LG will provide L-shaped power cells for the 2018 iPhone

We might be expecting the iPhone 8, but reports about the iPhone 9 already started surfacing. According to sources, Apple had reached an agreement with LG Chem for the battery of the 2018 iPhone.
The power cell will be L-shaped with a bend at the bottom and is expected to increase the battery capacity without making the whole device bigger.
According to sources, LG has invested tens of millions dollars in facilities and plans to start mass production early next year.
Along with the battery, the display size might also be new to the 2018 iPhone. A 5.28” OLED and 6.46” OLED panels are expected to be seen on the iPhone 9 or whatever it’s called.

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Should I Leave My Laptop Plugged in

It has been a problem concerned by most of computer users for a long time—should I leave my laptop plugged in or on battery power? Unfortunately, this is not a question I can answer you with a single “yes” or “no” as there are many factors affecting the lifespan of a battery from which the types of battery, the ambient conditions you put your laptop and what you use your laptop to do are included.
However, I can give a definitive suggestion is that you should make compromise between the two options. According to expert, let your laptop be 40% to 80% is the optimal choice as this keeps your laptop in the healthiest condition. Read on you will know why is that!
Truth for Battery
There are two types of lithium-based batteries in our daily life—lithium-ion battery and lithium-polymer battery. It’s not an easy task to explain their difference in a short sentence but they function in broadly the same way, with power being created by the movement of electrons.
No matter your devices equipped with Li-ion or Li-polymer battery there are two pieces of truth:
They won’t be overcharged. Unlike traditional batteries, the Lithium-based batteries will cease charging and won’t start again until the voltage falls below a certain level as soon as it hits 100% so that it will not cause damage even though you leave it plugged in all the time.
They will damaged by full discharge. This can be easily explained by the limitation of battery’s discharge and recharge circles. Every battery has a finite number of times it can be charged and discharged. If you frequently fully discharge your battery, it will dead as a doornail someday. Furthermore, having a battery fully discharged for an extended period can put it into a deep discharge state, from which it might never recover.
The higher the charge level is, the shorter the battery’s life will be. Voltage level is an important index to measure the life span of a battery. In the general case, Lithium-ion batteries charge to 4.20V/cell, amounting to 100% of its capacity. The lifespan lies in 300-500 discharge circles, however, every 0.1v/cell drop below 4.2v/cell doubles the circle but hold less capacity. And raising the voltage above the 4.2v/cell would shorten the life.
High temperature cause irreparable damage. There is a rule of thumb for preventing battery from damaged that is avoid overcharging and overheating. Since overcharging won’t happen, overheating should be carefully monitored. Usually, the 30 degree Celsius is the maximum temperature that your battery could bear. Attention should be paid is that not only environmental conditions heat up your laptop, gaming or long time working do the same.
Conclusions
Since this is not a problem for those who often use laptop for travelling as they will use battery power on their way and AC at home. But if you only use your laptop at home you’d better balance the two ways. And undoubtedly, to prolong your battery life, you should carefully monitor the heat and don’t full discharge it.
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How to Charge Samsung Galaxy S8 Battery First Time

After the failure of Samsung Note 7, Samsung devotes to win their consumers back this year. To attract shoppers’ eyeballs, Samsung doesn’t keep Samsung Galaxy S8’s design under wraps, by contrast, their information disclosed in advance and many rumors released among people. What can we expect from the latest Samsung generation?Let’s see what we can assure ourselves when the Samsung debut in New York City and how to charge Samsung Galaxy S8 battery first time if you are ready to be a user of it.
Expectations from Samsung Galaxy S8 for sure
Without any doubt Samsung spares no effort to improve their battery quality. As a result, Samsung Galaxy S8 may have adopted its revised eight-point battery testing procedure and meanwhile it will leave more space inside for the battery. Another concern is that it features a bezel-less infinity display and brandy new intelligent assistant Bixby, practically everyone knows bigger display means more power consuming, moreover, the cool Bixby would probably be another power draining source.
How to charge Samsung Galaxy S8 battery first time
When facing a brand-new mobile phone, people tend to ask more questions about how to prolong the mobile phones’ battery life. In fact, various smartphones comes with the similar way to avoid being damaged. However, when comes to the first charge, there are some difference to Li-ion batteries. As a common used battery today, Li-ion batteries are much smarter than before. They needn’t to be full charged at the first three times charging, as it is the case with lead acid, nor is it desirable to do so. In most cases, the recommendation on the instruction book is the best way to charge Samsung Galaxy S8 battery first time before using. Additionally, full-charge even do harm to your new phone as high voltages may stress the battery.
Besides the first time, charge your phone properly afterwards is also very important, here are some attentions you should be paid:
 Keep a battery at a favorable temperature
 Avoid harsh discharge and ultra-fast charge
 Store Li-ion at partial charge better at about 50 percent SOC

How to Charge and When to Charge?

