Dear listers, This is Jospeh. I know this might sound technical or confusing t first. Here we go: On the BrailleNote mPower units, there has been numberous reports about battery life. The manual indicates that you can use your BN for up to 20 hours. Many people on the list has reported that the battery only lasts about 10 to 15 hours. The Intel Xscale PXA27x series of processors, the one used by mPower (the actual thing is PXA272) has a feature called Wireless SpeedStep. For those of use who are not technically inclined, SpeedStep is Intel's innovation that allows the operating system to clock, or change the speed of the processor dependin g on what application is using its resources. On easy terms, the operating system can either slow down or speed up the processor when certain programs needs the functionality. The SpeedStep technology was first introduced with Pentium 4 CPU's. It was mainly offered on laptops. While it sold considerablly, it has been found that the laptop's battery shortens a little bit when powered by SpeedStep-enabled CPU (I've found this out myself since I own Toshiba Sattellite notebook which has SpeedStep built-in). Laptops with these CPU's generally has almost same battery life as the other counterparts, the battery life on these notebooks tend to be quite short. The actual thing is that it runs longer if the processor's speed is slow, and it runs shorter if the processor's speed is fast enough. PXA272, used on mPower, also has the SpeedStep technology. My hypothesis is this: because mPower also has SpeedStep technology, it is proactical that some applications might need more resources than others, meaning that Wincows CE would have to clock the CPU to use a lot of battery power. Some of these applications include FM Radio, Media Player and Recorder, Web Browser, and so on. Here's my question to HW staff: will there be some a patch for these ongoing battery issue? If SpeedStep is used, could KeySoft caontrol the adjustment of the CPU depending on wich KeySoft application is used? For folks who are experiencing this issue: 1. Try battery recalibration with f parameter to see how long the battery would last. 2. Run the mPower until the battery dies, and recharge the unit (you should use Media Player or FM Radio at this time.). Please record how long you can use your unit.3. Repeat the procedure that has been outlined on item number 2 (this time, use applications such as keyWord, KeyList, and so on. I recommend that you do not connect to the Internet for this trial.). Again, please record how long you've been able to use your unit. I'm hoping that the battery issue would be fixed in near future.
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