battery

You know the old saying: you can never be too rich or too thin, or have too much battery power for your Android phone.

If you're forever running low on juice, you've probably thought about packing along a spare battery -- but that's a hassle. Not only do you need a way to keep it charged, you also need a convenient place to stow it.… Read more

The iPhone 5 has arrived, and it's pretty great. But I can't shake this nagging feeling that Apple could have done more.

A week ago, CNET's David Carnoy penned a great roundup of the most-wanted features that didn't make it into the iPhone 5. It seemed like easy pickings for a Top 5 video, so I imposed a ranking, stood in front of a camera, and created the video you see before you (click here if you don't see a video at the top of this … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week readers wrote in with questions regarding an odd APSD-related firewall error in OS X, the utility and risks of having Java runtimes installed, options for maintaining Mountain Lion on corporate networks, and MacBook battery charging. We welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Best practices to prolong battery life MacFixIt reader Jonathan asks:

We've seen battery packs, and even rear casings for what could very well be Apple's next iPhone, and now you can see both those things (along with other internal goodies) put together.

Repair site iResQ once again has posted what it says are leaked replacement parts for the unannounced, unreleased Apple device. That includes the rear casing, along with what looks to be the same battery pack that cropped up last month. iResQ has put the two pieces together, which you can see in the photo on the right.

"Along with all of the other parts that … Read more

Smartphones are the Swiss Army Knives of the tech world.

They're cell phones, music and video players, mobile Web browsers, and personal organizers, among other things. Not surprisingly, all this can take a toll on battery life, and when you depend on your smartphone for so much, the last thing you want is for it to run out of juice when you need it most.

Generally speaking, with moderate use, smartphones can give you a full day's performance before needing to be recharged, but not all gadgets are created equal -- some simply run out of steam early, whereas others will hang in there for the long haul. Here are six smartphones with battery usage that really impressed us, whether it was because they scored well in our CNET Labs battery tests, or simply because their usage time stood out from the crowd of humdrum cell phone batteries we encountered (and believe us, we encounter a lot). Give one of these devices a try if you're looking for a phone that packs some decent juice.… Read more

Imagine a smartphone that charges completely in 5 minutes and lasts a full 10 hours before running on empty. Crazy, right? Toting along the charging cord is just another part of life with 4G streaming and a power-hungry screen.

Back in January, Motorola's Droid Razr Maxx offered the first real glimmer of hope for long-life batteries with the 3,300mAh ticker that dwarfed the battery in any other available handset -- it ran for 19 hours in CNET's tests, a longevity that hasn't been reproduced since.

That leaves the question I get asked over and over again: … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week readers wrote in with questions regarding an odd apsd-related firewall error in OS X, the utility and risks of having Java Runtimes installed, options for maintaining Mountain Lion on corporate networks, and running MacBooks on a dead battery that will not charge. We welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: apsd firewall error in OS X MacFixIt reader Clem asks:

Don't have enough spare juice to charge all your iThings? The Exovolt Plus is a stackable battery pack with unlimited expandable capacity, according to maker Exogear.

The charger consists of a main 5,200 mAh lithium polymer battery and sub batteries that you can pile underneath it to create a battery stack. Each unit is 3.7 inches square and weighs about 5.5 ounces.

It comes with 30-pin and micro-USB connectors and can charge Apple iPhones, iPads, and iPods, as well as most smartphones and tabs.

The four LED lights on the units show how much power remains. … Read more

Buyers of the next iPhone may get a bit more juice out of the battery.

An image of the new battery sent to and posted by blog site 9to5Mac shows a capacity of 1440 mAh, a bit higher than the 1430 mAh on the iPhone 4S and the 1420 mAh on the iPhone 4, according to iPhone repair shop iFixYouri.

The battery's voltage has also received a small kick, jumping to 3.8 from the 3.7 on the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. And the boost in capacity has led to a boost in watts-per-hour, measuring 5.45 … Read more