battery

Smartphone survival guide: How to stretch your battery life

With the smartphone increasingly becoming the lifeline for any household, keeping it alive is more important than ever.

But with Hurricane Sandy barreling its way across the East Coast, thousands of homes face the prospect of losing power for several days. That's bad news for power-hungry smartphones, many of which can barely last a day with normal use.

Fear not. CNET has compiled this handy smartphone survival guide to make the most out of your phone's battery. If a power outage hits, you'll know exactly what to do to ensure you remain connected. … Read more

Welcome to a Windows 8 world

Friday's CNET Update is charging the backup batteries:

Today's tech news roundup has a storm of new tech, and the tech you need in a storm.

The initial preorder supply of white Wi-Fi iPad Minis were claimed in less than a half hour of it going on sale Friday morning. As of Friday afternoon, the black Wi-Fi models were still promising a delivery date of Nov. 2. White models ordered now won't be shipped for two weeks. Some of the first people to buy a 4G iPad Mini are seeing a delivery date of Nov. 23.

Windows … Read more

Droid Razr Maxx battery life still reigns supreme

If you own an old-school Razr Maxx and have been gazing longingly at Motorola's latest creation, the Droid Razr Maxx HD, here's a tidbit to consider. Its bigger screen and more robust processing comes at a price: a shorter run time. … Read more

Stanford Ovshinsky, 'Edison of our age,' dies at 89

Stanford R. Ovshinsky, a self-taught scientist who invented the nickel-metal hybrid battery and a new class of semiconductors, died Wednesday at age 89.

The cause of death was prostate cancer, according to his son, Harvey Ovshinsky.

Hailed in 2006 by Economist magazine as "the Edison of our age," Ovshinsky held more than 200 patents on a wide variety of pioneering products, from thin-film solar cells to hydrogen fuel cells. In the 1950s, Ovshinsky upset conventional thinking by rejecting the notion that only well-ordered crystals had useful electronic properties and suggested that so-called amorphous, or disordered, materials could be … Read more

Alleged iPad Mini screen, battery leaked in photos

No, it's not a complete version of Apple's much-rumored iPad mini, but it could be a few more pieces of the puzzle.

Parts reseller ETradeSupply, which posted accurate photos and videos of Apple's iPhone 5 casing some three months before its official debut, today has images of what it says is the 8-inch LCD screen for Apple's smaller iPad, as well as its battery.

Neither part is connected to any electronics, or other pieces of housing, though as ETradeSupply notes, the leaked images add credence to the fact that Apple will stick with a 4:3 … Read more

Government-funded battery maker A123 files for bankruptcy

A123 Systems, a lithium-ion battery maker that has received hundreds of millions in government support, filed for bankruptcy protection today.

The move makes A123 the latest government-backed energy company to file for Chapter 11. Many of these companies have struggled to make money as demand slows for their products. A123 received more than $250 million in state and federal funding to help it run its operations providing batteries for electric cars and other products. But it has also faced many problems, including defective products.

A123 today said Johnson Controls will help finance the filing by buying A123's automotive business … Read more

iExpander iPhone case adds SD, extra battery, 30-pin connector

If you glance at your iPhone wish list, you may see things like longer battery life, expandable SD memory, a better flash, and an old school 30-pin connector for your shiny new iPhone 5. You can have all those things if you're willing to pledge $75 to the iExpander project on Kickstarter.

The iExpander is a jack-of-all-trades case that crams a whole lot into a relatively small size. You're still going to add 6.3mm of chunk to your sleek phone, but the trade-off is pretty tempting.

Let's start with the flashy stuff. The case has an ultrathin CAP-XX supercapacitor that powers an LED flash that can make a big difference in the quality of your low-light photos. … Read more

See your MacBook battery status with Battery Health

Battery Health is, as its name implies, designed to tell you about your MacBook's battery, including current capacity and current charge level. Since battery health is an important factor for many of us on the move, knowing how healthy our battery is and how long we can depend on it can help prevent losing power when you need it most. Knowing when it is going to need replacing is also a handy piece of knowledge.

Battery Health is a small utility that installs quickly and easily. When launched the first time, Battery Health asks if you want to run … Read more

Magnetyze brings conductive charging to iPhone 4/4S

One of the features I was secretly hoping to see in the iPhone 5: induction-powered battery charging.

This already exists in the form of third-party products like the Powermat and Energizer Qi. Alas, Apple missed a chance to wow the world, catch up with smartphones like the Lumia 820 and 920, and perhaps distract from the massive disappointment that is the Lightning connector.

Fortunately, if you own an iPhone 4 or 4S, you still have options for cutting the charging cord. One of the latest: BuQu Tech's Magnetyze, a complete inductive conductive-charging kit priced at $69.99. Update: According … Read more

iPhone 5 estimated to cost 41 cents per year to charge

A new estimate claims Apple's latest iPhone costs 41 cents a year to keep charged, less than a third of its sibling, the iPad.

The metric, put out this week by energy analytics company Opower, is based on the assumption that iPhone owners will recharge their device once a day for the entire year:

Phone 5: consumed 9.5 watt-hours to charge, taking 1 hour and 50 minutes. Maximum wattage was 6.3 watts, with an average of approximately 5.0 W. Multiplying 0.0095 kWh/day by 365 days = 3.47 kWh per year. Annual charging cost is … Read more