solvers.  CNet News is reporting that a new GPS platform will draw less power than the one in use today, thereby, indirectly extending battery use.  Of course, if you're like me, you simply turn off GPS, or anything else for that matter, when you're not using it. 

For the new GPS scheme, it will draw power in the 50-500 microamps where today's GPS chip draws power in the milliamps.  For a few hours of use, it adds up.

Is this enough?  Well, we won't know if there is going to be an observable difference in a day-to-day use but I think with faster and more efficient chips, OLED screens, wireless chips (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, radio, 3G or LTE) that also draw less and less power, perhaps all of these factors working together can extend battery life in terms we can measure.

Given what Apple was able to achieve in their Macbook Pro line by extending battery life by about 30%, I am hoping more efficient components and creative layouts of battery and the circuitry in the mobile devices and smartphones will be able to achieve the same measurable increase as well.

Sources:  CNet News

Biking For Mobile

I'm gonna be heading out for a long bike ride around town. Maybe even hop on the train and head out further. But as always, my main concern will be battery life for my G1.

I'm requesting help from anyone who might know of anyway to turn pedal-power to electricity for a small mobile device like a smartphone or mp3 player.

I came across this site, Convergence Tech, that offers similar to something what I'm looking at but in a smaller package if possible. Hopefully, it'll offer a USB or cigarette lighter input.

There are tons of information on the Internet for stationary bike generators. Some come prebuilt while there are DIY options.

For now, I think the easiest option is for me to carry around an external battery with a solar charger.

Note: I know its possible for bikes to generate power for a headlight. I suppose it's possible for that energy to be converted and stored in a portable battery unit.

Mobile Tip: Tweaking Browser Plug-Ins To Save On Battery Life

Here's a quick mobile tip I heard while I was running and listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Powerpage.

It's so obvious.  You can turn off your browser plug-ins when you're running your laptop or netbook off the battery.

I only heard it tonight so I'll give it a go tomorrow and let you know if it makes any difference.

More at Onxo Tips.

Longer Battery Life Or Double The Battery Life?

I read a very good article from ZDNet on non-removable batteries.  Specifically, the article was more or less about Apple mobile products - iPods, iPhones, and Macbooks.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, Apple is famous (or infamous) for sticking batteries into its iPods and iPhones, making it very difficult for the user to replace.

This was joined by the Macbook Air and then the Macbook Pro 17".  Just recently, they were joined by the rest of the pro line of Macbooks.

I'm jealous.  Not because I bought a Macbook one generation too soon but for an entirely different reason.  That reason being that I will likely never buy a second battery until my first one will stop holding any charge long enough for meaningful mobile computing.  That being said, the new 13" Macbook has about 40% more battery life than the one I've got.

Maybe Apple's right in their thinking.  Large majority of laptop or mobile device buyers don't carry around a second battery.   I have a G1 and as bad as the battery life is, I don't have a second battery to replace the first one when it runs out of power.

Nevertheless, it's the peace of mind in knowing that option that if I wnated to, there is more juice in the computer bag at a moment's notice.  And it is something that I've grown accustomed to thinking.

The article went to make some comparisons with other laptops and devices like the Flip that now have non-removable batteries.  In the beginning, I thought it was just Apple's insidious way of getting us to upgrade every few product cycles when the battery finally dies.  I'm not saying that isn't the case at all.

However, given the choice:  a non-removable battery with extra hours of use (7 hours) or a removable battery (4.5 hours) but I'm likely not going to carry around a second battery, I think I'll go with the first one.

However, it might be a different situation for other mobile warriors.  It also comes down to what you're requirements are.  If you work in the field a lot, Macbooks or other laptops with sealed-in batteries will not work for you at all.  In fact, the whole line of Apple laptops just won't work.

However, you're likely in the minority.  At least, that's what Apple's thinking is.

More at ZDNet

Mobile Tip: Updated Info On Extending Battery Life

Battery life is the bane of a mobile warrior.  Achilles Heel of a daily mobile computing experience.  So we wait and hope that a scientific breakthrough in battery technology.  So far, we're always two to three years away.  Then next year rolls around, it's still two to three years away.

Well, while we hold our collective breaths, there are some things we can do to help our mobile devices function longer to serve our mobile needs.

Some are adjusts that we can make to the devices themselves like lowering the brightness of the screen.  Others are more behavioral.

You can always search Onxo for our mobile tips that are scattered throughout.  Since this summer, many folks are taking that revolutionary step towards a smartphone or mobile device like the iPhone and Pre, we've updated the battery tips and including them with older ones we came up with previous.

More at Onxo Mobile Tips.

Air-Fueled Battery - A Breakthrough for Mobile Devices?

