Don’t Bother: Why You Don’t Want to Wirelessly Charge Your Smartphone

Wireless charging is overrated — at least in its current form. The dream of wireless power sounds great, but current wireless charging technologies are more “plugless” than “wireless.” They’re also less convenient, slower, and less-efficient than just plugging your phone in.

Let’s be honest: Wireless chargers are more interesting as a proof of concept and a glimpse at future technologies than they are practical. When you charge your smartphone, you’ll want to plug it in with a cable.

Wireless Chargers Are Even More Constrained Than Charging Cables

To use a wireless charger, you place your smartphone down on a “charging mat.” That mat is plugged in with a wire, and it sits on a table — you may want to leave it on your bedside table, for example. While the smartphone is placed on that charging mat, the mat will wirelessly transmit power to the phone. Lift the smartphone from the mat and the wireless charging will stop.

Let’s think about it: What other “wireless” technologies work in this way? Wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) works everywhere in your home. You don’t have to place your laptop on top of the router to get Internet access. That’s the whole point of wireless Internet — you have freedom to move aroun

In terms of pure freedom to move around, a charging cable is just better. Yes, the cable that came with your smartphone is very short and requires you be very near a power outlet. But you can buy much longer third-party charging cables — both Lightning cables for iPhones and standard USB cables for Android phones. Plug your smartphone into that longer cable and you can actually use it while it’s charging. You don’t have to hunch over the table to use the phone. With a wireless charger, you would have to hunch over to use it while it’s charging.

For example, let’s say you charge your smartphone on your bedside table. You could either use a charging mat — and the phone would only charge while it’s sitting on that mat — or use a longer cable. If you plugged it in with a cable, you’d be able to lift the phone off the table and use it while it charges.

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The same goes for chargers in other places, too. When charging a smartphone at a desk, you could leave it sitting on a pad the entire time or plug it into a longer cable that allows you to lift the cable and use it.

That longer cable will be much cheaper than buying a wireless charger, too. There’s another problem with getting a wireless charger: You have to spend extra, often $50 or more, for a device that’s arguably less convenient.

And, by the way — depending on the smartphone and wireless charger, it may be a bit finicky. You can’t necessarily just plop it down anywhere on the charging mat. You have to ensure it lines up and starts charging. If you’re picking up your smartphone and putting it back down regularly, you’ll need to ensure it lines up well enough every time you put it down. That’s more work than simply plugging it in once and then putting it down wherever you want afterwards.

Wireless chargers do involve a wire — between the charging pad and outlet. There’s no wire between the phone and charging pad. Instead, the phone has to be pressed right up to the charging pad — it’s contactless. “Wireless” implies a lot of freedom a wireless charger doesn’t actually offer.

It Takes Longer, Uses More Power, and Generates More Heat

There’s a reason we normally plug devices in to charge them. It’s just faster and more efficient to transmit energy over a wire.

Wired charging is much faster than wireless charging. Anandtech found that a Samsung Galaxy S6 can charge from zero percent to 100 percent battery power in 1.48 hours if you plug it in and charge over a wired connection. Wireless charging takes 3.01 hours, which is twice as long. That may not seem like a big deal if you’re charging overnight, of course. But, if you quickly want a top-up your phone, you should stick with a wired connection rather than a wireless one.

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It’s also less efficient. This means it will take more electricity to charge a phone if you do so wirelessly. Some of that wasted power will be in the form of excess heat. While the heat won’t destroy your phone, heat is the enemy of your smartphone’s battery — that heat will translate to a bit more wear on your battery.

None of this is the end of the world. You’ll have an okay experience if you use wireless charging. Your phone will probably charge fast enough, as long as you’re not in a hurry, and the extra power shouldn’t be a noticeable drain on your electric bill. The extra heat probably won’t noticeably accelerate your battery’s decay, either.

But why put up with all those downsides to use something that’s just less convenient and flexible than simply plugging your phone in?

The latest specifications allow for wireless charging from up to a few feet away from a charger, but it’ll be even less efficient — that means even slower and more wasteful with electricity.

The dream of wireless charging is great, of course. If only we could have some sort of wireless power device in our home that would charge our smartphones as we use them without having to press them against it. If only our smartphones would charge automatically when we placed them down on a table at a restaurant. But we’re a ways from that.

As someone who’s tried wireless charging with several different Android smartphones, believe me: you’re better off with a wired charger and a longer cable.

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How to Know When It’s Time to Replace Your Laptop’s Battery

No matter how well you treat your laptop’s battery, it will eventually die. If you’re lucky, it will be time to replace your laptop by the time its battery dies. If you’re not, you’ll need to replace the battery.

Battery death can seem sudden, but it doesn’t have to. Windows will warn you when your battery reaches extremely low capacity levels, but you can also keep your own tabs on its capacity.

Windows Will Warn You

Windows doesn’t normally keep you up-to-date with your battery’s capacity level. As you use it and it weakens, you’ll just notice that your laptop doesn’t seem to last as long on battery.

Eventually, when your battery reaches a low enough capacity level, Windows will warn you. You’ll see a red X appear on the standard battery icon in your system tray and, when you click it, Windows will inform you that you should “consider replacing your battery.” Windows also says that your computer might shut down suddenly because there’s a problem with your battery — in other words, your battery can’t hold enough of a charge to power your laptop for long when it’s not connected to an outlet.

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Note that this warning was added in Windows 7, so you won’t see it if you’re using Windows Vista or XP.

How to Check Your Laptop’s Battery Capacity

If you’re curious just how far your laptop’s battery capacity has declined, you can use a third-party tool to view it. NirSoft’s free BatteryInfoView does this well, displaying the battery’s approximate wear level, the capacity it was designed to have, and the capacity it currently has.

Calibrating Your Battery

The information above may not be completely accurate if your battery requires calibration. For example, we had a battery that reported it was almost dead. Windows warned us that it was time to replace the battery and the battery appeared to be at 27.7% wear level according to its reported capacity.

After we calibrated the battery, Windows stopped warning us and the battery’s reported capacity went back up to 70.8%. The battery didn’t actually gain any additional charge, but the calibration helped the battery’s sensor actually detect how much capacity was in the battery. If Windows says it’s time to replace your battery, be sure to calibrate it first before checking its actual wear level. If you don’t, you may replace a battery that’s still in good enough shape. That would just be a waste of money.

Why Your Laptop’s Battery Capacity Declines

Laptop batteries decline due to a number of factors. Heat, usage, age — all of these things are bad for batteries. Batteries will slowly die no matter what — even if you put your battery in a closet and never touched it, it would slowly lose capacity due to age. However, if you never use your battery — say you use your laptop at your desk most of the time and it gets rather hot, which is bad for the battery — removing the battery can certainly help prolong its life.

Replacing Your Battery

If your laptop has a user-serviceable battery — that is, one you can remove on your own — you can replace your battery fairly easily. If your laptop doesn’t have a user-serviceable battery, you’ll need to contact the laptop’s manufacturer so they can crack your laptop open and change its battery for you.

Assuming you have a user-serviceable battery, you can order a replacement battery for your laptop model online. Don’t just head to eBay and buy the cheapest third-party batteries available — buy official batteries from a reputable company. Aftermarket batteries are often built on the cheap, with cut corners and insufficient testing. They can be dangerous — a cheap, counterfeit, and improperly designed battery could literally go up in flames.

There’s no point in obsessing over your battery’s capacity — it was designed to be used, after all — but it’s something to keep on eye on. If your capacity is dropping more quickly than you’d like, that may be a sign that you should be treating your battery better. Perhaps you’re exposing it to too much heat if you leave your battery in while playing demanding, strenuous PC games on your laptop.


