Wadda ya wanna make those eyes at me for?

Tuesday 31 July 2007

Gentlemen Charge Your Batteries!

I've kept an eye on all the threads about battery usage and charging routines and I have some observations!
Some of you are cycling your batteries. Don't!
Some of you are conditioning your batteries. Don't!
Some of you are discharging your batteries. Don't!
Why? Well, contrary to one poster who said it makes no difference, it harms the Lithium Ion chemistry!
They don't like being discharged below a certain point. Do it too often and they won't recover!
They don't like a widely fluctuating charging band! This will hasten the reduction in capacity!
They don't like being overheated (although their operating temp range is quite broad!). And strangely they don't like it too cold.
They have a finite shelf life which starts from the day they are manufactured and their condition from then degrades to the point where they fail!
This is not to be confused with their charge holding abilities which are very good for their full life! When they go they just go!
Additional problems associated with low discharge is that they need the extra ooomph to get them charging again, but each discharge takes a little bit more out of them! That's why 500mA USB ports have trouble from "flat" and why the charger supplied is 800mA!
So what should you do?
Well, all the above is well documented as Lithium Ion battery characteristics, but, I haven't been able to find one example of an authoritative guide to charging! I heard ideas about doing it with the phone switched off or on standby or by so many hours, etc, but nothing was backed up by any reasoning.
Now, we all use our phones in different ways, but, the one thing we all need is max power so any method of gaining power should apply to us all.
I have run some tests on three N95s all purchased at the same time and all with batteries of approx the same age and they have had approx the same usage. I have charged each of three in different ways-
A. Was charged only every night (approx 6 hours) and nothing during the day, for a week.
B. Was charged when it went flat.
C. Was charged at every opportunity, day and night.
After the week, at the next opportunity when the phones all had an end of charge fall together, they were all unplugged and left without any use at all.
A, lasted for 50.5 hours.
B, lasted for 22 hours.
C, lasted for 58 hours.
That's a huge difference and could go part way to explaining why some people have different experiences with the battery.
All phones are approx 4 months old and all have the same batch no. on the battery.
Something I did notice was that phone B got hotter as it got closer to failing. This could be it's attempt to wring out the last drops, I don't honestly know!
The coolest in operation (subjectively) was phone C.
Also when the phones were next charged (to battery full) the quickest in order were C, A, B. None of the phones were switched off, when on charge, as, for this I would have to have a fourth phone so this was beyond the scope of this test, but, I intend to try a head to head with two phones over night for a week!
More experiments are needed so I would ask others to do similar tests!

Friday 20 July 2007

Networks that don't!

Please give us internet access, a phone and a tariff at a reasonable cost.
Leave behind all the restrictions and dos and don'ts. Keep it simple and straightforward and for that you will gain respect! Stop trying to fool us. (Surf the whole internet? Blah!)

Package to sign for!

Somebody please explain signing .sis files!
No, forget that I know what they are, but, what is the purpose?
Supposedly, they act as some kind of security level that doesn't work!

What the?

Is it my imagination or are the questions in the various phone forums getting more a more ridiculous?
Half of them can be answered by reading the manual and the majority of the rest defy intelligence as to why anyone would want to know (is there a Starky and Hutch theme for my new Gozo i666?).
I wonder if the "level" of users of modern smartphones is such that basic training is needed before a "licence to use" is issued by the manufacturers!
This could genuinely be the cause of many so called issues surrounding various phones such as the N95.
I have long thought that a basic "Best Practice" guide would help eveyone become aware of what to do and what not to do with regard to what I call housekeeping on the phones. This would reduce crashes, freezes and resets!
Or is it all bollocks?

Thursday 19 July 2007

What's the porpoise of this blog

To be serious for a moment (and it may never happen again!) I would like to invite all the deep thinkers to contribute right here!
But there are many forums and other blogs! I hear you say.
Well yes, but, they do seem to be populated by a large majority of strange people who insist on asking "Help! How do I ................. (insert whatever you like... it's usually "turn the phone on") Bless 'em!
What I want is some refreshing enlightenment about the burning topics gripping the world (of N95) and some light-hearted tom foolery on the way!
If you know what I mean then be as anarchic and irreverent as you want, just make sure you do it with a chuckle/smile/wombat. (and don't fall foul of the big "G's" T&Cs!) Foul language will be reported to KFC!