September 17th, 2009

Battery preservation and 'Desktop Mode'

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:09 am

Categories: Battery, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro

Tags: Desktop, Battery, Engineering, Jason D. O'Grady

In The correct way to use your MacBook’s battery I wrote that Apple techs recommend that you regularly charge and run down the battery in its notebooks for maximum battery performance and lifespan.

In other words – don’t leave your MacBook plugged in all the time. In Apple’s eyes having more charge cycles is better than having less, in fact, it can even deny a battery warranty claim if your battery has less than 75 charge cycles.

That post resonated with several readers that emailed me to complain that Apple should handle the whole battery charge/discharge process in software, rather than relying on users to remember to do it.

Bruce Kieffer wrote:

I’m listening to PowerPage Podcast Episode 114 and the discussion on batteries. I must say it’s a disappointment that the Mac OS isn’t smart enough to deal with all power situations. Why should I have to mess with cycling my battery? Why can’t the OS know my power habits and take care of conditioning the battery accordingly? I have a PowerBook G4 and I keep it plugged in 24/7. I think in that case the OS should be smart enough to cycle my battery for me.

While I agree with Bruce, the devil as they say, is in the details. After all, how would Apple implement such a technique that keeps the battery optimized while ensuring that you’re not left without charge at the worst possible moment in time.

Apple would have to run the battery down (via software) despite the fact that you have it plugged in.
That would invite a whole host of problems with users that need to spontaneously grab their machine only to discover that the battery is completely dead.

My suggestion is that Apple implement a “Desktop Mode” in Mac OS X that would prompt you, saying “I noticed that you haven’t unplugged your AC power connection in 30 days. Would you like me to go into Desktop Mode? More info… Yes/No”

It could explain that Desktop Mode power cycles the battery “in order to maximize its useful life” or something like that and warn users to make sure to disable Desktop Mode (in Energy Saver > Advanced?) at least 8 hours before running off battery.

Bruce responds:

The best solution would be batteries that don’t need to be cycled. Until then, I like your “Desktop Mode” idea, but it too has its problems. Most often I know in advance when I need my computer on the road. But if I have to take it out on a last minute notice, I could be in trouble if the battery was near the end of a discharge cycle. Maybe the Apple folks could set it up to discharge during down times. Say schedule it for midnight to 6 am. As it is now, I will continue with it plugged in all the time since anything else is too much work relative to any benefit I might get in extending the battery life.

What’s your solution? Do you regularly run down your MacBook battery or are you a “leave it plugged in all the time” type of person?

August 31st, 2009

Snow Leopard gets battery forensics

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 8:11 am

Categories: 10.6, Battery, Snow Leopard

Tags: Battery, Engineering, Jason D. O'Grady

There’s a lot going on under the hood of Snow Leopard, to be sure, but a subtle change has been made to the battery menu item that will help portable users diagnose failing batteries.

Within the new Battery menu bar extra in Mac OS X v10.6, you may see one of these messages:

• Replace Soon
• Replace Now
• Check Battery

According to a new Apple knowledgebase article “Replace Soon” means that the battery may still be usable and hold some charge, but you’ll need to consider getting the battery replaced. If the battery is removable, Apple recommends removing and reseating it with the power cord connected and plugged into a power outlet.

If the battery is not removable Apple recommends resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) as outlined in this knowledgebase article. If “Replace Soon” continues to appear after reseating the battery or resetting the SMC you’ll need to replace the battery or take the computer to an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

The Battery menu will display either a “Replace Now” or “Check Battery” alert if it is unable to hold a charge for long (or at all). If you see one of these alerts, and if the battery is removable, Apple recommends that you try removing and reseating it with the power cord connected to your computer and a power outlet. If the battery is not removable try resetting the System Management Controller (SMC). If the issue persists your battery may need to be inspected and/or replaced.

Apple notes on its battery page that it’s important to exercise your machine’s battery (as I reported back in July) and that Lithium-ion polymer batteries need to be used for properly to achieve maximum performance. Apple recommends that if you don’t use your device often, you should complete a charge cycle at least once a month.

A charge cycle means using all of the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle. Each time you complete a charge cycle, it diminishes battery capacity slightly, but you can put notebook, iPod, and iPhone batteries through many charge cycles before they will only hold 80% of original battery capacity.

