The key differences between the iPad 2 and iPad 3 back panels include very different mounts for the logic board, which implies a major change in the shape of the logic board in the next-gen iPad. This change gives more space for a larger battery, which falls in line with rumors that the iPad 3 would offer greater battery life.

The back panel also reveals that the camera on the iPad 3 will be mounted at a new location, implying that there may be some tweaks to the camera as well. The mounting for the LCD is also modified suggesting a new display. The iPad 3 is rumored to sport a new high-res Retina Display.

[via AppleInsider]

I’m not really sure where to start here because the new RAZR MAXX is exactly the same as the original DROID RAZR we reviewed back in November (links below), except for the bigger battery as I mention a few times in our hands-on video below. It features the same impressively thin design — although no longer RAZR thin. It boasts a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 8MP camera, 32GB of storage and that crisp 4.3″ qHD 960 x 540 AMOLED display. So what gives? a 3,300 mAh battery that is almost twice the size as the original, and about 2mm of extra fat included.

Now I don’t want to rant here but following up one of their biggest handsets (with the powerful name to go along with it) with an equally impressive, near identical phone yet almost double the battery life all for the same price — that is a crazy move. I understand giving users a great 4G LTE experience but what about the hundreds of thousands that bought the original just 2 months ago, or even last week? Our own Chris Burns wrote a nice column about this same subject and thinks this is a slap in consumers faces — and I’d have to agree.

Not everything is bad here though. The Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX is also extremely good for the community and smartphone atmosphere as a whole. This has pushed the boundaries far higher than any other phone has thus far. Showing consumers that yes, we can fit these huge batteries inside our phones and make them last more than half a day. Others like Samsung and HTC will now have to combat this with something similar. I’m hoping we start to see 2,000 mAh+ batteries as a standard moving forward.

Moving on. This should be an excellent phone, building on everything the original has going for it except the MAXX will last twice as long. Sounds like a deal to me. Verizon has been stating this new phone will last longer than any 4G LTE smartphone on the planet, and I’m pretty sure that will be an accurate assessment. They’ve claimed well over 20 hours of usage with ease on all America’s fastest and biggest 4G LTE network.

With a sleek design, amazing battery life, blazing fast speeds, and Kevlar coating on the back for extreme durability this is about as good as it gets. Sadly it comes out of the box with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread but Motorola’s made it clear that 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich should be here soon.

For now check out the hands-on video below of the new RAZR MAXX by Motorola and expect a mini review coming soon with full battery rundown tests and more.

Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX hands-on

The boostpac quick shot is a smaller rectangular battery that has 1200mAh of power. It has a 5V DC output and measures 2″ x 1.4″ x 1″. The circle on the front indicates how much power is left inside the battery pack. It will work with just about any smartphone and has a connector for the iPhone. If you want a charger for your desktop, the eclipse is for you.

This battery pack has a 1500mAh rechargeable battery inside, and it is made to sit on a desk like a docking station. It has a USB port on the side for connecting to other smartphones and devices. The output is a 5V DC and the eclipse ships with a USB to micro USB cable. The battery pack measures 2.7″ x 2″ x 0.9″ and has a flip-up top that hides an integrated iPhone charge connector. Pricing and availability are unknown.

This type of technology doesn’t come cheap, as you can see, but what we’re getting here is more than just a simple bit of science fiction made real. The Powertrekk actually takes the hydrogen in water and turns it into electricity with myFC’s “FuelCellSticker” technology. The group myFC is a fuel cell technology company that specializes in solutions for powering portable electronics, and will certainly be a team to watch in the coming years for mobile devices. The device works by converting hydrogen into electricity with a Proton Exchange Membrane by the name of PEMFC – the PEMFC sits between a cathode and an anode, the latter reacting with the water and the hydrogen gas separating into protons and electrons. The membrane has the protons conducted to the cathode while the electrons move along a circuit and – poof! Electrical current charges your device.

The “Powerpukk” fuel pack (the $12 bit here) will eventually wear out because of this process, but is 100% recycle friendly so you can keep that smile green! The battery that’s charged is able to move a current of 1500mAh over an hour and will work fine connected to your mobile device just so long as it’s got compatible charging requirements. For example an iPhone will work, but a tablet of most any size will not work. We’ll be looking to test this device out in the coming months – get wet!

[via Electronic Products]

Quality

This bag is as nice as the TUMI bag I’d otherwise be toting, and has a discreet enough look that it could very well pass for any of the highest class packs on the market. At $179.99 it certainly better look nice, and with its built-in ability to hold embroidery, it’s all the better. What you’re seeing here is, on the left, Powerbag’s own example bag with embroidering, then on the right, our bag with stitching done by our own source. The quality is there, and it’s definitely done nothing but favors by the build of the bag.

Compartments

There are so many pockets on this bag that, if you’ve got more devices, books, writing utensils, and snacks than I did this week, I’ll simply suggest you carry less. This week I fit in 5 smartphones, three granola bars, three gatorades, a Lumix GF1 camera, several lenses, a monopod, camera lamp, MacBook cord (the long one), charging cords for three more USB devices, business cards box, MacBook Pro 15-inch, and MacBook Air 11-inch. All of this fits in this pack with room to spare. There’s even a little tiny pocket right at the top so you can put pocket change or, in my case, a pillbox sort of container where I store all my SD cards for the camera.