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Debunking Battery Life Myths for Mobile Phones, Tablets, and Laptops

Batteries need to be cared for properly — they’re a critical part of our mobile devices and battery technology hasn’t advanced as fast as other technologies. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of incorrect information about batteries out there.

Some of the big myths come from old battery technologies and are actively harmful when applied to new battery technologies. For example, nickel-based batteries needed to be fully discharged, while modern lithium batteries shouldn’t be fully discharged.

Perform Shallow Discharges; Avoid Frequent Full Discharges

Old NiMH and NiCd batteries had a “memory effect” and had to be completely discharged from 100% to 0% to keep their capacity. Modern devices use Lithium Ion batteries, which work differently and have no memory effect. In fact, completely discharging a Li-ion battery is bad for it. You should try to perform shallow discharges — discharge the battery to something like 40-70% before recharging it, for example. Try to never let your battery go below 20% except in rare circumstances.

If you were to discharge your battery to 50%, recharge it, and then discharge it to 50% again, that would count as a single “cycle” with modern Li-ion batteries. You don’t need to worry about performing shallow charges.

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There’s only one problem that shallow discharges can cause. Laptops can get a bit confused by shallow discharges and may show you wrong estimates for how long your device’s battery will last. Laptop manufacturers recommend you perform a full discharge about once per month to help calibrate the device’s battery time estimate.

Heat (and Cold) Can Damage Batteries

Heat can reduce a battery’s capacity. This affects all types of devices — even smartphones heat up when performing demanding tasks — but laptops can become hottest of all when under load. The battery is in the laptop, near the electronics that become hot while working heavily — this contributes to battery wear.

If you have a laptop that you use plugged in all of the time and it gets quite hot, removing the battery can increase the battery’s life by limiting the battery’s exposure to the heat of your laptop. This won’t make too much of a difference in normal use, but if you’re using a laptop to play a lot of demanding games and it’s heating up quite a bit, it may be helpful. Of course, this only applies to laptops with removable batteries.

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Your climate is also a concern. If it gets very hot where you live or you store your device somewhere that gets very hot — say, a hot car left in the sun on a summer day — your battery will wear down faster. Keep your devices near room temperature and avoid storing them in very hot places, such as hot cars on summer days.

Extreme cold temperatures can decrease the lifespan of your battery, too. Don’t put a spare battery in the freezer or expose any device with a battery to similarly cold temperatures if you’re in a region with cold temperatures.

Don’t Leave the Battery At 0%

You shouldn’t leave the battery in a fully discharged state for very long. Ideally, the battery wouldn’t discharge all the way to zero very often — but if it does, you should recharge it as soon as possible. You don’t have to race to a power outlet when your smartphone dies, but don’t throw it in your drawer and leave it there for weeks without charging it. If you let the battery discharge completely and leave your device in a closet, the battery may become incapable of holding a charge at all, dying completely.

Store Batteries at 50% Charge

On the other hand, leaving the battery charged fully for an extended period of time could result in a loss of capacity and shorten its life. Ideally, you’d store the battery at 50% charge if you weren’t going to use it for a while. Apple recommends you leave the battery at 50% if you intend on storing the device more than six months. If you’re using it regularly, you shouldn’t need to worry about its state — although you never want to leave a battery at 0% for too long.

Storing the battery while fully discharged could result in the battery dying completely, while storing the battery at full charge could result in the loss of some battery capacity and shorten your battery’s life.

This applies to both batteries in devices and spare batteries you may have lying around — keep them at 50% if you won’t be using them for some time.

Leaving Your Laptop Plugged in All The Time Is Okay, But…

This one appears to be fairly controversial. We’ve previously covered the eternal question of whether it’s okay to leave your laptop plugged in all the time. We concluded that it’s okay and the battery’s temperature is the main thing you need to worry about. Apple disagrees, recommending against leaving its Macbook Air and Macbook Pro notebooks plugged in all the time.

Ultimately, we’re both saying the same thing. It’s fine to leave your laptop plugged in at your desk when you’re using it, as the laptop won’t “overcharge” the battery — it will stop charging when it reaches capacity. However, just as you shouldn’t store your laptop’s battery at full capacity in a closet, you shouldn’t leave your laptop plugged in for months on end with the battery at full capacity. Allow your laptop’s battery to occasionally discharge somewhat before charging it back up — that will keep the electrons flowing and keep the battery from losing capacity.

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Battery University says that “the worst situation is keeping a fully charged battery at elevated temperatures.” If your laptop produces a lot of heat, removing it might be a good idea. If you have a fairly cool laptop that you occasionally let discharge a reasonable amount, leaving it plugged in — even for days on end — shouldn’t be a problem. If your laptop gets extremely hot, you may want to remove the battery, as we mentioned above.

Batteries Will Always Wear Down

Like all other types of batteries, Li-ion batteries will wear down over time, holding less and less charge. Apple says its laptop batteries will reach 80% of their original capacity after “up to” 1000 full discharge cycles. Other manufacturers commonly rate their batteries 300 to 500 cycles.

The batteries can still be used after this point, but they’ll hold less electricity and will power your devices for shorter and shorter periods of time. They’ll continue losing capacity the more you use them. Heat and aging will reduce the battery’s life, too.

Whatever you do, your devices’ batteries will slowly wear down over time. With proper care, you can make them hold a long charge for longer — but there’s no stopping entropy. Hopefully, your device will be due for an upgrade by the time its battery dies.

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How to Calibrate Your Laptop’s Battery for Accurate Battery Life Estimates

So you’re using your laptop and, all of the sudden, it dies. There was no battery warning from Windows—in fact, you recently checked and Windows said you had 30% battery power left. What’s going on?

Even if you treat your laptop’s battery properly, its capacity will decrease over time. Its built-in power meter estimates how much juice available and how much time on battery you have left—but it can sometimes give you incorrect estimates.

This basic technique will work in Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista. Really, it will work for any device with a battery, including older MacBooks. It may not be necessary on some newer devices, however.

Why Calibrating the Battery Is Necessary

If you’re taking proper care of your laptop’s battery, you should be allowing it to discharge somewhat before plugging it back in and topping it off. You shouldn’t be allowing your laptop’s battery to die completely each time you use it, or even get extremely low. Performing regular top-ups will extend your battery’s life.

However, this sort of behavior can confuse the laptop’s battery meter. No matter how well you take care of the battery, its capacity will still decrease as a result of unavoidable factors like typical usage, age, and heat. If the battery isn’t allowed to run from 100% down to 0% occasionally, the battery’s power meter won’t know how much juice is actually in the battery. That means your laptop may think it’s at 30% capacity when it’s really at 1%—and then it shuts down unexpectedly.

Calibrating the battery won’t give you longer battery life, but it will give you more accurate estimates of how much battery power your device has left.

How Often Should You Calibrate the Battery?

Manufacturers that do recommend calibration often calibrating the battery every two to three months. This helps keep your battery readings accurate.

In reality, you likely don’t have to do this that often if you’re not too worried about your laptop’s battery readings being completely precise. However, if you don’t calibrate your battery regularly, you may eventually find your laptop suddenly dying on you when you’re using it—without any prior warnings. When this happens, it’s definitely time to calibrate the battery.

Some modern devices may not require battery calibration at all. For example, Apple recommends battery calibration for older Macs with user-replaceable batteries, but says it’s not required for modern portable Macs with built-in batteries. Check your device manufacturer’s documentation to learn whether battery calibration is necessary on your device or not.

Basic Calibration Instructions

Recalibrating your battery is simple: just let the battery run from 100% capacity straight down to almost dead, and then charging it back to full. The battery’s power meter will see how long the battery actually lasts and get a much more accurate idea of how much capacity the battery has left.

