Lithium-ion phosphate battery power smartphones to electric racing cars
Battery-boosting technology breakthrough grows on trees – literally
Battery technology has stubbornly resisted major breakthoughs, but a team of researchers at the University of Maryland has found help from a most unlikely source: pine trees.
In a paper published in the American Chemical Society’s Nano News, the team describes an experiment they conducted which solves a number of the challenges that have prevented battery designers from substituting cheap, abundant sodium for more expensive, rarer lithium batteries.
Lithium, as anyone who has been following battery technology for the past decade or so, is the basis for the lithium-ion, lithium-polymer, lithium-sulphide, and lithium ion phosphate batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric racing cars.
Sodium and lithium are both quite capable of becoming positively charged ions by dumping an electron, which makes them both prime candidates for battery usage, since a HP Hstnn-db42 Battery works by moving ions between an anode and a cathode.
One problem, however: a sodium atom is a big ol’ sucker, having an atomic weight of 22.99 compared to lithium’s svelte 6.94. When a sodium ion slams into those electrodes it can do some serious damage – well, serious when compared with a lithium ion.
This damage shortens the number of times a sodium-ion battery can be recharged, making it less economical – which is too bad, seeing as how there’s so much cheap, easily available sodium in nature.
To the rescue come the researchers and their paper, “Tin Anode for Sodium-Ion Batteries Using Natural Wood Fiber as a Mechanical Buffer and Electrolyte Reservoir”. Their brainstorm was to take cellulose fibers from a yellow pine tree, coat them first in carbon nanotubes to improve conductivity and then a tin film – tin being the anode material of choice for both lithium and sodium ion Inspiron N5010 Batteries.
Not only did the yellow-pine cellulose fiber absorb much of the shock caused by the heavy sodium ions slamming into the tin, it also served as a fine receptacle for the necessary electrolytes. Or, as the researchers put it in fine scientific prose:
The soft nature of wood fibers effectively releases the mechanical stresses associated with the sodiation process, and the mesoporous structure functions as an electrolyte reservoir that allows for ion transport through the outer and inner surface of the fiber.
The team’s woodworking skills resulted in a battery that performed reasonably well for a first-try prototype, dropping from its initial capacity of 339 milliamp hours per gram to 145 mAH/g after 400 rechargings. A little tuning, and it’s well-nigh inevitable that its performance will increase.
But don’t think that you’ll soon be slipping slivers of pine into your smartphone or laptop. As the teams writes in the abstract to their paper, the goal of their research is to produce “low cost grid scale storage” – meaning batteries that can, for example, feed a power grid at night after photovoltaics have charged them during the day, or do the same when their electricity-producing wind generator is becalmed. And don’t worry about deforestation – a single yellow pine can provide enough cellulosic material for plenty of sodium-ion batteries.
Flexible Battery Shape for Future Electronic Devices
An Apple patent application published yesterday by the United States Patent and Trademark office details the creation of a flexible battery shape, suggesting that the company is exploring solutions for future products that may take on a unique shape, such as the rumored iWatch.
The patent, which was filed in December of 2011, covers a flexible battery pack that consists of several different cells connected through a laminate layer, designed to “allow the battery to be shaped to fit a form factor of the electronic device.”
Electronic devices are ubiquitous in society and can be found in everything from portable cell phones to wristwatches. Many of these electronic devices require some type of portable power source. Many of these electronic devices also have unique form factors. Because of this, the portable power source of any one electronic device may not fit within any other electronic device.
Furthermore, these unique form factors often require flexible battery arrangements, whereas conventional battery packs are often too rigid to flexibly conform to these form factors. For example, lithium-ion batteries, such as lithium polymer battery cells, are quite rigid and bending them repeatedly may cause damage to the battery cells and battery failure. As a result of attempting to accommodate inflexible battery packs, the packaging of portable electronic devices may not be optimally sized.
Apple’s patent also suggests that a flexible battery pack could have certain cells removed to incorporate thermoelectric coolers, flashes, or a camera, allowing the Apple A1322 Battery to fit more snugly into a small space. The company points out that an isolated flexible cell arrangement increases device reliability as well, preventing multiple connected cells from failing at once due to environmental factors like moisture or dust.
According to Apple, its flexible battery solution could be used in a number of digital devices, including “wristwatches, calculators, laptop computers, tablet PCs, and/or music players.”
A patent application published in March and a job listing in April suggested that Apple was researching iPhones constructed with flexible wraparound displays, and such designs would likely incorporate the flexible battery detailed in yesterday’s patent.
