Chrysler’s Mopar division plans to become the first car manufacturer to eliminate power cords from cars. The company on Monday announced its new in-vehicle wireless charging technology, which will be available in the 2013 Dodge Dart. “At Mopar, we look for every single opportunity to make our customers’ lives easier,”said Pietro Gorlier, President and CEO of Mopar, Chrysler Group LLC’s service, parts and customer-care brand. Our industry-first in-vehicle wireless charging system is the perfect solution for those connected customers who are always on the go.” The wireless charging system is installed just below the center stack and in front of the center console. The unit features a built-in charging grid that is activated when a user places their iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, or compatible MP3 player on it, and will begin to charge when the vehicle is started. As with other wireless charging options, a separate phone case will be required. The in-vehicle wireless charging system will be available for $199.99 plus installation, and the 2013 Dodge Dart is scheduled to be available in the second quarter of 2012. Read on for Chrysler’s press release.

Chrysler Group LLC Introduces Industry-first In-vehicle Wireless Charging

Charges iPhone, Blackberry, MP3 Players and Droid-based devices
New Mopar® Feature First Available on All-new 2013 Dodge Dart

April 9, 2012 , Auburn Hills, Mich. – Look mom, no wires.

After being the first to eliminate heavy, bulky owner manuals from its vehicles, Chrysler Group LLC, through its Mopar® division, will now be the first to eliminate unsightly dangling power cords in its vehicles by offering in-vehicle wireless charging.

The company will first make the technology available on the all-new 2013 Dodge Dart that arrives in dealerships in the second quarter of this year.

“At Mopar, we look for every single opportunity to make our customers’ lives easier,” said Pietro Gorlier, President and CEO of Mopar, Chrysler Group LLC’s service, parts and customer-care brand. “Our industry-first in-vehicle wireless charging system is the perfect solution for those connected customers who are always on the go.”

For easy access, a seamlessly integrated power bin, measuring 8.27 inches by 9.5 inches by 3.25 inches, is installed just below the center stack and in front of the center console. The bin has a built-in charging grid that is activated when customers place in their battery-powered device. The unit begins to charge when the vehicle is started. A phone case, specifically designed for a variety of smartphones, is required and included with the feature.

Mopar in-vehicle wireless charging is available for $199.99, plus installation (part number 82213216).

The next-generation iPad will feature a larger battery and a new camera, according to RepairLabs. The website obtained what it claims to be the rear shell of the upcoming iPad 3 from an industry insider in China. After examining the shell and comparing it to an iPad 2 case, RepairLabs noticed the mounts for the logic board were quite different, meaning the board itself will likely be a different shape. The rear case also apparently reveals that the iPad 3 will include a larger battery pack, in line with earlier rumors. The device is also expected to have a “different camera” as well, and the site suggests the front display will also be new. There has been speculation that the next-generation iPad would be slightly thicker, but the site claims that could be false after examining the rear case. Apple is expected to unveil the iPad 3 next month.

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Nokia said on Twitter Wednesday that a second software update will roll out to Lumia 800 devices over the next two weeks. It is largely expected that the update will help fix the poor battery life that has plagued some, but not all, Lumia 800 users. Nokia has already addressed the battery issue, which limits the capacity of the battery, and has even recommended that those with the problem send their devices in for replacement phones.

[Via The Verge]

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Samsung understands that battery life is a big problem when it comes to smartphones. The company is looking to fix that, however, promising that all Samsung smartphones coming out this year will last all day on a single charge with average to moderately heavy use. “When you wake up to when you go to bed, we don’t want you feeling anxiety about your battery life,” Samsung VP of product innovation Kevin Packingham said in an interview with CNET. Motorola recently announced the DROID RAZR MAXX, a variant of the DROID RAZR featuring a massive 3,300 mAh battery. Samsung will also move to larger batteries, though the company plans to focus on optimizing different aspects of the phone as well, according to Packingham. The changes will come from the way a phone acts when searching for Wi-Fi, to the way it connects to 4G LTE networks. Packingham acknowledged that Samsung “wasn’t quite there yet,” in regards to the company’s first 4G LTE smartphone, the DROID Charge. Despite these upcoming improvements, Packingham noted that power users will always face problems with battery life.

