Battery News

When Apple laptop battery dropped the Newton line of palm-computing devices in the late ’90s, many people were severely disappointed. The project was abandoned by Apple, but die-hard Newton fans hunkered down and kept the systems going for years afterward. To give credit to Apple, the Newton MessagePad was designed well enough so that even today it is still considered a viable option by some people. Through Apple’s ups and downs, there has been speculation on whether or not Apple would revive the Newton, and while recently it has been clear Apple’s Newton days are over, the hope for the company to return to palm and tablet computing devices had not faded.

Though the iPhone can be considered Apple’s next-generation MessagePad, after much speculation Apple’s long-rumored entrance into tablet computing has finally arrived. In the past few weeks the hype has ramped up all over the Web, with fake images, speculation based on domain name registrations, “leaked” advertisements, patent investigations, and comments from various tech and media CEOs, all of which have built quite a stir around the latest “creation” from Apple. Today Apple has put the rumors to rest with the announcement of the iPad; however, what is the purpose of this device and will it succeed?

Apple’s Tablet, in a nutshell

At first glance, the device does not look like much, and, as rumored, it basically resembles a large iPhone, complete with a home button and glass touch screen. True to the style that has come to define Apple products, the device looks simple and well-built, with a rigid glass display and a inch or so of bezel area around the display. The display is a full capacitive multitouch panel, as was expected, but is also an LED-backlit IPS (In-Plane Switching) display that has a great viewing angle. The back is aluminum, and there are various connectors on the sides for power, sleep, and volume controls.

On the inside, Apple has given us a surprise. The device uses an Apple-designed chip it is calling the “A4,” which runs at 1GHz and is used for managing everything: processing, graphics, and I/O. The system has between 16 and 64GB of memory, contains Bluetooth and EDR wireless connectivity, has a speaker, and microphone, and also contains Apple’s accelerometers, ambient light sensors, and digital compass with assisted GPS technologies. There is a 30-pin connector for attaching the device to computers, but it also uses Bluetooth and Enhanced Data Rate technologies for fast wireless access up to 3Mbps. The device has a powerful battery that gives up to 10 hours of usage, and nearly a month of standby time.

Apple has not omitted the option for 3G connectivity. The system contains 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-fi options, but also can directly tap into UMTS/HSDPA and GSM/EDGE 3G wireless networks, and come unlocked and without any contract so if your wireless carrier uses a GSM micro SIM, it should “just work.” Despite this, the capability to make phone calls does not appear to be available, but then again it is not a phone. The one missing feature in the iPad is an internal camera, but there may be ways to add one as an accessory, though Apple has not mentioned any support for this. In terms of software capability, similar to the iPhone, the device seems to be limited when it comes to multitasking.

As for the price, despite rumors of Apple targeting around $1,000, it has been able to provide all of this in the range of $499 to $699, and we should start seeing them hitting store shelves in about two months.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, he promoted it as an all-in-one communications device for music, telecommunications, Web, and computing, and not just a phone that includes these other features. Given that the features of the iPad are similar to the iPhone’s, Apple clearly intends for this device to be used in a variety of areas to offer an all-in-one package for connectivity, computing, gaming, and any other task you might think of.

The popularity of the iPhone has made it a raging success, and it, along with other “smart” devices, has shown Apple and other manufacturers that consumers are ready for a tablet. In order to create its tablet, Apple had to ride a wave of consumer-readiness and incorporated the technologies and approaches to computing that have come to define computing in the modern era.

Apple leading the industry

Over the years the computer industry has taken a variety of turns, with numerous trends and speculation on where technology will go. There have been dives into multiple GPUs, Netbooks, and solid-state storage, all of which have been beneficial, but none that offered anything unique. These advancements have helped the industry; however, they all essentially took the same existing concepts and made them faster. In contrast, Apple’s contributions have been key steps forward in how we use our computers.