Battery

The battery hasn’t failed me yet. There’s nothing too fantastically magic about it, that making it all the more brilliant: one 6000 mAh battery you snap in to the plastic (covered up when not switching) compartment which then has a few built-in cords and a USB port for charging whatever else you want. You’ll be able to charge your iPhone/iPad and microUSB device at the same time, or instead of your microUSB device you can use the other end of the built-in cord to charge a mini-USB device. Made primarily for smartphones, certainly not for laptops, but nice to have!

Wrap-Up

The back flap where you’ve got the main bit folding down and another flat compartment in the back of that allows you to get through the airport in no time flat – I know, I guarantee it because I’ve done it, and the whole pack is made for not only travel, but day-to-day activities as well. The battery makes this bag not the lightest pack in the world, but having it is worth the added tiny bit of bulk. This bag is available at mypowerbag.com for the cool price of, again, $179.99, and if you order today, if I’m not mistaken, you get ground shipping free! Neato!

NOTICE also that this bag was given to your humble narrator to review, and a bunch more people at CES 2012 were given the same or similar bags to take a peek at as well. The deal was that we’d get the bag in exchange for heading down to the powerbag stand to get the battery – and it was well worth it. Friendly folks all around and the bag is, legitimately, pretty darn nice.

These batteries are able to power up your MacBook, your iPad, your iPhone, and whatever other USB-powered devices you’ve got on hand. They’re made specifically for every different Apple mobile product under the sun, again moving in a way so very similar to the design language of the Mac that they’re using the same white font for the device itself. This name in batteries has been around long enough to be winning awards for best-in-show back in 2010, and with “military grade” lithium ion batteries on the inside with 1,000 charges in the barrel and a built-in short circuit, temperature, and overcharging set of protections, why not?

Inside each box you’re going to get the battery itself, a 12-15V DC auto/airline adapter to connect to Apple’s unit, and an AC power supply 100-240V to charge the battery itself. You get some printed documentation as well, and the only drawback here seems to be that you’ll need your own MacBook MagSafe cord to actually connect to your MacBook – but you’ve got that, right? Of course you do! All four HyperJuice external batteries are currently available straight from their site for between $169.95 and $449.95 – buy em up!

What sets the 3M MP220 apart from the rest isn’t that its fully portable and battery powered, or that it offers 2 hours of battery life. What’s important is they’ve managed to offer an impressive 50 lumens of brightness AND 2 hours of battery life in one compact and portable package. We recently reviewed the AAXA P4 that offered 80 lumens of brightness, and it was impressive but only lasts 70 minutes if you’re lucky.

The 3M MP220 has all the features we’ve come to expect from our pico projectors too. Offering 2GB of internal storage with option micro-SD for expanded storage, micro-USB, and plenty of AV and VGA inputs. Projecting all that across a 65″ screen and a WSVGA (1024 x 600) native resolution. The MP220 also comes equipped with stereo speakers, and a 50 lumen engine that lasts up to 20,000 hours all weighing under a pound.

Like we said above, it might not be the brightest or the smallest — but offering portability, quality, brightness, and that all important battery life all-in-one is the key difference here. The LED-lit navigation buttons were a nice edition as I’ve used a few in the past and trying to find the right button in the dark can be a challenge. The only con from my initial impressions is the lack of HDMI options — a feature many pico’s have been missing.

The 3M MP220 Mobile Pico Projector is slated for a late April launch and will come to market priced around the $479 mark. Expect a full SlashGear review soon!

Announced late last year many still haven’t seen or heard of such a device so we figured a few quick photos would give you a good idea of what to expect. This pocket projector is basically an iPhone 4/4S battery-equipped case featuring TI’s DLP Pico projector technology. It will extend the battery life almost double offering a 2,100 mAh battery, and also doubles as a case — just a bit fat and not very ergonomic.

The Brookstone projector case/sleeve only outputs around 15 lumens but being able to project an image up to 50″ in size is quite impressive for its size. 15 lumens might not be as bright as many pico projectors but they aren’t attached to a smartphone either. The projector isn’t anything professional but for the quick video playback or low-key presentation this would be perfect. In real world situations the built-in battery should give you more than double the battery life — but while projecting pictures and movies you’ll have around 3 hours to work with.

Just recently launched by Brookstone this can be yours for the low low price of $229 by clicking here.

The original RAZR that has only been available a few months is about to get replaced. Sound familiar Bionic/Droid 3 users? The RAZR comes in at 7.1mm thin while being powered by a 1,780 mAh battery. The new RAZR MAXX offers hours and hours of heavy usage with the largest battery of any recent smartphone — coming in at 3,300 mAh. Motorola has managed to keep the size down to keep the RAZR name and the new MAXX is only 8.9mm thick.

MAXX top, RAZR bottom

All the specs are exactly the same with the new MAXX other than the thickness but I’m sure most wont complain as it still holds its own against most current offerings from Moto’s competitors. The specs include the same 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 4.3″ qHD 960 x 540 resolution, Android 2.3 Gingerbread (ICS coming soon) 1GB of RAM and that 8 megapixel camera around back. Once more nothing has changed other than it gaining a few pounds and getting that huge 3,300 mAh battery.