August 18th, 2009

Camping with your Mac 2.0 (HyperMac mini review)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 3:00 am

Categories: Battery, Review

Tags: Apple iPhone, Car, Apple Macintosh, Apple MacBook, Battery, USB, Apple MacBook Pro, HyperMac, Engineering, Notebooks

In June I wrote about some essential gear to bring while camping with your Mac. This is a follow-up based on a camping trip I took with my family this month to Olympic National Park in Washington.

I thought I’d share couple of tips from a recent camping trip where I learned a few things about camping with a Mac. First, some definitions are in order. By camping I mean “car camping,” or driving to campsite and pitching a tent near the car. I don’t recommend bringing a MacBook Pro hiking or camping anywhere where weight is an issue — that’s what iPhones are for.

That being said, if you plan to bring a MacBook and/or iPhone with you on vacation/camping/whatever, there are a few power-related essentials that I highly recommend.

A good battery
In camping 1.0 I suggested bringing “batteries galore” so that I could power my MacBook Pro for more than two nights. A better solution is to, a) upgrade to one of the new long-life, fixed battery MacBook Pros, and b) get an external battery HyperMac. I picked up the largest mac-daddy 222-Watt-hour model ($499, below) which provides enough juice to use a MacBook Pro for 28 continuous hours - not that anyone should do that or anything. The HyperMac battery comes with a genuine MagSafe cable (not pictured) that plugs into the port on the battery to the right of the USB cable.

The 222Wh model is massive (especially when compared to MacBook Air’s 37Wh battery) and a tad heavy, but Luckily HyperMac offers three smaller models. They also offer 60Wh ($199), 100Wh ($299) and 150Wh ($399) models.

In addition to the included MagSafe charger (not pictured), the HyperMac battery includes a 5V/1A USB power port so you can charge any USB device (like an iPhone) individually or simultaneously with a MacBook/MBP. The 222Wh model can charge an iPhone up to 52 times on a full charge.

Chargers galore
If you’re a two-iPhone family it’s imperative that you bring reliable USB chargers with you on the road. You probably already have a 12-volt car charger for your iPhone and a USB wall charger at home, which is fine, but for travel I recommend that you pick up a pair of dual-USB chargers.

The first is a dual-USB wall charger like the PowerBlock Dual Universal ($25, right) from Griffin Technology. It allows you to easily charge two iPhones (or anything that charges from USB) from a standard household wall outlet. I bring one of these with me with two dock cables for charging our iPhones at night.

Without a wall charger like the PowerBlock I’d have to charge our iPhones from my MacBook Pro. Not only is this a cabling nightmare (especially when you have kids) the MacBook has to be awake to charge USB devices. Even if you dim the screen and the keyboard backlight the light generated from the pulsing sleep LED is enough to keep me awake at night.

My other must-have charger is a dual USB 12-volt charger for the car. When you’re doing a lot of driving you should be charging both iPhones any time you’re in the car. My charger of choice in this category is the dual-USB 12-volt adapter that came with my iPhone battery from RichardSolo.com. Similar models are available from Scosche ($5 @ Walmart) or Griffin Technology ($15).

What are your must-have Apple chargers while on the road?

August 11th, 2009

Review: Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone 3GS

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 11:38 am

Categories: Accessory, Battery, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Hour, Battery, Apple iPhone 3G, Jason, Juice Pack, 3G, Smart Phones, Wireless And Mobility, Cellular Phones

A guest blog post by Vic Orly:

The iPhone 3GS is awesome except for one thing: its battery life, or lack thereof.

My battery experience had been awful. Recently, I was on a flight from Chicago O’Hare to San Diego with my new 32GB iPhone 3GS in airplane mode. When I boarded the flight, my battery charge was 85 percent. During the flight, I shot two videos about two minutes long each. I composed 17 emails, some attaching the videos. I also listed to music and watched a movie I purchased from iTunes. By the time I landed, the battery went from 85 to 27 percent.