Some laptop manufacturers include utilities that will calibrate the battery for you. These tools will usually just make sure your laptop has a full battery, disable power management settings, and allow the battery to run to empty so the battery’s internal circuitry can get an idea of how long the battery lasts. Check your laptop manufacturer’s website for information on using any utilities they provide.

You should also look at your laptop’s manual or help files. Each manufacturer may recommend a slightly different calibration procedure or tool to ensure your laptop’s battery is properly calibrated. Some manufacturers may even say this isn’t necessary on their hardware (like Apple). However, there’s no harm to performing a calibration, even if the manufacturer says it isn’t necessary. It just takes some of your time. The calibration process essentially runs the battery through a full discharge and recharge cycle.

How to Manually Calibrate a Battery

While it’s a good idea to use any included utilities or just follow instructions specific to your laptop, you can also perform battery calibration without any specialized tools. The basic process is simple:

Ÿ Charge your laptop’s battery to full—that’s 100%.

Ÿ Let the battery rest for at least two hours, leaving the computer plugged in. This will ensure that the battery is cool and not still hot from the charging process. You’re free to use your computer normally while it’s plugged in, but be sure it doesn’t get too hot. You want it to cool down.

Ÿ Go into your computer’s power management settings and set it to automatically hibernate at 5% battery. To find these options, head to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings. Look under the “Battery” category for the “Critical battery action” and “Critical battery level” options. (If you can’t set it to 5%, just set it as low as you can—for example, on one of our PCs, we couldn’t set these options below 7% battery.)

Ÿ Pull the power plug and leave your laptop running and discharging until it automatically hibernates. You can keep using your computer normally while this happens.

NOTE: If you want to calibrate the battery while you aren’t using the computer, be sure your computer isn’t set to automatically sleep, hibernate, or turn its display off while idle. If your computer automatically enters power-saving mode while you’re away, it will save power and won’t discharge properly. To find these options, head to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > Change plan settings.

Ÿ Allow your computer to sit for five hours or so after it automatically hibernates or shuts down.

Ÿ Plug your computer back into the outlet and charge it all the way back up to 100%. You can keep using your computer normally while it charges.

Ÿ Ensure any power management settings are set to their normal values. For example, you probably want your computer to automatically power off the display and then go to sleep when you’re not using it to save battery power. You can change these settings while the computer charges.

Your laptop should now be reporting a more accurate amount of battery life, sparing you any surprise shutdowns and giving you a better idea of how much battery power you have at any given time.

The key to calibration is allowing the battery to run from 100% to almost empty, then charging it all the way up to 100% again, which may not happen in normal use. Once you’ve gone through this full charge cycle, the battery will know how much juice it has and report more accurate readings.

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Apple reportedly launching iPad with Face ID and no home button in 2018

Apple is working on a redesigned iPad that would remove the device’s home button in favor of the new Face ID system introduced on the iPhone X. Bloomberg reports that the new iPad, which will feature a display size “similar” to the 10.5-inch iPad Pro, is likely to be released “later next year.” An improved Apple Pencil is also under development and expected to launch alongside the updated tablet.

Just as it did for the iPhone, getting rid of the Touch ID home button will allow Apple to trim the iPad’s bottom bezel closer to the device’s edge. This would result in a more immersive screen that fills nearly the entire front of the 2018 iPad. The company reduced the iPad Pro’s side bezels significantly with the 10.5 model that went on sale in June. Bloomberg’s report doesn’t confirm whether or not it would have the iPhone X’s signature “notch” up top, however.

Current iPads still use a physical, clicking home button — and that feels a touch out of date after last year’s iPhone 7 switched to a non-moving button that simulates presses with vibration. Apple did the same thing with the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus this year.

Apple is unlikely to use OLED for the 2018 iPad lineup and will stick with LCD, according to the report. “Technical and financial constraints” are preventing the same display technology transition that the top-tier iPhone made this year. Samsung utilizes high-resolution OLED screens both for its Android-based Galaxy tablets and the 12-inch Galaxy Book that runs Windows. But those products don’t sell at nearly the same volume as iPads, so the “constraint” would likely be whether Samsung can produce enough screens for iPad demand. And if Samsung Display can’t, it’s doubtful that LG or other supplies could.

Other details about the next-generation iPad remain a mystery. Will it also change to a glass back to allow for wireless charging? Will we finally get an iPad that’s water resistant? (I think I’d value that more than Face ID, personally.) Bloomberg estimates that the launch is about a year out, so we might not see it until fall 2018, and the report warns that Face ID integration could be nixed due to supply issues between now and then.

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Confirmed: Windows 10 may cut off devices with older CPUs

No Windows 10 Fall Creators Update for you, Microsoft says—at least, not if you happen to be the unlucky owner of certain older Atom-based Windows devices, and other aging hardware. After stories arose of failed attempts to upgrade such hardware to the Creators Update, Microsoft says that any hardware device that falls out of the manufacturer’s support cycle may be ineligible for future Windows 10 updates.

In the case of the four “Clover Trail” processors (part of the Cloverview platform) that have fallen into Intel's End of Interactive Support phase, they will be ineligible for the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft confirmed. Instead, they’ll simply be offered the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, plus security updates through January 2023, the end of the original Windows 8.1 support period.

Microsoft doesn't seem to have excluded any new processors from the Fall Creators Update. The problem, however, is that Microsoft’s language opens up the possibility that any unsupported hardware device could be excluded from future Windows 10 updates, whenever they may be.

“Recognizing that a combination of hardware, driver and firmware support is required to have a good Windows 10 experience, we updated our support lifecycle policy to align with the hardware support period for a given device,” Microsoft said in a statement. “If a hardware partner stops supporting a given device or one of its key components and stops providing driver updates, firmware updates, or fixes, it may mean that device will not be able to properly run a future Windows 10 feature update.”

Why this matters: For years, the rule of thumb was that you could run virtually any operating system on top of any Intel, AMD (or even Cyrix) hardware. Chances are that it would run, if slowly. Over time, though, things changed. As malware became more potent, running a supported Windows operating system became more important. Now, there’s Windows as a Service: If Windows 10 never really goes away, what limits PC builders is supported hardware, apparently. Now we have to worry about how long all of our PC hardware components are supported, lest we lose access to upcoming versions of Windows 10.

Is this more than sweeping Atom under the rug?

Microsoft appears to be doubling down on its belief that up-to-date hardware requires an updated operating system, and vice versa. Microsoft said last year that it would restrict the latest Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Ryzen silicon to Windows 10. Recently, the company has blocked patches on PCs that try to run older Windows operating systems on modern hardware.

“As new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support,” Microsoft said in January, 2016. “This enables us to focus on deep integration between Windows and the silicon, while maintaining maximum reliability and compatibility with previous generations of platform and silicon.”

Microsoft’s Clover Trail stance sets limits on what those previous generations can expect. If a processor platform falls out of support by a chip vendor, Microsoft may drop it from its OS list.

What’s unclear, though, is whether Microsoft’s new position represents a fundamental shift in policy, or a rather narrow focus on Intel’s troubled Atom processors. At one time, Atom’s “Clover Trail” architecture represented the future of Intel processors within the smartphone and tablet markets. But Intel never could quite develop the system-on-chip with logic and communications that rivals like ARM provided, and Intel essentially killed the Atom platform in 2016. Without a healthy customer base to support, Intel apparently decided to refocus its support resources away from the Clover Trail architecture.

Devices that use Intel’s Clover Trail chips “require additional hardware support to provide the best possible experience when updating to the latest Windows 10 feature update, the Windows 10 Creators Update,” Microsoft said in a statement. “However, these systems are no longer supported by Intel... and without the necessary driver support, they may be incapable of moving to the Windows 10 Creators Update without a potential performance impact.”

