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October 24, 2015

LENOVO IdeaPad Z370 Battery

"It combines several different kinds of batteries, all of which are optimized for different tasks, into the same computer," Microsoft said in a blog post. "Then, it works with the operating system to figure out whether the user is, say, looking at Word documents or editing video footage, and applies the most efficient battery for that task."

Touching the Surface
In addition to Chandra, Julia Meinershagen, Senior Engineer with the Surface Devices group, also participated in this research. If Microsoft is successful, we may soon see significantly better battery life on Microsoft's future generation of Surface devices.

But the innovation doesn't stop there. The same principles can also be applied to smartphones, cars and other gadgets, Chandra wrote. Currently, chipmakers like Qualcomm and Intel are relying on smaller architectures to deliver faster performance and longer battery life.

The best part about Microsoft's battery innovation is that it uses existing technology so we don't have to wait for the ultimate battery to be invented.

For years, Microsoft has been telling us that the future of PCs was actually the tablet. The Surface Pro in particular is powerful enough that it could truly keep pace with your laptop, and Microsoft hasn't been shy about comparing it to the MacBook Air. The message seemed clear: The Surface Pro was like a notebook, only better.

And yet, immediately after unveiling the Surface Pro 4 at a keynote earlier this month, Microsoft unleashed one last surprise: the Surface Book. At first glance, it's a traditional 13-inch notebook, with a premium design, long battery life and the sort of performance you'll find in only a handful of other laptops, like the MacBook Pro. Unlike a Mac, though, you can remove the screen, turning it into a shockingly light, 1.6-pound tablet -- one that happens to pack a notebook-grade Intel Core processor.

Microsoft researchers are looking at the age-old problem of laptop battery stamina. Rather than trying to improve battery chemistry â€“ there are plenty of other researchers and engineers looking into that â€“ they instead looked at using multiple different types of battery for the different tasks and components of the laptop. Using this 'software-defined battery' means the system decides the right battery for the task at hand. The researchers say that using current battery technology this system can "keep laptops and tablets charged much longer than current standards".

Explaining the thrust of the study, principal researcher Ranveer Chandra said "Rather than waiting for the perfect battery, we're using all the technology available right now". The central idea behind the longer lasting batteries is 'Software Defined Batteries'. Instead of a collection of identical Li-ion cells, for example, the prototypes built by the researchers use different kinds of battery cells for different tasks. The current system used to manage a device's battery charge isn't usually the device OS but some firmware.

"Everyone wants a better battery, and while lithium-ion is generally good, it can't meet all our wants and needs," said Julia Meinershagen, a senior engineer with Microsoft's Surface Devices, who also contributed to this project. The 'software-defined battery' (PDF) combines several different kinds of batteries, all of which are optimized for different tasks and works with the OS to check what kinds of tasks are going on. It then applies the most efficient battery to that task.

Machine learning is implemented to mean that the optimisation is personal to each computer user. It might learn the regular plugging and unplugging times of your laptops, and what your computing habits/demands are to make sure you have enough juice for what you have to do.

While it is experimenting with laptops and tablets right now, Microsoft reckons that its 'software-defined battery' tech will be useful in other industries such as smartphones or even automobiles.

HP's inexpensive Stream laptops weren't perfect by any means, but with a starting price of $200, we were able to forgive a lot, including so-so displays, sluggish performance and sometimes-flaky touchpads. Today HP is refreshing both the Stream 11 and 13, and while neither seems to address the flaws we found in the original, they at least keep the same price, all while bringing longer battery life -- and in the case of the smaller one, a lighter design. In particular, the 11.6-inch model now weighs 2.6 pounds, down from 2.74. The 13.3-inch version remains unchanged at 3.42 pounds, and there's an optional touchscreen for the larger model as well. In both cases, you can expect better runtime: up to 10.5 hours on the 11 (up from 8:15) and 8.5 hours on the 13 (versus 7:45 on the last generation). That's important, as the Stream line competes in part against Chromebooks, some of which have no problem reaching the 10-hour mark.

Laptops are essentially gateways to all things online. These devices have become an indispensable part of our life. For instance, it follows you from home to office and from conferences to coffee shops and back. However, like humans they exhaust at the end of the day. So, efforts are always underway to maximize the battery power by building machines with a higher capacity. Thatâ€™s where Microsoft takes a departure from the normal behavior and works on building smarter batteries. Microsoft working on a new type of battery for laptops!

The machine learning technique will employ a system that will use different sorts of existing batteries, working in tandem with a smartly developed software, to keep them charged more than current standards. The software-defined battery system will be a single blend of different sorts of batteries, optimized for different tasks, into one computer. It will use the operating system to figure out whether the user is working with an application that heavily relies on power or a simple application and thereby switch you to the the most efficient battery for that task.

Example, If youâ€™re playing a game, your OS could detect it via software-defined battery system and help you shift to a more short-lived battery with lots of power.

The solution proposed by the trio â€“ Bodhi Priyantha, Ranveer Chandra and Anirudh Badam working with colleagues from Academia is still in the proto-type phase and could take years before it becomes a reality. Nevertheless, the research holds promises.

According to the release notes, which we have attached at the end of the article for reference, Laptop Mode Tools 1.68.1 is a modest release that updates the manpage details about the runtime-pm component, offers a more descriptive log error, repairs issues with stdout descriptor, and now uses _sbindir for RPM (Red Hat Package Manager).

The "Drop out reload" feature that was implemented in a previous release has been reverted, stderr and stdout are now directed to journal, the new poll service and .timer are now installed by default, it is now possible to write directly to common stderr, while not hardcoding a specific one, and lmt-udev is now called in lmt-poll to avoid calling the laptop_mode binary directly.

Of course, there are a lot of code cleanup and bug fixing in the new Laptop Mode Tools 1.68 maintenance release, which is a recommended upgrade for all Linux users who want to extend their laptop's battery life. Download Laptop Mode Tools 1.68.1 right now from Softpedia or upgrade/install via the default software repositories of your GNU/Linux distribution.

Earlier in the year we looked at 2-in-1 laptops with the best battery life. But what are the best options when you include all laptops, not just convertibles?

Donâ€™t forget there is a lot you can do to improve your battery life. Windows 10 gives some extra options to help draw things out a little.

As a just released, but not real world tested wildcard, Dell has announced the new XPS 13 and 15.

The 13 is already on sale, but the 15 wonâ€™t available until next week, on the 16th of October.

The XPS 13 claims up to 18 hours of battery life. If the previous model is anything to go by (and read more on that below) then it will be possible to hit those figures, but for real world use 15 hours or so might be more realistic.