Tag: battery
Last month Google began its rollout of the latest update to Android Wear – version 5.1. This update enabled features like Wi-Fi support, new gestures, hand drawn emojis and more. However, the update also came with a major unwanted feature – severe battery drain. It is present for …
A short time ago, we reported that network provider EE were giving away a power bar to customers, and would exchange a “empty” one with a “topped up” in store. Well, it appears that the promotional idea has been taken up by the bargain hunting British public, with the …
We had a bit of a dig into the Terms and Conditions of the free EE Power Bars and, well, it’s all a little strange. The PDF actually states that… A Power Bar is made available to you on a free to hire basis, under the terms of …
If you’ve followed us for a while then you’ll already know that EE are giving away free portable chargers to their customers. Yesterday was “go” day and queues formed in EE stores around the UK as customers. At this point I’m going to do a classic “local newspaper” …
A couple of weeks ago we revealed that EE were to dish out powerbanks for nothing. If you’re an EE customer today is the day to get texting if you want one. All you need to do is text “POWER” to 365 to receive a promotional code, then …
Battery life on a phone is something we all wish we had more of, whether it be for more gaming time or for more camera shots whilst on holiday. For a while now many companies have made portable charger packs which charge your phone via USB and then …
It won’t be long till all the main manufacturers go along the sealed battery route. I have no problem with this provided they innovated in battery technology, rather than the most megapixels in the camera or the most pixels per inch in the screen. The way forward, however, …
You probably know about James Dyson. He’s a British guy who struggled to sell his bagless vacuum cleaner to the major manufacturers. After being told that the “bags make us money” and “you’re basically bonkers”, he went on to create a solid British brand, making products for Britain …
For those who have been living under a rock for the last decade or so, I just need to bring you some breaking news. Smartphone and tablet batteries really aren’t as good as we’d like them to be. Right, now on with the show. This is yet another …
When we get an external battery in for test it’s usually, well, a battery. Not much thought goes into the design of the thing usually and you basically just get a chunky phone battery cell wrapped in a case that matches the dimensions. Consider this though. This is the …
This is less than £30 my friends, and inside there’s a fat 8000 mAh battery. I say “fat” because of the capacity, not necessarily the size, although it is about as chunky as my wallet used to be before I had a house and child. It’s another one …
Remember me mentioning the Onaji Pawa recently? It’s a slender battery, complete with USB cable (for charging the in-built battery) and an interesting three-port connector for plugging your iPad, iPhone or other smartphone into. Straight out of the gate, I have to tell you that this isn’t going …
Sometimes, if I go to a restaurant and order a large steak, I’ll get the meat sweats. Likewise, when I need to make an important call or I’m waiting for an email and see my phone hitting 5% battery life, I get the battery sweats. We’ve seen various …
Hannspree have today announced their intention to enter the budget Android smartphone market. They already have a range of Android tablets and monitors under their belts so the move into smaller devices makes sense. Also considering that their sister company Hannstar make a range of displays as well, …
I’m going to write this while it’s fresh in my head because I’ve reviewed a number of phones over the years and, quite honestly, I’m a bit bowled over. Now, we’ve already published our LG G3 review, but I’ve only just got my hands on one. James told …
The press release on this one starts off with quite a positive vibe… In case you hadn’t heard, it’s currently hotter than Barbados outside Well, yes. According to the news this morning it is, but I’d still rather be in Barbados. Never mind though, you’ve got my attention …
I was going to open this particular story by discussing battery life, and how it’s generally pretty rubbish, but you know all that already. There’s a few ways to fix this. You can get a portable charger, you can plug your phone in every few hours, you can …
I promised myself I wouldn’t mention any more Kickstarter campaigns. However, it’s Friday and it’s pretty much the weekend so here goes. I could witter on about the battery on your smartphone and how it’s just not as good as you’d like it to be, but … you …
Battery technology clearly hasn’t kept up with our requirements. Most smartphone owners are now used to getting only a day at best from their devices and there’s a plethora of mobile chargers and car chargers to help bridge the gaps. We want slim phones and therefore slim batteries …
I’ve not had many phones without removable batteries. For those I’ve owned there’s not really been a problem, but after a while a trusty Sony Xperia T has been giving me some grief. I used the Xperia T for shooting a lot of the videos and pictures in …