Specifically, the Clover Trail chips have moved into the “End of Interactive Support,” (EOIS) which is defined as “Intel Customer Support Agents no longer respond to telephone, chat, community support forums, or email inquiries for this product.” Self-help is provided by Intel’s support community, generally made up of other users.

What’s worrying about Microsoft’s statement, though, is its broadness. Conceivably, any “device”—microprocessor, hard drive, network controller, sound card, headphones, monitor, and more—that a manufacturer discontinues or fails to actively support could drop out of Windows updates. While this would certainly encourage new PC and hardware purchases, it would also infuriate millions of PC users whose otherwise-functional legacy devices fell by the wayside.

A related question is whether Microsoft will refuse to support any other Intel processors that have reached EOIS status. Intel has published an enormous list of legacy Core processors on its site, which includes dozens if not hundreds of chips that have already fallen into the EOIS bin. The most recent EOIS chip appears to be the Core i7-990X, a 32-nm Gulftown processor most recently sold during the first quarter of 2011. But chips including the Ivy Bridge (2012) architecture are already at end-of-life status, and presumably headed for EOIS status next. It’s not clear whether moving a chip to an EOIS status is decided on a chip-per-chip basis, or if there’s a fixed timeline by which chips move from officially supported to end-of-life, and then to EOIS status.

Intel representatives declined to comment on whether other chips beyond the four Clover Trail processors were affected, referring questions to Microsoft.

If there’s an upside, it’s that Microsoft said it will actively work with chip vendors to find support for older hardware. “We know issues like this exist and we actively work to identify the best support path for older hardware,” Microsoft’s statement added.

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This is why your laptop battery dies fast

A simple change can help your laptop die less often.

Quick, what is the biggest drain on your laptop's battery?

If you answered "the display," you're right -- for the most part.

The single biggest occupier of battery resources, day in and day out, is your laptop's display. More specifically, it's the that energy goes into powering the backlight that illuminates the pixels on your laptop's display.

The obvious move to extend battery life is then to lower your display's brightness. On either a Windows 10 laptop or an Apple MacBook, you can usually do this on the keyboard, but there are a couple other settings to change that will help automate the process.

Change your display settings

Managing display brightness on Mac OS X

Open System Preferences and click Display. On the Display tab, you'll see a slider for Brightness. Lower it to a point between super bright and depressingly dull. Not only will a display set at a lower brightness aid your battery life, but it will also be easier on your eyes unless you are sitting in direct sunlight and need brightness at its max in order to see text and images.

Below the slider is a check box for Automatically adjust brightness, which may or may not help extend the life of your battery. If you use your laptop primarily in a brightly lit office or sunny breakfast nook, then keep this setting off so OS X isn't bumping up screen brightness to compensate for your bright environment. You're better off lowering the display brightness manually. Of course, the opposite is also true. If you often work into the wee hours at night in a darkened room or keep your office light low, check the box and let OS X lower the brightness in such settings.

There is another display-related setting on the Energy Saver area of System Preferences. Check the box for Slightly dim the display while on battery power.

Keeping your display running while your laptop sits unattended is a needless waste of battery resources. On the Energy Saver page, you can set times for Computer Sleep and Display Sleep, both of which spring into action if your MacBook sits idle for a period of time. Set as short a time as you're comfortable with for the Battery tab; it's less important for the Power Adapter tab.

Windows 10

First off, if you are concerned about your Windows 10 laptop's battery life, head to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options and make sure you choose a Balanced or Power Saver plan. Use the High performance plan only when you need a boost for gaming or high-end graphics apps.

With Windows 10, there are additional power and display settings from the Settings button on the Windows 10 start screen. Tap the Home button, tap the Settings button on the left edge, and then tap System. From the left menu, tap Display and you'll find a slider for Adjust brightness level.

Next, tap Battery Saver from the left menu. Tap the toggle switch to turn on Battery saver. If the toggle switch is grayed out, unplug your laptop so it's running on battery power and the toggle switch will become active. Battery saver is a new feature with Windows 10 that limits background activity and push notifications to extend battery life.

By default, Battery saver turns on when your battery falls below 20 percent. Tap Battery saver settings to adjust this percentage. Also on the Battery saver settings page, you can check a box for Lower screen brightness while in battery saver to further extend battery life.

Lastly, tap Power & sleep from the left menu and select times for Windows 10 to turn the screen off and put your PC in sleep mode to avoid needlessly draining your battery while your laptop sits idle.

Don't forget keyboard backlighting

Similar to powering the display backlight, powering keyboard backlights can also be a big drain on your battery. First, make sure you turn off your keyboard backlights when you don't need them. Secondly, both OS X and Windows 10 have settings that will kill keyboard backlights after the laptop sits idle for a time of your choosing. This setting varies by manufacturer with Windows 10, but on OS X, you'll find it in System Preferences > Keyboard.

Turn off wireless and unplug peripherals

While the display is the primary culprit for draining your laptop's battery, I still want to leave you with two pieces of tried-and-true battery life advice.

1. Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when they aren't needed. Both wireless adapters use battery power to scan for networks and devices and keep you connected.

2. Unplug any peripherals when they aren't in use. An unpowered peripheral draws power from your laptop, which means it'll drain the battery when the laptop isn't plugged in.


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How To Take Care of Your Smartphone Battery the Right Way

Your smartphone is a minor miracle, a pocket-sized computer that can fulfill almost every whim. But none of its superpowers matter a bit if it runs out of juice. With removable batteries becoming more and more rare, you've got to take good care of the one you got. Fortunately, it's not to hard keep the lithium-ion powering your everything-machine happy if you follow a few simple rules.

Outstream Video

Obviously, the first rule for extending your battery life is not using up all your battery life playing Candy Crush and walking around with Wi-Fi and GPS enabled when you're not using either and really, really need your phone to last that extra hour. But aside from that, there are some basic rules for care and charging, and they're the simplest baseline for a healthy battery.

Top it off

You may vaguely recall hearing something about rechargeable batteries and the "memory effect." You know, that if you don't "teach" your rechargeable batteries their full potential by taking them from totally full to totally empty, they'll "forget" part of their capacity. Well forget all that. Right now. It does not apply to your phone.

Battery memory is a real thing, but it applies to nickel-based batteries; your trusty sidekick (literal Sidekick or otherwise) doubtlessly has a lithium-ion battery, and it needs to be treated a little differently. Specifically, it should be topped off whenever you get the chance.

To get the most out of a lithium-ion battery, you should try to keep it north of 50 percent as much as possible. For the most part, going from all the way full to all the way empty won't help; in fact, it'll do a little damage if you do it too often. That said, it's smart to do one full discharge about once a month for "calibration," but don't do it all the time. Running the whole gamut on a regular basis won't make your battery explode or anything, but it will shorten its lifespan.

But! You don't want to have battery charging constantly either; lithium-ion batteries can get overheated. Luckily for you, your charger is smart enough to help with this, and will cut your phone off for a spell once it's full. And to complicate matters a even further, your battery doesn't particularly like being all the way full either. In fact, your battery will behave the best if you take it off the charge before it hits 100 percent, and leaving it plugged when it's already full is going to cause a little degradation.

So if you're really particular about optimizing your battery's life, you should try to go from around 40 percent to around 80 percent in one go, and then back down whenever possible. A bunch of tiny charges throughout the day is your second best bet, and going from zero to 100 and then 100 to zero on a regular basis will put the most strain on your lithium-ion battery.

Keep it cool

It's easy to worry about bad charging habits thanks to the training we've had from old rechargeable batteries, but lithium-ion batteries have a worse enemy than sub-optimal charging: Heat. Your smartphone's battery will degrade much, much faster when it's hot, regardless of whether it's being used or just sitting around doing nothing.