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Apple will launch a new high-end iPad model in early 2012 featuring a battery that includes more than twice the capacity of the current iPad 2 battery. Citing anonymous sources from within Apple’s supply chain, DigiTimes recently reported that Apple’s upcoming next-generation flagship iPad will feature a new 14,000 mAh battery, as will a new mid-range iPad model. The new power pack will feature more than twice the capacity of the 6,500 mAh battery currently used in Apple’s iPad 2. DigiTimes also reported late Wednesday that Apple’s 2012 iPad lineup will include three models: a low-end iPad 2, likely available at a discount compared to current pricing, a mid-range next-generation iPad and a high-end model. The new mid-range and high-end models will also reportedly feature an upgraded 2,048 x 1,536-pixel displays with dual-LED backlighting.

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Nokia’s European support team has issued an official statement to those who have a Lumia 800 with poor battery life. “We immediately started to investigate these reports and can now confirm that while the battery itself is fine, a software problem on certain variants is limiting the phone’s ability to access the full battery capacity,” a Nokia representative wrote on the support forums Monday. Michael explained that the battery life issues are only the result of a software flaw and, as such, Lumia 800 owners can expect a software patch that fixes the problem early next year. Lumia 800 users who do not want to wait that long can contact Nokia and request a replacement handset. Hit the break for Nokia’s explanation of how to find out whether or not your Lumia 800 is affected by the bug.

Anyone who wants to know if their phone is affected can run the battery status test from the diagnostics tool already installed on their phone. (The tool is designed for service use and only displays approximate values.) Dialling ##634# opens the diagnostics tool. By accepting the disclaimer and then selecting ‘Battery Status’ from the list of options, anyone will be able to see their available battery charge capacity.  If your full charge capacity reads less than 1000 mAh then your phone is affected with this specific issue and you may find it is necessary to charge your phone more frequently than normal.

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Fat battery pack accessories may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists at Northwestern University are tweaking lithium-ion batteries to last 10 times longer and charge 10 times faster than the battery technology used today, BBC reported recently. Better yet, the new tech could be on the market in just 5 years. Oddly enough, it appears that poking “millions of minuscule holes” that are just 20-40 nanometers wide, and changing the movement and density of lithium ion cells, helps to add battery life and speed up the charging process. A prototype phone battery in Northwestern’s labs can be fully charged in just 15 minutes and it lasts an entire week on a single charge, BBC said. Dr. Harold Kung, the lead scientist on the project, explained that the speed and density of lithium ions can be changed using different materials during the battery’s manufacturing process. “Even after 150 charges, which would be one year or more of operation, the battery is still five times more effective than lithium-ion batteries on the market today,” Dr. Kung said. Unfortunately, battery life begins to decline quickly after about 150 charges with the technology in its current state. 

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Apple has already released two beta versions of its iOS 5.0.1 software to developers, but now it is beginning to seed the software update to several end users through AppleSeed as well. The update is expected to offer improvements to the Siri voice engine and should address issues many users have been having with battery life. Participants who choose to test the new iOS build will not be able to revert to an earlier version after upgrading, but they will be able to upgrade to the final patch when Apple releases it in the next few weeks. Read on for more.

In addition, 9to5Mac published a memo on Tuesday that reportedly advises Apple Store employees on how to deal with customers who are complaining about battery issues. The memo, captured in a screenshot, says: “A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. If you are helping one of these customers, follow standard procedure to rule out any hardware issues with the device. If no hardware issues are found, let the customer know that Apple has found a few bugs in iOS 5 affecting battery life and Apple will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.” A screenshot of the employee memo follows below.

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We have seen a number of reports suggesting that the Apple iPhone 4S has a software bug that has resulted in poor battery life. iDownloadBlog says that adjusting the time zone settings on the iPhone might help alleviate the issue. Reportedly, a bug within iOS 5 forces the phone’s location tracking feature to remain active far more than it should, which in turn drains the phone’s battery too quickly. Users can manually turn off the automatic time zone setting by navigating to Settings > General > Date & Time and toggling “Set Automatically” to “Off.” Other users, however, have suggested that the time zone function has nothing to do with the poor battery life, which has left some people fighting to squeeze more than just a few hours of battery life from their iPhone. Apple has yet to release an official patch to address those with poor battery performance, but we suggest adjusting your time zone settings to see if that helps in the meantime. In our independent tests, we’ve found that disabling the setting does improve battery life to some degree, though none of our units were as bad as many users are reporting even with the setting enabled.

