life

By doubling the number of LEDs in the new iPad, Apple cut somewhat into battery life--particularly when used at full brightness--something you won't find on Apple's tech spec page.

Though the new iPad's battery is 1.7 times larger than the iPad 2's, all of those extra LEDs still take a toll on battery life at full brightness--as Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, told CNET in a phone interview yesterday.

"The [power consumption of the] LEDs is 2.5X compared to the iPad 2, and the battery is 1.7X [larger]...so what happens … Read more

Anyone got a charger? If you're tearing your hair out at your phone running out of juice all the time, it could be that your favorite apps are to blame. New research suggests that up to 75 percent of free Android apps' battery use is spent on advertisements and other hidden tasks.

New Scientist reports the findings from Indiana's Purdue University, where curious boffins built special software to analyze apps' power demands.

For example, the research reveals (PDF) that smash hit Angry Birds, among others, spends just a fifth of the power it uses on actually playing the fowl-flinging game. Instead, nearly half of the energy used by the app goes toward checking where you are using GPS and downloading adverts over 3G that are specific to your location.

Read more of "Free Android apps waste 75 per cent of power on adverts" at Crave UK. … Read more

Over the last couple of days I've run CNET's tablet battery drain test on both the new iPad and the iPad 2. The iPad 2's battery life hadn't been tested since iOS 4.3, so while my focus was on evaluating the new iPad's battery, this was also an opportunity to see if iOS 5.1 brought any battery life improvements over 4.3.

The results The results speak for themselves, but if you need further explanation, continue reading after the chart. … Read more

iPhone owners are the happiest among smartphone customers, but mobile users in general share the same major beef: battery life.

For the seventh consecutive time, Apple was tops among smartphone makers with a satisfaction score of 839 out of 1,000, according to results from J.D. Power's latest survey, which is done every six months. The company did well in all of the factors measured by the survey--performance, ease of operation, features, and physical design. But owners were most satisfied with the iPhone's features and ease of operation.

HTC took second place with a score of 798, … Read more

What do billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, street artist Mr. Brainwash, and music group Black Eye Peas' front man will.i.am have in common? They all had their lives chronicled for 24 hours in Hulu's original TV show by Morgan Spurlock, "A Day in the Life."

Now, this show--which was only available in the U.S.--will be the first to kick off an international first look deal that will bring the online video service's original programming to a global audience, the company said in a statement.

Partnering with FremantleMedia Enterprises--an international creator and producer for … Read more

Sporting some interesting user interface conventions and a fairly powerful set of image-editing tools, iPhoto makes a fairly splashy debut, especially at the relatively reasonable price of $4.99. Though it lacks some of the capabilities of the more expensive Photoshop Touch, including cross-iOS/Android compatibility and compositing, it looks like it has a reasonably broad image-editing feature set and a major advantage: it can handle images up to 19 megapixels, while Adobe's app is limited to 1,600x1,600 pixels. Though it was launched with the new iPad--and will probably be really nice to use with that … Read more

Though iPhoto is the newest addition to the iPad's iLife apps, GarageBand also got a few updated features and instruments to add to its arsenal of music tools. The original version of GarageBand for iOS already impressed me with intuitive touch-screen instruments, smart instruments that required no prior musical skill, and multitrack recording features anyone could use, but the new GarageBand adds even more to like, with wireless connections of up to four iPads for live music creation, and more.

The new version is by no means a complete makeover, but it adds a new category of instruments, the … Read more

A report from Reuters this morning claims it has the inside track on the iPad HD (or is it iPad 3?) specs, namely that 4G is going to be included in Apple's tablet update tomorrow.

Also in on the rumor act is tech blog iMore, which claims to have a source within Apple who actually knows what's going on. The source, who correctly predicted the March 7 iPad HD event, is now telling iMore that the iPad HD is "good to go" for 4G LTE.

This rumor falls in line with an earlier report by Stearn Agee's Shaw Wu who claimed the iPad HD would also include a much faster processor, a Retina Display, and Siri, Apple's voice-controlled assistant.… Read more

The standard battery icon on your Android can be a little misleading. The icons for 90% and 80% battery may look the same, just like 15% and 5%. If you want a more detailed meter for your device's charge, check out ChargeBar for Android. This app puts a small bar along top or bottom of your screen that indicates the percentage charge of your device. It's easy to use and customize, read on to learn about it.

Step 1: Download and install ChargeBarChargeBar - MIUI Battery Bar.

Step 2: Run the app and examine … Read more