[geeks] Article: Sun's not so cheap trick doesn't work

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 09:01:30PM -0500, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
>[1] An indirect result of the iToys soaking up more of Apple's R&D budget.
>     If I had an Intel-based Mac laptop, I wouldn't have needed to borrow a
>     PC laptop from $ork.  If Apple would release an Intel-based Mac laptop
>     that wasn't a step sideways from my PowerPC laptop that still gets 5
>     or more hours to a charge, I'd buy one the day it came out.

IMHO the best of the lot was the "PDQ" Wallstreet. It had a battery
slot on the left and a "media" slot on the right. The media slot was
normally for a CD-ROM or floppy drive, but you could place a battery
in it and get double the battery life out of it.

Unfortunately, said Wallstreet is now a desktop because the battery is
dead and a new one or rebuilding them costs too much.

To me, the worst modern device in terms of battery design is the Amazon
Kindle. Not only is it severly underpowered, but in order to change the
battery, you have to open it up, UNPLUG the battery and plug in a new
one. No in the field swaps.

I say it's underpowered because battery life is based on how often you
change the display, i.e. turn the page. If you are an average speed
reader, you get 15 hours of reading time (7 with WiFi on), per charge.
If you read as fast as I do, you would get 3-5 hours. If you are
flipping through something, you get an hour or two.

If for example, they replaced the plug in lithum battery with a slot for
4 AA high density NiMH batteries, they would get 1 and 1/2 times the 
reading per charge, and it would be easy to swap them out. If you were stuck,
you could use AA disposable batteries which are available almost everywhere.

I wish Apple would do the same, I bet they could sell a lot of AA battery
packs for their laptops, which is probably why they don't. 


-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM