HP launched a battery recall back in 2009, which covered a broad range of notebooks with the HP and Compaq labels, and now thanks to additional investigations HP is expanding the battery recall to a larger number of notebooks and batteries. Because of the increased recall, HP is asking customers to re-verify that they are using a safe battery by checking their battery on the HP Notebook PC Battery Pack Replacement website, even if they have already checked.

The Battery recall is due to a safety hazard affecting a small number of batteries shipped in HP and Compaq notebooks. The issue with this recall is that the batteries could overheat and cause a fire or burn users. If you have an HP notebook, you should spend a few minutes to make sure your battery is not part of the recall. Continuing to use a recalled battery is a safety hazard. The Battery Recall website provides easy to follow instructions for identifying any affected batteries.

HP and Compaq Notebooks With Recalled Batteries

HP Battery Recall Expanded: How to Find Out if Your Battery is Bad is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Battery life is one of the biggest limiting factors for mobile notebook use. Companies are trying to deliver longer lasting and faster charging batteries, but that’s not going to fix the bigger issue of overall battery life measured in years not hours. Leyden Energy is hoping to fix this problem by unveiling a new notebook battery which will go three years without the shortened battery life that we have all experienced as our notebooks and laptops age. The new, long life batteries owe their existence to research aimed at delivering better battery life to electric cars.

Traditional notebook batteries, like the one in your notebook, suffer from poor performance over time as the internal components of the battery begin to degrade. This is why your 2-year-old notebook won’t last as long as it did when you first bought it and is a common complaint among notebook owners. The new notebook batteries have an electrolyte which won’t degrade at low temperatures , allowing the battery to last for 3 years while maintaining 80% of the original life. Leyden Energy CEO Aakar Patel tells Rueters that the cost of the new 3 year battery, “will be less than double the cost of a one-year battery.” These 3 year batteries are rated for 440 watt hours and 1,000 charge and discharge cycles.

The new 3 year notebook batteries will be available from DR Battery in the coming weeks, but no price or notebook models have been announced. DR Battery sells replacement batteries for over 50 brands of notebooks, so we hope to see these replacement batteries available for a number of manufacturers. Eventually Leyden Energy is aiming to have these batteries available when you purchase your notebook from big names like Dell and HP as well as in portable gadgets like tablets and smartphones.

Traditionally businesses have been more concerned about battery life degradation than consumers, or at least more willing to pay for 3 year batteries, which is why you will see many business notebooks available with a 3 year battery option. IF you plan to pick up a second notebook battery, you may want to take a look at Dr Battery in the coming weeks, otherwise look out for a longer lasting battery on your next notebook.

Your Next Notebook Battery Will Have More In Common With a Prius Than an Energizer is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Notebook battery life can be a big deal, and while many models offer long life and the ability to swap out a battery there are a wide array of external notebook battery solutions that can extend your life even longer. Tom’s Hardware has rounded up and tested 15 external notebook batteries that will help your notebook last longer.

Many average consumers won’t find the need for a portable power solution like one of these external notebook batteries to go with a $500 notebook, but if you are traveling, an outdoor enthusiast or really do need to stay powered for hours more than your traditional notebook battery allows, then these 15 batteries offer a glimpse at everlasting battery life — or at least as close as you can come today.

Tom’s Hardware tested the following external notebook batteries:

• Amstar MedXP 140
• Amstar MedXP 300
• Brunton Sustain
• Brunton Impel
• Digipower Universal Laptop Battery
• Electrovaya PowerPad 95
• Electrovaya PowerPad 130
• Energizer XP8000
• Energizer XP18000
• Lenmar PPU916
• PowerTraveller MiniGorrila
• PowerTraveller PowerGorrila
• Tekkeon MP3750
• Tekkeon MP3450
• Tekkeon MP3450i

The nice thing about these external notebook batteries is that if you can find a notebook that meets all of your needs except battery life, you can fix that with a relatively small purchase. Because these are external options that work with a number of computers, you can use them with several notebooks and when the extra weight is a problem, leave the battery in your car or at home.