Motorola has confirmed this will NOT replace the current RAZR and only be an additional option for the business or power user that demands more than all day battery life. The RAZR and new MAXX will be available in white, black, and purple in the coming weeks. No official date was given. Enjoy the hands-on video below.

Usually, solar panels charge solely off of outdoor sunlight, but the advanced solar technology built into this cover will charge your battery indoors as well. The cover is available with or without the solar charging option – but without the solar capabilities, this cover is just like many others. It’s only an extra $20 for the solar option, so it will be money well spent.

They claim it will triple your reading time, and could even supply up to 3 months or more of reading time on a single charge. Support for more tablets will be key for SolarFocus. I know some Android tablets that could sure use a boost in battery life, so this technology may benefit them even more.

The 7.9 x 4.7 x 0.72 inch case holds the Kindle in place using foam inserts, and controls are limited to a single power button. An LED indicator shows battery status – either red, amber or green – and an hour of direct sunlight is apparently good enough for three days of ereading.

As for the LED light, that’s an 800 lux lamp for bedtime or airplane reading, pivoting out of the top section of the case and illuminating the non-backlit epaper display. A pass-through USB port recharges both the Kindle and the case.

It’s available for order now, priced at $79.99.

The 3D item you’re seeing in the main image here is for Final Cut Pro’s Motion Module, this relating to 3D camera direction in a simulated space. You may have seen such effects in videos made by Vincent a few weeks ago in the utterly fancy intro to his own reviews. We’ve seen similar things in apps with more money and power under the hood – might be time to rethink such features, eh devs? Don’t want the mighty Apple coming down on you with a crushing law blow.

Then there’s the omnipotent MagSafe – not the original one that broke all the time, the second one – the sweet one I’ve got plugged into this MacBook Pro right this second. Finally Apple can say they own it, legally, and with a whole lot less exposed wires, too. As far as hardware goes beyond that, they added the Apple Thunderbolt Display to their repertoire, the iMac from seasons past, and a laundry list of smaller items, such as, believe it or not, the iOS calculator icon. Fun stuff!

[via Patently Apple]

The good news for Fisker is that the issue with battery pack supplied to it by A123 Systems Inc was discovered when only 50 vehicles had been produced with the flaw. A123 also supplied batteries to GM and Daimler AG, there is no word on if the same flaw might have something to do with the battery issues on the Volt. According to A123, the issue is with a misaligned hose clamp that is part of the battery pack internal cooling system.

The misaligned clamp has the potential to cause a leak, and the leak could cause a short leading to a fire. The fires in the Volt test vehicles have been potentially linked to leaking coolant that causes a short leading to overheating and the potential for fire. A123 has a fix in place and the 50 Karma vehicles that are affected are being fixed.

[via Business Week]

AppleInsider discovered the two patent applications this week titled “Fuel Cell Systems to Power a Portable Computing Device” and “Fuel Cell System Coupled to a Portable Computing Device.” The filings talk about the increasing awareness and desire for renewable energy sources among consumers and also states that the use of hydrogen fuel cells could power a device like a MacBook “for days or even weeks” before having to refuel.

However, developing a cost-effective hydrogen fuel cell system that’s portable will be a challenge. Apple’s solution involves a system that can both provide and receive power from a rechargeable battery in a device like a notebook so that it eliminates the need for a bulky and heavy battery within the system.

In fact, you get 250 mAh more than the regular Galaxy Nexus LTE battery – itself 100 mAh bigger than what’s supplied with the slimmer HSPA+ version – though given how power-hungry 4G is we’ll take anything we’re given. We’ll have feedback on exactly how much extra runtime the extended Galaxy Nexus battery grants after some testing, but the good news is that we’ve found it actually makes for a slightly more comfortable phone in the hand thanks to the extended rear cover. Unfortunately it won’t fit into the battery compartment in the HSPA+ Nexus.

Verizon Galaxy Nexus official accessories:

Since we now have two batteries, we also grabbed the Battery Charger with Stand ($39.99), a compact plastic sled that allows you to charge a battery without having to actually slot it into your phone. A notch allows you to prop up the Galaxy Nexus for easy viewing on your desk – in either portrait or landscape orientation – and there’s a useful Y-adapter that means you can power both your phone and the Battery Charger with Stand from the one AC adapter.

Finally, we grabbed the Anti-Glare Screen Protectors ($14.99 for a pack of three), a matte-finish adhesive screen cover that not only helps avoid scratches to the fortified glass front of the Galaxy Nexus. As with all screen protectors they require a reasonably steady, careful hand to apply if you don’t want bubbles trapped underneath, but they certainly make a difference for outdoor usability. More details in the video above, and check out our full Verizon Galaxy Nexus LTE hands-on for more on the smartphone itself.

I had to wait, and wait, and wait for that delivery man to bring the ThunderBolt to my then ghetto-situated apartment building, and when he did get there, he went to the door without a ringer on it. Because this delivery man, again rogue, mind you, saw such a situation, he did not look at the rest of the doors, all of which had ringers, and instead pasted a “better luck next time” sticky to the door. Thus is my situation now with the Galaxy Nexus, and the way I feel now about this situation should very well be the same feeling Google has for Verizon now that they’ve started a fire in the hearts of Android fans across the United States.

