Snow Leopard gives heads-up for near-death MacBook batteries
While the immediate charge on a Mac notebook's battery has been available for years, Mac OS X Snow Leopard now tells owners when their batteries are nearing the end of their useful lifespans.
Those familiar with the WWDC build of the operating system upgrade note that clicking the battery icon in the menu bar now shows a new, one-word "battery condition" summary in addition to the energy for the current charge and the power source.
When the battery has been used often enough that it 's losing capacity, the icon is overlaid with an exclamation mark warning and the battery condition changes to "poor" -- both signs that the pack is due to be replaced. While not every condition is known, Snow Leopard presumably reports varying degrees of battery status when the pack has only been moderately used or is like new.
The addition partly replaces third-party utilities that sometimes provide a more detailed estimate. Apple hasn't documented the reasons behind the change, but the most logical explanation is simply that the company's decision to seal in most notebook batteries makes it more important to have an early notice that a battery is near failing. A replacement of the sort is easy for technicians but, without the option of swapping batteries in the field, not trivial for end users.
Apple has lately been paying closer attention to battery life on all its devices and with iPhone OS 3.0 will add a numerical percentage to the iPhone's previously icon-only battery indicator.
Those familiar with the WWDC build of the operating system upgrade note that clicking the battery icon in the menu bar now shows a new, one-word "battery condition" summary in addition to the energy for the current charge and the power source.
When the battery has been used often enough that it 's losing capacity, the icon is overlaid with an exclamation mark warning and the battery condition changes to "poor" -- both signs that the pack is due to be replaced. While not every condition is known, Snow Leopard presumably reports varying degrees of battery status when the pack has only been moderately used or is like new.
The addition partly replaces third-party utilities that sometimes provide a more detailed estimate. Apple hasn't documented the reasons behind the change, but the most logical explanation is simply that the company's decision to seal in most notebook batteries makes it more important to have an early notice that a battery is near failing. A replacement of the sort is easy for technicians but, without the option of swapping batteries in the field, not trivial for end users.
Apple has lately been paying closer attention to battery life on all its devices and with iPhone OS 3.0 will add a numerical percentage to the iPhone's previously icon-only battery indicator.
Comments
Do i need a chart to know this . ?
It makes the wonder if the heat from gaming or not draining the battery once a month for calibration accelerates the deterioration. All companies have a tendency to work in "ideals" when the reality is FAR from the truth.
Yep. Mine says "check battery". I've got about 56% health after 182 cycles in 2 years. I'm quite skeptical on battery longevity since Apple states batteries are supposed to get down to 70% after 300 cycles (my battery clearly missed the mark).
It makes the wonder if the heat from gaming or not draining the battery once a month for calibration accelerates the deterioration. All companies have a tendency to work in "ideals" when the reality is FAR from the truth.
Maybe you should calibrate your battery to ensure that your gauge's accuracy and battery health are are good as possible:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490
Luckily System Profiler in Leopard said to check battery, so that's what I told the Genius
He checked my firmware, and ran a test and confirmed that the battery was "Bad" which is the only time it's covered with the Applecare Protection Plan.
My battery was at 25% health after only 189 cycles. I think it was even lower than this because it would only run for 30 minutes on a full charge at light load, with the "Reserve Battery Power" warning displayed at around 30% power remaining.
So just today he swapped out the battery for free!
Apple has lately been paying closer attention to battery life on all its devices and with iPhone OS 3.0 will add a numerical percentage to the iPhone's previously icon-only battery indicator.
iPhone OS 3.0 will NOT add a battery indicator. As explained on Apple's iPhone page, this feature is for the iPhone 3G S ONLY. Which is pretty lame, as I highly doubt there is any plausible hardware excuse, but it's the case.
Originally Posted by dagamer34
Yep. Mine says "check battery". I've got about 56% health after 182 cycles in 2 years. I'm quite skeptical on battery longevity since Apple states batteries are supposed to get down to 70% after 300 cycles (my battery clearly missed the mark).
It makes the wonder if the heat from gaming or not draining the battery once a month for calibration accelerates the deterioration. All companies have a tendency to work in "ideals" when the reality is FAR from the truth.
You know, Apple has a policy, that when you battery has less than 80% of its original health (full capacity) and has been recharged less than 300 times, you can let it be replaced by Apple.
Maybe you could contact Apple and see, if they'll help.
I'm assuming that's not normal at all.
You know, Apple has a policy, that when you battery has less than 80% of its original health (full capacity) and has been recharged less than 300 times, you can let it be replaced by Apple.
Maybe you could contact Apple and see, if they'll help.
Where did you hear this?
I was told just today that the only time Apple replaces batteries is when they go bad. E.g. lose charge prematurely. 300 cycles would guarantee they wouldn't fix it. And they only do if it's within the 1 year warranty, or 3 year Applecare plan.
My battery is in very bad shape and even states a negative amperage value of -80
I'm assuming that's not normal at all.
No. That's the load of the battery. This number will be positive (or 0) while plugged in, and negative while on battery power, with an incrementally lower number as the CPU load rises. If it continually stays negative while plugged in, that wouldn't be normal.
HP Laserjets would say "low toner" and we'd be able to shake the toner cartridge and get at least a month more of use. To the gullible they'd replace that toner immediately.
A poor battery that got 2 hours in excellent condition may have gotten 20 minutes (this is from experience with a recent battery that prematurely went bad). Now with 8 hours in top condition a poor battery that may be over an hour. For most people that is fine for around the home or in the office, so delaying replacing the battery is ok since the majority are not taking their laptops on 8 hour jaunts unplugged.
Making the health of the battery more accessible means they are setting it up for the gullible people to replace batteries when they have little or no need to.
I am wondering, How long will my battery last if i keep it constantly plug in the wall?
Longer than if you don't...
Batteries are most stressed out when you discharge the completely, especially if you don't recharge it immediately.
It's recommended, however, that you do use your battery occasionally... every couple of weeks to a month should be fine. But basically, battery health is based on charge cycles most rather than time. The more complete charge cycles (fully discharged and fully recharged), the worse your battery's capacity will be.
Longer than if you don't...
Batteries are most stressed out when you discharge the completely, especially if you don't recharge it immediately.
It's recommended, however, that you do use your battery occasionally... every couple of weeks to a month should be fine. But basically, battery health is based on charge cycles most rather than time. The more complete charge cycles (fully discharged and fully recharged), the worse your battery's capacity will be.
Which is not a problem for PCs since with PC laptops the laptop dies before the battery does.
If Apple actually had some sense, they would give users of iPhones a large indication the phone is "fully" charged. The tiny "plug" symbol on the tiny battery, to indicate "fully charged" is difficult to see with good eyes. Do you here that? Yeah, but Apple doesn't. Sometimes I wonder.
None of my phones have ever had a big battery status indicator. I have my old Treo 700p here on my desk, and the indicator is, if anything, even smaller.
I hope they aren't taking advantage of that.
HP Laserjets would say "low toner" and we'd be able to shake the toner cartridge and get at least a month more of use. To the gullible they'd replace that toner immediately.
A poor battery that got 2 hours in excellent condition may have gotten 20 minutes (this is from experience with a recent battery that prematurely went bad). Now with 8 hours in top condition a poor battery that may be over an hour. For most people that is fine for around the home or in the office, so delaying replacing the battery is ok since the majority are not taking their laptops on 8 hour jaunts unplugged.
Making the health of the battery more accessible means they are setting it up for the gullible people to replace batteries when they have little or no need to.
I wouldn't use that word.
As we've already seen from Slantsixx, Apple replaced his bad battery for free. That cost Apple, not him.