A super special invitation was extended out to a very select number of journalists to visit the Google campus on July 10th and 11th. The assumption is that this group would get their first glimpse at the upcoming Moto X smartphone. Apparently, that assumption may be getting a little too far ahead of itself.
Apparently, Leo Laporte was one of the guys that got the invitation from Motorola’s Guy Kawasaki (he joined the company earlier this year as an advisor). Laporte figured that the event had to do with “the phone,” but sources have indicated to CNET that Motorola has “something else to share” at the event and they’re not providing any further details.
It’s possible that while they won’t be showing off the new Moto X smartphone per se, they could be providing a little more explanation about the whole Moto X customizaton thing. Does it mean more customization in terms of looks for different colors and engravings? In terms of components for cameras and processors? Or is this little gathering something different entirely? It might even be to reveal a new smartwatch or a Motorola-branded take on Google Glass.
LG is planning to broaden its otherwise Android-dominated horizons, confirming that the company has a Windows Phone 8 handset in the works.
LG India's managing director Kwon Soon revealed all to Light Reading India, confirming that a phone was currently at the R&D stage.
"At home [in South Korea], we are actually working on our Windows Phone 8 OS powered smartphone," said Kwon, who added that he believed the Windows platform is set to "pick up going ahead".
He also said that the company was still assessing the market opportunity, so this doesn't mean that a new WP8 handset will definitely happen - but LG is clearly more interested than ever.
Takes Kwon to know Kwon
LG has launched Windows Phone handsets in the past but hasn't yet delved into Windows Phone 8, which has been primarily pushed by Nokia, Samsung, HTC and Huawei.
Kwon did say that while a Windows Phone 8 smartphone is in the pipeline, LG will continue to focus on Android. "Android is the major platform globally, given its acceptance and penetration," he said.
LG said back in September that it was still considering the Windows Phone platform, but did not admit to plans for a WP8 smartphone at the time.
Here's yet another nod in the direction of Android 4.3 as it appears to cement itself as the next installment of Google's mobile platform, over Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie.
Apart from telling us that Android 4.3 Jelly Bean will support version 4.0 of the Bluetooth standard (which is no great surprise), the listing doesn't tell us anything else about the impending update - apart from that it's nearing completion.
Who's first?
We expect the likes of the Google Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 to be among the first to receive the Android 4.3 update, but the recent addition of the Google-edition Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One means these pure Android handsets may also get treated early doors.
According to previous rumours Android 4.3 is set to be a incremental upgrade with minor differences including a refreshed camera application and better notification management.
In terms of an Android 4.3 release date it's still unclear when Google has this pencilled in for, but it should arrive in the next couple of months - so keep your eyes peeled.
The name is still anyone's guess, but the battery inside the hotly tipped Nokia Lumia 1020 (or is that the Nokia 909?) may not be up to much after a charging shell appeared online.
A snap of the accessory was picked up by Russian site Izvestia, and details which accompanied the photo suggested it would provide users with an additional 35 per cent battery life.
Apparently the Nokia-branded accessory packs a 1020mAh battery into the clip on shell, complete with sizeable porthole for that much-rumoured 41MP PureView camera.
Is that it?
That said, 1020mAh is relatively small for an external charging pack, with cases usually packing larger batteries at the expense of a bulkier design.
Credit: Izvestia
Usually these cases are produced by third party manufacturers and it seems a little odd that Nokia is making one itself. It raises our suspicions that the Lumia 1020 may struggle to see out a whole day on a single charge.
Luckily all our questions will be answered later this week as Nokia is due to reveal its next flagship smartphone - originally touted as the EOS - in New York on Thursday, and we'll be there to bring you all the latest.
The low-cost WYSIPS crystal can recharge your mobile from any light source
Mobile computing promises the world: web access, photos, music and maps, everywhere you go. And it can really deliver - for a while. But poor battery life means you'll probably soon run into problems, with some devices leaving you staring at a useless blank screen well before the end of the day.
There are some steps you can take to keep your system running longer, of course. The display is a major mobile phone energy hog, so reducing its brightness and timeout (the time a phone waits for input before turning the screen off) can make a significant difference.
Turning off GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you don't need them also helps. This doesn't always have to be as absolute as it sounds. On the iPhone, for instance, you can disable Location Services on an app-by-app basis (Settings > Privacy > Location Services). On the software side, uninstalling apps you don't use will stop them draining your battery.
There are also tools you can use to extend your battery life. JuiceDefender, for instance, is an excellent Android app which automatically optimises power use.
All of these steps can bring minor improvements but none can make the fundamental difference we need. And you might be left wondering why battery life is still so poor, and what's being done to improve the situation.
Feature overload
Perhaps the main problem with battery life over the years is it really doesn't seem to have changed that much.
Take the iPhone, for example. The original device had a claimed talk time of 8 hours; the iPhone 5 is, well, the same. Internet use has nudged up from 6 hours to 8, and claimed standby time has actually dropped (225 hours vs 250).
