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phuong

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
523
0
i'm sure there are many people who use spare batteries like me. but how do you manage them though?
i find it very annoying having to charge them one by one. charging 1 battery takes a few hours, which is almost fine. but when you have a spare battery, it takes twice as much longer to charge them both. not fun.

a separate battery charger will help greatly reducing charging time
 

MAcNIAC

Cancelled
Oct 27, 2006
290
206
i'm sure there are many people who use spare batteries like me. but how do you manage them though?
i find it very annoying having to charge them one by one. charging 1 battery takes a few hours, which is almost fine. but when you have a spare battery, it takes twice as much longer to charge them both. not fun.

a separate battery charger will help greatly reducing charging time

weird that there is no apple battery charger, i'm sure anyone with >1 battery would buy one if they were available
 

phuong

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
523
0
lol, my first reaction was similar. "yeah, it's called a MBP."

I've never heard of any PC maker having a battery charger... Do such things exist?


ask any photographer (like me) and you'll see everyone of them always has at least 2-3 sets of batteries and chargers for every camera they own.
as long as them battery lives are so short, there's always such needs.

as regard to your question about PC, yes such things exist. Toshiba, IBM ... they all have external, quick battery chargers
 

phuong

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
523
0
i had a wild idea when i posted this question, although i wasnt sure if it's technically possible.

basically, Apple would design the batteries with a built-in magsafe plug - this way you can always charge the battery with the magsafe despite you have a computer or not. and so if you have a spare battery, you can also buy a spare magsafe to use as a charger.

oh by the way i forgot to mention, they made battery charger for Powerbooks, although it wasn't Apple brand. i'm just not sure if Powerbooks and Macbooks and Macbook Pro use the same kind of battery
 

Jay42

macrumors 65816
Jul 14, 2005
1,416
588
basically, Apple would design the batteries with a built-in magsafe plug - this way you can always charge the battery with the magsafe despite you have a computer or not. and so if you have a spare battery, you can also buy a spare magsafe to use as a charger.


It's a good idea, but I believe it would require extra circuitry inside of each battery, probably make them bigger and more expensive. But then again, if anyone were to do something like this, it would probably be Apple. ;)

I echo the the necessity for a spare battery charger, especially for professionals whose livelihood depends on their computer work. Apple just released the airplane power adapter, so maybe they'll listen to other similar requests.
 

umop

macrumors newbie
Feb 26, 2007
1
0
It looks like otherworldcomputing.com is on the task (they are the folks who made aformentioned conditioner / charger). Here is correspondence I had last month with them:

> Hi Xxxxx,
>
> I was given your email address by Xxxx. He mentioned that you would be
> the person to talk to for requesting that development begin on a MacBook
> pro charger. I have seen numerous postings on the Internet and know
> several people inside and outside of my company who would be customers
> of such an item. The charge time is just simply too great and the lifespan
> too small for the MBP batteries to only have one, and with two, charging
> the spare in the computer itself is a real hassle.
>
> Even just a cable-connector would be incredibly useful, but a dock unit
> would be also.
>
> Thanks for your time. Please let me know your thoughts.
>
> Best Regards,
> Eric

(His response)

We are working on it. There are technical issues with Apple’s new batteries and we will not release a product that we are not 100% confident in.

This response was Jan 15th, so hopefully we'll see something soon.

Eric
 

psingh01

macrumors 68000
Apr 19, 2004
1,570
595
It looks like otherworldcomputing.com is on the task (they are the folks who made aformentioned conditioner / charger). Here is correspondence I had last month with them:

> Hi Xxxxx,
>
> I was given your email address by Xxxx. He mentioned that you would be
> the person to talk to for requesting that development begin on a MacBook
> pro charger. I have seen numerous postings on the Internet and know
> several people inside and outside of my company who would be customers
> of such an item. The charge time is just simply too great and the lifespan
> too small for the MBP batteries to only have one, and with two, charging
> the spare in the computer itself is a real hassle.
>
> Even just a cable-connector would be incredibly useful, but a dock unit
> would be also.
>
> Thanks for your time. Please let me know your thoughts.
>
> Best Regards,
> Eric

(His response)

We are working on it. There are technical issues with Apple’s new batteries and we will not release a product that we are not 100% confident in.

This response was Jan 15th, so hopefully we'll see something soon.

Eric

I wish Macs had extended life batteries like Thinkpads. This may require a case redesign and may make the laptop look "ugly" but getting 5hrs of life for normal use would be worth it to many.
 

iW00t

macrumors 68040
Nov 7, 2006
3,286
0
Defenders of Apple Guild
weird that there is no apple battery charger, i'm sure anyone with >1 battery would buy one if they were available

2 batteries are too complicated. I for one cannot figure out what to do with the 2nd one when the 1st battery runs out. Having a single battery is so much more intuitive, when it runs out, you charge it.

Apple and Apple users are all about simplicity.
 

jkajfes

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2007
1
0
i found it: http://www.newertech.com/products/charger_cond.php
dont know why they dont have charger for MB/MBP yet though. probably it takes time to design?


thanks for the link to newertech, I got one of their MacBookPro chargers for my 17. Yup were all about simplicity and running amock trying to find an a/c outlet in some situations isn't my cup of tea.. much easier to pop in a new battery...

I have charged the two spares and the original several times over in the Newertech and it does two over night very easily... better than spending time swapping them out of the computer to charge them up. Just stick them in the slots in the Newertech unit and when the green lights stop blinking their full up. Haven't tried the conditioning aspect of the slot on the left as yet but otherwise it's a slick setup... works as advertised....

did fashion photography for several years so I know exactly where you came from... with batteries...

your post is dated but if you read this you'll like the unit.
 

phuong

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
523
0
thanks for the link to newertech, I got one of their MacBookPro chargers for my 17. Yup were all about simplicity and running amock trying to find an a/c outlet in some situations isn't my cup of tea.. much easier to pop in a new battery...

I have charged the two spares and the original several times over in the Newertech and it does two over night very easily... better than spending time swapping them out of the computer to charge them up. Just stick them in the slots in the Newertech unit and when the green lights stop blinking their full up. Haven't tried the conditioning aspect of the slot on the left as yet but otherwise it's a slick setup... works as advertised....

did fashion photography for several years so I know exactly where you came from... with batteries...

your post is dated but if you read this you'll like the unit.

hey, that's good news. i didnt even know it was available. it's been annoying as hell charging them batteries with the computer.
 

ntrigue

macrumors 68040
Jul 30, 2007
3,805
4
Granted how meticulous the monthly battery calibration is; it must be Logic Board dependent.
 

Boika

macrumors regular
Jul 4, 2007
121
0
There is such thing, i asked this same question about a month ago, and someone posted me a link to purchase one, i forget what brand it was etc but you could charge two mbp batteries at once and it was quite reasonable in price, try to search tool to find my thread.
 

yashrg

macrumors regular
Feb 21, 2008
135
13
Even i was interested in these chargers specially for their claim of conditioning the battery. Does anyone else have any experience with these?
 
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