Battery

How to add a battery level indicator to the status bar

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 16, 2014

BatteryStatusBar is a recently released tweak that allows you to add a battery indicator to the top of the iPhone's screen. The indicator, which rests in the same location as the status bar, reflects your current battery status using a colored bar.

The color of the BatteryStatusBar changes depending on your battery level. A green bar means you have over 65% of battery life remaining, and the color changes to orange or red as the battery level decreases. BatteryStatusBar isn't perfect, but it's a different take on battery level awareness. Have a look at our full walkthrough inside for more details.

BlackBerry CEO calls iPhone users ‘wall huggers’ due to poor battery life

Cody Lee ∙ March 9, 2014

BlackBerry's newly appointed CEO John Chen isn't afraid to ruffle a few feathers. Last month he penned an open letter regarding T-Mobile's 'ill-conceived' iPhone promotion, and this past week he went after the iPhone users themselves.

Speaking at the Oasis Montgomery conference, Chen was asked for his thoughts on the surging popularity of the iPhone. And his response was 'I call you guys wall huggers,' suggesting the handset is unable to last a full day on a single charge...

Apple’s M7 motion coprocessor caught tracking movement after battery dies

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 5, 2014

Apple's M7 motion tracking chip found inside the iPhone 5s, iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display is apparently able to track a user's motion activity even after the battery dies. According to a post by Reddit user Glarznak, his iPhone 5s was able to track his every movement even after the battery died on him. He was able to confirm this by using the Argus fitness app which showed a number of steps for the four days that his phone was dead...

BattSaver for iOS 7: manage your iPhone’s radios to increase battery life

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 23, 2014

BattSaver, a battery saving jailbreak app that we reviewed in-depth a couple of years ago, has been updated for iOS 7 compatibility. It's basically the same jailbreak release that we reviewed before, except this time around it works for iOS 7 and arm64 devices like the iPhone 5s.

As we explained in our initial review, BattSaver isn't necessarily performing any magic, it just manages the radios on your device in such a way so that you can save battery life. Many of the same strategies are incorporated in this updated version of BattSaver, including Normal and Aggressive battery saving strategies. Have a look inside for more details.

iWatch to tap LG Chem’s energy efficient stepped batteries, rumor has it

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

As Apple continues to build up its team of world-class sleep researchers, medical device experts and biosensing ace engineers for the iWatch team, the rumor-mill is in full swing with related chatter originating from the company's vast network of Taiwanese suppliers and contract manufacturers.

The latest rumor: the company is tackling battery challenges said to plague the project by using so-called stepped batteries, a technology offering better longevity and enhanced energy density versus the traditional solutions.

Stepped batteries can be applied to different shapes and, as a bonus, boost capacity by as much as sixteen percent. Conveniently, Apple recently filed for a patent detailing a flexible battery design that specifically mentions wearable devices...

Apple reportedly working on solar, motion charging for iWatch

Cody Lee ∙ February 2, 2014

The New York Times is out with a new report this evening, claiming that Apple is exploring a variety of different charging methods for its mobile devices in an effort to improve battery life. These methods include induction, solar and kinetic.

While patents and other evidence suggest that the company has been experimenting with these technologies for years now, the report cites sources within Apple saying that interest has been reinvigorated by the oft-rumored iWatch project...

Good deal: 75% off this pocket-sized USB battery pack

Cody Lee ∙ January 29, 2014

One of the most popular tech gifts and/or stock stuffers, this past holiday season was the portable USB charger. I know I included one in my Holiday gift guide, simply because they're small enough to take with you when you're on the go and very convenient.

But for those of you who didn't score a new portable USB charger this Christmas, you may be interested to know that Stack Social is running a deal on the Keychain Power Bank. For a limited time, you can grab the 2600mAh battery pack for less than $15...

Incipio boasts multiple backup power options

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated November 30, 2016

Right before leaving for CES, I received a survival pack from Incipio. CES survival is not necessarily about human survival, as much as it is about gadget survival. Opening the survival kit revealed an offGRID iPhone 5 Backup Battery Case and the offGRID Portable Backup Battery, both of which came in handy on my trip. An iPhone must eat too and at a large day-long event where signal is weak, battery juice drains like a leaking faucet.

Having portable power is essential when traveling or even if your older iPhone battery is not fit. Long plane rides are murder on an iOS device when chain smoking videos and Infinity Blade III sessions. Save yourself a dead device and take along a backup battery that is light and powerful...

Mophie introduces new ‘Space Pack’ iPhone case with built-in battery and storage

Cody Lee ∙ January 7, 2014

Mophie added a new edition to its family of popular Juice Pack iPhone cases today. It's called the Space Pack, and just like Mophie's other cases, it features a built-in battery that can essentially double your iPhone's battery life.

But what really stands out about this new accessory is that it also features built-in storage. That's right, the Space Pack supports a number of different file types and can increase the capacity of your iPhone 5/5s by 16 or 32 GB...

22 hours of battery life from a laptop? Toshiba says so

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

I've been tripping over my own words in order to find the right phrase to express my satisfaction with the new MacBook Air. At well over 10 hours of battery life from a single charge, it's been an absolute game changer for me.

I have the 11" variety of the MacBook Air, and while Apple's officially stated battery life is 9 hours, I've always done a bit better than that. The 13" variety officially gets 12 hours of battery life, but it wouldn't surprise me to see it get somewhere in the 13-14 hour range.

Apple is famously bearish when it comes to battery life predictions, which means users generally end up with the pleasant surprise of even higher numbers than Apple's company line. But now, out of seemingly nowhere, Toshiba is claiming that its upcoming 2.5 pound ultra book will get an insane 22 hours of battery life.

Unless those estimates are egregiously overstated, this could be very good news for the next generation MacBook Air.

Retina iPad mini teardown: LG Display Retina panel, larger battery, A7 and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 13, 2013

Yesterday, I wondered on Twitter what was taking the repair magicians over at iFixit so long to do their ritual teardown of Apple's stealthily-released iPad mini with Retina display. My prayers have been listened to as iFixit has torn apart the device, revealing its guts and components for the whole world to see. As you could imagine, they found an Apple-designed A7 chip inside, slightly underclocked versus the iPad Air.

On top of that, there are usual suspects in terms of wireless and supporting chips. As for the titular update to this iPad mini - the Retina display - the teardown analysis has identified an LG Display-supplied 7.9-inch in-plane switching LCD with a 2,048-by-1,536 screen resolution.

While the resolution is the same as the iPad 3/4/Air, the images are crisper at 326 pixels per inch (264 ppi on the iPad Air) due to a shrunken form factor, as noted MacStories editor Federico Viticci noted in his hands-on article.

Other tidbits follow...

Despite smaller battery, iPad Air still lasts 24-hours as LTE hotspot

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

As noted by iFixit in its recent teardown, the iPad Air's battery is noticeably smaller than its predecessor (32.9 Whr vs. 43 Whr). But thanks to the efficiency of the A7 chip and other internal mods, it still gets great battery life.

In addition to Apple's usual claim of 10-hours of web-browsing, moving-watching, etc, a weekend test by the folks over at AnandTech shows that the newly-released tablet can still last for more than 24 hours as an LTE hotspot...