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Dec 18, 2008 00:18

I like honesty. And that's probably why I really dislike how mobile phones report remaining battery life ( Read more... )

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i_am_chi December 17 2008, 14:38:03 UTC
hehehe
I wonder if it's too much to ask technology to be honest about their current state? :P

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pfcblogshere December 17 2008, 20:09:07 UTC
I think you're blaming on malice what can easily be blamed on laziness.

It's really quite hard to measure how much capacity is left in a battery. You can only really measure the voltage of the battery and the problem is that the voltage stays pretty damn constant as the battery discharges. This is a feature of Li-po batteries, and it's something manufacturers are trying to extend.

To program an accurate battery meter you need to measure current and voltage, keep a running integration of the energy used and develop a learning profile of the battery. Capacity depends on the type of load you are pulling and the temperature of the battery.

Instead, whoever programmed your phone probably only did battery percentage = 100 * (battery voltage - 3.7) / (3.9-3.7). It's got nothing to do with dishonesty and everything to do with lazy programmers, or designers who think the added accuracy is not worth the hardware and software you'd need to add to the device to get it.

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sloobeast December 18 2008, 01:28:37 UTC
Agreed.
Then again, I have a belief that all things with batteries get worse with the whole full-empty thing the longer your own/use them.

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