Everyone knows mobile technology is cool, right? Wrong! If mobile technology were cool, I wouldn`t toast my thighs every time I put my laptop on my lap or slip my mobile phone into my trouser pocket.
There is also nothing cool about your computer going into hibernation mode just as you were about to send off an urgent assignment.
In addition to having to deal with frequent threatened meltdown and inadequately short battery life, I have yet to use a mobile device that gives adequate warning that the battery is about to run out of juice. Battery life indicators lie, pure and simple.
Surely it would not be too much to ask that adequate warning is given with an accurate indication of how long the user has to save work or flash off that important e-mail before being rendered powerless.
If I had a sense of humour about these things, it would be mildly amusing that my laptop can go from 50% battery capacity to shutdown in less than 30 minutes! This just doesn`t make sense.
Slim, light, and often dead
Hardware vendors regularly trumpet how much faster, lighter and more powerful their mobile devices are becoming, but in comparison with the gains in functionality and speed, very little progress is being made in battery technology.
The reality is that the more you want to do and the faster you want to do it, the less time you will have before the battery runs out.
What`s the point of adding high-level functionality like digital entertainment, multimedia, larger screens and a plethora of wireless facilities, when batteries run out of power every few hours?
It may be great being able to play games, send picture messages, record and transmit video, and connect to other wireless devices with your mobile phone, but is it really worth it if the battery runs flat when you need to make an emergency phone call?
Hardware manufacturers may have improved mobility by eliminating the need for the network cable, but the reality is that the need for the power cable hasn`t really been solved yet.
Spend R&D more wisely
The money spent on developing faster mobile processors would be better spent on developing batteries that would give mobile workers the opportunity of using their fancy mobile devices for reasonable periods of time.
The popularity of mobile applications may be driving the demand for high-performance, low-power mobile processors, but despite claims of low-power designs by chipmakers and the use of power management methodologies in mobile devices, we don`t seem to be anywhere near the ideal of a mobile PC that will run all day or a mobile phone that will run all week.
A quick look around the Web will turn up tons of tips for conserving and extending battery life and performance, but most read like strange rituals more easily associated with dusty computer geeks than mighty road warriors. How cool is it to have to keep your laptop batteries in the freezer?
I am also not interested in having an intimate relationship with batteries for my mobile devices. I really don`t want to have to consider their sensitivity to temperature or their touchiness about how and when they are connected to a charger.
Most mobile workers surely want to be able to recharge a battery when it suits them, clip it back into the device, and forget about it. Who wants to be bothered about keeping the battery at exactly 40% capacity and 15 degrees to ensure maximum performance as suggested by one Web site I visited?
Some hope on the horizon
If I had a sense of humour about these things, it would be mildly amusing that my laptop can go from 50% battery capacity to shutdown in less than 30 minutes!
Warwick Ashford, technology editor, ITWeb
I was really encouraged when I discovered that there is a group out there that is actually dedicated to accelerating the achievement of all-day battery life. My excitement began to wane when I realised the Mobile PC Extended Battery Life Working Group was founded in 2002.
The group`s noble mission is to "harness the collective power of the notebook computer industry to breakthrough notebook battery life barriers by setting direction for the greater industry and promoting battery life".
Unfortunately, there is relatively little evidence of the group`s progress since its inception. However, Intel recently claimed to have made significant advances in efforts with hardware manufacturers to reduce the power consumption of key laptop components. It has even gone as far as saying that with advances in display technologies such as its new Napa platform, Intel hopes to achieve the industry goal of eight-hour battery life by 2008.
The good news is there is a ray of hope, but in order to get real about the battery debate, we have to heed cautions from the Gartner research group that no quick-fix solutions are likely in the near future. Gartner researchers agree with Intel that better engineering of components is key to achieving the eight-hour goal.
In recent times there has also been some hype about the potential of fuel cells, but some research projects have been shelved and Gartner says mass production of this technology is still a long way off.
Gartner`s sober take on the matter is that the answer lies in a combination of increasing battery capacities and decreasing power consumption by components of mobile devices.
Despite my current frustration, I think I would rather be patient and take my chances with lithium-ion meltdown than life-threatening explosions caused by a hydrogen fuel-based power supplies, no matter how long they can last!
Naturally, a revolutionary and disruptive new technology can never be discounted. When it comes to technology, I am forever hopeful. The technologists delivered on wireless network connectivity; maybe they`ll deliver on wireless power?
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