[Via PCMag]

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The crew at iFixit has given the iPhone 4S its proper tear-down, revealing the phone’s inner workings and hardware. iFixit noticed that the battery offers an extra 0.5 WHrs over the one found in the iPhone 4, which is likely the reason Apple is able to advertise an additional 1-hour of 3G talk time on the iPhone 4S compared to its predecessor. The phone is equipped with a Qualcomm RTR8605 radio, an Avago ACPM-7181 power amplifier and of course a dual-core 1GHz Apple A5 processor, which has been downclocked to 800MHz. Be sure to hit the jump for a few more images of the iPhone 4S teardown. Deliveries of Apple’s new smartphone begin on Friday, and in the meantime be sure to check out our hands-on with the iPhone 4S.

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Apple has secured Simplo Technology Co. and Dynapack International Technology Corp. to supply battery packs for the vendor’s upcoming iPad 3 tablet, Taiwan Economic News reported on Tuesday. According to the report, the new batteries will be thinner and lighter than the modules used in Apple’s current iPad 2 models, and Apple’s cost for the power packs will apparently jump by between 20% and 30% as a result. The report also states that Apple’s new iPad 3 batteries will feature a longer service life than the previous-generation packs used in the iPad 2. A thinner, lighter battery could mean Apple is conserving space for a new beefier Retina Display, or it could mean Apple is slimming down the iPad 3 case from the iPad 2′s already-svelte 0.34-inch-thick profile. Apple is expected to launch the iPad 3 early next year.

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How’s this for an undocumented feature? Apple’s newer MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks have a security flaw that can allow hackers to remotely prevent the batteries from charging. Better yet, hackers can exploit the same flaw and remotely cause batteries to explode. Apple laptops’ new “smart” battery technology is intended to provide added control over power management, and it does just that. Unfortunately, it also gives hackers added control because the microcontroller chip that ships in recent Apple laptops can be accessed remotely using a default password shared by each and every notebook. Charlie Miller, the security expert who discovered the vulnerability, plans to showcase the flaw next month at the Black Hat security conference. There, Miller will show that he is able to access the battery controller remotely and cause it to refuse a charge, or even heat up until it catches fire and explodes. “These batteries just aren’t designed with the idea that people will mess with them,” Miller told Forbes last week. “What I’m showing is that it’s possible to use them to do something really bad.” Thankfully, the security expert also intends to showcase a fix for the flaw, which Apple will hopefully implement as soon as possible.

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According to a report from CIO, BlackBerry users who installed RIM’s latest update for the tablet’s QNX operating system are now experiencing weakened battery life. The recent 1.0.3 software update introduced BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and video chat to the device, but it also appears to have had a substantial impact on battery life, possibly reducing it by 11% or more. RIM addressed the issue by suggesting that users accept the new license agreement for video chat, which may drain the battery if left unchecked, and the company also suggested that users fully charge and discharge the PlayBook battery several times in order to restore full function. Many users report that neither proposed solution has has an impact on the weakened battery life, however.

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Samsung Russia has confirmed that it will launch a new version of the popular Galaxy S Android smartphone next month. The Galaxy S 2011 edition will ship with Android 2.3 and also feature a new metal back cover. The phone packs a faster 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255T Snapdragon processor — as opposed to the 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird CPU in the original — as well as a 14.4Mbps HSPA+ radio and a larger 1,650mAh battery. The rest of the hardware remains identical to the original; that includes a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 8GB of internal storage, Bluetooth 3.0, 5 megapixel camera capable of recording 720p HD video, and more. The Galaxy S 2011 edition is expected to hit Russia next month for 24,000 rubles ($846 USD). There’s no word if the 2011 edition will ever be available in other countries. Hit the jump for Samsung Russia’s blog post.

[Via Engadget]

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Software version 4.1.57 for the Motorola ATRIX 4G is now available. The 17MB file, issued by Motorola, adds a number of improvements but is not the expected AT&T update that includes HSUPA support. After downloading the update, Motorola says users should notice the following changes:

• Bluetooth: Improved multimedia experience with Bluetooth devices as well as the ability to use phone with additional headsets.
• Fingerprint reader: Improved fingerprint reader performance.
• Battery: Improved battery performance for longer battery life.
• Screen: Display will turn off automatically now while charging directly on wall charger.
• Phone stability: Improved stability resulting in fewer occurrences of touch unresponsiveness and/of programs quitting unexpectedly.
• Car dock: Improved performance of car dock and 3.5mm jack.

It’s been reported that the update may cause some issues with those who have rooted their phones. AT&T has said that the upcoming HSUPA software update, which should ratchet up upload speeds on the ATRIX 4G and Inspire 4G, will land in April. Hit the jump for instructions on installing software version 4.1.57 on your ATRIX 4G.

[Via Engadget]

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