At an average temperature of 32 degrees fahrenheit, a lithium-ion battery will lose six percent of its maximum capacity per year. At 77 degrees, that number jumps to 20 percent, and at 104 degrees it's a whopping 35. Sure, it's not exactly practical (or sane) to keep your phone in the fridge, but it's worth going out of your way to prevent long stays in hot cars and the like.

Avoid wireless charging

Wireless charging can be incredibly convenient if your phone can do it, but it's not without its disadvantages. The inductive, wireless chargers out there today have this nasty habit of generating a fair bit of waste heat. And while wasted energy is just a bummer in general, that heat will also toast your battery in the process. That's no bueno. It's a little less convenient, but standard plug-in charging is going to keep your battery in better shape, especially if you're some place warm to begin with.

Never go to zero

If you're going to be shelving any lithium-ion battery for a long time, try to leave it with at least 40 percent battery power to tide it over. Lithium-ion batteries don't hemorrhage power when their not in use, but they'll lose maybe five to ten percent of their charge each month.

And when lithium-ion batteries get too low—like, literally zero percent—they get seriously unstable, and dangerous to charge. To prevent explosion-type disasters when you go to charge one that's been sitting around for a month or two, lithium-ion batteries have built-in self-destruct circuits that will disable (read: destroy) the battery for good, if it reaches rock bottom. And sure, that'll save you from a face full of battery-acid, but it'll also leave you short one battery.

Only charge fast when you need to

A lot of newer phones support some sort of "fast charging" feature. These suckers will let you juice your phone up from zero to around half-full in just about a half hour. It's a life-saver for when you've only got a few minutes to spare, but it's also not great for you battery. Surprise!

Lithium-ion batteries live their longest lives when charged and discharged at low, consistent speeds. Fast charging is not that. But since fast charging is only for the beginning of a charge cycle—and phones and their chargers are smart enough to only apply the extra voltage when it's useful—the damage isn't too bad. Still, if you're not in a hurry, it's probably better for your battery to apply a slow and steady charge through a low-voltage charger.

Don't sweat it too much

It's easy to get protective of your battery, but it's also easy to get lazy. And that's fine, because as long as you're not a complete idiot, you'll be OK. Typically, a lithium-ion battery lasts for three to five years, and chances are you're going to want to swap out your gadgets sometime in that window anyway. The slight damage of a technically bad idea—like leaving your phone plugged in all night every night, or using fast charging when you need it—is worth the convenience.

Still, it's pretty easy to keep your battery reasonably healthy just by avoiding particularly egregious torture like letting your phone discharge from full to zero every single day, or leaving it in a hot car all the time. And the next time you make it back home with power to spare, you'll thank yourself for it.

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How To Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer

Although battery life is improving greatly with the production of each new smartphone, the world-wide line of phones still has not been perfected. Some smartphones have amazing battery lives that last up to 24 hours, while others have performances that are less than stellar. Fortunately, a cell phone owner can find creative ways to extend battery life. Implementing these strategies will help give a user the extra minutes and hours that he or she needs:

General Battery Saving Tips

Shut Down Unnecessary Applications

Many people end up shortening the battery life on their smartphones by having multiple applications running in the background. A person can easily access the list of applications by going to the application menu and clicking on “running applications.” The user can then end the functionality of a running application by clocking the “force close” button. Force close will completely shut down an Android application so that the battery does not drain as much as it drained beforehand. The application shutdown is the quickest way to save battery life.

Other functions may also be shut down to spare battery life on your smartphone. Examples of extra functions that one could shut off to spare battery life are the GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functions. GPS is a strong application that will run a battery down quickly. Wi-Fi is the second strongest application. Bluetooth is not that bad of an application in terms of burning up battery life, but the phone owner could still shut it down.

Tweak the Display

The display screen often uses a great deal of battery life on a smartphone. One of the things that a person can do to slow down battery draining is changing the settings on the display screen. For example, the brightness can have a huge effect on the quickness of battery drainage. The best way to control it is to go to “Settings,” “Display,” “Brightness” and then “Brightness level” to change the display’s effect on the battery life.

Turn the Phone Off When Not in Use

Turning the phone off when it’s not in use is an excellent way to spare battery life, especially on a long trip. For example, a person can turn the smartphone off if he or she is going to go on a long trip that consists of several hundred miles of a straight line. Then, the individual can turn it back on and have full use of the GPS system for the duration of the trip.

Conduct One Task at a Time

Multitasking is something that many people do without realizing how much it eats up their batteries. The best way to save battery strength is to conduct one task at a time. That way, the processor is not working so hard that the battery drains in the blink of an eye. Users should close applications when they are finished with them instead of letting them run in the background. Simple unitasking can save hours of time on an Android device.

Saving Battery Life on an Android Device

A smartphone user can improve battery life on an Android device in several ways. The first way is the battery life saver mode with which many smartphones come equipped. Power saving mode is the name of this special battery saving mode on various Android devices. It keeps the usage down to a minimum so that the user can receive the maximum amount of time on calls, texts and Internet expeditions. The mode diminishes CPU performance and lowers the screen’s impact on the battery. Power saving mode is an excellent feature for people who have to go on lengthy driving expeditions.

An extended battery is available for most Android cell phones on the market. The extended battery is a fat battery that usually has double the capacity of the factory battery. An extended battery usually comes with an extra door, as well. The original cell phone door cannot accommodate the grand size of the replacement battery. Learn more about how to make your Android battery last longer.

Saving Battery Life on an Apple Device

Two tips exist for saving battery life on an Apple device. The first tip is to disable Siri. Siri is the most energy-consuming application on any Apple device. A second element that one can disconnect is the Ping element. Not every person knows who owns an iPhone realizes that he or she has the Ping service, but it can be found under “settings,” “general,” “restrictions” and then “Ping.” The person can then slide the control switch to the “off” position.

Sparing Battery Life on a Windows Device

Sparing battery life on a Windows device is easy because Windows phones have a “battery saving” mode of their own. The special battery saving mode is already built in to the Windows mobile phone, which means that the user does not have to change any settings. The battery saving mode will automatically kick in when the life of the battery reduces to 20 percent. Many things will occur when the battery saving mode comes on. First, all background apps will cut off to spare battery life. Next, email sync will switch to a manual process instead of battery guzzling automatic process.

If Nothing Else Works

If nothing else works, the last resort is to reset the phone. Resetting may work for a person who is losing battery life quickly. The software may have a glitch in it that will resolve itself with a factory reset. The way to reset an Android device is to touch the “settings” menu and then look for “backup and reset.” The person will be able to erase everything on the memory card and the phone if that is what he or she desires. If the master reset does not work, then it may be time for the user to take the phone back to the stores for an inspection and a possible warranty replacement.

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Installing a Desktop Power Supply

01.Intro and Opening the Case

This guide was developed to instruct readers on the proper procedures for installing a power supply unit (PSU) into a desktop computer case. It includes step-by-step instructions with photographs for the physical installation of the PSU into a computer case.

IMPORTANT: Many name brand manufacturer PCs use specially designed power supplies that have been built specifically for their systems. As a result, it is generally not possible to buy a replacement power supply and install it into these systems. If your power supply is having problems, you will likely need to contact the manufacturer for repairs.

CAUTION: All power supplies contain various capacitors inside of them that retain power even after the power supply had all power turned off. Never open up or insert any metal objects into the vents of the power supply as you can risk electrical shock.

To start with installing a power supply, it is necessary to open up the case. The method for opening the case will vary depending upon its design. Most new cases use either a panel or door while older systems require the whole cover be removed. Be sure to remove any screws fastening the cover to the case and set them aside.

02.Aligning the Power Supply

Align the new PSU into place in the case so that the four mounting holes align properly. Make sure that any air intake fan on the power supply that resides in the case is facing towards the center of the case and not towards the case cover.