Though I’ve literally just written an article by the name of “I have no need for a tablet” yesterday which expressed my lack of must-have feelings for the large screen devices, I must say that the need is there for this device. The need is not mine though, it’s Google’s. Dear Google developers: you are currently in a situation where your user base has seen a very large preview of what they could potentially have in a device, Ice Cream Sandwich on the Galaxy Nexus, yet inside the USA they do not have the ability to trade money to attain it.

When this device is released, I will own it. It’s part of my job to own an Android device with version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on it, and the best place to do this is with a Verizon-connected Galaxy Nexus. I can’t deny that. But let me ask you users out there who aren’t publishers like I am: after such a long set of weeks of leaks, teasers, and notes that literally say that the devices are in the stores but aren’t for sale yet, will you still be going out to purchase a Galaxy Nexus?

[Image via Android Central]

Hardware

Batteries are seldom aesthetically pleasing, and Duracell has opted for subtle rather than trying to make its portable rechargeable stand out. A black 4.0 x 2.25 x 0.75 inch box, Duracell offers a number of different wall plug adapters (such as UK and European plugs) that snap onto the back but can be removed – and the port covered with a blanking plate – for easier transportation. Of course, if you leave the plug section at home, you can’t then rejuice the charger itself later on.

On the front there’s a battery-shaped button with three green LEDs, showing charge status. Press it, and they briefly show how much power is left. Along the edge are two USB ports, allowing the Duracell to power two devices simultaneously. High-current USB devices – over 1A, Duracell says – should only be used one at a time.

Inside there’s a 1,800 mAh lithium-ion battery good, Duracell reckons, for another five hours of talktime on your smartphone. A full recharge of the portable charger itself took us less than two hours.

Performance

The Duracell’s usefulness depends greatly on what sort of gadgets you want to use it with. We were able to partly recharge a Galaxy Nexus – the HSPA+ model with a 1,750 mAh battery – to 70-80 percent, certainly enough to take us through into the following day if used for the overnight charge.

However, a more demanding device, such as a tablet, presents more of a challenge. We plugged in an iPad and the Duracell managed to get the slate to 11-percent before it ceased recharging. It’s worth noting that the portable charger itself still had some juice left at that point – we topped off the Galaxy Nexus by 12-percent before the Duracell was actually flat – simply not enough to make any difference to the iPad.

Wrap-Up

With a £39.99 including tax RRP ($63) in the UK, the Duracell 5 Hour Portable Charger is a tough sell. Thanks to a street price closer to £25 ($39) it’s a more realistic accessory, and could be a good stocking-filler for the gadget hound in your home or office this holiday season.

Of course, Duracell isn’t the first to offer a portable charger, and it’s worth noting that other manufacturers offer bigger batteries – some as much as 7,000 mAh – for a similar price. The compromise is generally on physical size: the bigger the battery, the bigger the device you’ll have to accommodate.

Smartphone owners frustrated by underwhelming talktime will likely find plenty of affordable appeal in the Duracell. Those with a broader range of gadgets, like power-hungry tablets, should probably opt for a bigger model or simply taking the AC adapter with them.

The NYT reports that GM CEO Daniel F. Akerson has said that if an owner of a Volt is worried about the risk of fire that the automaker would buy the Volt back. The move is not common, a major safety issue will result in the cars being recalled and fixes applied typically. The Volt is an important car for GMs image so it is pulling out all of the stops. GM had previously offered to loan the Volt owner another GM model until the investigation into the fires was over.

It’s not clear what the buyback terms would be. On the surface, this sounds like a good deal for worried Volt drivers. More details would be needed on the buyback offer to figure out if it is a good thing. GM has also said that there is a procedure for powering the battery packs down after an accident that wasn’t followed in the crash test fires. The automaker also notes that emergency personnel at the scene of an accident also need to follow some procedures to prevent fire.

[via NYTimes]

The fire sparked an investigation into the Volt and other EVs made by major automakers. So far, the investigation into the battery packs of the Volt has required three more Volt vehicles be subjected to crash testing. The NHSTA crash testing intentionally damaged the battery packs by rupturing the cooling line.

In the first test, there was no fire, but a temporary temperature increase was noted the day after the accident. The second test battery pack was monitored and caught fire 7-days after the accident. The third vehicle crash tested began to spark and smoke within hours of the test. All of the test vehicles were subjected to an impact of a narrow vertical object and then rotated to simulate the vehicle hitting a pole and rolling over. The investigation is ongoing. The first Volts were delivered roughly a year ago to dealers.

[via CarAdvice]

The Finnish company insists that most Lumia 800 owners are having no power problems whatsoever, but concedes that there are a few problem handsets out there. A first software update, expected in early December, will “include improvements to power efficiency” therefore, with a subsequent update planned for early January 2012 “introduces further enhancements to battery life and battery charging.”

Both of the new software versions will be released via Microsoft’s Zune app; the company also flags up an FAQ for maximizing runtimes. That has provoked frustration in itself, with suggestions like “deactivate the 3G connection” incensing owners who say they shouldn’t have to fiddle with network settings in order to squeeze a full day’s use out of one charge.

More on the Nokia Lumia 800 in our full review.

