Month: October 2023

The Nothing Phone 2 is a brilliant smartphone, and its importance to the US market, in particular, can’t be overstated.
While Nothing does seem to be having fun, which is great, I’m concerned the unexpected diversification of the Nothing brand may lead to negative repercussions on the one thing I love about it most.At its core, the Nothing Phone 2 is simply a good piece of mobile tech, but it’s also wrapped up in a body that stands out in the crowd and refreshingly goes in its own direction when it comes to the user interface and its design too.

Design is a big part of Nothing. The Nothing Ear 1 in-ear Bluetooth headphones’ unusual transparent casing set the tone for the brand, and its understanding of ergonomics and appreciation of simple beauty shone through in the Ear Stick headphones cool, twistable, cylindrical case. Whether it’s the fun yet useful lights on the back of the Nothing Phone 1 and Nothing Phone 2 or its quirky, retro dot-matrix style font, Nothing’s branding and product line have quickly become clear and instantly recognizable.

Until now, because Nothing’s next product isn’t tech-related at all. It’s clothing. Nothing Apparel will launch in the near future, and it’s described as a range of “wardrobe staples” consisting of coats, tracksuits, caps, backpacks, and more. Apparently inspired by its hardware, it supposedly brings Nothing’s design ethos to textiles, but there’s no mention of batteries, flashing lights, or tech at all. It appears to be some clothes.
Just before Nothing Apparel was announced, Nothing launched Nothing Beer. It doesn’t come in a Bluetooth-connected can, and it doesn’t have a QR code for an exclusive Nothing app that only works with Nothing phones; it’s simply a beer available in a pack of six. Or at least, it was, because the limited edition product sold out very quickly. While I’m sure it was a fun time working with the brewery, it really was an odd and entirely non-techy move.

I’ll say at this point that I’m not a curmudgeon. I’m not suggesting fun should be banned, and I am not complaining about these launches or saying they shouldn’t have happened at all. I may not care about the beer, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be in the queue for a Nothing cap. Swag (ultimately because, that’s what all this is, whether it’s free or not) is also important to build brand awareness, something OnePlus also did well with its range of excellent backpacks and bags, plus some fun t-shirts I still have today.
But all these products really need to have something to do with the brand’s core business, which until now, I assumed was technology. Beer and shirts with zips on just don’t seem to have anything to do with tech or Nothing, outside of some loose connection with design or throwing some work in the direction of Teenage Engineering, the design house it has worked with on other projects already.

Launches like this mean there’s a real risk of brand dilution rather than brand building. It’s fine for YouTubers to have their “merch,” which I’m sure helps supplement income, but I can’t pick up a Samsung hoodie when I buy my Galaxy S23 Ultra or sip an exclusive Apple artisan coffee while choosing my Apple Watch Series 9. Looked at this way, clothes and beer align Nothing more closely with YouTubers than they do with its genuine industry competition

What is Nothing, then? Is it a tech brand? A lifestyle brand?

A brand throwing many things against the wall to see what sticks? The fact I’m asking this question at all means its recent choices are somewhat unusual and that perhaps the fun it is having isn’t doing its carefully curated and shockingly effective brand — which it has impressively built in double-quick time — much good.
Don’t lose sight of what makes you special

Nothing can launch what it likes, but there are two things I don’t want to happen. The first is I don’t want the tech brand to disappear in the process of diversifying. I’m concerned it’s happening already, as I am less aware of its CMF by Nothing sub-brand — which makes cheap earbuds and smartwatches — than I am of its beer and clothing, despite it having a whole lot more to do with tech and Nothing’s quickly established brand than either of them.

The second is far more of a worry. Nothing is still a young company, and making smartphones is a very expensive, time-intensive process. Spending time, effort, and resources on fun side projects really must not impact the development of future mobile hardware or its Nothing OS software.

It’s the earbuds, phones, and software that give Nothing its appeal, and they need to be the company’s primary focus. It hasn’t happened yet, and Nothing has recently released version 2.5 of its phone software and a preview of what it’s doing with Android 14, so it’s not like the end times are near. It’s just an unexpected directional swerve so early in the firm’s life.

Nothing launched with a compelling mission statement, saying it was a tech company committed to making intuitive, flawlessly connected products with no confusing tech-speak or silly product names — and how it didn’t want to make things complicated. Beer and clothes are making things complicated and confusing, especially because they seem to be more than just casual marketing stunts.

We could be witnessing the evolution of the Nothing brand, something it may need to do in order to survive in such a difficult industry, but I just hope it doesn’t forget to make and support fantastic smartphones, headphones, and other tech products in any attempt to secure its future.