Bondi-blue iMac: Simplicity goes mainstream

In large part, I would argue that this computer was the beginning of the modern era of computing. With one product Apple did away with the notion of computers being both complex and difficult to assemble and use, and presented users with the first “Internet” Mac. It got rid of old ports and protocols, and thrust modern USB, Firewire, and Ethernet networking upon everyone (though they still kept modems). It also killed the notion that computers had to be in bland beige boxes, and made computing attractive to the average person. Once the iMac debuted, the race was on to add simplicity, along with style and luster to computing.

OS X: A slick and adaptable operating system

The OS X operating system is by far the enabling factor behind all of Apple’s breakthrough products. The system is built in a way that allows Apple to strip it down and customize it for a variety of applications. While we all know of it as the “Mac” OS, its foundation and supported technologies are also used in the iPhone, iPod Touch, and AppleTV.

iPod: Portable computing “in your pocket”

Portable audio has been around for ages, and since the Sony Walkman there have been a variety of options. However, with the iPod, Apple not only introduced a simple and stylish media player, but also brought extreme portability to computing. In addition to playing music, it had options for storing notes, contacts, and calendars, and even included games. It also could be used to store personal files, and, through third-party hacks even be used to run Linux. Its popularity skyrocketed, and the race was on to get smaller, lighter, and more “in your pocket”.

iPhone: Easy and customizable communication

Another major advancement was communication. With broadband connectivity being readily available on a variety of network types (both public and private), the iPhone became the pinnacle of style, portability, and connectivity in computing. Finally you could have many of the benefits of Apple’s other products rolled into one.

Gestures: A natural approach to input

Along with the iPhone, Apple introduced the last major advancement in consumer computing: Gestures. Touch-based electronics have been around for ages, but in Apple’s implementation touch has come to mean a lot more than “no buttons.” Apple’s incorporation of “Gestures” has taken advantage of how we naturally use things. Sure Microsoft and other companies have had “Magic Tables” and other large multitouch devices, but Apple was the first to truly implement it into the computers and other devices we use on a daily basis.

Did Apple invent the technologies behind these advancements? Absolutely not. However, it did make optimal use of them and did so in ways that made them both last and propagate throughout the industry. The majority of Apple’s advancements have seen a number of imitations crop up from other manufacturers, but Apple’s solid implementations have keep them ahead of the game.

So where does the iPad fit in?

There have been a number of efforts at creating the next big thing, and while the idea of “smaller and lighter” has been an understood concept, numerous attempts at applying this to computers have been less than exciting. Miniature Netbooks are nothing new, and I would argue that the popularity of them just reflects the desire to go smaller and lighter, but does not reflect any attraction to the ingenuity in the developments so far. Most Netbooks have basically been stripped-down laptops, and while their size and weight is nice, I’d much prefer to carry around a larger laptop than work on what appears to be one but really is not.

The biggest advancements have been in mobile smartphones, and particularly those that incorporate touch. However, until now the touch implementations, even when done well, have been rather limited. This is mainly because of the small areas that have been available upon which to do them. In Apple’s products, the iPhone and MacBook trackpads are quite small for elaborate gestures, and to avoid potential confusion Apple has avoided enabling numerous alternative gestures. The large surface of the tablet takes touch and gestures to a whole new level, and really allows people to interact with the device using their whole hand.

With the iPad, Apple has finally made an attempt to blend all the recent advancements in modern computing into one product. Being a larger platform with support for a variety of gestures, the new iPad brings all the computing benefits of the iPhone with similar portability. Granted it will not exactly fit in your pocket, but it is still small enough to easily travel anywhere with you.

As for what you can do, Apple has added a slew of unique features to the iPad. In addition to running all the applications available for iPhone, it has a whole new “iBooks” store for browsing and building a book library. Apple has apparently worked hard with Amazon to bring this functionality to the iPad.

Apple’s iWork suite has also been brought to the iPad, offering full integration with the iPad’s photo features, and a new set of interfaces to make working with multitouch more intuitive and appealing. It appears the current options for this device are only the beginning, and we will see what the thing is truly capable of when third-party developers start revealing their applications for it.

