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MacBooks and batteries

You know what I love about Apple, they work on getting morons to stop abusing their Macs.
 
In Leopard, they stopped you from being able to change the name of your home folder. In the MacBook Air and new MacBook Pros, as well as all iPods and iPhones, you can't even remove the batteries without taking the gadget apart and they're not user replaceable.
 
What is this saying to you? It's saying Apple doesn't want you to use their notebooks without the battery, so use the battery at ALL TIMES.
 
AT. ALL. TIMES. unless you're changing the battery in which case the power is cut anyway.
 
Do you know what "at all times mean"? No? Look it up in the Dictionary app. It's in your Mac. You don't know there's a Dictionary app in your Mac? You're using Mac OS 9? Get away from my face.

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Filed under  //   apple   battery   iphone   ipod   macbook  

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Macworld's battery test


I like to go by Macworld.com's battery comparison tests for Apple's portables. Not because they're accurate for day-to-day operations, which they're not, far from it, but it allows a standardized testing across models which makes it rather reliable and believable in determining battery duration.

What they do is they turn up the brightness to the maximum and load up a full-screen movie ripped from a DVD, in a loop.

However I noticed something strange while reading the battery test for the new 2.0GHz white MacBook with Nvidia GeForce 9400M.

James Galbraith's testing yield 2 hours and 42 minutes which he claimed to be 10 minutes longer than the previous MacBook running a 2.1GHz processor with Intel X3100 graphics and 6 minutes longer than the 2.0GHz unibody MacBook.

I found this odd because Macworld's own testing a few months earlier came to different results. Aluminum 2.0GHz MacBook ran out of juice after 2 hours and 33 minutes, which still fell in line with the new results but the older 2.1GHz MacBook ended up with 2 hours and 57 minutes.

This means the older MacBook's battery last 15 minutes longer, not 10 minutes shorter, than the current MacBook's battery.

Do let me know if I mistook the results but that's how things look from where I'm sitting.

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Filed under  //   Apple   batteries   battery   MacBook   Macworld   test  

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Burnt MacBook still alive

Detikinet reported yesterday that a MacBook owner in Jakarta saw smoke coming out of his notebook bag which housed his MacBook. He discovered that the MacBook was on fire due an overheating battery. I was informed by another source that Detik actually sought permission and confirmation to Apple's Singapore office before posting that story.

An investigation by eStore, the Apple Authorized Service Provider that received the burnt MacBook, found that it was a first generation 2006 1.83GHz white MacBook.

I'm still checking whether it was part of a 2007 battery recall program.

What was amazing was that despite being burnt quite badly, the MacBook was in a very good working condition albeit rather unsightly and with an undulating trackpad surface which was easily taken care of by using a mouse.

                           

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Filed under  //   accident   apple   battery   burn   fire   macbook   miracle  

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iPod battery lifetime

@arisaja was wondering how long an iPod battery lasts.


Well, it all depends on what kind of iPod he has, how long since it was first bought and how he uses it. Here's a primer straight from Apple on the latest models. All figures are "up to".


iPod

Audio (hours)

Video (hours)

shuffle

12

-

nano

24

4

classic

36

6

touch

36

6


These are all figures taken from playing songs or videos continuously from full charge until the battery has no power left. No fiddling with controls, no switching media, no shuffling, no skipping, nothing. Just hit play, let it play continuously, on loop if need be, and lock it. 


It is widely proven through various testing sessions by multiple independent parties such as iLounge, Macworld, WSJ and NYT over the years, that unlike with its notebook batteries, Apple tend to underestimate the battery capabilities on iPods so it should not come as a surprise that your iPod may last longer per charge than Apple's claims.


The iPod touch however, is not so clear cut. Being the most flexible iPod model, it is not simply a music or video player. An iPod touch is a mobile computing platform capable of performing a multitude of tasks such as accessing the internet, playing games, creating and reading documents, recording conversations, and even image manipulation.


To ascertain a typical usage of an iPod touch is made even more complex given its wifi ability and thus connectivity to the internet. One does not simply use an iPod touch for music or video. Even when listening to music, its possible to run another application and have the music in the background. Regardless, a new iPod touch should last around one full day from a single charge.


If your iPod is less than a year old and is getting less power out of it that it is meant to get, it might be time to bring it in to a service provider for an exchange. Free if under warranty or about $75 if not. This price is valid for ASPs in Indonesia.

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Filed under  //   apple   battery   ipod  

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