Hasta La Gadget!

Inside almost every gadget lurks a ticking time bomb. In two years, or maybe three or four, it will die, rendering your gadget useless. Possibly permanently. So, what are these awful little bastards? They’re called batteries. More »

NEC first announced its super-thin Organic Radical Battery (or ORB) technology a full five years ago, but it’s now finally back with what it describes as the first “practical” prototypes of the batteries. While these new batteries are about twice as thick as NEC’s first such units, they’re still only 0.7 mm thin, and are apparently much more reliable while also delivering 1.4 times more output (specifically, a capacity of 5mAh). The key to that boost, it seems, are some newly developed, highly conductive cathodes, which consists of some solid organic radical material that were turned into a gel and then uniformly compounded with carbon materials. What does that mean for actual consumers? Well, if NEC has its way, the batteries could be a thin, flexible power source for things like smart cards, wearable devices, and flexible e-paper displays. Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading NEC develops thin, flexible and ‘practical’ Organic Radical Battery

NEC develops thin, flexible and ‘practical’ Organic Radical Battery originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An unfortunate electronics-based ass explosion. A confused lad with dirty vinyl. A relationship doomed by a ringtone. This week’s questions tortured us for minutes, but we recovered. And we came up with answers. More »

Christopher Bielawski, a brilliant mind working at the University of Texas at Austin, had this to say about his newest discovery: “I would love it if my iPhone was thinner and lighter, and the battery lasted a month or even a week instead of a day; with an organic battery, it may be possible.” Anyone that has ever owned an iPhone (or a smartphone or any sort, really) can grok just how bold those words are, but according to Mr. Bielawski, “we’re now starting to get a handle on the fundamental chemistry needed to make this dream a commercial reality.” At the center of this potential revolution is a newfangled organic battery recently detailed in the journal Science, but just as important is the artificial photosynthesis that the research also touches on. Bielawski and colleague Jonathan Sessler have seemingly figured out how to create an electron transfer process that can proceed in the opposite direction, with this forward and backward switching of electron flow opening up new avenues for the historically stagnant battery innovation market. Granted, these guys have yet to demonstrate that the process can occur in a condensed phase, so actual commercialization is probably a century millennium or two out, but hey — at least our list of “awesome thing that’ll probably never happen” has grown by one.

UTexas researchers develop organic battery, aim for week-long use in smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on November 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

Have you ever wondered how you can get more information on your laptop’s battery? That’s a question that many people wonder, especially when they start experiencing shortened battery life. There is a quick and free way for you to get all of this info and more!

Battery Status (or BattStat) is a small program that only takes a second to install. After the installation is done you’ll see a new icon in your System Tray, and double-clicking on that icon will open the door for mounds of information about your battery. You’ll even be able to find out the capacity of your battery compared to when it shipped out of the factory!

One of the most prominent features that Battery Status has is an adaptive battery life estimate. It will watch how you use your computer to more accurately estimate how much time you really have left on your computer. Check it all out…

–The Main Window–

The main Battery Status window provides a colorful chart with many of your system’s specs: runtime (battery life left), charge, power, CPU speed, CPU load, CPU temperature, and hard drive temperature:

Click to Enlarge

Aside from the pretty graphs, the main window provides a lot of critical functionality:

• In Vista you can switch power plans and XP/2000 you can change power schemes.
• You can set a keyboard shortcut (hotkey) that will turn off your monitor. This is really awesome, and can definitely save some power if you’re going to be away from your computer for a little while.
• A batch file can be created, and run each time the power status changes (a.k.a. switching from AC power to battery).

–Battery Toolbar–

Sometimes it is nice to have a condensed, yet more detailed view of how much battery power you have left on your computer. That’s why Battery Status provides a toolbar, which can be set to always be on top of other windows to serve as your floating information bank. Here’s what you’ll get with the toolbar:

–Battery Condition & Details–

One of the most informative areas of Battery Status is the detailed battery information it provides, which is shown by pressing the Batteries button on the main window. Towards the bottom of the screen it displays your battery’s capacity, which is the maximum amount that you’ll be able to charge it. Next to that value it also displays what the original maximum was, and it can therefore compute the “wear” on your battery. As seen below my battery has 8% wear, which means in the 6-months that I’ve owned my laptop, I’ve lost 8% of my battery’s capacity.

–Summary–

This is one of those programs that I believe everyone should tryout on their battery-powered computers. I found the battery estimates to be extremely accurate, and it was also nice being able to see my processor’s temperature as well as the wear on my battery. Remember, Battery Status is free and only takes a few seconds to install, so there really isn’t anything to lose.

Battery Status Homepage (currently in the Beta stage, but seems really stable)

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