The importance of mobile phones in the daily lives of human beings can’t be denied. Their prevalence is primarily due to their efficient utility and portability, which is enabled by a compact and strong battery. To satisfy the rising demands of smartphone consumers, its battery technology is continuously evolving. In recent years, there have been numerous advancements in rechargeable batteries for mobile phones leading to increased battery life and efficiency. 

A Brief History of Mobile Phone Battery TechnologyMobile phone battery technology has evolved tremendously throughout the years. A research article published in InfoMat (Willey) has presented a thorough overview of the technological evolutions of the battery. As per the research, 1983 was a significant year as it saw the release of Motorola’s DynaTac 8000X, which employed a Ni-Cd battery with a modest 500mAh capacity.

Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries substituted NiCd batteries in the 1990s. NiMH batteries had an improved power density and were more environmentally friendly than NiCd batteries. Nevertheless, NiMH batteries were susceptible to the memory effect, which diminished their efficiency over time.

The transition period between 1998 and 2000 led to the substitution of NiMH batteries with Lithium Ion batteries. The energy density of Li-ion batteries was significantly greater than that of NiMH batteries, and they were immune to the memory effect. Li-ion batteries are the most common form of battery used in mobile phones today.
Solid State Batteries – A Novel Battery InnovationSolid-state batteries have been viewed as prospective future technologies for energy storage mainly due to their improved energy density and enhanced safety when contrasted to commercial operations lithium-ion batteries with liquid electrolytes.

Toyota, Samsung, and BMW are among the businesses that are developing solid-state batteries for cell phones. A United States startup Solid Power is among the top-notch manufacturers of solid-state batteries as well as Sulfide solid electrolytes for smartphones and electric vehicles Their batteries outperform traditional lithium-ion batteries due to the utilization of better-performing electrodes such as high-content silicon and lithium metal, so consumers may expect a 15-35% cost savings at the pack level.
Graphene-Based Batteries for Mobile PhonesGraphene is the 2-dimensional framework of graphite, in which one layer of planar carbon atoms is organized in the form of a honeycomb lattice. Even at absolute zero, graphene is regarded as a semi-metallic material. Graphene has four times the tensile strength of steel, is extremely adaptable, transparent, and an exceptional conductor of heat and electricity due to its bonds. These attributes of graphene make it a suitable material for both mobile phone batteries and supercapacitors.
Huawei, Samsung, and Graphene Flagship, a research project financed by the European Union, are among the corporations working on the development of graphene battery packs for cell phones.
Hydrogen Fuel Cells Based BatteriesThe utilization of hydrogen fuel cells presents a novel technological advancement with the potential to significantly transform the mobile phone battery landscape. These fuel cells function through the combination of hydrogen and oxygen, resulting in the production of water as a byproduct. Such a process renders hydrogen fuel cells an environmentally friendly and proficient energy source.

Various corporations are currently involved in the research and development of hydrogen fuel cells for mobile phones, including Intelligent Energy, a UK-based enterprise that has engineered a fuel cell that can power an iPhone for up to a week without necessitating a recharge. The organization is presently in the process of creating a commercial version of the fuel cell to cater to the mobile phone industry.
Sodium Ion Mobile BatteriesSodium-ion batteries represent an alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries for energy storage and release, utilizing sodium ions instead. The abundance and comparatively lower cost of sodium compared to lithium render sodium-ion batteries a more cost-effective choice. Additionally, sodium -ion ​​batteries demonstrate a higher energy density in comparison to NiMH batteries.

A research article published in the Journal of Physics: Energy has presented an overview of sodium ion mobile batteries. As per the research, Titanium-based oxides are regarded as highly potential and versatile anode materials for sodium batteries, given their affordability, facile processing, and lack of toxicity. These materials exhibit greater safety in comparison to carbon-based anodes due to their elevated operating voltage, which helps prevent the formation of metallic sodium plating.
Notably, a select number of corporations, including Faradion (UK), Tiamat (Europe), Altris AB (Europe), HiNa (China), and Natron Energy (USA), are currently dedicated to the development of sodium batteries.
Novel Thin Film Battery – A Game Changer for Mobile Phones

A company based in Rzeszów is aiming to revolutionize the global market with its latest thin-film battery, which is expected to have a lifespan of up to 68 years. Developed by The Batteries, this cutting-edge technology has already earned the label of ” a game changer” from the industry press, and the company plans to begin large-scale production once construction of their “pilot factory” is complete.

