Category: Links

A fascinating post by “Byron G” on how modern cellphones actually charge. Unlike old cellphones they charge to 100% then cut power and only try to maintain something above 90% for the period they are plugged in. Battery gauges on phones are programmed to be inaccurate and report 100% charges. Now his data is only for Android phones, but one could assume that the iPhone is very similar.

Interestingly ‘bump charging’ gives you an extra 10-15% of battery power — at the cost of less battery health. (Bump charging is turning off your device and charging until the device reads 100%, then unplugging and replugging in the charger and repeating 5-6 times.)

The advice at the end of the post is the best — keep your phone charged when you can, topping it off is the best use case — most importantly just use your damned phone and stop worrying about the battery.

MG Siegler:

Say what you will about the iPhone/AT&T deal, it’s clear that Apple is in control there. And say what you will about Apple — at least they’re not the carriers. With Android, it’s a different story. That’s why the “open” argument is such a bullshit red herring. Android is so open that it gives the carriers (and now apparently the government) freedom to screw us — openly.

This is an excellent analysis of the market — I agree 100%.

Want to go get yourself a copy of the excellent Keyboard Maestro, but you don’t have the $36.00 needed to purchase it? Well if you have $28.80 then you are in luck — use the link to get the 20% off. Sweet.

Om Malik picks the MacBook Air 13″ model as his gadget of the year for 2010. I can’t say that it is a bad choice, but I would be hard pressed to pick it over the iPad. I think long term that laptops will become more MacBook Air like — at the same time though I think the computers people use the most will become more iPad like.

(Now there is some claim chowder for ya.)

Aaron Smith reporting on massive profits Airlines raked in from baggage fees, lists out how the carriers became profitable again:

Carriers responded by cutting the number of flights they offered, slashing those with the fewest passengers. They packed the airplanes full so they wouldn’t lose money on empty seats. And they added fees for services that once came for free, like checked baggage and in-flight food, to boost income.

All of the above is an example of what not to do — all these things make traveling in a plane suck.

Aza Raskin proposes a new home button for iOS:

Camera shutter buttons have a two-stop action. Half-press them to lock focus and aperture settings, fully press them to take the picture. There’s a delightful tactile indent at the half-way mark so that your fingers know what’s going on. Let’s borrow this two-stop action for the home button. Press half-way to go to the app’s main screen, all the way to go to the phone’s main screen. If you need to fully escape mash the button. If you just want to head back to the main-screen of the app, tap lightly.

Interesting idea — I wonder how to make such a button that would not be constantly pressed in your pocket.

MG Siegler lays the smack down on Google:

Still, it’s great to dream big. And Google has the ability to do that thanks to a huge amount of revenue coming in as a result of the original times when they had big dreams. But the world was different then. Well, actually, it was just a different world. Search engines were just starting to pop up. Google came along and did it right. Search monetization was basically nothing. Google came along and did it right.

With Google TV, Android, Google Music, Chrome OS, and a range of other products, Google is trying to change established industries. And they seem to think they can just because they’re Google. But as we’re seeing again and again, they’re having a lot of issues.

Agreed.