03.Fasten the Power Supply

Now comes one of the most difficult portions of the power supply installation. The power supply needs to be held in place while it is fastened to the case with screws. If the case has a shelf ledge that the power supply sits on, it will be easier to balance.

04.Set the Voltage Switch

Make sure that the voltage switch on the back of the power supply is set to the proper voltage level for your country. North America and Japan use 110/115v, while Europe and many other countriesuse 220/230v. In most cases the switch will come preset to the voltage settings for your region.

05.Plug the Power Supply to the Motherboard

If the computer already has the motherboard installed into it, the power leads from the power supply need to be plugged in. Most modern motherboard use the large ATX power connector that gets plugged into the socket on the motherboard. Some motherboards require an additional amount of power through a 4-pin ATX12V connector. Plug this in if required.

06.Connect Power to Devices

A number of items reside within a computer case that require power from the power supply. The most common device is the various hard drives and CD/DVD drives. Typically these use the 4-pin molex style connector. Locate the appropriate sized power leads and plug them into any devices that require power.

07.Close the Computer Case

At this point all of the installation and wiring should be completed with the power supply. Replace the computer cover or panel to the case. Fasten the cover or panel with the screws that were previously removed to open the case.

08.Plug in the Power and Turn on the System

Now all that is left is to provide the power to the computer. Plug in the AC cord to the power supply and turn the switch on the power supply to the ON position. The computer system should have available power and can be powered on. If you are replacing an older or damaged power supply, the steps to remove the power supply are identical to installing them but in the reverse order.

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Guide To Tablet Networking Features

How To Evaluate Which Tablet to Buy Based on Wireless Features

Tablets are great media devices but much of their usage is going to require some form of network connectivity. This is vital for functions such as browsing the web, checking email or streaming audio and video. As a result, network connectivity is built into every tablet available on the market. There are still some major differences between the tablets when it comes to their network features and this guide hopes to clarify some of the choices available to consumers.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is the most ubiquitous form of wireless networking technology. Pretty much every mobile device now comes with some form of Wi-Fi built into the device. This includes all tablets currently on the market. The technology is designed for local area networking so it alone will not connect you to the internet. Instead, it allows connection into a home wireless network that shares a network broadband connection or a public hot spot with internet access. Since public hot spots are very common in many locations including coffee shops, libraries, and airports, it is generally fairly easy to get connected to the internet.

Now Wi-Fi is comprised of multiple standards that are fairly compatible with one another. Most devices are now shipping with 802.11n Wi-Fi which is one of the most flexible of the technologies. The downside is that this can use one or both of the wireless spectrum depending upon what hardware is installed on a tablet.

All version will support the 2.4GHz wireless spectrum which is fully compatible with the older 802.11b and 802.11g networks. Better implementations will also include the 5GHz spectrum which is also compatible with 802.11a networks for the widest possible coverage. Typically devices that support both spectrums will be listed with 802.11a/g/n while 2.4GHz only devices will be 802.11b/g/n.

Another way to describe a device for both is called dual-band or dual antennae.

Speaking of the antennae, another technology that can be found in some tablets is called MIMO. What this does is essentially allow a tablet device to use multiple antennas to essentially provide increased data bandwidth by broadcasting over multiple channels in the Wi-Fi standard. In addition to increased bandwidth, this can also improve reliability and range of a tablet on Wi-Fi networks.

Recently some new 5G Wi-Fi networking products have started to be released. These are based on the 802.11ac standards. These products claim to be able to achieve transfer rates of up to 1.3Gbps which is three times the maximum that 802.11n and similar to that of gigabit ethernet. Like the 802.11a standard, it uses the 5GHz frequency but it is dual-band meaning it also supports 802.11n on the 2.4GHz frequency. While this is available in router products, it is not widely implemented on many tablets primarily because of the high cost of adding the extra antennae.

Here is a breakdown of the various Wi-Fi standards along with their features:

Ÿ 802.11ac - Up to 1.3Gbps, 5GHz Band with 2.4GHz Compatibility via 802.11n

Ÿ 802.11n - Up To 450Mbps Standard, 2.4 or 5GHz Band

Ÿ 802.11a - 54Mbps, 5GHz Band, Used Mainly By Corporations

Ÿ 802.11g - 54Mbps, 2.4GHz Band

Ÿ 802.11b - 11Mbps, 2.4GHz Band

3G/4G Wireless (Cellular)

Any tablet that offers 3G or 4G wireless connectivity has extra costs to it. Consumers will have to pay more in the hardware of the device in order to cover the additional transceivers. Typically this adds roughly one hundred dollars to the cost of the tablet but some are not so high of a price jump anymore. Now that you have the hardware, you must sign up for a wireless service plan with a carrier that the tablet is compatible with to use it on a 3G or 4G network.

Most data plans with wireless carriers are linked to a data cap that limits how much data you can download over that connection in a given month. For instance, a carrier might have a very low-cost option but caps it at just 1GB of data which is very low for some uses such as streaming. Just be warned that carriers may do different things once you reach that cap. Some may actually stop allowing data to be downloaded or others might throttle it so that things like streaming do not function. Some instead allow you to keep downloading and then charge you overage fees that are quite high. Some unlimited data plans still have caps on them that allow downloading up to a certain data amount at the full networks speeds but then reduce your network speeds for any data over the cap. This is referred to as data throttling. This can make comparing data plans very difficult as it is not easy to track how much data you might use before you have the device.

The 4G technology used to be somewhat complex because it was being rolled out in different ways by multiple carriers. Now they have all pretty much standardized on LTE which offers speeds of roughly 5 to 14 Mbps. Just like with 3G technology, tablets are typically locked down to a specific carrier based upon their internal SIM card. So be sure to research what carrier you might use before you purchase a tablet with LTE capabilities. Be sure to also verify that LTE coverage is supported where you will be using the tablet before spending the money for the feature as the coverage while good still is not quite as far reaching as 3G.

3G is previous data standards for cellular data but is not as common on most newer devices. It is a bit more complicated than 4G because it is based upon on a variety of different technologies but it essentially boils down to either being compatible with GSM or CDMA networks. These run over different frequency and signal technologies so they are not cross compatible within a device. GSM networks are managed by AT&T and T-Mobile while CDMA networks are handled by Sprint and Verizon within the US. Speeds are roughly the same at 1 to 2Mbps but reliability may be better with one network over another in a region. As a result, check coverage maps and reports. Typically, a 3G compatible tablet will be locked into one service provider due to exclusivity contracts within the US that allow the hardware to be locked to a specific provider. As a result, figure out which network you want to use before choosing your tablet. 3G features are becoming less common in favor of the new 4G wireless technology.

Bluetooth and Tethering

Bluetooth technology is primarily a means of connecting wireless peripherals to mobile devices often referred to as a Personal Area Network (PAN). This includes items such as keyboards or headsets. The technology can also be used as local networking for transferring files between devices. One function that people may consider using though is tethering.

Tethering is a method of linking a mobile device such as a laptop or tablet with a mobile phone to share the wireless broadband connection. This can theoretically be done with any device that has a wireless broadband connection and Bluetooth with another Bluetooth device. So, a 3G/4G capable tablet could share it with a laptop or a 3G/4G mobile phone could share a connection with a tablet. The problem is that most wireless carriers have been able to force the hardware and software companies to lock out these features within the US networks. As a result, it really is not a very functional method for the average user but is possible for those willing to unlock their devices or pay the carriers for the privilege to use such a feature.

If you are interested in using such a function, check with the wireless carrier and the device manufacturer to ensure that it is possible before buying any hardware. Some carriers have begun to offer it but with additional fees involved. Additionally, the feature could always be removed by the carriers at a later date.