Polish scientists have created a battery that can charge from 0 percent to 100 percent in merely eight minutes, offering an alternative to the conventional lithium-ion batteries which have dominated the market for the past 25 years. The new technology developed in Poland obviates the requirement for supplementary chemical compounds, and as a result, the energy density of the battery has increased by almost twofold to 1,200 Wh/l.
Market Analysis and Future PerspectiveAllied Market Research has published a thorough report focusing on the market analysis and industry forecast of mobile phone batteries. According to the report, the global market for mobile batteries had a value of $21.2 billion in 2020, and it is anticipated to grow to $38.6 billion by 2030, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3% between 2021 and 2030.

The report highlights that the Asia-Pacific region is projected to hold the largest market share, with China, India, and Japan emerging as major players in the mobile battery market. Nevertheless, North America and Europe are also predicted to experience substantial growth, debt to a surge in demand for superior battery technology fueled by the growing popularity of smartphones and other mobile devices.
The future of mobile phone batteries appears bright, with various promising new technologies currently under development. Notably, the advancement of flexible and stretchable batteries is an area of ​​active exploration. Such batteries can be easily integrated into wearable devices and possess the ability to bend and stretch without compromising their functionality.

This will facilitate the creation of novel types of wearable devices that are presently unfeasible.
In short, the recent technological innovations in mobile phone batteries will play a crucial role in the further commercialization of smartphonesand modern industrial infrastructure.

Smartphone manufacturers make their batteries hard to replace . Tough new EU rules will change that. 
The European Union will soon require smartphone manufacturers to let users replace their batteries.

The tough new rules – endorsed by the European Parliament this week – could save millions of phones from landfill.
Every year, more than 150 million smartphones are thrown away. Making batteries more easily to replace could stem this deluge of e-waste.
Existing phones seal away batteries within the tablet, meaning replacing them can be nearly as expensive as buying a new phone.
The new measures will help break that cycle of rampant consumption, MEP Achille Variati declared.

“For the first time, we have circular economy legislation that covers the entire life cycle of a product – an approach that is good for both the environment and the economy,” he said.
“We agreed on measures that greatly benefit consumers: batteries will be well-functioning, safer and easier to remove.”
What are the EU’s new rules?Under the legislation, consumers must be able to “easily remove and replace” portable batteries used in devices such as smartphones, tablets, and cameras.

This will necessitate a significant redesign.
The smartphone replacement rules are part of a broader system of rules.
All electric vehicle and rechargeable industrial batteries above 2kWh will need to have a compulsory carbon footprint declaration, label, and digital passport.
The parliament also passed new targets for collecting waste and recovering materials from old batteries.

By 2031, 61 per cent of waste must be collected and 95 per cent of materials must be recovered from old portable batteries.
What is planned obsolescence and why is it a problem?

Mobile phones sit in landfill, leaching toxic chemicals into groundwater and contaminating soil.
These take years to decompose. Worse still, these dead phones are a terrible waste of precious metals like cobalt and lithium.

Such metals have to be mined – often with hugely destructive consequences for local communities and ecosystems. As the renewable transition increases demand for batteries, reducing unnecessary pressure on existing stocks is a moral and economic imperative.
Unfortunately, many phones are built to stop working.
Ever felt your phone getting slower or rifled through a stash of old, unusable apple chargers for the right dongle? Then you’ve experienced the blood-boiling frustrations of planned obsolescence.

Manufacturers seriously limit the lifespan of their own devices in order to force consumers to buy newer models.
Public opinion is against this practice.
According to a European Commission study conducted last year, 77 per cent of EU citizens would rather repair their devices than replace them. In addition, 79 per cent think that manufacturers should make their digital devices easier to repair, with smartphone better access to individual parts.

Apple rarely apologizes when it messes up.But when it does, it’s usually followed by even more fervor and upset users.

Case in point: Apple finally admitted it did a poor job communicating to its customers about how and why it slowed down iPhones with older batteries.And while most people will forgive the company and accept its two upcoming solutions (a $29 battery replacement for applicable iPhones and a future software update that’ll better explain your device’s battery health), there’s an equal amount of people who are now slamming the company for not doing even more for its users, like designing iPhones with removable batteries.

Cute idea — but it’s a little short-sighted. It’s not that Apple can’t make an iPhone with a removable battery, but because it doesn’t make any sense to. Removable batteries had their time in the ’90s-00s.

There are other features that we prioritize over batteries that can be swapped out.
SEE ALSO: 5 easy tricks to help you free up storage space on your iPhone First, a little history lesson. Asking Apple to make an iPhone with a removable battery will never happen. I know…never say never… but I feel confident making this claim because Apple has never released an iPhone with a battery you could easily remove.
The battery’s always been sealed inside of the iPhone, and the only way to replace it has been to 1) bring it to Apple for servicing or 2) buy your own toolset and bust open the iPhone yourself (and void the warranty in the process) .
Long before Steve Jobs hopped on stage at Macworld in January 2007 to introduce the first iPhone to the world, the company already decided on its strong stance against removable batteries.