Regardless of whether we see a gorgeous tablet from Apple laptop battery on Wednesday, there is a clear trend toward using electronic devices to read what has traditionally been printed media. From an environmental point of view, that shift is a mixed bag, depending as much on user behavior as on technology.

According to reports, Apple will show off a tablet PC that can be used with a docking station or an electronic reader.

Displacing printing media with an electronic device like the Amazon Kindle can reduce the amount of energy associated with cutting down trees and making physical periodicals and books, according to some studies.

But without electronics recycling, the environmental footprint is not good. After all, tossing an old newspaper into the recycling bin is a lot easier and common than recycling electronics, for which the U.S. rate is estimated at about 10 percent.

As with many environmental questions, the more you ask, the more complicated it becomes. But here are some considerations:

Who makes the box?
Apple A1175 has caught heat from watchdog groups in the past, but its current products are state of the art, when it comes to energy efficiency and materials. In its latest products, Apple has phased out the use of PVC plastic and hazardous brominated flame retardants, so it would be surprising if it didn’t continue this policy with new hardware.

Presumably, people will be running their Apple tablets off the batteries more than a laptop or desktop PC. Batteries will, of course, degrade and need to be replaced after a few years. Apple says its laptop batteries last longer than others, and it offers a take-back program to replace batteries, so it gets high marks from environmental groups on that score.

On the other hand, after a few years, many people are likely to buy something new, rather than send in a device to upgrade the batteries, which ultimately creates more e-waste.

Pixels versus paper.
Intuitively, it seems that reducing paper by using an electronic device will consume less energy than harvesting trees, processing pulp, printing newspaper, and delivering it to your doorstep. But making a blanket conclusion about energy use through electronic communication is not easy.

The Center for Sustainable Communications in Stockholm, Sweden, conducted a study concluding that reading a newspaper on a PC for 30 minutes results in about the same carbon dioxide emissions as a printed newspaper. (Click for PDF of study.) And as a device that’s smaller than a PC, the rumored Apple tablet should consume less energy.

Paper company International Paper goes even further to point out that the paper-and-pulp industry uses resources (trees) that can be managed sustainably, and recycling rates are far higher in the paper industry than electronics.

Energy intensity
The efficiency of any tablet or e-reader is certainly worth a comparison with laptops and similarly sized devices. Amazon’s Kindle, for example, uses E Ink technology, which is significantly more power-efficient than an LCD screen, for example.

But looking at how much energy a device consumes when in the hands of the end user isn’t the full story, notes Casey Harrell, a coordinator for Greenpeace’s global electronics campaign. About half of the energy “embedded” in an electronics product comes from the supply chain of companies that supply Apple or other manufacturers, he said.

What’s more, as more and more smartphones and tablets are released, the energy consumption shifts toward data centers to which those gadgets connect. “A tablet can certainly mark a decrease in the environmental footprint versus traditional printing, but the big question is, what energy is powering these data centers in the cloud?” Harrell said.

How the gadget is used.
Apple may make an item worth keeping for five years–a long time in the frenzied pace of consumer electronics. But if the buyer replaces it within a year, then that also adds to the e-waste stream. The same is true if customers don’t take advantage of recycling services.

Overall, an Apple tablet, or the host of electronic readers expected this year, can bring many benefits of digitized content and even change how we read, day to day. Whether it brings a net environmental benefit, though, has more to do with the owner than the device.

We had heard that Apple laptop battery was pitching its yet to be launched (or even confirmed) tablet device to publishers, but a Wall Street Journal story posted Monday offers a few potential specifics.

The story, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation, says HarperCollins Publishers is negotiating a deal with Apple that would make electronic books available for the tablet. HarperCollins is expected to set the prices of the e-books and Apple would take a percentage of sales, according to the story. Whether Apple will sell titles via iTunes or a new e-book store “couldn’t be learned,” according to the Journal post.

The report comes on heels of a separate post Sunday related to Apple PA3176U-1BRS partnering with a publisher. In a story about The New York Times reportedly getting ready to announce that it will start charging readers for access to online content, New York magazine also suggested that such a deal could be in the works in time for the tablet unveiling, expected to take place at a just-confirmed invitation-only event on January 27.

Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag on Wednesday issued a call for readers to send in photos of the Apple laptop battery tablet, in exchange for a cash prize of up to $100,000. On Thursday, Apple’s own lawyers responded with something almost as good as pictorial evidence of the yet-unannounced device: a cease-and-desist letter.

Attorney Michael C. Spillner of prestigious Silicon Valley firm Orrick, Herrington, and Sutcliffe dashed off a letter to Valleywag’s parent company, Gawker Media, beginning with this:
“I am writing on behalf of Apple regarding the notices on Gawker.com and Valleywag.com Web sites that Gawker Media will pay someone a financial reward for sending you photos, video, or a sample of an unannounced and highly confidential Apple product.”

While it’s not actually a confirmation, the letter, chock full of claims of infringements on Apple’s trade secrets, does lend credence to the endless speculation that the device–”an unannounced and highly confidential Apple product Latitude D620 battery,Latitude D800 battery“–does actually exist.

There are hundreds of bits of speculation that float around the Internet on a daily basis related to Apple. It’s not often that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company responds–surely it does not mind all of the free marketing that results from the endless speculation about its products. But when it does respond, particularly with threats of legal action, it’s a strong hint that the person or blog is on the right track.

It’s happened before: unreleased iPod photos showing up on blogs before the product’s official introduction, followed by an Apple C and D letter. It stands to reason that when an image or mock-up of a product appears that isn’t real or accurate, the legal department has no cause for concern.

But there’s also the issue of inducing people to break a nondisclosure agreement or share trade secrets, which is illegal, as Spillner notes to Gawker:
“As your offer acknowledges, Apple has maintained the types of information and things that you are soliciting–”how it’ll work, the size, the name, the software,” as well as any possible details about the product’s appearance, features, and physical samples–in strict confidence. Anyone who might have access to such information would be bound under the strictest contractual obligations not to disclose the information to third parties.”

It’s certainly possible that Apple’s lawyer’s concerns here are not specifically related to Gawker’s attempts to possibly induce someone to break their NDA to deliver photo evidence of the tablet, but are more general. Spillner surely knew the letter would become public and could just be trying to discourage similar pay-for-Apple-scoops tactics in the future.

Either way, January 27 is fast approaching, and we should know something more concrete by then.

The good:

Excellent overall performance and competent gaming performance Complete set of multimedia controls and connections Quality speakers Runs Windows XP Media Center Features double-layer DVD burner

The bad:

Lacks integrated TV tuner, though a PC Card tuner is available

The bottomline:

The Dell Inspiron 9400 packs a solid set of multimedia features, and when configured with Intel’s Core Duo processor, it has enough power to speed through virtually any task, from editing video to playing games. One of the first laptops with Intel’s new Core Duo processor to hit the street, the Dell Inspiron 9400 inaugurates the company’s new entertainment line of laptops with a bang. In addition to its top-shelf processor and graphics card; its bright, 17-inch widescreen display; and other leading edge technologies, the Inspiron 9400 adds a few welcome multimedia features not found on the model that it will eventually replace, the Inspiron 9300. These include a five-in-one media card reader and Dell’s MediaDirect software, though there is no integrated TV tuner. We think the slightly less expensive HP Pavilion dv8200 is a better deal for basic users who want more features than performance, but the Inspiron 9400 owns the other end of the spectrum as an incredibly powerful laptop that can speed through virtually any multimedia task from video editing to gaming. Editors’ note: Dell has recently changed the video card option worldwide from Nvidia’s top-of-the-line GeForce Go 7800 to ATI’s Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics processor. As a result, we expect the gaming performance of the current crop of Inspiron 9400 to suffer compared with the Nvidia GPU-equipped models. There have been no comments from Dell regarding this move. Some of the comparison models in this review use benchmark results from CNET US Labs and may differ from the results by CNET Asia reviewers.