Apple’s much rumored “iWatch” could also take advantage of a flexible battery, as a February patent revealed that the company was experimenting with a potential wraparound touch-sensitive display.
In recent weeks, Apple has filed for a number of trademarks on the iWatch name around the world. According to rumors, Apple has 100 product designers working on the watch, which is likely to launch in 2014.
What does the advertised Acer as07b51 laptop battery life mean to you
Acer Aspire 6930 Notebook provides an excellent all-around multimedia experience for the movie buff, music fan, or gamer. Granted, a full 1080p display would be the optimal resolution for a system with an integrated Blu-ray drive.
Although most desktop replacements with discrete graphics don’t make it past the 3-hour mark, the Acer aspire 6930G laptop lasted 3 hours and 33 minutes on a charge, which was nearly one hour longer than the category average. Wireless throughput from Intel’s 802.11a/g/n radio was good at 15 feet from our router (20.0 Mbps) and at 50 feet (18.2 Mbps).
What does the advertised laptop battery life mean to you
Laptop users know that you cannot get the same battery life as advertised. Does this mean that the MobileMark scores are useless? It does not needed to be. It is still useful data when you use it right. Here are some examples where the score is useful.
- Compare battery life performance between laptops
As MobileMark 2007 defines test procedure well, you can expect reasonably fair comparison between laptop models even they are from different vendors.
For different kind of workloads, absolute Acer as07b51 laptop battery life will vary, but the laptop with better MobileMark 2007 score usually do better with other workloads, too.
- To determine how well your laptop is power managed
You can compare your Acer aspire laptop’s battery life to the advertised battery life to find out how well your laptop is power managed. You probably do not want to run Mobile Mark 2007 on your laptop (it costs $750!), but by:
- Disable WiFi
- Disable screen saver
- Set display brightness to the lowest brightness and disable all battery power saving timers
- Leave your laptop idle until the battery drains
Your Acer laptop should be able to stay on for more than the advertised battery life (because of less activity than MobileMark 2007 and lower backlight brightness). Nevertheless, many laptops drain battery in (much) shorter time. If this is the case for you, your Acer notebookis not optimally configured and/or unwanted programs are draining your Acer as10d31 notebook battery in the background. This means that there are many things you can do to improve the battery life.
Windows 8 Ultrabooks Battery Life vs. 2013 MacBook Air
2013 Apple MacBook Air beats the last Air and every Windows Ultrabook by a mile when it comes to endurance. Thanks to Intel’s new 4th generation Core (Haswell) processor and a beefier battery on the inside, the new Air doesn’t need an extended battery or slice to last all day on a charge. And we mean all day laptop battery life.
To test the new 2013 MacBook Air’s staying battery power we ran the Laptop Battery Life Test, which uses a script to continuously surf more than 25 popular websites on 40 percent brightness. On this test, the Air lasted an epic 11 hours and 40 minutes. This runtime is just 20 minutes short of Apple’s lofty claim, nearly 6 hours longer than the ultraportable category average (6:02) and close to 4 hours longer than the last Air (8:02).
Among five 13-inch notebooks we’ve tested recently running Windows 8, none of them surpassed 8 hours life with their standard laptop batteries. In fact, when we tested the MacBook Air on 100 percent brightness, its 6.5 hours of battery life beat the Dell XPS 13 (5:50) and Acer Aspire S7 (4:10) with their standard batteries. And while we expect these and other laptops to improve once they’re upgraded to Intel’s latest Haswell chip, the first 4th gen Core Windows laptop also trails the Air by a wide margin.
The closest competitor to the 13-inch Air right now is the Sony VAIO Pro 13, which also uses Intel’s Haswell CPU. To be fair, the Air packs a 1.3-GHz Intel Haswell Core i5 ULT processor, compared to a faster 1.8-GHz Core i7-4500U CPU inside the Sony we tested. On the Laptop Battery Test, the Pro 13 lasted 7 hours and 20 minutes, which is fairly good endurance when you consider that this notebook also features a touch screen.
Adding a sheet battery extends that runtime to a whopping 14.5 hours, but it also adds to the system’s weight and $150 to the price. The Acer Aspire S7 offers a similarly awkward and pricey external battery that boosts that notebook’s endurance, but we’d rather get great Acer As07b71 Laptop Battery life without spending extra money or bloating the design.