It was a jarring design choice at the time because just about all phones came with removable batteries, but it ultimately proved to be the right one.
While many Android phones touted removable batteries as a feature that distinguished them from the iPhone, you need only look around at the current Android landscape to see how that turned out.

Can you name a single flagship Android phone with a removable battery? 

I can’t, and I review these things for a living. (To be fair, there are still phones that have removable batteries, but they’re usually budget ones or come from no-name brands.)
Samsung ditched removable batteries in its two flagship devices — the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note — in 2014. And LG, one of the last companies to give up on them, held out until 2016 with the G5.

Prioritizing other featuresSo why did these companies stop making phones with swappable batteries?
You already know the answer if you’re a phone junkie or a tech nerd. And no, the answer isn’t: They’re all just copying Apple.
Whenever you make a decision not to do something, you’re simultaneously making the decision to allow room for something else. Perhaps, something that couldn’t have been done because of the tradeoffs that prioritized one thing over another.
In the case of phones with removable batteries, phone makers made the deliberate decision to go with sealed batteries for a number of reasons. Here are just a few of them:

More premium design: Removable batteries are convenient, but they also greatly limit the design of a phone. Take a look at the Galaxy S5 and Note 4. Notice any similarities? They both have plastic backs that can easily be pried off to reveal the battery .

And that’s a good thing, except people wanted better materials. Though the Note 4 had a metal frame, the S5’s plastic body and Band-Aid-like rear caught major flak for being tone-deaf to the metal and glass trend that was emerging. Samsung switched to a glass and metal “sandwich” design the next year with the S6, and the company has seen major success from all its phones since then.
Metal and glass bodies simply do not mix well removable batteries. It’s possible to make one — the LG G5 was an example of this — but it’s going to be greatly compromised. Sealed batteries have enabled slimmer designs and the use of new, more luxurious materials that wouldn’t have been aesthetically possible if they had to account for a removable back battery.

Water-resistance: You want your phone to survive a drop in the pool or toilet? Repel rain? 

Good, then you want a phone with fewer openings and more internal sealing that’ll protect its computer bits from frying.
Well, you can’t have that if you’ve got a cover that could easily pop off and cracks that could potentially allow water to seep in. And it’s not just water. Many phones are dust-resistant, too. Nobody wants tiny rocks or sand damaging the insides of their phone.
More room for other stuff: I’m not going to get into all the nerdy bits things about battery design, but a removable battery hogs up more physical space within the already tightly-packed confines of a modern phone.

Unlike a sealed battery, a removable battery requires an extra layer of protection to shield it from everyday impact. This adds extra thickness. On a phone where every millimeter counts and can be felt in the hand, there’s little competitive edge to go thicker when everyone is making their phones thinner.Instead of wasting space with extra padding for the battery, designers and engineers can fit in other features such as better — possibly even stereo — speakers, or wireless charging, or better gaskets for weather-resistance, or a fingerprint sensor on the back.

Weird-shaped batteries: Removable batteries are also limited to essentially being rectangles or squares for easy installation and removal. And if you know anything about battery design, you’d know that new phone batteries are built to squeeze more power with unconventional designs.
For example, the LG G2 used a “step battery” design that packed more battery into the curved corners, which would normally be wasted with a battery with straight edges. The iPhone X also uses an unique L-shaped battery made up of two battery cells.
Had these phones used a removable rectangle-shaped battery, they wouldn’t get the stellar battery life that they do in the same svelte designs. You’d have a phone that looks like something enclosed in an Otterbox. Basically, big, heavy, and ugly. And just eww. No thank you.

It’s time to move onI understand the reasons for wanting a phone with a removable battery. I really do.
Removable batteries are more environmentally friendly because it’ll lead to less e-waste since you won’t feel compelled to upgrade to a new phone if your current one works just fine.
They’d make situations like the one Apple’s caught in a lot easier for users because a fresh battery could fix handle new software updates that an older battery couldn’t. And you could probably get one for a lot less from a third-party.

Removable batteries also make it easier to carry a spare for when you really need it. Like when you’re out late or don’t have time to wait for a charge.
But much like the death of the PS/2 port, floppy disk, headphone jack, etc., it’s time to move on. Removable batteries were practical — and limited by old designs and technology — when phones were as thick as a Snickers and weren’t as feature-packed as they are today.

