I wrote a blog recently about the trend towards BYOD to work, and a thought struck me this morning as I increasingly see pieces about the subject.
The increased use of mobile devices means that increasingly we are mobile (obviously Graham – what’s your point) and not plugged into the mains. I think you are probably ahead of me now – right!
Yup – BATTERIES. My personal experiences with battery life are mixed to say the least, but suffice to say that being mobile all day on a device for calling, emailing, web surfing, document browsing…..etc, does tend to have a fairly profound impact on the battery. So what’s the answer?
I’m not really sure is MY answer, as I have tried several different ways of addressing the issue, mostly unsatisfactory thus far. My attempts have included: multiple batteries – inconvenient and a pain to change on the go, but does provide the life needed; external battery pack – was a complete pain, as the connector didn’t stay in the phone, and it was like trying to hold an octopus with the cables; second mobile – well we all know that multiple SIM and single number isn’t widely available; phone sleeve with battery – not tried this yet, but may well give it a go, as it looks by far and away the most elegant solution.
But what about a better battery – wouldn’t that be the answer? Well yes obviously (presupposing we remembered to charge it before we left home this morning). I heard recently about some research that had discovered a new “way” of producing a battery that had increased power storage and performance, but sadly it indicated that production would commence in several years time. What do we do in the meantime – I suspect this issue will become a bigger one as we all find ourselves out-and-about with a “dead” device, and either nowhere to charge it, or the charger at home “on the side”
But what do I know
Graham Bunting -The Catalyst 
I share your thoughts on the weak point of all these wonderful devices we find running our lives. Happily I’ve found a way around much of this thanks to the standardisation of power connectors… I speak here of non-iDevices being a user of Android and other equipped things. A year or two back there was something of a gentleman’s agreement inside the mobile hardware companies to standardise on MicroUSB as the connector of choice for future phones. This has now come to pass and it’s pretty hard to find anything (outside of Apple) that does not have one. So for me I have two phones, Blackberry and Motorola, a Kindle, a Fuji camera, an Asus Transformer and an HP TouchPad that all use a standard A/C transformer and all shipped with one. So I have one in the office, two at home, one in my bag and one in the car that plugs into the lighter socket. The one in my bag has 3 interchangeable plugs one for the UK, one for Europe and one for the US. Then there’s always the cable to plug into my or anyone who’ll let me PC. So for me power is or hasn’t as yet proved to be an issue. I can’t remember the last time my phone was out of power. NOTE: this could be famous last words 😉
I also make use of apps and functions of my devices to save power. My Motorola has installed JuiceDefender from Latedroid (free on Android Market) which helps save power but shutting down phone functions such as 3G radio when in the presence of WiFi and the reverse when not. Motorola also include an app called SmartActions which allows you to create custom configurations based on time or location. So I can also shutdown functions I don’t need based on where I am or what time of day/night it is. I’m sure such things are available for iDevices too.
While I agree bigger, stronger more capable batteries will help us in the future. We’re stuck with what we’ve got and by using some smarts and thinking ahead we can minimise inconvenience and keep communicating.
But as you put – what do I know? 😀
Thanks Craig – some good ideas and practices there for better mobile device use. I also just came across a kinetic charger by nvolt thanks to a twitter posting by @apallet on information week. Worth a look I thought http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/smart_phones/232400384