Showing posts with label charge. Show all posts
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October 31, 2019

Tesla and other car companies are selling a record number of electric vehicles (EVs). But even at
souped-up “supercharger” stations, the cars still require more than 1 hour to top off their
batteries. A new advance may change that.
One strategy for boosting battery charging speeds has been to raise the battery temperature
during charging, which accelerates the chemical reactions inside the battery. But keeping
batteries at high temperatures can cause components to break down quickly.
Now, researchers report they can prevent this breakdown, and allow fast charging, if the heat
is added just for short periods. By heating up a charging device to 60°C for just 10 minutes,
they were able to speed the incorporation of lithium ions into layers of graphite that make
up the anode (as shown in the above artist’s representation), the key step in recharging the
battery. If scaled up, this would allow them to add 320 kilometers in driving range to
conventional lithium-ion batteries, they report today in Joule. The heated batteries
were also stable, able to go through 1700 charge-discharge cycles with little degradation.

Next up, the researchers are looking to cut their charging time in half, adding enough juice
to power an EV in just 5 minutes.
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August 31, 2014
A smartphone in your hand can replace a wallet full of paper notes and receipts, but there are still times when a printed copy of what's on your phone can be handy; whether it be for sharing a map with someone, or following an online recipe without getting your device dirty. And that's exactly why this tiny printer that makes hard copies of your iPhone's screen could be a wonderful accessory.
Using a Wi-Fi connection to your iPhone, King Jim's $160 Rolto printer uses a free accompanying app to ensure that exactly what you see on screen is reproduced on its tiny roll of thermal paper-even if the document or website has to be scrolled. Printing online receipts seems to be its most useful feature, but think how often you've had to transcribe something off your phone and you'll realize there's actually a lot of potential for this little thing. [King Jim via Japan Trend Shop]
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August 31, 2014
Even carrying your iPhone's charger everywhere you go doesn't guarantee you'll be able to keep your phone running all day. Sometimes outlets can be hard to find, and for those times the NomadPlus is here to help-transforming your iPhone's standard charger into a portable 1,500 mAh battery for back power on-the-go.
Shipping in late November for just $39, the NomadPlus simply requires you to insert the compact AC adapter that came with your recent-generation iPhone, immediately giving you a portable charging solution with enough power to bring a dead smartphone about 70 percent of the way back to life.

When plugged into a wall it charges a connected device first, and then itself. So come morning your smartphone is ready to tackle the day, and then the evening on top of that, even if you can't get access to an outlet. [Nomad]
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August 31, 2014
It's not uncommon to leave the house with a bag full of gadgets that will probably need a charge at some point during the day. So you can either bring an assortment of cables with you, let your devices all fight over a single charger, or wait until Samsung's new three-headed micro USB charging cable is finally available.

For $40 (available soon) the single cable splits a two-amp charge across multiple devices depending on how many of the micro USB connectors are being used. If all three are connected to devices, they'll each receive 667mA of power and all charge at once, albeit slower than normal. If you only connect two devices they'll each receive a single amp, and if you only connect one it will be able to gorge on all the power. [Samsung via Android Community]

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August 29, 2014
What’s worse than a dead phone? One that takes too long to charge! This has certainly happened to most of us before: you’re rushing out of the door and you happen to see there’s just 5% left of battery! Here are some tips on how you can get your Android phone to charge faster!

The right plug and charger
First off, you want to ensure that you plug your phone into the wall socket, and in the best case scenario, using the charger that came with your phone, though nowadays, Android device chargers are universal. If you are in a hurry, avoid plugging your phone into your computer or laptop, because this will definitely slow down the charging speed, as will Qi wireless charging.

Get into airplane mode

Now enable airplane mode on your device to speed up charging. Depending on your device, there could be various ways to get to this. For example, on my Nexus 5, I simply long press on the power button, and select airplane mode when it appears. You can also go into the Quick Settings, by swiping down with two fingers. Every device is different, but you most likely know how to turn it on. Airplane mode blocks any wireless radios on your device, which means you won’t receive any calls, messages, internet access etc, but it’s all worth it when you think you’ll have a device that will still be on for the next few hours.

androidpit airplane mode

Turn that bad boy off

If you don’t actually need your phone at the moment, go ahead and turn it off completely. Obviously, any alarms or notifications won’t come through when it is off, but this is something you might just need to live without if you are racing the clock.


Switch off unnecessary features
Check to see if you have any unnecessary features on, like Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, NFC etc. Close out of all your apps and stop your phone from doing any automatic backups or updating apps from the Google Play Store. These are just small, but golden tips when you are in a rush. Plus, everything can be easily switched back to normal when you’re out of the door and sitting in the train or bus. That being said, we highly discourage doing this if you are driving.
Don't touch!
If you need to have your phone on though, and even want to leave it off airplane mode, because you have an important call, message or something of the sort, try to suppress the urge to check your phone every thirty seconds. Why? Because the screen is the biggest battery drainer of them all.
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