New HP Technology Helps Batteries Last Longer

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/03/11/2005/138/0/' target='_blank'>http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/03/11/2005/138/0/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Hewlett-Packard researchers have come up with a new method for mobile devices that reduces power usage and at the same time, enhances usability as well. The display is the component that consumes the most battery -- HP developed an energy-aware solution that dims parts of the screen when not in use."</i><br /><br />Apparently, by only lighting up the portions of the screen that the user is actually reading, HP has extended battery life between two and 12 times normal. While the gains may be big, it seems to me that this would require a bit of user adjustment that may scare some users away from this feature. After all, when have we ever seen a screen that is only lit where we are reading? But if its easy to adjust to, reasonably priced, and delivers what it purports to, this may help us alleviate some of the <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=38265">battery paranoia</a> many of us seem to suffer from!

[badbob001]

Isn't it normally the backlight that kills the batteries? I'm not sure how they would be able to turn off the backlight to just parts of the screen since the backlight lights across the whole screen and not on a per-pixel basis. Perhaps they are using an OLED screen, where each pixel is self-lit. So would an OLED pixel set to display black use no energy? If it were as simple as that, then we would expect better battery life if we used some sort of black-and-white mode or high-contrast theme (like the one in the Windows Desktop appearance properties).

[surur]

I believe its meant for OLED screens. I don't think it will help very much for PDA screens, as being very small already, you wont be lighting up only a small part of it in any case. All windows are full screen to start with.

Also, on all screen I have used in the past, I always have the windows full screen in any case. I don't really understand why in all the screen shots people have multiple overlapping windows. Unless you have a gigantic screen (and I have been using 19 inch screens (LCD and CRT) for the past 3 years) I don't really see the benefit.

Surur

[Jonathon Watkins]

I don't think it will help very much for PDA screens, as being very small already, you wont be lighting up only a small part of it in any case. All windows are full screen to start with.

I'm not sure how this will work, but I'd like to see it in action anyway.

I don't really understand why in all the screen shots people have multiple overlapping windows. Unless you have a gigantic screen (and I have been using 19 inch screens (LCD and CRT) for the past 3 years) I don't really see the benefit.

Agreed. I maximise all my windows, unless I need to compare figures etc between apps. I paid for a 19 inch monitor, so I want to get the full benefit out of it! :wink:

[ctmagnus]

I maximize Office apps. The rest all get standard windows. I also tend to have more than one app open at a time and standard windows make checking up on what's happening in another program a lot easier.