Explore what conditions are best when charging any battery.
Early batteries were reserved for commercial use only, such as telecommunications, signaling, portable lighting and war activities. Today, batteries have become a steady travel companion of the public at large to reach a friend, they allow working outside the confines of four walls, provide entertainment when time permits and enable personal transportation. Best of all, batteries help in missions when people are in need.
Folks are eager to learn more about this wonderful portable energy device and one of the most common questions asked is, “What can I do to prolong the life of my battery?” Table 1 addresses how to care for your batteries to meet their needs. Because of similarities within the different battery families, the table addresses the needs and wants of only the most common systems by keeping in mind that these desires extend to almost all batteries in use.
Keep a battery at a moderate temperature. As food stays fresher when refrigerated, so also does cool temperature protect the battery by reducing internal corrosion, also known as parasitic reactions on the electrolyte and electrodes.
Avoid deep cycling. Each cycle wears the battery down by a small amount and a partial discharge is better than a full discharge. When possible, only apply a full discharge to calibrate a smart battery and to prevent “memory” on nickel-based batteries. Li-ion is maintenance-free and the battery lasts longest when operating between 30 and 80 percent SoC.
Avoid abuse. Like a machine that wears down quicker under strenuous work, so also is a battery stressed by harsh discharges and rapid charges. Use cells that are optimized for the power and energy requirements as per application and increase that pack size to minimize load-related stresses.
Avoid ultra-fast charge. Charge Li-ion Energy Cells at less than 1C (below rated Ah); Power Cells are more rugged and can be charged and discharged at a higher rate. NiCd is the only battery that can be fast charged up to 70 percent SoC without adverse side-effects.
Store Li-ion at partial charge in a cool place. The worst combination is high voltage and elevated temperature. Store Li-ion at approximately 50 percent SoC.
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How To Take Care of Your Smartphone Battery the Right Way