The bottom line is that if you’re going to carry a 3-pound laptop, you should be able to leave the charger behind and not even think about it. The new MacBook Air lets you do just that, and the Windows camp now has to play catch-up.
Troubleshooting Dell inspiron 1545 laptop not charge new battery issue
Dell inspiron 1545 laptop works with power adapter, but won’t charge the new laptop battery
Question: My Dell Inspiron 1545 works fine with or without the ac adapter plugged in if the battery is charged. The laptop will not charge the battery, however. I can charge the battery with another charger, reinstall it, and the laptop works until the notebook battery is depleted. There appears to be something in the BIOS that is keeping the charging current from going to the battery.
The Dell Inspiron 1525 Laptop AC Adapter powers up and operates the computer very well. Even with the laptop shut off and the adapter plugged in it will not charge the battery. The charging circuit is not working in the laptop. There appear to be two options; (1) there an electrical problem in the charging circuit that prevents it from charging the battery, or (2) there is something in the software controlling the charging circuit that is preventing charging. If we assume the software is preventing charging it could be because the software is corrupted or because it was designed to discriminate between batteries and it does not like the battery connected.
I have tried two different batteries, both of which will charge up to full capacity with an external laptop charger, as indicated by the laptop battery test, and each will operate the laptop until they run down.
Has anyone experienced this problem before?
Answer: If you use your laptop with just the ac adapter, without the battery, is it working? If it is, the problem is the charging circuit on the motherboard, that has nothing to do with the BIOS. If it is not, test the laptop charger if it is working and check where it plug in the laptop is the socket is not loose.
Apple MacBook Air 2013 beats Ultrabook in Laptop Battery Life Tests
Thanks to Intel’s new 4th generation Core (Haswell) processor and a beefier laptop battery on the inside, the new Air doesn’t need an extended life battery or slice to last all day on a charge.
To test the new 2013 MacBook Air’s staying power we ran the LAPTOP Battery Test, which uses a script to continuously surf more than 25 popular websites on 40 percent brightness. On this test, the Air lasted an epic 11 hours and 40 minutes. This runtime is just 20 minutes short of Apple’s lofty claim, nearly 6 hours longer than the ultraportable category average (6:02) and close to 4 hours longer than the last Air (8:02).
Among five 13-inch notebooks we’ve tested recently running Windows 8, none of them surpassed 8 hours with their standard Dell inspiron 1520 laptop batteries. In fact, when we tested the MacBook Air on 100 percent brightness, its 6.5 hours of battery life beat the Dell XPS 13 (5:50) and Acer Aspire S7 (4:10) with their standard batteries. And while we expect these and other laptops to improve once they’re upgraded to Intel’s latest Haswell chip, the first 4th gen Core Windows laptop also trails the Air by a wide margin.
The closest competitor to the 13-inch Air right now is the Sony VAIO Pro 13, which also uses Intel’s Haswell CPU. To be fair, the Air packs a 1.3-GHz Intel Haswell Core i5 ULT processor, compared to a faster 1.8-GHz Core i7-4500U CPU inside the Sony we tested. On the Laptop Battery Life Test, the Pro 13 lasted 7 hours and 20 minutes, which is fairly good endurance when you consider that this notebook also features a touch screen.
Adding a sheet battery extends that runtime to a whopping 14.5 hours, but it also adds to the system’s weight and $150 to the price. The Acer Aspire S7 offers a similarly awkward and pricey external battery that boosts that notebook’s endurance, but we’d rather get great Toshiba PA3399U-2BAS Battery life without spending extra money or bloating the design.
The bottom line is that if you’re going to carry a 3-pound laptop, you should be able to leave the charger behind and not even think about it. The new MacBook Air lets you do just that, and the Windows camp now has to play catch-up.
How to get more laptop battery life out of Asus F3 notebook
With that much running time you can easily “say no to power cords” – leave your power cord at home and use your notebook for a whole day of lectures and tutorials without having to worry about finding an outlet to charge up between classes. Today battaussie.com laptop battery expert share a few easy tips to maximize your Asus a32-f3 laptop battery life:
1. Dim the screen
This is the biggie. Even with energy-efficient LED backlighting on every ASUS laptop, your notebook’s screen still sucks TONS of energy even though most of the time you don’t really need your notebook at full brightness. So if you’re in a dim lecture hall or studying late at night, dim your screen to 50% or even 30% for massive energy savings.
2. Turn off Wi-fi
Your notebook has a hard-switch for wi-fi for a reason! Your wireless antenna is constantly searching for connections and using up battery. If you’re in lecture and busy taking notes, shutting off your wi-fi is a no brainer. Same thing goes for Bluetooth.