“We understand that some people have expressed concerns about battery life on the Nokia Lumia 800.  Early investigations show that the majority of people are enjoying the full Nokia Lumia experience without any problems.  A software update in early December will include improvements to power efficiency, while a second update in early January introduces further enhancements to battery life and battery charging.  Both are planned updates and will be made available via Zune.  We recommend that anyone who still has concerns contact local Nokia care representatives at their earliest convenience” Nokia statement

[via The Next Web]

Facial Recognition and Pattern Unlock

As you may remember from our first encounter with the Galaxy Nexus back in Hong Kong, the Android authorities showed off their newest method for unlocking a device, namely Facial Recognition. What we’ve found thus far is that not only is this recognizing of the face (once you’ve got it set up for the first time) extremely quick, it no longer seems to have the ability to be broken into with a mere photo of the person trying to do the unlock. We heard a story or two about early Ice Cream Sandwich builds being able to be unlocked by a 3rd party if they had a photo of the person who originally set up the lock, but this seems to be fixed.

Recognition seems to be both quick and accurate, and furthermore doesn’t seem to rely on a full face to work. As you’ll see Vince attempt in the video, putting your hand over your face up to your nose seems to unlock the screen just as readily as having your entire face revealed. As for the other unlock sequences, the pin code unlock remains largely the same while the pattern unlock now has much more classy sized set of dots so that your unlock screen wallpaper can be seen while you make a combination of swipes to get into your device (image at the head of this post.)

Notifications Pulldown Menu

When you pull down from the top of your display with your finger, for those of you not familiar with Android, your notifications screen comes down. Here your notifications screen is black with cyan accents by default, and each notification from any number of apps can be dismissed by sliding that notification off of the screen. Each notification is represented by a thumbnail image on the left, a title to the right in bold lettering, and a lighter font below the title as an extra descriptor.

Battery Life

Your battery can be tracked, just as it could in Gingerbread and Honeycomb, from your settings with a chart that shows in a slightly general chart of what’s been active and using up your battery at what times during the space between when your phone was last off and now or when your device was last turned all the way off. As Vince will show in the video, he’s had the device on a LOT while he’s been testing it, and if you’re the type of person to use your device all day long, you’re looking at something like seven to eight full hours from what we’re seeing so far.

Camera

The Galaxy Nexus has a 5 megapixel camera that Google is promoting as having zero shutter lag – this essentially means that we should be able to take photos as fast as we can tap the display – on this device we only have the choice of tapping the display, mind you, since there is no physical camera button. In the video you’ll see that as Vince taps the display, there isn’t a shutter noise, there’s a *tink* noise that lets you know you’ve fired off a shot. You’ll hear Vince firing off shots indeed just as fast as he taps. You’ll see the shots he’s taken in the gallery below – judge for yourself how nice they look, and note that Vince is in basically an ideal lighting situation with several photo-quality lamps shining down on his collection of Android toys on a white background.

Image stabilization does not seem to be up to par here, not with the iPhone 4S as Vince notes, and believe it or not, not with Samsung’s other hero device Galaxy S II’s camera either.

GPU Rendering

Starting in Ice Cream Sandiwch, Android will be working with any hardware its on to utilize the GPU cores inside the hardware’s processor. While before now games and other graphics-intensive apps have been able to access GPU power via APIs, now any application developed against the Android 4.0 SDK (API Level 14) will automatically get a very real performance boost. Visual elements in apps developed for Ice Cream Sandwich will be routed through the GPU by default, this both freeing up the CPU cores in the device to do tasks better suited to CPUs, the visual bits will run much more efficiently because they’re routed through the GPU.

You can turn this option off, effectively, by heading to your Settings, then to your Developers options, then scrolling down and tapping the “Force GPU Rendering” option. Though why you’d want to do that, I do not know, because with this option ON, all of your apps will run more efficiently.

Recent Apps

Similar to what we saw in the tablet-based version of Android version 3.0 Honeycomb, we have the option of accessing a list of Recent Apps. These apps appear with an icon representation, the title of the App, and a thumbnail sort of screenshot of the last time the app was open. What Vince will show you in the video is how simple it can be with one of the options to remove any app from the list. Another option you have is to push or pull each app from the list the same way you can with a notification in your pull-down notifications menu.

Fun stuff! Stay tuned to SlashGear for the rest of our hands-on series as well as a set of full reviews, one for Android 4.0 ICS, another for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Apple has already released the iOS 5.0.1 update that was aimed at fixing the battery life issues. However, the problem persists for some users and it’s believed that Apple will release iOS 5.0.2 with the aim of providing iPhone 4S users 40 hours of standby time and 10 hours of active use time. The update is expected to arrive no later than next week.

The more significant update to iOS 5.1 is believed to bring many new Siri features to the iPhone 4S. Some of those features include being able to use voice commands to activate functions like taking photos, recording videos, enabling and disabling Bluetooth, or turning on and off WiFi. But the source claims that the update won’t arrive until the end of 2011 as work on Siri is very costly.

[via AppleInsider]

The boost comes from an adjustment in the charging materials used. Traditional lithium-ion batteries charge by moving electrons from the electrolyte into the anode, which is usually made of graphene. An alternative and more efficient material is silicon, which allows four lithium atoms per one silicon atom while the graphene allows only one lithium atom per six carbon atoms.