Wireless Base Stations / Mobile Hotspots / MiFi

Wireless base stations or mobile hotspots are a new form of technology that allows an individual to connect a wireless router to a high-speed wireless network such as 3G or 4G networks and allowing other devices that have standard Wi-Fi to share that broadband connection. The first such device was called the MiFi produced by Novatel networks. While these solutions are not as portable as having the wireless broadband built into the tablet itself, they are useful because it allows the connection to be used with a greater number of devices and gives users the flexibility of purchasing less expensive hardware. The MiFi devices will still be locked into a carrier and require a data contract just like having the wireless contact for a tablet-specific 3G/4G service.

Interestingly, some of the new tablets with 4G technology built into them have the possibility of being used at a hotspot for other Wi-Fi enabled devices. This is a very attractive feature for those that have a tablet and a laptop that would like to use both over a single data contract. As always, check to make sure that the tablet and data contract allows for this functionality.

Near Field Computing

NFC or near field computing is a relatively new short-range networking system. The most common use of the technology right now is a mobile payment system such as Google Wallet and Apple Pay. Theoretically, it could be used for more than just payment but also for syncing to PCs or other tablets. A few tablets are now beginning to feature this technology.

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Set Up Your New Android Smartphone in a Snap

So you have a new Android smartphone. Maybe it's the Google Pixel or the latest model from Samsung, Motorola, or OnePlus. Whichever one you choose, you'll want to get it up and running as fast as possible.

Setting up a new Android smartphone used to be rather tedious and labor intensive, but if you have Android Lollipop, Marshmallow, or Nougat, there are ways to avoid manually downloading your favorite apps one at a time or building your contact list all over again.

First, there's Tap & Go, which uses NFC (near field communication) to transfer data between your new and old phone. All that's required is that your new phone runs Lollipop, Marshmallow, or Nougat and that your old phone has built-in NFC, which came to Android phones in 2010. If your old device doesn't have NFC (or you just don't have it handy), a second option enables you to restore selected apps from any of your registered devices. Of course, if you choose, you can still set up your Android device from scratch.

Google Pixel owners have yet another alternative, using an included quick switch adaptor. Just connect the new and old devices, choose what you'd like to transfer, and you're ready to go. You can connect the adapter to devices running Android 5.0 (Lollipop) or later and iPhones running iOS 8 or later.

Android Tap & Go

When you start up your new device, you have the option to use Tap & Go.

Just enable NFC in both phones and tap the backs together. The data, including your Google accounts and apps from your old phone, will begin transferring to the new one. If you use Google Now, this process will also restore your home screens.

Restore From an Old Android Device

What if your old phone doesn't have NFC?

During set-up, if you skip Tap & Go, you can choose the restore option, which enables you to choose which of your devices you want to restore from, and what, specifically, you want to carry over to the new phone. You can restore any Android device associated with your Google account.

Start From Scratch

You can also make a fresh start, and simply "set up as new device," if you'd like to install your apps manually. If you have synced your contacts with your Google account, those will carry over once you sign in.

Once you've installed your apps, you should check for updates on built-in apps, such as those from Google. Next, you'll want to set-up Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and then customize your notifications.

Should You Root Your New Phone?

Next, you should consider whether you want to root your phone. If you have the OnePlus One, there's no need; it already runs a custom ROM, Cyanogen. Rooting means you can access advanced settings on your phone that are typically blocked by the manufacturer. When you root your phone, you can remove "bloatware" (unwanted apps installed by your carrier) and download apps, such as Titanium Backup, that require root access.

Android Accessories

Now that you have the software covered, it's time to think about the hardware.

Do you need a case? You can protect your smartphone from drops and spills and be stylish at the same time. What about a portable charger? Investing in one means you don't have to worry about being low on battery life when you're on the go, and you can usually use one to charge multiple devices. If your new phone has wireless charging built in, consider buying a wireless charging pad. Some device manufacturers, including Samsung, sell these, as well as many third-party companies. Instead of plugging in, you can just place your phone on the charging pad.


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Low Cost Windows Laptops vs. Tablets

Many years ago, the netbook was the king of low cost mobile computing. With the rise of tablets and the increasing costs of netbooks, most consumers elected to use tablets. Now a new class of low cost laptops running full versions of Windows are avaiable for roughly $200. This makes the decision of which would be better for a bit more difficult. This article looks at the two different platforms and how they compare in terms of usage to help consumers decide which of the two might be better suited for their needs.

Pricing

The new low cost computing platform is tablets these days. It is easy to find a tablet for under $100 make them half the cost of even the least expensive Windows laptop. Even Intel's latest Compute Stick, which is not really a mobile device, is three times the cost of the Amazon Fire tablet. So, if you are on a really tight budget the tablet is still king of low cost computing when compared to even the least expensive Windows laptops.

Size

Once again, tablets tend to offer a smaller overall size than the low cost Windows laptops. Much of this has to do with the fact that the tablets tend to use 8-inch or smaller screens compared to the 11-inch screen size you find in the low cost Windows laptops. This smaller screen means that they also don't require as much power for their displays letting them reduce the size of batteries as well. The result, a device that is thinner, smaller and ultimately lighter.

The average tablet weight is around one pound or less while most laptops still weigh in at two pounds or more.

Performance

This category is much more difficult to classify as devices can vary greatly in performance and most tablets are running different software than a laptop running Windows. For the most part in terms of raw performance, the Windows laptops tend to have better processors and capabilities.

The problem is that depending on what you do, a tablet with less might still perform better because the software is more streamlined than the laptop. As a result, this is really a toss up over which is better. This one really requires a side by side comparison of the two devices

Battery Life

With their extremely efficient processors, smaller screens and generally larger batteries, tablets tend to give more running time than most Windows laptops. The difference between the two keeps getting smaller as time goes on. In fact, many of the new tablets with their smaller size have shorter running time than the larger tablets from a few years ago. In contrast, efficiency keeps improving on laptops moving their running times up. Still, you can generally expect more than six hours of video watching with a tablet compared to less than that for a Windows laptop. Just remember, all devices tend to claim longer battery life than they really get.

Software

Years ago, it was easy to say that a Windows based laptop enjoyed a greater overall selection of application choices compared to a tablet. But things have changed a lot over the years. For instance, most tablets offer a greater range of entertainment options in terms of games than a Windows laptop.

In addition, productivity software options have improved for tablets making them much closer to the Windows software than in the past. The decision here really depends on what you intend to do with the device. If you are looking to use it mostly for browser the web, reading mail and playing games, a tablet has the clear advantage these days. If you need to run Windows specific programs or use productivity software, the Windows laptops still have a bit of an advantage. Of course, there are also Windows based tablets as well which sort of straddle both of the categories if you need that flexibility.

Expansion

Tablets may have a lot of accessories for them but most of them don't add additional capabilities. You can probably add some extra storage if it has a miniSD card slot but you can't do much else beyond this. On the other hand, the Windows laptops at least have features like USB 3.0 that let you add better keyboards, mice, storage and even displays to the laptop to make them more functional.

Usability

This is a category where each of the devices has its own advantages and disadvanteages over the other. After all, the tablets are all touchscreen devices. This makes the extremely easy to use with a single hand and to quickly navigate through pages and applications with simple gestures. On the other hand, the touchscreen and the laptop of a keyboard makes them much more difficult for entering a lot of text. So you if are writing a lot of documents, fiddling with spreadsheets or just trying to communicate effectively with email, the laptop with the keyboard is probably the better overall choice.

Which is Right For You?

Each person is going to need something a bit different out of their computing. Hopefully, this comparison of different aspects between the tablets and low cost Windows laptops have helped narrow down your decision. For me, the Windows laptops are still a bit too restricted compared to a traditional laptop that a tablet fills my needs better than a $200 laptop. This is not true for a number of my colleauges that prefer the access to a keyboard to do their writing such that they would opt for the laptop over the tablet.