Greater emphasis on efficiency. Makes components smaller and lighter. Using different elements to reduce heat loss. LCD to LED to OLED. That pretty much sums up the formula tech companies use to get more out of the current antiquated battery technology. Still, a standard laptop lasts about three hours and a 3G smartphone, well, let's not go there. But there is hope on the horizons. Well, a five-year horizon. You'll likely hear a few more things about STAIR - St Andrews Air.

Here are some hard facts about this potential game-changer to the mobile landscape:

• Funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council to the tune of 1.6 British Pounds. About $2.5 million dollars. The research project is located in University of St. Andrews. In case the British pound didn't give it away, the university is located in the UK.
• Porous carbon electrode is used in place of the lithium colbalt oxide electrode. Reaction takes place with oxygen in the air.
  
• Potentially cheaper than today's traditional battery. Good news right. Read the next point.
• 10X more lasting than today's battery. Stores T-E-N more charge. That means STAIR powered mobile devices means greater freedom from outlets, careful rationing of battery power.
• In a few years, we may be talking about standby time in weeks instead of days. We may be talking in terms of tens of hours of heavy usage rather than 4, 5, or even 8 hours. "Five to ten" times the storage potential is what they are looking at. Even at 5 times and not 10, I'll take it.
  
• Potential storage solution for renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
  
• The research project will end in 2011 and a min of 5 years before commercial use.
• From press release: Energy storage is limited by the lithium cobalt oxide electrode (0.5 Li/Co, 130 mAhg-1). The University of St Andrews design replaces the lithium cobalt oxide electrode with a porous carbon electrode and allows Li+ and e- in the cell to react with oxygen from the air.
• From press release: Initial results from the project found a capacity to weight ratio of 1,000 milli-amp / hours per gram of carbon (mA/hours/g), while recent work has obtained results of up to 4,000 mA/hours/g. Although the two designs work very differently, this equates to an eight-fold increase compared to a standard cobalt oxide battery found in a mobile phone.

As usual, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We are positively excited but we've been bit before in the the past. Promises that turn out to be nothing more than voodoo science. Cold fusion, methanol, fuel cells, matter-antimatter converters. You know what I'm talking about (except for the matter-antimatter thing...). We'll keep an eye on this. Updates as warranted. Source: CNet, EPSRC Press Release

Battery Life In Mobile Devices - Game Changer

I was reading an article today about upcoming battery changes to the iPhone. It's a rumor piece. I love it even as I avoid talking about it here.

But it did get me thinking. Any advantage that Blackberries might have or the iPhone UI advantage it might enjoy over other mobile devices and smartphones will be less apparent as those who are unable or incapable of innovating simply copy enough of leading features and user interfaces that mobile warriors will almost find but a few devices that truly stand out.

So, it will have to be hardware that drives the differentiation. Specifically, I'm talking about battery life in today's mobile world. The iPhone 3G is one of the worst on the market. It's hard for me to say that. And worst still is the Android G1. I'm good during the day as I'm near an outlet or plugged into a computer where I can charge with the USB cable. But on weekends, I've had to learn to ration my use (usually, I carry and iPod Touch with me to entertain me when the G1 is about to die on me).

I can't say if 2009 will be the year where battery life makes any sort of meaningful leap forward but Apple's new battery technology currently being employed in their high-end Macbook Pro (17") looks promising. No word other than wishful thinking by many Apple fans that the technology will trickle over to the iPhone researchers in Cupertino.

For others like Sony and Samsung, they might try to compensate with new screens or chips. But that really doesn't matter. It'll always come down to the battery.

Note: Busy second half of 2009. Pre, iPhone, G2, new Blackberries. We'll be watching closely not what the new features are but how long these devices and smartphones last on a day's charge.

No Degradation Battery From HP In 2009

That's right. Not Toshiba or Sony.  HP.

Check it out.  A battery that doesn't start to degrade well into the third year of use, or 1000 charge cycles.  Apparently, HP has found some magic dust, sprinkled them on these batteries, and mobile happiness ever after.

Dubbed "enviro" (we'll forgive HP for this uninspring name), I do believe this to be a very impressive jump in mobility.  Haven't you tried to baby and condition your battery at times to improve or at least artificially extend your battery's life ?  Well, no longer.  A 1000 charge cycle versus the 300 charge-cylce batteries now will change the workg habits of a lot of mobile warriors.

So, what can the Enviro do?

• 1,000 charges before the battery start to degrade. 
• 80% charge in 30 minutes.
• 3-year warranty or the life of the battery.
• Cost?  Double?   Triple?  Nope.  A mere $20-30 over current batteries.
• Technology from Boston -Power
• HP is merely the first to offer this battery.