Although superior, silicon has a tendency to expand and contract during charging, causing damage to the battery. Hence, to address this, the Northwestern University research team sandwiched clusters of silicon with graphene sheets, which would avoid battery fragmentation.

The researchers also drilled tiny holes of 10- to 20-nm in the sheets to speed up recharging time. The next step for the team is to improve the cathode and electrolyte so that the battery can automatically shut off to prevent fires or explosions should the battery temperature get too high.

[via PhoneArena]

The company has not specified exactly what iOS 5.0.1 does to fix the power problems – the release notes merely say it “Fixes bugs affecting battery life” – and was slow to even acknowledge the issue in the first place. “A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices” an Apple representative admitted earlier this month. “We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”

Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case for all users. Some are reporting battery drain of almost 1-percent a minute, while others have found that allowing the smartphone to run down fully and then charge to 100-percent seems to help. On the flip-side, however, other iPhone 4S owners have seen their problems fixed with no tweaks or recalibration required, using the new software.

Has iOS 5.0.1 fixed your iPhone 4S battery drain issues, or are you still suffering shortened runtimes? Let us know in the comments!

It appears that these select customers are those who have complained about battery life issues in iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S. A long discussion thread has been growing since last month on Apple’s support site regarding iPhone 4S battery draining issues with some customers being contacted directly to install a diagnostic tool to help Apple engineers determine the issue.

However, customers who participate in the early release program will not be able to downgrade to iOS 5 and must wait for the final release of iOS 5.0.1. Apple says that there’s only a small number of users that have experienced the problem and that the final iOS 5.0.1 update should resolve the battery issue and bring new improvements to Siri, multitasking gestures to the first-gen iPad, and other bug fixes.

Apple has also sent out memos to Apple Stores, instructing Geniuses not to replace the iPhones with battery life issues, but to tell customers to wait a few weeks until the company releases a software fix.

[via 9to5 Mac]

Inside your System Services in your Settings on your iPhone 4S, you’ve only to look down the list until you find “Setting Time Zone” and the switch beside it – flip it to OFF. What we’ve found thus far after making this switch is that standby time has gone up significantly. Inside three hours, the iPhone 4S has only used 5% of its total battery life. Sixty hours of standby, is that you? We’ll see!

The tip to make this happen to increase battery life comes from iDownload where Oliver Haslam notes that the bug likely lives inside iOS 5, not necessarily the iPhone 4S hardware. There while the Setting Time Zone appears to be tracking constantly instead of simply periodically, battery time is cut down, and down, and down. The’ve done some tests as well:

“We have tested this method on 4 different iPhone 4s handsets, including an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS. All have reported drastically improved battery life after switching ‘Setting Time Zone’ off.” – Haslam

The only thing you’re losing by switching the Setting Time Zone function off is the automatic re-setting of your time if you cross the boarder into a different time zone – when you’re flying to Grandma’s house for the holidays. If you DO decide to try it out, be sure to let us know how it goes.

UPDATE: Another test on the iPhone 4S yields 80% battery after over seven hours with one and a half hours of that time in use. I think we have a winner!

[via iDownload]

Speaking with the Guardian, one user revealed that a senior engineer at Apple had contacted him directly and asked him to install a monitoring program to help diagnose the battery issue. The program monitors for a 24-hour period, after which he had to extract the data file for sending back to the engineer. “He was incredibly helpful and apologetic in the typical Apple way!,” wrote the user, but he also noted that the rep admitted that the company is far from finding a fix.

There have been other users in the Apple Support Communities thread that have also recounted Apple contacting them directly to install the diagnostic software on their iPhone 4S. The list continues to grow as many are surprised by how rapidly the iPhone 4S battery seems to drain compared to the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S sports the same A5 dual-core processor as the iPad 2, a larger battery than the iPhone 4, and is supposed to support a slightly increased 8 hours of talk time, but a 100-hour less standby time.

This is a first for the Galaxy S II line, NFC and Google Wallet only fully activated in the Samsung device Nexus S 4G for now – have a look at your humble narrator’s hands-on video with Google Wallet on the Nexus S 4G for the full skinny on the situation. The Nexus S was the first Android device to really be pushed as having the feature for future use – now that Google Wallet is out and active in stores in several states across the USA, we’ve got to hope for the capability in all phones through the future.

Have a look at this early press release from T-Mobile:

T-Mobile today announced additional details about the Galaxy S II. The Galaxy S II will be one of T-Mobile’s fastest smartphones and one of the first to take advantage of T-Mobile’s faster 4G (HSPA+ 42) network technology. In addition, the Galaxy S II is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor with 1.5 GHz dual CPUs, runs on Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) and is NFC enabled.

From what we’ve been told thus far, NFC capabilities lie inside the battery, believe it or not, and that NFC functions and mentions are strewn throughout the Android source code, though as the title of this post says, all of this is dormant for the time being. If this situation ends up being like the Nexus S 4G, we’ve only to wait for the update to the newest version of Gingerbread to get both the Google Wallet app and the ability to utilize NFC for all manner of activities.

Joy? Joy! No need to use NFC stickers now, right? Hopefully. Those stickers seem above-average stone-age to me.