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Why Does Your Device Have Less Battery Life Than Advertised?

You have seen the claims that a laptop or tablet will run six, eight and even more than twelve hours on a single charge. These sound like spectacular feats that would actually allow one to use a device for an entire transoceanic flight. The problem is that most of these devices would not be able to run for that long. How can manufacturers make such claims about their laptops or tablets even though users are unable to achieve such results?

Battery Capacity and Power Consumption

There are two things that will be the basis for determining how long a laptop or tablet should run on batteries. Of course, the overall capacity of the battery is the easiest to determine and understand. All batteries can store a fixed amount of energy in them. This is generally listed as either mAh (milliamp hours) or Whr (watt hours). The higher the number that a battery is rated at, the more energy that is stored in the battery.

Why is the battery capacity important? If two devices that use the same amount of power, the one with a higher mAh or Whr rated battery will last longer. This makes comparison easy for the batteries themselves. The problem is that no two configurations will draw the same amount of power.

The power consumption of a laptop or tablet depends upon all of the components inside of it. So, a system with a processor that consumes less power will generally last longer if all parts are equal but they almost never are.

It gets even more complicated because the power consumption can also vary depending upon how the device is being used. Certain tasks on devices tend to use up more power. For instance, a brighter screen or a more intensive application will often cause the device to pull more power from the battery thus shortening the running time.

It used to be that the size of the device could easily let you know how much power and how long of a running time it might produce. This has changed as the processing capabilities of today's processors has gotten much more powerful than the applications most people use them for. More and more companies are moving to more energy efficient processors that provide enough performance for our applications while also providing longer running times.

Manufacturer Claims

Now that the basics are out of the way, how can a manufacturer come up with a claim of something like ten hours of running time for a laptop yet a user in real world use may get only half as much time? It all has to do with how the manufacturers conduct their battery life tests. The most common of these is a function of the MobileMark for laptops and TabletMark for tablets benchmarking suites from BapCo. They simulate computer usage through application use and web browsing to best approximate how people use their laptop or tablet.

Now, in theory, this is a good plan to trying and simulate general usage. The problem is that no person uses their device in the same manner and the test results they provide generally don't match to real world usage.

The test generally has the CPU idle during much of the test on the basis that many people are either idle or their applications are awaiting user input. It also does not set various power settings within the OS and device. Manufacturers often use various tricks such as decreasing the display brightness to the lowest levels and turning all of the battery saving features to their maximum so they can get the highest run times possible even if it means less than desirable real world use for consumers.

If you happen to use your laptop or tablet to just browse the web and check email, the results may match up very well with manufacturer claims.

The problem is that most of us are not using it the same way the tests are designed for. For instance, we often have the brightness much higher than the minimum. This is especially true for mobile devices used outdoors where they have to be set near maximum just to be visible. Also, many people use their devices for playing games or watching media which produces a more consistent and higher power draw than the benchmark tests.

How To Test for Battery Life

Do not use any benchmarking application when testing for battery life or the various tricks that the manufacturers may use to get their various numbers for advertising. Instead, use a video playback test on all laptops and tablets using the default power profiles and software settings that they ship with. This video playback is then looped and timed until the device goes into an automatic shutdown for low battery by the operating system.

For instance, on long airplane flights, many people use their devices as media players to keep themselves entertained. Many people also tend to binge watch the streaming video through services like Netflix. The best part though is that this is a test that can be done on any device, laptop or tablet making for a good test between different operating systems like Mac OS X or Windows as well as Android or iOS.

What Consumers Should Do With Battery Life Numbers

Any consumer who is presented by a battery life number while researching a product needs to be wary. Some manufacturers are better than others at disclosing how they achieve their results. For instance, they may say that they used the MobileMark testing suite with the brightness set to something like 150 nits (often less than 50 percent brightness levels). Such a claim will often let you know that the time might be inflated compared to another than states it achieved their results in a video playback loop at 75% brightness levels. If there is no disclaimer on how the running time was achieved, assume that they used the automated testing suites with the most advantageous power settings on the device.

Once you have determined how the running time estimates for the laptop or tablet have been generating, you can estimate the approximate running time you may get based upon how you will use the device. There are generally three classes of users that people fall into:

l Light users primarily use their devices for browsing the web and office software. Light Usage: Claimed Time x .85

l Medium users tend to use their devices for streaming video for long stretches of time. Medium Usage: Claimed Time x .75

l Heavy users are ones that like to play games or do tasks like desktop video editing. Heavy Usage: Claimed Time x .50

These formulas are just an estimate and one based upon the most advantageous and generous times for a manufacturer. If for instance the estimate is based on a video playback look, a light user might actually see longer running times while a medium user may have equal and the heavy user still sees less.

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Choosing the Right Camera Batteries

The camera battery has evolved and it is not as simple as picking up a pack of AAs at the drug store anymore. Many cameras use very specific batteries that can only be found at camera or computer stores.

The battery is the power source for your digital camera and it is essential that you use the correct battery in order for your camera to work correctly when you need it to. Remember, without a good battery, you cannot take a picture!

Proprietary vs. Common Batteries

The majority of cameras now require a certain style of battery for a particular camera. Battery styles vary by both manufacturer and camera model. It is very important to purchase the battery made specifically for your camera model!

Do a search for 'Nikon battery' or 'Canon battery' and you will find many different shapes of batteries even within that particular manufacturer. Some are for point and shoot cameras while others are for DSLR cameras.

The nice thing is that most (not all!) DSLR cameras by one manufacturer use the same style of battery. This is convenient when upgrading bodies because you can (again, in most cases) use the same batteries in your new camera that you did in the old camera.

On the other side, there are a few cameras that continue to use common battery sizes such as AAA or AA. This is found most often in point and shoot cameras.

Some DSLR cameras can be fitted with a vertical grip accessory that holds two of the brand's proprietary batteries and this could also be adapted to fit the common battery sizes.

Check your camera body's accessory list to see if this is possible.

Types of Batteries

Disposable

For cameras that use AA or AAA batteries, disposables should only be used in an emergency when no charger is available. They are too expensive to use every day.

Try carrying disposable lithium AAs for emergencies.

They are more expensive, but they hold three times the charge and weigh about half as much as standard alkaline AA batteries.

Common Rechargeable AAs and AAAs (NiCd and NiMH)

Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries are more efficient than the older Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) batteries.

NiMH batteries are more than twice as powerful, and they also have no "memory effect," which is the effect that builds up if you re-charge a NiCd battery before it's fully discharged. The memory effect essentially reduces the maximum capacity of future charges, and the memory effect becomes worse if repeated.

Rechargeable Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion)

These are the most commonly used style of battery in digital cameras, particularly in DSLRs. They are lighter, more powerful, and more compact than NiMH batteries, but they do cost more.

Li-ion batteries come in brand-specific formats, although a few cameras accept disposable lithium batteries (such as CR2s) via an adapter.

Brand Name vs. Generic Batteries

Today's camera manufacturers are also in the battery business. They produce their proprietary batteries under their name so consumers get a battery they can (hopefully) trust. Canon and Nikon both produce batteries for every camera they sell and many other camera manufacturers do as well.

As is often the case, generic brands do exist in the digital camera market. They are the exact size and shape of the brand name batteries and will often have the same output of power. They are also considerably cheaper.

While all generic batteries are not bad, caution should be taken when buying one. Read reviews!

The problem may not be seen immediately with generic batteries, but it may appear in the future. One of the most common issues is the battery's ability to hold a good charge in a year or two. Granted, it is not unheard of for any rechargeable battery to go weak, but it often seems that generics go weaker more quickly than the brand names.

The point is that you should do your research. Consider whether the money saved on a generic battery today is worth the potential problems and quicker replacement that may be required.

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