Your smartphone is a minor miracle, a pocket-sized computer that can fulfill almost every whim. But none of its superpowers matter a bit if it runs out of juice. With removable batteries becoming more and more rare, you’ve got to take good care of the one you got. Fortunately, it’s not to hard keep the lithium-ion powering your everything-machine happy if you follow a few simple rules.
Obviously, the first rule for extending your battery life is not using up all your battery life playing Candy Crush and walking around with Wi-Fi and GPS enabled when you’re not using either and really, really need your phone to last that extra hour. But aside from that, there are some basic rules for care and charging, and they’re the simplest baseline for a healthy battery.
Top it off
You may vaguely recall hearing something about rechargeable batteries and the “memory effect.” You know, that if you don’t “teach” your rechargeable batteries their full potential by taking them from totally full to totally empty, they’ll “forget” part of their capacity. Well forget all that. Right now. It does not apply to your phone.
Battery memory is a real thing, but it applies to nickel-based batteries; your trusty sidekick (literal Sidekick or otherwise) doubtlessly has a lithium-ion battery, and it needs to be treated a little differently. Specifically, it should be topped off whenever you get the chance.
To get the most out of a lithium-ion battery, you should try to keep it north of 50 percent as much as possible. For the most part, going from all the way full to all the way empty won’t help; in fact, it’ll do a little damage if you do it too often. That said, it’s smart to do one full discharge about once a month for “calibration,” but don’t do it all the time. Running the whole gamut on a regular basis won’t make your battery explode or anything, but it will shorten its lifespan.
But! You don’t want to have battery charging constantly either; lithium-ion batteries can get overheated. Luckily for you, your charger is smart enough to help with this, and will cut your phone off for a spell once it’s full. And to complicate matters a even further, your battery doesn’t particularly like being all the way full either. In fact, your battery will behave the best if you take it off the charge before it hits 100 percent, and leaving it plugged when it’s already full is going to cause a little degradation.
So if you’re really particular about optimizing your battery’s life, you should try to go from around 40 percent to around 80 percent in one go, and then back down whenever possible. A bunch of tiny charges throughout the day is your second best bet, and going from zero to 100 and then 100 to zero on a regular basis will put the most strain on your lithium-ion battery.
Keep it cool
It’s easy to worry about bad charging habits thanks to the training we’ve had from old rechargeable batteries, but lithium-ion batteries have a worse enemy than sub-optimal charging: Heat. Your smartphone’s battery will degrade much, much faster when it’s hot, regardless of whether it’s being used or just sitting around doing nothing.
At an average temperature of 32 degrees fahrenheit, a lithium-ion battery will lose six percent of its maximum capacity per year. At 77 degrees, that number jumps to 20 percent, and at 104 degrees it’s a whopping 35. Sure, it’s not exactly practical (or sane) to keep your phone in the fridge, but it’s worth going out of your way to prevent long stays in hot cars and the like.
Avoid wireless charging
Wireless charging can be incredibly convenient if your phone can do it, but it’s not without its disadvantages. The inductive, wireless chargers out there today have this nasty habit of generating a fair bit of waste heat. And while wasted energy is just a bummer in general, that heat will also toast your battery in the process. That’s no bueno. It’s a little less convenient, but standard plug-in charging is going to keep your battery in better shape, especially if you’re some place warm to begin with.
Never go to zero
If you’re going to be shelving any lithium-ion battery for a long time, try to leave it with at least 40 percent battery power to tide it over. Lithium-ion batteries don’t hemorrhage power when their not in use, but they’ll lose maybe five to ten percent of their charge each month.
And when lithium-ion batteries get too low—like, literally zero percent—they get seriously unstable, and dangerous to charge. To prevent explosion-type disasters when you go to charge one that’s been sitting around for a month or two, lithium-ion batteries have built-in self-destruct circuits that will disable (read: destroy) the battery for good, if it reaches rock bottom. And sure, that’ll save you from a face full of battery-acid, but it’ll also leave you short one battery.
Only charge fast when you need to
A lot of newer phones support some sort of “fast charging” feature. These suckers will let you juice your phone up from zero to around half-full in just about a half hour. It’s a life-saver for when you’ve only got a few minutes to spare, but it’s also not great for you battery. Surprise!
Lithium-ion batteries live their longest lives when charged and discharged at low, consistent speeds. Fast charging is not that. But since fast charging is only for the beginning of a charge cycle—and phones and their chargers are smart enough to only apply the extra voltage when it’s useful—the damage isn’t too bad. Still, if you’re not in a hurry, it’s probably better for your battery to apply a slow and steady charge through a low-voltage charger.
Don’t sweat it too much
It’s easy to get protective of your battery, but it’s also easy to get lazy. And that’s fine, because as long as you’re not a complete idiot, you’ll be OK. Typically, a lithium-ion battery lasts for three to five years, and chances are you’re going to want to swap out your gadgets sometime in that window anyway. The slight damage of a technically bad idea—like leaving your phone plugged in all night every night, or using fast charging when you need it—is worth the convenience.
Still, it’s pretty easy to keep your battery reasonably healthy just by avoiding particularly egregious torture like letting your phone discharge from full to zero every single day, or leaving it in a hot car all the time. And the next time you make it back home with power to spare, you’ll thank yourself for it.
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LG Q8 unveiled: a 5.2″ version of the V20

LG quietly launched the Q8, which is by all accounts a mini V20. It doesn’t have a widescreen display like the Q6, but it does have a 5.2” QHD panel with a secondary display to the side of the selfie camera. The back also looks just like the V20, dual camera and all.
The LG Q8 is practically a flagship device. It has a metal body with IP67 waterproofing, Quad DAC, even a Snapdragon 820 chipset. Not quite the 821 inside the G6, but much, much better than the paltry Snapdragon 435 of the Q6.
The phone will give Android 7.0 Nougat decent room with 4GB of RAM and 32GB storage (with a microSD slot). And you’re getting a 3,000mAh battery, not bad for a phone this size (note that it is non-removable).
Here’s a bit more on the two main features of the phone. The dual camera will combine a 13MP sensor (1/2.6”, 1.12µm, f/1.8) plus a wide-angle lens (135°/10mm, f/2.4) in front of an 8MP sensor (1/4”, 1.12µm). The main camera features OIS and can shoot 4K 2160p video. There’s a 5MP selfie camera on the front with a wide lens (120°) that can record 1080p video.
Then there’s the screen. It’s a Quantum IPS – the panel type used on flagship LGs – that is protected by Gorilla Glass 4. It promises a hefty 500nits of brightness. The secondary screen has 160 x 1,040px resolution, same as on the V20 (though obviously it is physically smaller).
The LG Q8 will launch this month, so now the big question is “how much?”. This could make a stellar alternative to the G6 for those looking to pay less.
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New Huawei nova 2 plus versions pass through the FCC, should launch outside of China soon