What we get to see here is the slickness in the design of these two new titans, both of them designed to look good and act as an aesthetically pleasing companion for the worker, student, or player on the go. Open up one of these bad boys in your local sandwich shop and look at all the eyes upon you – they want to know where you got your new, wait, what is that? It’s a Samsung Series 7 CHRONOS Notebook, announced at IFA 2011 and already finding its way to NYC in time for this Pepcom event. You can just FEEL the excitement surround you.

What the big deal we’re looking at here is sits inside a chassis built for a tinier news bit – that’s right, for each of these notebooks, the hardware is built to house a bigger display. The bezel size in particular is greatly reduced on both models, with a 15-inch display fitting now inside a 14-inch profile and a 15.6-inch display embedding real snug inside the 15-inch model. You’ll find that we’re only seeing one of the two models powered up, but the display tech is quite apparent. Each Series 7 CHRONOS Notebook have SuperBright 300nit brightness, anti-reflective glass, and 16 million colors blasting forth from the inner workings of the Samsung CPU mind.

At the very bottom of this post you can also see an interview conducted with Won Park, Vice President of Samsung Electronics IT Solutions Business Marketing Group who, also just a bit ago still inside September, explained the Samsung Notebook Series 7 CHRONOS in a bit more detail. This all look like a winning set of combinations to you?

You can see more Samsung technology alongside all sorts of other gadgets and gizmos we’ve gotten hands-on time with over the past week or so by hitting the [Pepcom Holiday Spectacular 2011 portal], your doorway to a neat variety of futuristic bits in conveniently formatted video and photo form. Try em all on for size!

The jelly battery also stops thermal runaway, which is what happens when a battery suddenly overheats and can lead to fire. The jelly battery may also mean thinner notebooks and EVs that are more efficient and have a longer driving range. The jelly battery has no thermal runaway potential so some of the heavy and complex thermal protection gear on a battery for an EV could be removed.

The jelly used in the battery looks like a solid, but it is actually 70% liquid electrolyte. The researchers are able to make the separation between the solid and liquid phase of the jelly at the point that the jelly hits the electrode. This battery could mean the end to fire hazard with modern laptops.

[via BBC News]

The little battery generator has a cantilever that vibrates back and forth when the motion of a car on the road shakes things around. That cantilever motion is turned into electrical energy to power the sensor. Granted the current batteries in those sensors are good for roughly the usable life of the vehicle as it is. However, this is a nice stepping store to possible future uses of similar tech.

The cantilever array is made from a piezoelectric material that produces electrical potential that can be turned into electrical current. The cantilever array is then mounted to a postage stamp size thin-film battery. The designers say that the system can produce about 200 microwatts of power making it quite useful in low power applications.

[via Technology Review]

Cornell University and a company called MicroGen are working on a new type of instrument that harvests power from road vibrations to make the gear operate. The sensors used for the instruments able to operate in anything that spins, rolls, shakes, or jiggles. MicroGen and Corenell University’s Cornell Nanoscale Facility are working to develop the battery free sensors.

The battery that generates the power for the sensors is a tiny sheet of piezoelectric material that makes electricity when mounted on a shock-resistant base when it is flexed. Vibrations created by things like the wheel of a car rolling or a dryer doing its thing in your home make a little flap in the sheet swing back and forth, generating a current in a thin-film batter in the system. The prototype device about the size of a quarter generates up to 200 microwatts.

The company that makes the device doesn’t offer much in the way of technical details on the charger. I guess it’s geared more towards the well-heeled that just want it to look good and work. What the company does say is that it will provide 30 hours of charge time for a mobile phone or MP3 player and the internal battery charger via USB and the solar panel.

What I want to know that isn’t mentioned is how long exactly that solar panel will need to charge the internal battery. I suspect that it would be a number of hours just as other charges need. The leather case will protect the charger and has a carbon fiber embossed design on it. The price hasn’t been announced at this time and availability is a question as well.

[via Uncrate]

According to Miller, modern laptop batteries contain their own firmware and microcontrollers to monitor power levels, allowing operating systems to check and respond accordingly. Even when your notebook is powered off, the lithium ion battery inside knows when to stop charging. Also, the battery can detect and regulate its heat level to maintain a safe temperature.

From examining Apple’s laptops, Miller noticed that all the embedded chips in the batteries used the same default passwords. This means that a hacker who knows of the password can find a way to control the chip’s firmware and in turn manipulate the battery to wreak havoc on your system.

There are many possible methods of attack, including not letting your battery recharge, not letting it regulate heat leading to physical dangers, and implanting hidden malware that infects your computer. This last one can reinfect your computer over and over again even after cleaning out the system and reinstalling all software if the battery is not changed as well.

Miller has sent his research to Apple and Texas Instruments and expects to expose the vulnerability at the Black Hat security conference in August. He has also proposed a fix, which he calls “Caulkgun,” that replaces the battery firmware’s default password with a random string. However, this password change could be an issue when it comes to OS updates.

[via Forbes]

Suzuki is working hard on getting a production EV to market, but ahead of that production vehicle, it is testing the waters with the Every van that it has converted from the gas-powered version. The company made 13 of the vans and gave them to dealerships on a trial basis. The van uses a lithium-ion battery pack and electric motors.

