Posted 10/30/09 at 08:42:11 PM by Ryan Whitwam

More than anything else, battery technology holds back mobile innovation. Sure, we’d all like super fast mobile CPUs, but the 10 minutes of battery life we’d get isn’t a good trade off. Battery technology has, thus far, advanced at a depressingly slow rate. However, rechargeable zinc-air batteries could actually deliver changes next year.

A company called ReVolt claims to have developed a way to make zinc-air batteries rechargeable. The batteries use oxygen from the air to generate current. Also, they don’t contain any of the toxic materials that are found in lithium-ion batteries, which are estimated to only hold one-third as much power.

In sciency terms, these batteries rely on reduction/oxidation reactions between a zinc and air (oxygen) electrodes. By using new gelling and binding agents, the previously single use batteries can be recharged. They have been tested for up to 100 cycles, but could be capable of 300-500. Smaller batteries for cell phones and hearing aids are supposed to show up in 2010. If that goes well, larger versions for electric cars could be produced. Will this revolutionize the tech world, or is it just so much hot air?

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Posted 09/02/09 at 08:18:53 PM by Pulkit Chandna

In a public display of their legendary camaraderie and combined muscle, Intel and Microsoft tried to convince a gathering of reporters in San Francisco yesterday that new Wintel PCs - featuring Intel’s yet-to-be-launched Westmere processors (32nm) and running Windows 7 - will offer vast improvements in the way of faster performance and greater power efficiency.  

They demonstrated Windows 7’s frugal power management by running a DVD on two identically configured ThinkPad T400s. The T400 running Windows 7 only consumed 15.4 watts, while its Vista-toting twin hogged 20.2 watts. The executives claimed that this translates into an additional battery life of 1.4 hours.

The impressive power efficiency on offer can be imputed to a technology called Windows timer coalescing, which “helps improve the energy efficiency of periodic software activity by expiring multiple distinct software timers at the same time to increase the average processor idle period."

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Posted 03/24/09 at 05:47:11 PM by Andy Salisbury

Just this week Samsung introduced two netbooks that reportedly last up to 11-hours on battery power alone – an impressive number.

The first of the new netbooks is the N110, a machine that features an Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD, Intel’s GMA 950 graphics, a 1024x600 screen, and 802.11g WiFi.

Second up is the N130 (pictured), with an Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD, Intel’s GMA 950 graphics processing, a 1024x600 screen and, of course, built-in WiFi.

Now, I do realize that I just repeated myself almost completely over the last two paragraphs, but other than aesthetics (and price) there’s nothing setting these two apart from one another. The N110 will cost $469 and be available during the first week of April, while the N310 is coming “in the next couple of months” for about $580.

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Posted 11/06/08 at 09:17:16 PM by Mark Edward Soper

This year's edition of WinHEC, which has already demonstrated Windows 7's digital goodness with Device Stage, has more good news about Microsoft's next desktop operating system:

• Longer battery life
• Faster boot times

As Maximum PC.com readers know, better hardware support has been a major goal of Windows 7 right from the start, and it looks as if Windows 7, even in its pre-beta stage, is making impressive strides.

Engadget has posted a video from WinHEC that shows a Windows 7 machine providing energy savings equivalent to an extra hour of DVD playback: you won't have to worry about running out of power before the movie ends, and you'll even have enough juice for a special feature or two.

WinHEC also featured Microsoft exec Jon DeVaan, the Senior Vice President in charge of Core Operating System Division, performing a "boot drag race" pitting identical machines running Windows 7 and Windows Vista: Windows 7 won by several seconds. It's part of DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky's keynote address, which you can see at the WinHEC virtual pressroom.

To find out who else is seeing the improvements in Windows 7, join us after the jump.

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Posted 08/14/08 at 03:30:58 PM by Norman Chan

The torrent of business laptop announcements continue. Earlier this week, we took a look at the new Lenono Thinkpad W700 and HP Elitebook 8730w 17” mobile workstations announcements, and now Dell is making itself heard with a completely revamped Latitude Business notebook lineup. We attended the Dell Mobility press conference event in San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art to check out the new laptops, which are infused with some very interesting technologies: 19-hour battery life and an always-on Linux-based OS frontend.

Click through for more saucy details, our hands-on impressions, and of course, high res photos!

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