Personally, battery life is a ranked higher than high end performance so I am always drawn to notebooks that can deliver long batter life on their own, but the ability to double battery life with a slice battery or an external notebook battery, is always a plus. Just watch out, as Apple like’s to make it difficult for battery makers like HyperJuice who produce external MacBook battery packs.

Via LaptopThoughts

External Notebook Battery Review Roundup and Showdown is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

With the browser wars heating up again, users have a choice between Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 4, Google Chrome 10, Safari 5 and Opera 11 and with that choice the ability to find the browser that meets their needs in terms of features and looks, but also in terms of battery life. While you might now expect that the browser you use influences your notebook’s battery life while on the go, the browser you use can mean the difference between finishing your research and falling short because of a dead battery.

Now that Internet Explorer 9 is out and fighting with Google Chrome 10 and FireFox 4, Microsoft has decided to test the impact of the browser on battery life. Interestingly enough, Microsoft has concluded that Internet Explorer is the most battery friendly browser, and is sharing the data to back up the claim.

Browser Battery Life Comparison

The tests measured how long a Windows 7 notebook would run in numerous states and while loading differnet types of sites. The most relevant information for most users comes from the News Site Total Power Consumption test which is shown above. In this test, the notebook visited a popular HTML4 website until the battery ran dry.

While Internet Explorer 9, FireFox 4 and Safari 5 all were within a few minutes, you can see the drastic drop of 20 and 40 minutes by Opera 11 and Chrome 10.

The power usage varies between each of the tests, but IE9 came out on top in each section. One of the most interesting items to look at for Opera 11 users is that in idle mode, Opera 11 actually prevents the CPU from going into a low power state and consumes the batter about half an hour faster.

Should you base your browser choice solely on the impact on battery life? Definitely not, but if you primarily use Chrome or Safari on Windows 7, you should check out an alternative browser to have on hand when you need to really make battery life count.

We’ve noticed unscientifically that battery life on the Mac is lower while using Chrome than it is using Safari, which has led to a switch in usage while we expect to be away from power for extended periods.

Internet Explorer 9 is Most Battery Friendly Browser is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

MacBooks will automatically dim the display after a short period of inactivity. This automatic dimming is great for battery life, but can be a pain when you want to read a long webpage or PDF. Rather than moving the mouse every so often, you can download a small app called Caffeine which will keep your display “awake” while you read or work.

Caffeine is a free app, available in the Mac App Store, which can be configured to keep your MacBook display from dimming while you work. The app can be configured to run at startup and resides in your system bar. When you need to keep your MacBook’s display awake, just click the coffee cup and your display will stay awake.

If you left click the Coffee cup icon you’ll activate Caffeine for the default time, which can be set from indefinitely to 5 hours. If you need to activate it for longer, a right click on the icon will allow you to choose how long you want to activate Caffeine for.

You could change the settings in Energy Saver, but with Caffeine, you don’t need to change your settings and remember to change them back since the dimming will come back as normal after the time period passes. Caffeine also stops your computer from going to sleep or activating a screen saver while it is active.

Caffeine works exactly as advertised and while we don’t use the app everyday, we find out that we use it a couple of times a week while reading longer articles and looking at PDF spec sheets. Now that we have this app, it’s one that we wouldn’t want to live without and are amazed that it is a free app.

If you don’t have access to the Mac App Store, you can download it direct from the developer and even get a version which works with OS X Tiger.

Caffeine Keeps Your MacBook Display From Dimming [Mac App Review] is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Sony VAIO S Lands w/ Sandy Bridge & 15 Hr Battery Option, Starts at $970 is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Apple has filed a patent for a better battery, which as more of our gadgets are defined by how long they work, is tantamount to developing a better mouse trap. The magic comes from denser batteries, and unlike when your high school English teacher called you dense, this is a good thing.

Broken down to the simplest terms Apple is working on a new method fo making batteries denser which would provide the company with the ability to pack more power into a battery of the same size, adding a few more hours to the MacBook Air, or using a smaller battery to provide the same battery life, allowing for smaller gadgets that last all day.