Jason previously posted some suggestions for extending an iPhone’s battery life, including…

1. Minimize use of location services
2. Turn off push notifications
3. Fetch new data less frequently
4. Turn off push mail
5. Auto-check fewer email accounts
6. Minimize use of third-party applications
7. Turn off Wi-Fi
8. Turn off Bluetooth
9. Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas
10. Adjust brightness
11. Turn off EQ
12. Turn off 3G

So, in order to keep our iPhones running longer we should revert to iPhone 1.0? It sounds like Apple wants me to use my iPhone 3GS as an iPod touch. Gee, thanks Steve. I upgraded from the original 8GB iPhone 2G to the new 32GB iPhone 3GS because I wanted a better phone. I don’t like to scale down or compromise on my toys so I began researching external battery packs.

Before I settled on the Mophie Juice Pack, I bought the KONNET PowerKZ from Amazon. It is designed to fully wrap around the iPhone. It adds a bit of bulk, but I liked the idea of a full enclosure. Sadly, this unit was terrible… pieces were falling apart (like the actuator to the iPhone’s upper power button), and whenever I would get a text message, the iPhone would make the “chirp” sound that it makes when you plug in external power. It was like the Konnet unit was going offline momentarily when the phone was receiving data.

I returned it a few days later and purchased the Mophie Juice Pack 3G from Amazon instead.

Read the rest of this entry »

July 13th, 2009

Justifying non-removable batteries

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:38 pm

Categories: Battery, MacBook Pro

Tags: Apple MacBook, Battery, Apple Inc., Engineering, Jason D. O'Grady

Apple got the ire of its users when it released the original iPhone with a fixed, non-removable battery. The mainstream media and blogosphere (myself included) barbecued Apple for the omission as everything from flat out stupid  to a fatal blow to the success of the device. We see how far that went. Here we are two years later and the angry furor has died down to a dull murmur.

Apple followed by releasing the MacBook Air with a fixed battery and a near-riot ensued, but that too eventually calmed.

Then it shipped the unibody MacBook Pro 17-inch sans removable-battery and people went ballistic yet again. This time Apple spun it as a feature (not a bug!) — the MBP17 battery holds 40 percent more energy as a result of the removal of “unnecessary” latches and doors.

Then Apple hit me where it hurts, releasing the “Mid 2009″ 15-inch MacBook Pro — the workhorse of the lineup — with a fixed battery. “I won’t buy one. No way” I told myself. I simply need the ability to swap in an extra battery when needed, like on a long flight or while camping.

Well yes and no.

There’s no denying the convenience of a removable battery, what’s the actual use case for needing one when the new MBP15 is capable of “7 hours of wireless productivity,” with eight hours possible? You’re flying from New York to Tokyo and need to use your MBP the entire time? Please…

If you’re Warren Buffet, or some other over-achiever you probably can afford/justify a seat in business or first class where the in-seat power outlets live. If you can’t afford the upgrade you’re working far too hard on your MacBook Pro for not enough money. (Hey, wait a minute!)

I’m definitely coming around on fixed batteries, but a case can still be made for removable cells…

Read the rest of this entry »

July 10th, 2009

Battery percentage indicator for all iPhones

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 11:17 am

Categories: Battery, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Battery, Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

Easily the most under-publicized new feature in the iPhone 3GS is the ability to view the amount of charge remaining in a numerical percentage in addition to the visual indicator that appears on the battery icon. To enable the feature, simply tap:

Settings > General > Usage > Battery Percentage

The problem is that the feature is only available on the iPhone 3GS hardware, as is not a feature available on iPhone OS 3.0 as I originally thought. As I commented on PowerPage Podcast Episode 114, this seems bogus to me. I understand how Apple wants to upsell people to the 3GS, but isn’t that what the video camera, voice control and the compass are for?

You can’t tell me that Apple couldn’t easily have enabled the simple battery percentage indicator in software for all iPhones. The are several applications for jailbroken iPhones that do just that. Reader Brian Murray notes that a solution exists for other iPhone models, albeit without the top bar integration:

Although this doesn’t sit in the top bar of the iPhone, the app FreeMemory (pictured, right) has a percentage battery indicator and you don’t need to jailbreak your iPhone to use it. I’ve also found this app handy when memory gets tight and avoids resetting the phone.

The fact that Apple restricts Voice Control to the iPhone 3GS smells a little fishy too. Especially when you consider that apps like Google Mobile and Vlingo have voice control now for all iPhone models — not just the 3GS.