In a perfect world, you’d be able to get an iPhone X with a removable battery. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Ours is filled with tradeoffs. And we’ve all already decided we value all of the mentioned features more than a removable battery. If we didn’t, the iPhone would have died a quick death years ago.So wish all you want. But it’s not going to happen. The future of phones will be even more integrated with even more custom parts and more sealed than they are now.Raymond Wong is Mashable’s Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and stitches the tech industry. 

Every Android user encounters some issue or another with their smartphone’s battery over time. The reason being phone batteries degrade naturally with routine charging and after a while, they discharge faster compared to when they were new.

But you wouldn’t want to deal with a dead phone every now and then, especially when you’re on the move, right?

The best way to save yourself from this annoying situation is to keep an eye on the battery health of your phone. Now, your Android device might not have an easy way to check this, but worry not! In this article, we have mentioned how you can check the battery health of your Android phone and keep your well-loved device in working order for longer.

What is battery health?Before we get into the different ways you can check your Android phone’s battery health, it is essential to understand what the term “battery health” really means. In simple terms, the health of a battery determines how much it has deteriorated with each charge cycle To put things in perspective, let’s say your Android phone has a battery capacity of 4500mAh. At 100 percent battery health, it will hold 4500mAh when the phone is fully charged. But with regular charging, the health of the battery might drop to 95 percent. In that case, your phone will not get the full 4500mAh out of the battery even when it is 100 percent charged because of its degradation over the years.

The lower the battery health, the shorter the battery life. This means that a phone with low battery health will discharge faster and may also face issues like getting warm during usage, etc. So, if you have been getting frequent “low battery” alerts , you might want to check your Android phone’s battery health. Read on to learn the different ways you can do that.
How to check your Android phone’s battery healthUnfortunately, Android doesn’t offer you a built-in way to analyze the battery health of your mobile phone. So, we have put together some of the best and most hassle-free solutions to check your Android phone’s battery health. Let’s look at them in detail!

Using Settings menuEvery Android device allows you to track the battery status through its Settings menu. But it must be noted that the information provided and the navigation option may vary depending on your Android build and version. Here’s an outline of what you need to do:

Open the Settings app on your phone and go to the BatteryUnder the Battery section, tap the three-dot icon on the top right corner and click on Battery Usage to find the list of apps consuming the most power since the last charge.Should you wish to force an app to close, tap on the app name and choose a setting that suits your purpose.Note: We’ve used OnePlus 6T for the demo, but some Android mobile phone brands show more details like the ones running MIUI will show you your battery’s current temperature. In that case, please make a note that any battery temperature below 50-degree C is normal.Using a dial code

Little do people know that you can access a hidden diagnostics menu on Android phones by dialing a secret code comprising numbers, asterisks and hashes. Here’s how you can use the Phone app to check the battery information of your Android mobile phone.

Open the Phone app on your smartphone and input *#*#4636#*#* in the dial pad.In the testing menu that pops up, look for Battery Information for details like charge level, battery temperature and health.Note: In case you don’t see the Battery Information option, then unfortunately it means that this secret dial code method doesn’t work on your Android mobile phone.Using third-party appsThe above-mentioned solutions don’t provide you with comprehensive information about your phone’s battery health. So, for an in-depth analysis, it is best to download and install a third-party app like AccuBattery on your Android mobile phone. It will show you details like usage information, battery capacity, temperature, and more. To check the phone’s battery health via a third-party app, follow these steps: 

Phone battery healthDownload the AccuBattery app from the Play Store and install it on your phone.Once you open the app, you’ll find four tabs: Charging, Discharging, Health & History. Go to the Health tab down at the bottom.Under this section, you’ll be able to see your battery health in percentage. Other info like battery capacity and battery wear can also be found under Battery Health.

Note: When you use the app for the first time, it might not display any of the information as Android doesn’t provide historical battery information to third-party apps. The only info that the app can read would be the battery’s design capacity. It is with each charge cycle that the app will record your battery’s estimated capacity and over time, determine its health.

How to check battery health on Samsung mobile phonesIf you’re a Samsung user, you’re in luck! Your device comes pre-installed with the Samsung Members app which makes it easy for you to check your battery health. Here’s how:
Open the Samsung Members app, scroll down to the Get Help tab and click it.On the menu that opens, go to the Interactive checksFrom the list of options, select Battery to see your phone’s battery power, life and capacity.

The battery life (Good, Normal or Weak) will determine its health.Note: In case you’ve already checked the Battery option in the Samsung Members app, you can go to Settings > Battery and Device Care > Diagnostics > Battery Status to directly get to the battery life of your Samsung Android phone.