Impact:  While this new technology doesn't extend the battery life, it does porlong a battery's life.  And with the cost a mere 15-20% over current battery offerings that will go through the life of a laptop, you're talking about millions saved on battery replacement costs for businesses. 

Furthermore, some mobile warriors would be more like to be untethered to an outlet and more inclined to truly go mobile.  What I want to see next is a breakthrough that will allow for a battery to go on working all day.  
Via Crunchgear

Mobile Tip: Extending Laptop Battery from Mac OS X Tips

Alright, so the tip came from a Mac and Apple centric site but the underlying technology for laptop batteries is about the same for everyone.

We've done mobile battery tips on Onxo in the past and now, this site has given us one with clear explanations and how we can extend battery life.  You have no idea how much I baby my batteries.  From my Powerbook to the MacWind to my iPhone and G1.  Oh, and the XO too.

I've done a few battery and energy posts in the past and most of the time, it comes down the fact that batteries are not self-sustaining.  What do I mean by that?  It means after a few hundred cycles, your battery start to loose its original capacity.  There simply is no way to bring it back up to where it once was.    Retaining 80-90% of a battery's original charge after 300 or so cycles as most batteries are capable of doing these days is still quite good but I simply don't like to lose those minutes.  It just bugs me.

So, the best thing is to do what you can take care of your batteries, be it mobile devices like your iPhone or laptop.  Take a look at this worthy article.  A lot of the settings they talk about are for the OS X but there are similar functions on Windows too.

Via Mac OS X Tips

Newsweek Wants Bigger Longer (Maybe Uncut too) Batteries

I ration.  I admit it.  I wish I don't have to but I don't have a choice.  If you have a 3G device like the iPhone or G1 and you go nuts on it, by lunch, you're looking to charge up like a guy left on a desert island looking for dihydogen monoxide (DHMO) (it's water).

It's like Newsweek says, battery is the weakest link in a mobile device or any device for that matter. Our devices are smaller and faster.  Smarter and closer every year to perfect mobile convergence of life and functions.  And all these innovations and advancements are taking pace at a rapid pace year after year.

And yet, battery improvement takes place at a crawl.  It's a good thing the USS Enterprise runs on a warp engine and not batteries or else Scotty would have ran up to the bridge long ago and put Kirk out of his misery for all the time he called down to engineering for "more power".

Millions are are being invested in battery technology and that can't happen fast enough.  What do you want out of battery power?  I know what I know.  It's a bit idealistic and naive I think but I'm going to share it with all mobile warriors.

• Ideally, 24 hours of heavy use.  But realistically, I'll settle for 10-12 hours.  And I'm not talking about dimming, turning off this and that to stretch hours of battery.
• Allow me to truly be mobile.  If telecommuting means going to the local coffee shop or anywhere else for half a day, I want my laptop to be running during that period if I can't find an outlet.  Now, I know HP and Dell has laptops that has 12-24 hours of battery life.  No.  I want this for all laptops and mobile devices.
• It has to be cheap.  I wouldn't consider current laptop batteries cheap but I do hope cost will be on par with current batteries.
• Fast charging.  Maybe with a new chemical cocktail, this is possible.  

I hope battery research will be a part of the new administration's agenda.  It would go a long way in moving technology forward.  Maybe if there is a bailout for the motor companies in Detroit, some dinero can go towards that end.

Here is the link .  Good read.

Bigger Batteries - The Way to Go?

A third-party nine-cell battery for my MacWind would provide me with 6.5 hours of continuous battery use.  Do you think I should get it?

The MacWind I've been talking about lately weights in at about 3 pounds. That's with the 6-cell battery.  It provides me with about 4.5 hours of juice per charge and I find that adequate. But then the debate is whether the weight is more important or adding a little weight but gain 50% of battery life is worth it.

Right now, I would have to choose between the standard 6-cell configuration or a 3rd party 9-cell battery.  In time, I think we'll get more choices given that mobility is increasingly important to a lot of mobile warriors and the ability to work without worry about finding  an outlet is very important.

 What do you think?  With the live.com deal and eBay , I can get it for a good price now.  I've included the link if you're interested.  MSI forums has more info about it.  I guess I will let those intrepid early adopters go through a couple of charge cycles before deciding.

Instant-On - New Mobile Cool

It was only yesterday I move back to my Powerbook a bit.  Today's posts will be mostly about netbooks and clouding around (it's a take on "clowning around"...sorry).

Instant-on.  Note that when the pitch to using solid-state memory, one of the advantages is instant-on or, at the very least, fast boot time.

Well, Dave the Mobile Warrior pointed me to the NY Times article about new laptops with fast boot time.  30 secs.  I'm with the author.  30 secs is too long.  What I was thinking about maybe 5 to 10 seconds.