This patent is just a patent for now, so don’t expect the new MacBooks to have denser, longer lasting, batteries in them in March, but it is good news to know that there is progress being made in the area of battery life which continues to be one of the biggest bottlenecks for mobile computing.

Apple Patents Method of Making Better, Longer Lasting, Batteries is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

We’ve seen batteries that can be recharged over USB but the AA USB takes this concept a step further adding a 4GB flash drive to the battery so that you can keep your data with you and power your battery eating gadgets.

The AA USB is the size of a standard AA battery with a built in 4GB flash drive that pops out of the “-” end of the battery for data transfer and charging.

Unfortunately right now the gadget is just a concept so you can’t buy one, but if you like the idea you can take a closer look over at Yanko Design.

Via DVICE

AA USB: Flash Drive is Also a Battery is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

At CES 2011, HyperMac announced a change to the design of their battery packs, which had resulted in legal trouble with Apple when they created an external battery pack that had an Apple MagSafe and iPhone/iPod Dock Connector.

An Apple suit, which claimed they were violating the strict licensing policy the company has for third parties who wish to use the connections. Venders must license the technology for a fee from Apple and apparently the folks at HyperMac didn’t do so resulting in a lawsuit.

The new design from HyperMac has a port for Apple’s auto/airline connections, which can be purchased from Apple for about $50, so that users can connect to the pack using their own cable instead of the previously supplied connectors that got the company into legal trouble with Apple. They also removed the Mac part of the name and dubbed them HyperJuice

The batteries will still connect to iOS devices using the Apple supplied USB cables. They come in capacities from 60 watt hours to 222 watt hours supplying anywhere from 13 or 15 hours for the MacBook Air 11.6 or 13.3 inch on up to 36 to 38 hours. For an iPad they provide from 34 to 38 hours of extra run time. The cost of the new batteries range from $170 to $450. The company’s web site has not yet been updated to reflect the change. We are not sure when the new models will become available.

Below is a video review of the current models still with the patent violating connection.

Source: Engadget

HyperMac Fixes Battery to Avoid Apple Litigation is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Think whatever you will about Steve Jobs, and Apple’s obsession with avoiding Flash, but the numbers don’t lie. At the root of the battle for what plays our movies and serves our ads is the claim that Flash isn’t good for mobile devices because it hurts their battery life.

We saw this first on the iPhone and the iPad and most recently on the MacBook Air which is shipped without Flash built in. Apple claimed the absence of Flash was a decision made so that users could download the latest, and most secure, version of Flash when they get the device, but Ars Technica’s review of the MacBook Air 11.6″ shows that Flash can cut the battery life of the MacBook Air by up to 33% — just from serving ads on static webpages!

You heard that right, all those rich flashy, jumpy – annoying as hell slide-out ads — are killing your notebook’s battery. Simply removing Flash turns these battery sucking ads into static images that allow for a less distracting experience and better battery life.

From the Ars MacBook Air 11.6″ Review (emphasis ours):

“Having Flash installed can cut battery runtime considerably—as much as 33 percent in our testing. With a handful of websites loaded in Safari, Flash-based ads kept the CPU running far more than seemed necessary, and the best time I recorded with Flash installed was just 4 hours. After deleting Flash, however, the MacBook Air ran for 6:02—with the exact same set of websites reloaded in Safari, and with static ads replacing the CPU-sucking Flash versions.”

It’s amazing how big an affect Flash and ads can have on your battery life without playing video or Flash based games. It would be interesting to see how PC notebooks and netbooks battery life would change without Flash installed.

Perhaps instead of longing for better battery technology we should be knocking on Adobe’s door and asking for a version of Flash that doesn’t shave hours off of our devices’ battery life!

One thing’s clear. If Adobe wants Flash to stay a player in online content and ad delivery now that we are a mobile workforce the company needs to come to terms that we are no longer a desktop society with unlimited battery life and start optimizing Flash for use on battery powered devices.

If you want to disable Flash when you are on battery power you should check out our guide on How to Disable Flash in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Flash Ain’t Free – MacBook Air Battery Life Cut 33% w/ Flash Installed is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.