Isn’t voice control a safety issue? Could a case be made that Apple’s removal of voice control from the original iPhone and iPhone 3G puts its customers at an unnecessary risk? I bet there are a lot of attorneys that would take the case.

July 7th, 2009

iPhone 3GS users complain of poor battery life

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 8:40 am

Categories: Battery, iPhone 3GS

Tags: Apple iPhone, Battery, iPhone 3GS, Smart Phones, Engineering, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

The LA Times dubbed it iDrain, iPhone 3GS users are calling it a royal pain.

Despite Apple’s claims that the iPhone 3GS comes with “longer battery life” users are complaining that its new vunder-handset actually has less battery life than with the previous model.

iFixIt noted in its recent teardown that the iPhone 3GS battery is six percent larger than the iPhone 3G battery, leading many to suspect that iPhone OS 3.0 may be the culprit.

Apple promises improved battery life with the 3GS. The battery is listed as 3.7V and 4.51 Whr. This comes out to 1219 mAh, compared to 1150 mAh on the 3G. That’s only a 6% increase.

ComputerWorld notes that users have been reporting worse battery life on all iPhones since the day the iPhone OS 3.0 was released:

Users started complaining about poor battery performance almost as soon as Apple offered iPhone 3.0, the software available for download June 17 for first-generation iPhones and second-generation iPhone 3Gs. The new iPhone 3GS relies on the same software.

“After updating to [iPhone] 3.0 the battery life is very short. It consumes 5%-10% an hour,” claimed an original iPhone user identified as “ukfasthands” in a message posted on Apple’s support forum June 17.

A colleague recently complained that during a four-hour flight in airplane mode his iPhone 3GS battery dropped from 85 to 27 percent while composing 17 emails and recording a two-minute video. Another potential culprit is the iPhone’s recently activated push notication feature. Scott Forstall claimed that push would cause a 20 percent drop in battery life.

If you’re afflicted you’ll most likely have to wait until Apple releases iPhone OS 3.1, or if we’re lucky, some battery improvement could come with the security update that’s been promised for the end of July. In the mean time, try implementing some of my and Apple’s iPhone battery savings tips, including:

1. Minimize use of location services
2. Turn off push notifications
3. Fetch new data less frequently
4. Turn off push mail
5. Auto-check fewer email accounts
6. Minimize use of third-party applications
7. Turn off Wi-Fi
8. Turn off Bluetooth
9. Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas
10. Adjust brightness
11. Turn off EQ
12. Turn off 3G

How is your battery life with the iPhone 3GS? Chime in in the TalkBack below.

Photo: The iPhone Blog

July 6th, 2009

More about charging Apple's notebook batteries

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:13 am

Categories: Battery, MacBook Pro

Tags: Notebook, Apple MacBook, Battery, Apple Inc., Notebook Battery, Engineering, Jason D. O'Grady

On Friday I posted a piece titled The correct way to use your MacBook’s battery that was based on my experience with an Apple Genius and a two-year old MacBook battery that had failed while covered under AppleCare.

The long and short of it was that the technician covered and replaced my battery under warranty because it had been “used properly” — translation: it had a sufficient amount of charge cycles to indicated that it hadn’t been permanently plugged into AC power.

I thought that I’d clarify some issues that have come up in the comments about that piece:

Apple doesn’t recommend that you perform a “deep discharge” (running the battery all the way down to zero) each time you use it. As Apple notes in its battery tips for notebooks a fully discharged battery could fall into a deep discharge state, which renders it incapable of holding any charge. The Apple tech I spoke to told me to run the battery down until the reserve battery warning before plugging it into power again.

While it’s true that the “memory effect” suffered by older battery technology is largely gone in lithium cells, the purpose of running a battery down before recharging it is to keep the chemistry active inside the cells. If your MacBook is always plugged in and just topping off, the chemicals in the lower portion of the battery don’t get used as designed and can decay prematurely.

If you purchased one of Apple’s new “mid 2009″ MacBook Pros with the sealed battery, it’s especially important to calibrate the battery right away and then every few months after that. Apple also advises that if you normally leave your MacBook connected to AC power and rarely use it on battery power you may want to perform this process once a month.

