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Apple's New Rechargeable AA Batteries Actually Sanyo Eneloops?
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This is not true of plasma tvs manufactured in the last couple of years; my 42" panasonic plasma from late 2008, for example, pulls less than 1 watt in standby, and under 200W when in use.
This is a misinformed comment that many people seems to believe when giving a bad rating to the charger/batteries. They DO charge to 100%. NiMH have a lower voltage than alkaline and the battery meter on Apple devices is calibrated for alkaline batteries. The same meter isn't well calibrated for lithium AA batteries either because they stay at 100% until the very last day where they drop down to 0% within a few hours.
if I am reading this right apple is basicly doing Marketing BS to get the numbers it want.
Sell it at a lower mh rating so it will "hold a charge" longer is PURE PURE BS.
Typical apple.
Sell it at a lower mh rating so it will "hold a charge" longer is PURE PURE BS.
Typical apple.
What is BS with this? You obviously don't know all the advantages of low self discharge NiMH batteries. Many standard NiMH batteries with capacity over 2500 mAh start to lose completely their charge within 2 weeks. I've even seen within 3 days in the past. This, only after a couple of cycles. Eneloop batteries are very, very, very resistant. I have some back from 2005 when they were introduced that still work as if they were new and they have a lot of cycles on them. They DO keep their charge and they can be considered as a good replacement for alkaline batteries in low drain devices.
For the Apple keyboard and the Magic Mouse, you would be replacing standard NiMH batteries every few weeks in both devices Most bad comments about standard NiMH in the Magic Mouse tell they have to recharge every one or weeks. Now use low self discharge like the batteries now sold by Apple, they will last a few months in the keyboard and around 1 month from my experience with the mouse, if I keep it always turned on. Alkaline seems to last approximately the same time.
For the Apple keyboard and the Magic Mouse, you would be replacing standard NiMH batteries every few weeks in both devices Most bad comments about standard NiMH in the Magic Mouse tell they have to recharge every one or weeks. Now use low self discharge like the batteries now sold by Apple, they will last a few months in the keyboard and around 1 month from my experience with the mouse, if I keep it always turned on. Alkaline seems to last approximately the same time.
I do use the options on my charger. For a NiMH battery, the recommended charging current is 10% of capacity. So for a 2000 maH Eneloop, the proper charging current is 200 ma. I have some 2900 maH AA's and I charge those at 300 ma.
There is no way for a charger to "Detect" what is the capacity or type of the battery. Therefore, the Apple Charger is hard coded to charge at a certain rate, for a certain amount of time. What is that rate? What is that time? Nobody knows!! Also, does it have the ability to discharge a battery? Can you customize the discharge rate? What about to condition it? (discharge, charge, discharge, charge). And why no display to show you the health statistics on the batteries?? My more advanced charger has all of these.
Giving all these options does indeed make a charger more advanced than a cheap simple one that has none of these features or functions and is "dumb" with only a single fixed charge current and time.
But pointless to argue since stupid "review" does not even talk about the only interesting piece - the charge.r
I've yet to use any TV for which the 1/3 thing is true, though I've heard figures like that quoted everywhere. And here's a study from 1999, see Figs. 1 and 2. N.B. Each has two captions and only one is right, but it's fairly easy to figure out which. Even if we cut the active power in half because LCDs are soooo much better than CRTs amirite, standby power was still almost always under 10W, and usually under 5W, putting standby at 1/7th of full power (i.e. perhaps 1/14th for CRTs).
I was reading they were taking a battery rated at 2000mh and changing the rating to 1900 mh hours. That is cutting a good amount off the rating for marketing BS.
Wrong. One figure is a max capacity and one is a min capacity. Even the eneloops say 2000 and 1900 on their label.
+1. Once the childish debate dies down and people actually start doing the math, it is obviously clear that their claims are grossly exaggerated, bordering on BS. My LaCrosse BC700 draws roughly 2x the power of this Apple charger when trickle charging batteries.
Nope you're not reading this right
. There is a big difference between LSD NiMHs and standard ones.Also, I think everyone is jumping to conclusions way, way, way too fast here. This website runs a couple discharge cycles on their batteries, sees the reported capacity is roughly 1900mAh (the same as basically any LSD NiMH cell out there) and concludes they are Eneloops? No way. Run some discharge cycles and plot voltage vs. time, and compare it to several known LSD NiMH brands. That will tell you the difference, and then it will be at least a little more believable that these cells are actually Eneloops. Given that all current rebranded Eneloops still retain some of the white labeling of the true Eneloop cells, I find it hard to believe that Apple would not get the same treatment. Meaning that there is no white labeling on these cells = not likely they are Eneloops. However that they do list them as being made in Japan does lend credence to the fact that they might be Eneloops.
However, we need much more proof than the quick 10 minute job this article did in order to definitively know that these cells are in fact Eneloops. I'm not saying they aren't, but after reading this article I am no more or less convinced that they are Eneloops than the speculation that was spread around when the product was first announced.
Not a joke. You know nothing about rechargeable battery technology. I don't mean that as an insult either. Just pointing out that it is much more complicated than what you perceive it to be.
There is no way for a battery to communicate it's composition (Li-Ion, NiMH, NiCD, etc) or it's capacity (2000 maH, 2500 maH, 2900 maH, etc.) to the charger. There is no mechanism for this. Each of these things is a variable that affects how the battery should be charged. Therefore, the charger must be customizable.