Design The Inspiron 9400’s design is nearly identical to the Inspiron 9300’s. Crafted out of sturdy and stylish magnesium alloy and measuring 394 x 288 x 41.5mm. Our test unit weighed 3.6kg (4.2kg with its AC adapter) — 100g lighter than the HP Pavilion dv8200. Still, the Inspiron 9400 is too heavy for regular travel. The Inspiron 9400 includes a full-size keyboard, though it lacks a separate number pad, as found on the HP Pavilion dv8200. The Inspiron 9400’s mouse buttons are very big, however, and the touch pad is adequately sized. The latter features arrows running along its right and bottom edges, outlining where to place your finger when using the software-enhanced pad to scroll through documents or Web pages.

Features A minor but appreciated upgrade from the Inspiron 9300 model is the Inspiron 9400’s inclusion of Dell’s MediaDirect software, which plays CDs and DVDs and lets you access photos and other media files stored on your hard drive without booting up Windows first. The two speakers and the internal subwoofer — a rare feature among laptops — deliver crisp and rich sound. Better yet, because the speakers sit in the corners of the laptop’s front edge, your hands won’t muffle them while you’re typing and you can play music with the lid closed. Sandwiched between the speakers, a row of seven buttons lets you control disc playback and adjust or mute the volume. However, the Inspiron 9400 lacks an integrated TV tuner found on more expensive systems, such as the Toshiba Qosmio G20 and the Fujitsu LifeBook N6210. Our Inspiron 9400 test unit had a bright, vast, 17-inch widescreen display with a superfine WUXGA 1,900 x 1,200-pixel native resolution. Though we experienced no problems with our unit’s display, we’ve observed many user complaints about other recent Dell models’ screens. There’s no dearth of ports, jacks, or slots here: The Inspiron 9400 offers FireWire, S-Video out, VGA, a whopping six USB 2.0 ports, 56Kbps modem, 10/100 Ethernet, headphone and microphone jacks. Also available are Type II PC Card and Secure Digital slots and a swank DVI port should you want to connect the laptop to an even bigger digital LCD. There’s also a five-in-one media card reader, a key feature that the Inspiron 9300 lacked. Last, but definitely not least, the Inspiron 9400 includes a multiformat double-layer DVD drive.

Performance Like all of Dell’s laptops, the Inspiron 9400 is extremely configurable. Our loaded, test configuration was equipped with a new Intel Core Duo T2500 (2.0GHz) processor; 1GB of DDR2 667MHz SDRAM; an 80GB, 5,400rpm hard drive; Nvidia’s high-end GeForce Go 7800 GPU with 256MB of dedicated video memory; and a nine-cell battery. One of the first Core Duo systems we’ve tested, the Dell Inspiron 9400 did not disappoint. Using a collection of multithreaded and single-threaded multimedia applications, we tested the Inspiron 9400 to determine how well it handled multimedia workloads, such as ripping MP3 and encoding video. Generally speaking, the Inspiron 9400 delivered roughly a 25 per cent performance boost compared with a Pentium 4-fueled test system, the Acer Aspire 1700, and its performance was approximately 50 percent faster than that of a ThinkPad Z60t equipped with Intel’s previous generation 2.0GHz Pentium M processor. The Inspiron 9400 also delivered very competent gaming performance, turning in 57 frames per second in our Doom 3 test. That said, the Acer TravelMate 8204, outfitted with the same processor but twice the RAM, bested the Inspiron 9400 in a few of our multimedia tests and posted the highest SysMark score we’ve ever recorded, though its gaming performance was lacking. Though we did not test an Inspiron 9400 configured with the less expensive Core Solo processor, Dell said that its performance would be comparable with that of an Inspiron 9300 loaded with a Pentium M, a configuration that we tested last year. On our SysMark 2004 test, the Inspiron 9400’s score of 211 was 33 per cent faster than the Inspiron 9300’s and faster than that of any other single-core system we’ve tested.

SysMark 2004 performance (Longer bars indicate better performance)

BAPCo SysMark 2004 rating

SysMark 2004 Internet content creation

SysMark 2004 office productivity