It’s curious that Apple makes no mention of this “use it or lose it” battery guidance in the MacBook Pro user guide. How are people supposed to know about this technique if it’s not in the manual and not on their Web site? I know that I would be furious if it denied my AppleCare claim because my battery wasn’t “used correctly” when Apple never told me how to use it correctly in the first place.

You can keep tabs on the capacity remaining and the number of charge cycles in your battery by viewing the Power section in Apple’s System Profiler app or by using a freeware app like Coconut Battery.

July 2nd, 2009

The correct way to use your MacBook's battery

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 8:00 pm

Categories: Battery, MacBook

Tags: Apple MacBook, Battery, Engineering, Jason D. O'Grady

Recently a battery completely failed in a two-year old black 2.16GHz MacBook that was covered under AppleCare. It worked fine one day, went completely dead the next. It wouldn’t charge and no LEDs would light up. When I brought it into the genius bar at my local Apple Store I learned something interesting about the way Apple treats batteries covered under warranty.

The first thing that the tech did was run a diagnostic application on the battery from a bootable iPod nano (pictured). The application graphed the gradual decay of the battery over time and the little black dot could fall into one of two buckets: defective or consumed (not the exact terms, but you get the idea). Luckily, the little black dot on my battery fell into the defective area and was replaced.

Since batteries are consumable parts (like tires on a car) Apple doesn’t cover them indefinitely — even if the machine is covered under its AppleCare Protection Plan (APP). Batteries that are consumed are considered past their normal lifespan and will not be replaced under warranty.

One of the telling things about this particular visit to the Apple Store was something the tech told me. He said that he would replace the battery with a new one because it has be “used correctly.” When I asked him to elaborate on what that meant, he told me that Apple’s notebook batteries last longest when they’re routinely charged and discharged.

My defective battery had 200+ discharge cycles on it which means that it had be charged and discharged that many times — in Apple’s eyes more is better. He wouldn’t give me a specific cutoff point but he said that when a customers comes in with sub-70 charge cycles over 2+ years they know that it’s probably been plugged into AC power most of the time — which is not how the battery is designed to work and can lead to premature failure.

He went on to say that the chemistry inside a rechargeable battery works best when it’s used — translation: charged and discharged — and that if it’s always plugged into AC power (and fully topped off) most of the battery isn’t being used and will gradually decay. The genius helping me claimed to have 700+ charge cycles on his three-year-old battery and said that it still gets three plus hours of run time as as result.

I guess the lesson here is to unplug your MacBook and let the battery run down before recharging it.

Quick poll: Post the age and number of charge cycles on your MacBook battery in the TalkBack. (You can check the number of charge cycles in System Profiler > Power > Battery > Health Information > Cycle Count.)

June 7th, 2009

iPhone "3GS" to pack better battery

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:14 pm

Categories: Battery, Rumor, WWDC, iPhone, iPhone 3.0

Tags: Apple iPhone, Battery, 3G, Cellular Phones, Corporate Communications, Engineering, Wireless And Mobility, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Marketing

On the eve of Phil Schiller’s keynote address at WWDC a couple of new details on the new iPhone have trickled out via Daring Fireball.

The first is that the third-generation iPhone is code-named “iPhone 3GS.” It’s only a code-name so iPhone 3GS is unlikely to be the device’s actual shipping name. Could it be an Easter egg/vague reference to the Apple IIGS from 1986?

Apple got itself into a bit of a conundrum by using the name iPhone 3G for its second-generation iPhone, essentially eliminating it as an option for tomorrow’s phone. Painting itself into a corner with the iPhone 3G could why Apple decided to go with a goofy name like “iPhone 3GS.” What’s next, a “3GSi?” I’ve actually been warming up to the term iPhone Video lately, It’s a logical progression just like the iPod video was before it.

The other interesting rumor that came out of Jon Gruber’s post is that battery life on the new iPhone is 15-20 percent longer than the iPhone 3G. This would be a nice feature if it turns out to be true but I want it to come by way of a higher-capacity pack — and this sounds like software to me.

Stay tuned as we approach Monday’s 10am PT/ 1pm ET Schiller keynote at WWDC 2009.