Huawei unveiled the nova 2 and nova 2 plus handsets back in May, but so far these have only been sold in the company’s home country of China. That, however, should change soon – at least for the bigger nova 2 plus. That’s because the US FCC has recently certified two new versions of this smartphone.
While the nova 2 plus sold in China has the model number BAC-AL00, the FCC has given its go-ahead to the BAC-L03 and BAC-L23. These will thus be offered in markets other than China. The BAC-L03 will be a single-SIM version, while the BAC-L23 will come with dual-SIM functionality.
As usual, the FCC certification process doesn’t reveal where the device will be launched, but since Huawei has a global footprint in smartphone sales, expect it to reach a lot of new markets in due course. The nova 2 plus comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, the Kirin 659 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of expandable storage, and a 3,340 mAh battery. It runs Android 7.0 Nougat underneath Huawei’s EMUI 5.1, and it’s got a dual rear camera setup (12 MP + 8 MP). The front-facing shooter has a whopping 20 MP resolution for very detailed selfies.

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Lenovo launches Moto Z2 Play

The latest device has been released alongside new gaming and wireless charging Moto Mods
Lenovo has launched the latest Motorola handset the Moto Z2 Play along side a range of new and updated Moto Mods.
Compatible with all previous Moto Mods and all future Mods, the Z2 Play boasts a 30-hour battery life and upgraded camera.
The rear snapper is now a 12MP dual autofocus pixel camera with laser autofocus with a 5MP wide view lens and flash added to the front of the device.
Inside, the device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 processor on four GB of RAM running Android 7.1.1 Nougat.
Moto Mods
Lenovo also released new Moto Mods compatible with all devices in the Moto Z family, past and present.
JBL SoundBoost 2, Moto GamePad and a style shell that enables wireless charging have been added to the line of Moto Mods that include a Hasselblad True Zoom, TurboPower pack and Insta-Share 70-inch Projector.
The Moto Z2 Play, available now, will come in grey, gold, blue or black and can be ordered from the Motorola website and available in John Lewis, Amazon, Argos from August, priced at £379 .
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Google creates personalized stream of news on iOS and Android

Back in December Google previewed a feed as a new feature. Today it evolves into a stream of news and other relevant cards for all Android and iOS users. Google is relying on the gathered info through searches and cookies to provide personalized information.
The company hopes the app will be used as frequently as Facebook and Twitter on mobile. It will include sports highlights, news, YouTube trending videos and stories to read. It will also have flight info, weather updates, recipes and upcoming events in the calendar in a separate tab.
When a card seems irrelevant, you can unsubscribe from the topic and from the whole media outlet as well. You can also add your favorite sports teams to receive live results and standings through the Settings option or a new “Follow” button Google is implementing in the search.
Most of the features are not new – they were a thing back when Google Now was used. Now that service is replaced by the feed and the advanced Google Assistant.
The new feed is launching initially in the US. It will roll out internationally in the next couple of weeks. The app should update automatically when the upgrade is available.

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Samsung OWY phone certified with Bluetooth 5.0

The Bluetooth SIG just certified a Samsung phone called OWY. That’s an unusual name for sure, it doesn’t fit with the company’s usual naming scheme. Still, it’s curious because it supports Bluetooth 5.0, the latest version of the wireless protocol.
Only very recent chipsets support that protocol – the Snapdragon 835, of course, but also the 660 and 630. Samsung’s Exynos 8895 does too. So whatever this phone is, we’re looking at a shiny new chipset – either a flagship one or a new (still to reach the market) premium mid-range chip.
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