Even the G1 and the iPhone aren't instant-on, which I think they should be but given that they run on a full OS, I guess that's is expecting too much.  It's one of the reasons why I almost never turn off my mobile devices.  And with my laptops, I mere put them to sleep.

Please head over and read the article.  It's a MUST READ.  Also take note of the part on what Dell's doing with their laptop that runs for 4-days on a single charge, taking the smartphone approach.  Sounds interesting.

Link:  New York Times

Mobile Tip: Battery Tips from CNet (With Video)

In late July, Onxo came up with a list of battery saving tips to help mobile users extend the battery life of their devices. It was one of our most sought after article.

Now, CNet has pretty much the same thing in video form.  Though they used an iPhone 3G, a lot of the same suggestions can be applied to any mobile 2.5G or 3G devices.  This goes for the Onxo tips as well.

The video title is called "Maximizing iPhone 3G Battery Life".



In watching the video, we left out a couple of items from our earlier post.  GPS.  Turn it off if you can.  If you're not using it.  It might be used by location-based apps.  We don't know if it's actually doing anything when you're using the GPS function but leave it off until you need it?  It goes the same for the location function in the iPhone.

It's kind of cool to have that in Loopt but we don't need it on all the time.

Mobile Tips To Extend Battery Life (Artificially)

I love my gadgets to the point of babying them although I tend to drop them quite often.  Don't know why that is.

But there's something I cannot help as far as operating my mobile devices and that's the battery.  They die. (So melodramatic, isn't it?  Its the only thing that doesn't "stop working". but "dies".  "Sorry to have to tell you this but your battery are dead...alive for only 9 hours.  So young.  So tragic.")

In my experience, I've come up with a few tips that has worked for me.  And here they are.  Please note that everyone has different standards and expectations.  Plus, we've got different devices so some of these tips may not have be relevant for you.  Plus, your mobile unit may have more battery saving options than others.

Here we go.  By the way, I am basing my experiences here off my iPhone (1st gen).

• Turn it off when you don’t need it.  Seriously here.  If you’re in a meeting for an hour and you can’t be disturb, why leave it on at all.  Also, I’ve occasionally turned off my phone when I’m driving for more than half an hour.  I’ve got an iPod nano that I use if I want to listen to music in the car.  An hour here.  Half an hour there.  It adds up.  
• The screen can be dimmed.  I usually keep it at 50% brightness.  In the iPhone, it works great in the daylight and I’m sure helps with the juice quite a bit.
• This is a bit like turning off the device but not as extreme.  Turn on the airplane mode.  I have not tested this thoroughly but if the antennas in the phone are not trying to pick up signals, I’m guess it’s saving quite a bit of power.  Does anyone know for sure?  I’m guess the it’ll vary depending on the device.
• Bluetooth – I’ve used it before and I’m sure I’ll use it again some day.  But I don’t mind using just the headset that came with the iPhone.  So if you can avoid it, turn it off.  
• 3G.  I don’t have a lot of experience with it.  With my phone, I’m content with the EDGE speed for the most part.  I’m also around WIFI much of the time.  Turn it off when you’re not using it.  
• Turn off WiFi if you do not have access to it.  Even though it’s not connected, it yearns to be in the company of an access point so it’s always looking.
• E-mails.  If you don’t need it pushed, set it to check at an incremental time or do the checking manually.  This goes for any other kind of updates on your phone.  There was this app on for the jailbroken phone that checks news, stocks, weather, and e-mail all at the same time.  The juice it sucked up was monstrous.  I took deleted it after a couple of days.  
• If you can e-mail or surf on a computer, do that.  If you can use a landline to talk, do that.  I know folks who insist on using their mobile phones all day.  Okay, I respect that.  I just don’t get that.  
• If you’re near a computer with a USB port, you can charge it if you have the iPod USB cable.

There you go.  Once again, your mileage is going to vary depending on what device you have and your personal habits.  Some of these tips can work with other mobile devices that are not smartphones.  Regular phones, PSP, UMPCs, or even netbooks (I only see the dimming of the screen as helpful).  

For laptops these days, the standby is very good.  The power-saving features are just excellent.  Make sure you take advantage of that.  

Also carry an extra battery.  For those us of at the mercy of Steve Jobs’ insistence of no user-friendly battery changes, I guess we just take it.  However, there are a lot of battery extensions that will work.

Here’s a link to Gizmodo who also have some battery saving tips.  I did not include the auto-lock because I'm not 100% sure every device has that feature.  

If you've got any tip we've missed, please share with them us.  Battery technology is barely budging these days and additional battery life will likely come from advances in other components of a mobile device and changes in our behaviors.

Remember though, you don't wan to go overboard in babying your mobile device either.  It's here to serve you, not the other way around.