There are very good reasons for this, though, and the main one is that you're now getting much more for your money.
A modern iPhone has gained 3G support, a vastly better screen (480 x 320 vs 1136 x 640), GPS, and the excellent iSight camera (8 megapixel vs 2). On top of that, there's the ability to run multiple apps in the background, each of which could drain your power further at any time. The fact that the latest iPhones can power all these extra functions while also fractionally extending overall battery life is a success story, not a failure.
iPhone battery meter apps help identify exactly what's draining your power
This doesn't mean that the existing situation is good enough, of course. When, even now, many devices struggle to run for a full day without a recharge, then it's clear we need something better. Much better. And there are some promising technologies being developed right now which could point us in the right direction.
Extending Lithium-Ion
Today's lithium-ion batteries are straightforward and safe (well, mostly), but also have their limitations. In particular, the graphite anode they generally use has to be fairly large to store a reasonable amount of power, and so there's a great deal of research going on to find a less bulky replacement material.
Silicon anodes, for instance, could help increase battery capacity by up to 10 times. But the big problem is that a simple flat layer of silicon absorbs so many ions that it actually grows significantly during charging, then shrinks during discharge, creating stresses which mean it destroys itself very quickly.
Recent research at the University of Maryland, however, found that growing tiny silicon beads on a carbon nanotube allowed them to expand during charging "like flexible balloons", without cracking. UMD Professor YuHuang Wang told us: "I believe that our finding is very significant. The Si bead on CNT structure is a breakthrough."
These tiny silicon beads could be the next advance in battery power
There is still much to do - the cathode and electrolyte also need to be able to handle this extra charge - but if Wang is right then this could help to deliver vastly improved power density, as well as batteries which can survive perhaps five times as many charge/ discharge cycles as they do today.
Others are working on lithium-sulphur, lithium-seawater, even lithium-air projects, each of which has their own possible advantages. PolyPlus seawater technology could deliver four times the battery life of li-ion, for instance, while "air-cathode" research (including IBM's Battery 500) suggests the batteries wouldn't only outperform li-ion, they'd be so lightweight that they could allow electric cars to finally have the range of their petrol-based cousins.
Next generation
While some think simply tweaking lithium-ion is the way to go, others are working on rather more revolutionary ideas.
Perhaps one of the most promising areas of battery research is based around graphene. A single layer of carbon, the material can vastly outperform existing technologies, recharges in a few minutes, and is even flexible, perfect for wearable devices.
Science fiction? Not at all. The UK government has allocated £21.5 million to develop commercial applications for the material, and companies like Vorbeck Materials are working on producing graphene batteries right now.
Elsewhere, Harvard Professor Jennifer Lewis has demonstrated the use of 3D printing to build an integrated stack of electrodes, which could allow batteries to be reduced to the size of a grain of sand.
3D printed structures could shrink batteries to the size of a grain of sand
At the moment, the main benefit is the reduction in weight, Lewis told us: "We are working on the next generation design with improved electrode compositions to further enhance their performance. We certainly hope that they will outperform regular Li ion batteries, but this has yet to be demonstrated."
Another new idea goes a step further, rethinking battery technology at a much lower level. New microbatteries developed at the University of Illinois integrate their anodes and cathodes at the microstructure level, allowing recharge times to be 1,000 times faster, and batteries to be one thirtieth of their current size.
"It's a new enabling technology," said James Pikul, first author of the paper: "It's not a progressive improvement over previous technologies; it breaks the normal paradigms of energy sources. It's allowing us to do different, new things."
Power up
The future of batteries has plenty of promise, then - but mobile users need more power right now. The quickest workaround seems to be finding new, hassle-free ways of recharging. And they don't get much more convenient than Wysips Crystal, the first solar recharging technology you might actually want to use.
The system uses an ultra-thin film which can be placed behind your device screen. It's up to 90 per cent transparent, so you won't even know it's there, yet is still enough to generate a useful recharge level from any source of light.
The Wysips crystal could bring constantly replenished solar power to phones
What can you expect? The company told us: "Right now the system generates 2.5 mW/cm2 in direct sunlight, which should mean an extra 2 to 4 minutes talk time for every 10 minutes of exposure."
Only really useful in an emergency, then, but there's more. The company aims to double this performance by the end of 2014; it's also due very soon, and at a price that everyone can afford. The company explained: "Wysips Crystal adds just $2.30 to a mobile phone's manufacturing costs, and the first mobiles equipped with the technology will be on the market in early 2014."
Here in the UK, of course, direct sunlight can sometimes be hard to find, but fortunately there's another long-awaited technology which is coming very soon: wireless recharging. It's already available at a few places in the US (Madison Square Garden has 600 wireless charging spots), for instance. And the idea could be about to go very mainstream indeed, with Starbucks apparently due to introduce the technology soon, and McDonald's Europe already beginning trials.
The battery world may move very slowly, then, but finally it's beginning to change, and we should see the emergence of real, meaningful improvements in current technology as soon as next year.