Look at the battery properties on your Macbook. It tells you all kinds of information, health and capacity statistics, charge level, etc. Why settle for less with your AA charger??
A battery is not like a cup of water, where it's empty and you simply fill it again. It's much more complicated than that, and there are formulas for calculating the proper charging current, and charging time, for a given battery type and capacity. For example, for a 2000 maH battery using NiMH construction, the ideal charging current is 10% of C, or around 200 ma of current. Also, rechargeable batteries wear out over time, and an intelligent charger can load test them and give you capacity and health information (just like the charger built in to my Macbook Pro). An intelligent charger can also discharge batteries, (at customizable rates), and condition them. An intelligent charger can also charge different battery types, not just NiMH. An intelligent charger may also have temperature sensors, and reduce the charging rate if the cell temperature exceeds a defined threshold.
2000 mAh is the rating people on the Internet gave based on the fact they might be Eneloops. There's no mention of this rating from Apple. The batteries tells they have a minimum capacity of 1900 mAh. The same exact minimum capacity is mentioned on Eneloops along with the "rated" capacity of 2000 mAh. The capacity of all new Eneloops I tested vary between those two numbers, usually around 1950 mAh. The fact Apple only stated the 1900 mAh number tells they are telling the truth about the capacity and no BS at all. Take a look at all other brands of NiMH cells and the rated capacity is ALWAYS overrated...
The same thing is happening with flashlights. Most Chinese manufacturer overrate the lumens rating while SureFire, an American company which build its flashlights in the USA always tell a minimum lumens rating. All their flashlights have been tested to surpass by a great margin this minimum rating. But there is a premium to pay to get this. An average of $150 per flashlight is not given. But it's the price to pay to get a good quality, a wonderful lifetime warranty and no lies about the performance of the product.
The same thing is happening with flashlights. Most Chinese manufacturer overrate the lumens rating while SureFire, an American company which build its flashlights in the USA always tell a minimum lumens rating. All their flashlights have been tested to surpass by a great margin this minimum rating. But there is a premium to pay to get this. An average of $150 per flashlight is not given. But it's the price to pay to get a good quality, a wonderful lifetime warranty and no lies about the performance of the product.
$29.99 for a charger that only charges 2 at a time is ridiculous. I'd be interested slightly but only 2 batts a time is a waste of your life.
The usual method, to the extent that it's implemented, is to analyse the battery's voltage response. Methods are being improved.
Typical Rodimus Prime. Shoot firts ask question later seems to be your way too bad it hurts your credibility.
There's less waste to be dealt with. Whether your one-use batteries are recycled or not, you're causing more work by tossing (sorry, "recycling") 150 batteries versus reusing 6 x 1000. Multiply that by millions or billions of people doing the same thing as you...
And do the math. 6 batteries x 1000 charges = 6000 normal batteries, effectively. So you'd have to buy 40 packs of those 150 Kirkland brand normal batteries. Still cheaper?
Well if those rechargeables really do get 1000 charges that last the same length as a normal battery, then sure, I see the point. It's just been that my experiences with rechargeables batteries have been that after a couple years they barely hold a charge. Kind of frustrating to take some AAs off the charger, put them in your digital camera, and not even have them last until the end of the day.
Your math is wrong, I'm not using thousands of normal batteries. I bought a 48 pack of AAs from CostCo when I got my Wii in 2006, and I've only used half of them since then. What the hell are you people using batteries on that you are running through them so frequently? I'm not putting rechargeables in my TV remote... those things last years before I need to change them! I'd argue that any rechargeables I bought in November of 2006 would barely be able to hold a charge just as long 4 years later, and would have cost 3x the amount.
I'm clearly all about saving money, no use trying to convince me in terms of how much waste I'm creating. It's like a vegetarian trying to tell me how many animals I'm killing by eating meat. If I'm not eating that burger, somebody else will!
I know the panel is by LG, but that's just part of the product, not the entire product. Does LG assemble & package the entire thing for Apple?
Disposal is a misnomer at best. Most automotive batteries are recycled, that's been true for quite some time. You get money for bringing them to a recycler.
I bought four eneloop Sanyo batteries with a charger from Amazon for 17.95. All four charge at once. Typical Apple overpriced. And mine are 2000 mNH not 1900.
Yours are really 1900 too... 2000 is a "rated" capacity and those are usually inflated. If you take a look on a cell, it's written "minimum 1900 mAh". The same thing is written on Apple cells. Most Eneloop are around 1950 mAh when new.
personally, i don't care whether they are re-branded rechargeables or not (i'd assumed they were), but what this discussion caused me to realize is that they are rated 1900mAh.
i've been a user of rechargeable AAs for a long time now, and all of my current ones are rated 2700mAh -- that's 40% greater capacity, resulting in significantly longer life per charge.
i was considering purchasing this charger setup but realize there is little to be gained by it if the 6 batteries are only 1900mAh versions.
i've been a user of rechargeable AAs for a long time now, and all of my current ones are rated 2700mAh -- that's 40% greater capacity, resulting in significantly longer life per charge.
i was considering purchasing this charger setup but realize there is little to be gained by it if the 6 batteries are only 1900mAh versions.
If the charger wouldn't feature some annoying omissions, how would you know that it's Apple? Here, they set the price at a silly level and they made sure that you cannot charge more than a pair of the batteries. Oh, and it doesn't charge AAAs.
Apple really should release that i**** that we heard so much rumours about. It's a piece of turd with an Apple logo on it. It will rock!