3. Close Background Applications
Have a huge list of open applications on your taskbar? You’re wasting power! Although Windows 7 represents a huge improvement here, those background applications are still using up CPU power. If you’re not using Photoshop anymore or you’re done with PowerPoint for the day, turn it off and reap the Asus A32-f5 Battery power savings.
4. Put it to Sleep
If you have your Asus F3 notebook set to “do nothing” when you close the lid you’re wasting energy! Set your notebook to “sleep” or better yet, “hibernate”, between classes for big power savings. Plus, your notebook won’t heat up in your bag between classes and you won’t have to worry about damaging your hard drive from impacts when moving around since it will be in sleep.
5. Get NVIDIA Optimus
If you’re currently in the hunt for a new Asus notebook you definitely want to get one with NVIDIA Optimus auto-switching technology! What Optimus does is enable you to have not one, but two graphic cards on your laptop computer.
First, an Intel integrated graphics card that saves power and works great for things like word processing and web surfing, second, a powerful NVIDIA graphics card to kick in when you load a game or movie. NVIDIA Optimus switches seamlessly and automatically between the two so you are always using the most efficient card at all times.
HP Pavilion DV3500 Entertainment Notebook Rating and Reviews
I use my HP Pavilion DV3500 Entertainment Laptop primarily as a work machine. Apart from mundane stuff like checking emails, browsing the Internet, playing games and watching movies, I run MATLAB simulations on it and do some programming in C/Ruby. I will also be using it for working on Photoshop and Linux.
Here are some of the things I liked the HP Pavilion DV3500 Entertainment Notebook:
1. Fast. The 64-bit Vista that it comes with performs very fast indeed. The WEI score is 3.4 with the Aero Graphics feature being the lowest-ranked.
2. Light and portable.
3. Great looks (especially, the touch-sensitive buttons which contrast very well with the taupe shade of the laptop).
4. Runs very cool with the fan being almost inaudible.
5. The HP pavilion dv3500 battery life of this laptop (which comes with a 55WHr battery) averages to 2.5 hours with the usage scenario I’ve described above. I think that’s pretty good for a machine of this size.
6. Good quiet full-Qwerty keyboard with comfortable depth and travel.
1. The color of the text on keyboard keys should have been a lighter shade like silver or white. Being black letters on a dark brown background, they’re really really hard to see in low light conditions. Or else, a backlit keyboard like on the dv3510 would be nice.
2. The sound could be louder.
Top laptops worth to buy in 2013
Windows 8 which brings the concept of Touchscreen for the very first time on ultra-portable notebooks and hybrid. Different groups of people have different requirements for laptops. Whenever buying a new laptop, some of the things that people should consider are its size, portable nature, processor speed and laptop battery life. For example, Students always look for something that is powerful and that can run their educational software or other programs. They also desire extremely portable laptops. On the other hand, people in the office or business professionals have totally different requirements and so do programmers or designers. Similarly, Engineers need something that is portable, solid, and rugged with a long all-day laptop battery life because sometimes these laptops have to stay powered on for than 24 hours at a stretch. To help people find the best laptop for their needs, BattAussie.com today have compiled a list of the top 10 best laptops worth to buy in 2013.
10. HP Envy 6 Sleekbook
The HP Envy Sleekbook is best known for its nearly nine hours long notebook battery life which makes it a perfect solution for people who always find themselves on the go and are looking for something that is extremely portable. This laptop packs the AMD- Trinity Processor with an AMD Radeon HD 7500G dedicated Graphics card allowing people to run heavy duty games like COD MW 2 with a very smooth frame rate. It also does well with running other heavy duty tasks such as video and photo editing.
9. Toshiba Satellite L855-148
The Toshiba Satellite L855-148 is powered by Intel’s next generation i7 processors and is a perfect alternative for people who are looking to replicate the high performance of desktop computers. This laptop is one of the most powerful notebooks available in the market today and the AMD Radeon HD 7670M mobile graphics card chipset acts as an icing on the cake allowing people to run high-end games.
8. Asus K55VD
Asus K55VD does not come with a touchscreen nor a powerful processor, but the one thing that places it in on the wish list of every college student is its dedicated graphics card powered by the nVidia GeForce 610M chipset. And Games are not the only thing that this machine can be used for as its standard 4GB RAM can be doubled due to the availability of an extra memory slot.
