battery

Apple has promised to warn users when a software update could slow down their iPhone or decrease battery life. It follows concerns from a government agency. The effects of iOS updates on phone performance has long been a controversial topic for ... Apple. Critics accused it of deliberately limiting the performance of older phones to encourage users to upgrade to newly released handsets, with some even producing what they called "diagnostic evidence." Apple has always denied this accusation. It says reduced performance such as decreasing battery life may simply be the cumulative effect ... (view more)

A consumer group has accused Apple of significantly overstating battery life on iPhones. The group also said some manufacturer's smartphones perform much better than advertised. The claims come from "Which?," a British organization similar to ... Consumer Reports in the US. It tested a range of handsets from five leading manufacturers: Apple, HTC, Nokia, Samsung and Sony. (Source: which.co.uk ) The tests were specifically about talk time: how long the battery lasts while making voice calls. That's provoked some criticism from people who argue this is only a small part of battery life ... (view more)

Energizer has made a smartphone that is not surprisingly all about the battery. Though to be fair, it's got six times the capacity of some leading models. The few people who've seen the phone say it's bordering on impossibly big, but that it does ... provoke debate about the way phones suck up electricity. The Android-based handset is called the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop. It has a battery capacity of 18,000 mAh. To put that into context, it's three times more than a Motorola phone that's specifically marketed around long battery life. It's also around six times more than many flagship Android ... (view more)

Google is to ban several categories of apps from its app store. They include so-called "cryptomining" apps that can suck up a resources from a device for somebody else's financial benefits. The changes come in the latest update of the Play Store ... Developer Policy. The relevant apps will no longer be available through the official Play Store, meaning that although users can still install them, they'll get much less prominence and exposure. The ban is specifically on apps that use a device's processor for mining cryptocurrencies. In very simple terms, mining involves computers racing to solve a ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Susan M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently bought a new laptop that came with Windows 10 pre-installed. Last week, I received a Windows 10 update and now my battery keeps draining - even with the power plugged in! This doesn't ... make any sense to me; also my laptop is brand new! The balloon over the battery icon is reading '93% available (plugged in, not charging)'. I looked on the Internet to see if I could figure out what was causing this, and there are a lot of people having the same issue. Do you know why my laptop won't charge and how I can fix the 'plugged in, not ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Marion L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I haven't used my laptop for a few weeks. I went to turn it on today, but it won't turn on at all. I have it plugged in to the wall power outlet, but it still doesn't work. What do I do now? " My ... response: This is a fairly common issue with laptops; oftentimes the laptop won't turn on even if it's plugged into the wall if it's been sitting for a while - in your case, a few weeks. Sometimes, however, something else has gone wrong, and parts of the laptop may be corrupt or not working, or the laptop may have died. I'll explain what you need to ... (view more)

An independent report suggests the spate of Galaxy Note 7 phone explosions was caused by the design of the phone itself. Engineering analysts "Instrumental" say Samsung blundered in its attempts to make the phone as slim as possible. After initial ... reports of the phones catching fire this year, Samsung appeared to believe a particular batch of faulty batteries was to blame and proceeded to recall the affected handsets. When phones that had been replaced in this way continued to explode, Samsung took the costly and embarrassing step of abandoning the handset entirely . While Samsung ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Elijah N. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have an HP laptop with Windows 10. Yesterday the laptop was working perfectly fine, but this morning I tried to turn it on and all I get is a black screen. The power light turns on, and the ... screen appears to be on (the screen backlight is on), but the screen is black and it won't boot into Windows 10. Nothing happens. What can I do to get my laptop working? " My response: This is a fairly common issue, and is either a hardware problem or a Windows boot problem. Some possibilities include: the laptop motherboard or display may have died, or ... (view more)

Microsoft claims its Edge browser uses far less battery power on laptops than rivals such as Google Chrome. The claims come as it publishes details of further tweaks to the browser's power demands. To back up its claims, Microsoft has released the ... results of tests it carried out using its own Surface Book computer, along with data gathered remotely from Windows 10 computers. As with any such non-independent tests, it's always worth remembering that not only could the setup of the tests be designed in a way that favors Microsoft, but there's no way of knowing that Microsoft hasn ... (view more)