batteries

Let your shoes do the charging

After researching a device that draws energy from knee movement, some mechanical engineering students at Rice University decided to see if they could get the same result from another, less intrusive wearable item: a shoe.

With help from the Movement Analysis Laboratory at Shriners Hospital for Children in Houston, the resulting PediPower shoes harness energy from the force of the heel hitting the ground. The prototype -- while admittedly big, unattractive, and impractical to wear 100 percent of the time (think sleeping, showering, etc.) -- demonstrates that the simple act of walking may one day power a wide range of … Read more

Five savvy ways to maximize your Galaxy S4's battery life

With a bigger battery and more efficient processor than its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S4 promises to at least survive a typical day. But as Jessica Dolcourt mentions, its slightly larger screen and abundance of features demand that added capacity.

Though the S4 (and most other phones) will almost always need a nightly charge, you'll certainly encounter days when you'll do just a little extra streaming, forget your charger at home, or find yourself staring at 15 percent with a long night ahead.

To get the most out of your battery, follow these best practices.

1. Disable superfluous … Read more

Review: Monitor detailed battery data using Battery Time Remaining for Mac

Keeping track of the Mac's battery life can be critical, especially if you are working on your Mac without a power source. For comprehensive information on that all-important topic, Battery Time Remaining for Mac allows you to keep track of battery life, temperature, and all things related to your Mac's battery.

Battery Time Remaining for Mac is a free app that displays an estimate of the remaining battery hours right on your menu bar. Installation is just a quick drag-and-drop process and there's an option to set the app to launch automatically every time you turn on … Read more

Google smacks down reports that Now for iOS drains batteries

Hot on the heels of Google adding Now to its iOS app, a handful of users began complaining that the app update made their iPhone and iPad batteries drain more quickly. Questions arose, was Google Now slurping too much juice?

Google has responded that iOS battery life doesn't have anything to do with Google Now. The Web giant sent a statement to CNET giving a bit more explanation as to why the battery draining allegations were false.

Reports that Google Now on iOS drains battery life are incorrect. We understand people's concern about seeing the Location Services icon … Read more

Apple envisions curved batteries for mobile devices

Apple is eyeing different shapes for batteries to find more room for them in phones, tablets, and other mobile gadgets.

Published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent application dubbed "Curved battery cells for portable electronic devices," describes exactly that. The shape of such a battery would be changed during the manufacturing process to form a curve in its design. That trick would be achieved by heating up a set of curved plates and applying pressure to the battery cell.

The goal would be to create a battery that can make better use of … Read more

Five Android apps that prolong your smartphone's battery life

Have you found yourself wishing that your Android's battery would last longer? Don't answer that, I already know. Be it poor app design, ever-larger display sizes, or our constant desire to play mobile games, we're eating up battery life faster than we'd like.

As a platform, Android has improved with each iteration and task management, and multitasking keeps getting smarter.

With that said, one of the first complaints from new smartphone users is that the battery doesn't seem to live up to expectations. Sure, the 2013 crop of flagship phones seems promising, but not everyone … Read more

FAA said to be near approving Boeing's Dreamliner battery fix

After three months of sitting on the ground, it's looking like Boeing's 787 Dreamliner jets may be able to soar again.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Federal Aviation Administration is rumored to announce as soon as Friday that the jets will soon be allowed for takeoff. People familiar with the matter told the Journal that the FAA believes that Boeing has proven that the redesigned batteries are now safe.

Boeing's Dreamliners were grounded in January after a battery fire on an All Nippon Airways flight let to a forced evacuation of the plane. The FAA … Read more

New teeny-tiny battery charges in less than a second

One of the biggest bugbears of smartphones is just how much juice they drain -- and how long they take to recharge. Batteries are also the reason many devices can't be smaller; after all, the batteries have to fit somewhere (although, given the burgeoning phablet market, that's not exactly a huge problem).

Scientists have made several recent attempts to build a better lithium ion battery. In the latest push, a team of researchers led by mechanical science and engineering professor William P. King at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign has developed a new type of lithium ion battery that's just a fraction of the size of the batteries we use now -- and that can out-power the best supercapacitors. … Read more

Boeing wraps up 787 Dreamliner battery testing

When it comes to aircraft in flight, "uneventful" is a good thing.

Boeing today said that it has completed certification testing for a new battery system for its 787 Dreamliner designed to replace the one at the center of a Federal Aviation Administration investigation over recent fire-related incidents. Those incidents prompted the FAA to order airlines to ground their Dreamliners until the batteries were proven safe to operate.

The certification testing wrapped up with a demonstration flight on "line number 86," a Boeing-owned production Dreamliner built for LOT Polish Airlines. Boeing said that the aircraft flew … Read more

Rhino Battery Holster keeps your batteries close

You know what they say... keep your friends close, and your batteries closer.

A Washington-based accessory maker has just created a Kickstarter project for its latest product, the Rhino Battery Holster. As the name suggests, the contraption allows you to holster your camera battery like a gunslinger in an old Western.

Capable of holding two Canon 2 LP-E6 juice packs, the battery holster has an integrated belt clip that lets you attach the holster to your belt, camera strap, or camera carrier. Alternately, there are brass inserts at the rear of the belt clip that let you secure the holster to anything using a carabiner. … Read more