7. Asus VivoBook S200
Making its way onto the number 7 spot is the Asus VivoBook 200. Be sure that you will not get a better laptop with such great specifications and a fancy touchscreen at such a low price. Windows 8 does not feel better and more responsive on any other laptop and its portable nature and slim and sleek design make it one of the most perfect laptops in the market giving you the best value for your money.
6. HP Envy 14 Spectre
The HP Envy 14 Spectre stands out from the rest of the market particularly because of its stylish and hot design. The laptop has a solid display screen that is 14 inches wide and is capable of showing a high contrast display supporting a resolution of up to 1600 x 900 pixels. The laptop is powered with Intel’s 1.6 Ghz Core i5 processor and has a 4GB RAM making it ideal for students, businessmen and other professionals.
5. Apple Macbook Air
Occupying the number five spot in our Top Ten Best Laptops for 2013 is the Apple Macbook Air. Although the Macbook Air was released way back in 2008, it has continued to stay as a fan favorite probably because of its Apple tag. The laptop is powered by none other than Intel’s core i5 processor with Turbo Boost Technology and a 4GB RAM. The Macbook Air is available in two different models which include the 13.3 inches screen and the 11.6 inches screen. The 11.6 inches model roughly weighs around 2.4 pounds while the 13.3 inch model weighs in at 2.9 pounds making the machines extremely portable and easy to move and carry around.
4. Apple Macbook Pro
The Apple Macbook Pro occupies our number four spot having repeatedly featured in our top ten lists for a number of years. This is one of the most fantastic products from Apple being extremely durable and having all the latest features. It is an extra light and extra thin laptop which comes with a Retina Display and can give a battery timing of up to 7 hours with full charge. The laptop comes with an Intel Core i7 Processor and dedicated graphics card chipset from nVidia.
3. Asus ZenBook Prime
The Asus ZenBook Prime is a long lasting, light, thin and powerful ultra-book machine that very few models in the market can compete with. It features a full HD 1080p display support and was the first laptop of its kind to support such a high resolution on a 13 inch screen. Superb color reproduction and perfect viewing angles powered by an Intel i7 processor and 7 hours of Asus A32-k52 Battery Life make this the most desirable laptop in the market today.
2. Dell XPS 12
If you are looking for an ultimate laptop-tablet hybrid, look no further than the Dell XPS 12. The machine is capable of supporting 1080p resolution and by pushing the screen from behind, the 12.5 inches display screen will spin around to form a tablet. The core i7 processor with 8GB RAM is more than enough to run any task with high speed and performance.
1. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
The second business Ultrabook from Lenovo has proved to be an absolute sensation and integrates the good looks, performance, high battery life and strong performance into one complete and highly desirable package. The design is professional, sleek and slim and the machine has been designed to perform some serious work.
Fujitsu new Haswell-based Lifebook has 11-hour battery life
Fujitsu will launch a super-thin Ultrabook, built on Intel’s latest Haswell processors, with an 11-hour laptop battery life and a screen with nearly three times HD resolution.
The new UH90/L model from its Lifebook line will be the world’s thinnest for a laptop with a hard disk drive, measuring 15.5 mm at its thickest point. It will mark Fujitsu‘s entry into the quickly growing ranks of PCs built around Haswell processors, which boast slightly improved performance along with reduced battery power requirements.
The laptop computer has a 14-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 3,200 x 1,800 pixels, or 2.7 times full HD, with a pixel density of 262 ppi. It is built with Sharp’s IGZO technology, named after the semiconductor on which it is based. The machine will run on a 45 watt-hour lithium polymer battery.
Fujitsu said it will target the gaming market with the Windows-based Ultrabook, teaming with Square Enix, makers of the Final Fantasy series, for promotions. The laptop will come in red and black.
The laptop will go on sale from June 28, sold in a basic model with a 500GB hybrid hard drive and 4GB of RAM as well as upgrades that have solid state drives. Prices were not disclosed, although Japanese press reported the laptop has an estimated market price of $1,900 domestically.
Fujitsu joins a growing group of companies, including Dell, Asus and Acer, that have announced computers built on Intel’s fourth-generation Core processor, called Haswell. Intel has said that the notebook versions of the chips don’t improve over the performance of the previous generation by that much, but do offer 50 percent more Fujitsu lifebook s6210 battery life. The increased battery life may help laptops better compete with the growing tablet market.
Fujitsu also announced several upgrades to its other laptops and a new desktop that is built into the screen and has an internal sub-woofer.