The battery packs needs five hours to charge fully. The driving range is only 62 miles and that will vary depending on how the car is driven. The battery pack and electric gear adds 441 pounds to the van compared to the gas version. However, the cargo carrying capacity is the same at 551 pounds.

[via AutoBlog Green]

Ford has announced that the Focus Electric will use an advanced liquid cooling system for its lithium-ion battery packs to provide an advantage over models without a cooling system. When the battery is being charged or used the Ford system will use an integrated chiller to lower the temperature of the hot coolant going through the battery as needed.

In the winter, months if the coolant is at a good temperature presumably the chiller wouldn’t activate. The system uses the vehicles AC system to cool the fluid as it flows around the battery. The cooling system will work when the car is charging as well even though it’s not on. “Batteries can heat up when they’re charging or being used, and it’s made worse by ambient temperatures,” said Dave Fabricatore, Thermal Program Management team engineer. “Controlling the temperature lets us deliver the best range and power for the customer, while improving the longevity of the battery.” The Focus Electric will launch late this year.

That means the devices you put the Pro version of the batteries into will last longer than if you crammed a normal Eneloop inside. Sanyo recommends the pro battery for high drain devices like digital cameras, strobe lights or flashlights. The Eneloop Plus battery has an overheat function that helps prevent the batteries from overheating. Overheating of a battery can lead to fire risk so the extra protection is good.

Sanyo will also offer a Wireless Charging Carrying Case to recharge the batteries with no wire that is compatible with the Qi standard. The Eneloop Pro battery will be offered in AA size only and will hit the market on July 21 in Japan. The Eneloop Plus won’t hit Japan until December 1. Pricing is 1260 yen for a pair of the Pro batteries and unannounced on the Plus offerings or the wireless charge cases.

This new recall was initiated after HP discovered two product model series that was missed from last years worldwide recall. The model series found to be affected was the HP Compaq 6520 and one of the HP Pavilion series. This new number of 162,000 lithium-ion batteries adds on to the 54,000 recalled last year and the 70,000 recalled the year before.

So, if you still own one of these HP notebooks, including the HP Pavillion, Compaq Presario, HP and Hp Compaq, make sure to check out the new list of affected series via HP or the safety commission. If you find you notebook listed, it’s advised to remove the lithium-ion battery. And, if you were previously told that your notebook series was not affected, you should check again.

[via ITNews]

A recently published patent application from Apple has surfaced and it outlines a cool new method that would help Apple avoid any future issues with exploding batteries. The patent app covers a pressure relief battery pouch for portable devices. Part of the issue with battery explosions is that gases build up inside and cause the battery to swell eventually leading to an explosion. The Apple pouch would be designed to relieve pressure.

The gas build up can occur if the battery is overcharged for instance. Lithium-ion cylindrical batteries are often equipped with a valve to allow the release of internal pressure before it causes the battery to explode, but the lithium-polymer batteries used in some gadgets and notebooks lack this feature. Lithium-polymer batteries are inside a flexible pouch that is cheap to make and has little weight. The catch is there is no pressure valve on the pouch. The new pouch design from Apple has weaknesses that will create a hole to relieve pressure before the battery ruptures. Sounds like a really good idea to me.

[via Patently Apple]

Earlier this month, a new OS update 1.0.3.1868 was pushed out to users that added a new PlayBook video chat app as well as BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) via the BlackBerry Bridge app. Soon after the update, many users started experiencing a noticeable decrease in their tablet’s battery life.

RIM has responded swiftly to these complaints suggesting users to completely discharge their batteries and then fully recharge them again. And to do this a couple times, which is a process known as “cycling” a battery. They’ve also advised users to accept the terms of the Video Chat licensing agreement prompt, as the prompt, if left unchecked, could drain the battery.

If you own a BlackBerry PlayBook, have you experienced any of these issues after the update?

The message from RIM:

“After upgrading the BlackBerry PlayBook Software to 1.0.3 then restarting the BlackBerry PlayBook, the battery drains faster than normal or the battery level fluctuates irregularly…The BlackBerry PlayBook battery can be retrained by fully discharging and fully recharging the battery a few times.”

RIM suggested in the advisory that the PlayBook battery issues could be a result of a Video Chat licensing agreement prompt that may be draining power until a user accepts the licensing terms. So accepting those video chat terms could resolve some battery life problems, RIM says, though I accepted the terms immediately after installing the latest OS update, and my PlayBook battery issues don’t appear to be related to the video chat agreement. (I guess users who do not wish to accept those terms are stuck with decreased battery life for the time being.)

I also cycled my PlayBook battery a number of times since, with no notable improvement in battery life. More specifically, I used to easily get 9 hours or more of PlayBook battery life with moderate to heavy use before I updated the Tablet OS to v1.0.3.1868. But this week my PlayBook died twice in a row in less than eight hours, after being fully charged at the start of the day.

After doing some investigating on the subject and speaking with a few respected colleagues from BlackBerry fan site CrackBerry.com (thanks @obigeorge and @azeis), I learned that many PlayBook users are reporting decreased PlayBook battery life after the OS update. But some PlayBook users with higher tablet-storage capacity mysteriously seem to get much more battery life on a single charge than 16GB PlayBook tablet owners. (The PlayBook is currently available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, and all three PlayBooks pack the same 5300mAh battery.)

[via CIO]