A bit confusing this one, but stick with me. Made by Nokia, the DC-50 isn’t a Dyson, but a portable wireless battery pack. Like other battery packs, you charge it up and then, when your phone is running low on go-go-juice, you connect it up anywhere for a …
We’re going to try something this week, but we hit a problem instantly. It’s the same old problem that we continually bump into on a daily basis. Battery life. It’s just not good enough. It’s not kept up. In recent years I’ve seen really low-tech Nokia featurephones getting …
I’ve dabbled with external battery packs before, you know the sort. An unbranded 3000 mAh battery that refuses to work after a few weeks. It was after my wife and her friends went to a festival down south a few weeks ago and all of their phones died …
Battery life. The bane of modern smartphones. We’ve discussed this on the podcast as one of the aspects begging for technology innovation, and it looks like our prayers just might be answered. A team from the United States claim to have invented a new type of battery technology, which provides TEN TIMES …
This week is going to be a bit of a blinder in the world of technology. There’s a HTC event tomorrow..at which HTC have something special to announce. Sony are apparently unveiling something the following day (Playstation 4?), and Coolsmartphone are heading to Mobile World Congress. With that …
Not a day goes by without about another Apple related rumour – one of the latest being the idea of the iWatch. So we thought we’d round up all the new iPhone related rumours: Name – iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 seem to be the favourites on the rumour mill, …
I reviewed the Movpower portable charger recently after buying the thing for our regular madness at Mobile World Congress. But wait, there’s more, hows about a iPhone 4/4S battery case? It’s down to £3.99 from £24.99. It doubles your iPhone 4 / 4S run time with a 1500mAh …
So on Tuesday we added a post about the Movpower 5200 Portable Charger. I decided to get one. There’s another version available but this baby has a capacity of 5200mAh. That’s quite a bit. The Samsung Galaxy Note has a 2500mAh battery, which is hefty enough, so this …
Have a look around you next time you’re at an airport. You’re bound to see someone in a suit hunting around for a power socket. Why? Well, sadly our modern gadgets don’t quite have that one-month battery life we’d all like. Whilst prepping for our yearly trip to …
Regular listeners (and now viewers) of our podcast will know that I recently moved from a Galaxy Note 2 back to the iPhone 5. I won’t go into the reasons why here, as it’s worth a good article on it’s own. On the whole, I’m happy with that …
We’ve already seen the Pong iPhone 4 / 4S case and recently had a nose around the iPad case too. A case, you might think, doesn’t take a great deal of explanation or reviewing. However, the people at Pong are quite clever. All of their cases, including this …
The boys at Z3t4 Apps gave me an email over Christmas. They wanted us to point out their new Battery Widget Countdown app. As the name suggests you can drag it onto your homescreen and it’ll display a little battery along with the percentage remaining. Normal stuff, but …
A number of users are reporting shorter battery life after applying the new update to the iPhone 5. Apple released iOS 6.0.2 to the public on Tuesday, the update was to correct Wi-Fi issues on the new iPhone and iPad mini. Since its release, a number of users …
The guys over at MobileFun have sent us an extended battery case for the iPhone 5. The Power Jacket is the first extended battery case to enter the market for the iPhone 5 and we have the privilege of getting one. First impressions when getting it out of …
If you’ve got an S3 and want a little more battery life, the official and genuine battery kit will be available in around 8 weeks from now. It’ll match the colour of your blue or white Samsung Galaxy S3 and will cost £39.99. Not only is the battery …
One major complaint around almost every smartphone currently available is battery life. Unless you have a Motorola Razr Maxx or the Galaxy Note 2 with their giant batteries or have every data service turned off then battery life is almost certain to raise its head as an issue …
We’ve all felt the pain. That feeling when you look at your phone and the battery level is all the way into the red, when you start thinking “This never happened with my old Nokia/Samsung/Sony Ericsson a couple of years ago”. So when I read that a Massachusetts-based …
If I had a pound for every battery widget or battery monitoring app on the Google Play Store I would have a couple of hundred pounds. If I had a pound for every one of those apps that actually did any good or showed you any sort of …
Battery life. You can’t get through the day without someone in your office mentioning .. or cursing it. Now those clever people at Which? have tested battery life on a selection of smartphones whilst browsing. Screen brightness was set to “maximum” during all tests and they used their …
As 2012 draws ever nearer to a close, Blackberry fans will be getting more and more excited for the launch of BB10. Currently scheduled for release in early 2012, the new OS which was shown off last month at Blackberry Jam is beginning to create a bit of …
