MBP battery weirdness

After a week with my new MBP, I'm pretty happy. Its solid, well built and no major issues. The only weird thing is with the battery charging times and apparent discharge while sleeping.

First - charging. As you can see here, the battery indicator on the side of the machine shows a full charge, yet the charging indicator in the menu bar says it will take over an hour to fully charge.?! What gives? The percent charge is 92% - so it will take an hour and 18 minutes to charge the remaining 8 percent??This doesn't make sense at all.

When have a full charge - I can unplug the MBP, use it for 5 minutes, and then plug it back in and it will claim over an hour to charge the battery after only 5 minutes of usage?!

When I screen shot the image above, the MBP had been in sleep mode (cover shut) and plugged in while I ran to lunch and did some errands. When I shut the cover, the battery indicator claimed 1 hour and 45 minutes to charge. I was gone for an hour and a half, and that's when I got the above image which says I have 1:18 left after sitting charging for 1:30.

And if I take my fully charged MBP and stick it in my bag, jump on an airplane, say from LA to Green Bay and then pull it out to use it and plug it in, it will claim 2 hours or so to charge. Hmmm, I didn't use it at all since putting it in my bag. Sure, the battery will draw a teeny tiny amount to keep the static RAM juiced, but nothing like what the battery management is claiming.

Is there something wrong here? Yes. Is the battery working at 100%? Yes, I think it is. I think the battery management software is the culprit here.

Anyone else having these issues?

Why websites matter

I'm in L.A. tonight and I'm in the mood for sushi. So, I hit maps.google.com and see what's close by. Two look promising, and I'm going to pick one purely by its website.

After all - I'm not from here. I have to judge them somehow, right?

So, I picked the one from above.

The one below? Nope. Sure it had decent reviews, but the design of the website, combined with the really annoying music that plays on each page turned me off. Sure I bet someone thought the cute Japanese music was nice, but no. Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD do that thing.



So, when you look at your website and think, "its good enough" perhaps you need to think again. I run into this all the time and I'm always amazed at how the owners don't think that the look and the feel of their website matters.

Trust me, it does.

I'll believe it when I see it

Today the DOJ signed off on the Northwest / Delta merger. The DOJ, in their infinite wisdom, said, "...The merger likely will result in efficiencies such as cost savings in airport operations, information technology, supply chain economics, and fleet optimization that will benefit consumers," they wrote. "Consumers are also likely to benefit from improved service made possible by combining under single ownership the complementary aspects of the airlines' networks."

Riiiiiggght.

Congrats to the board and the major shareholders of Northwest who finally got an exit strategy.

Sucks for the rest of us. (sigh)

I better get my ass in gear burning up my miles....

Zoom zoom!

I'm in L.A. today and I stopped to take a few minutes and go through some emails so I hauled out my new MacBook Pro, connected my Sprint EVDO card and went about my business. A friend emailed me a video link and when I pulled it up, I thought, "Dang, that loaded fast".

I'm used to maxing out my Sprint EVDO connection around 1500kbps - sometimes slower depending on where I am. I decided to fire up the speed test and take a look at the connection and WOW! I was amazed to see ~2500kbps. So I did it again, and again and after about 6 tries, I figured it has to be right.

Contrast this with the horrid AT&T 3G service with my iPhone. ;-)

It kinda makes we want to hack the EVDO card into the MacBook Pro somehow ... hmmm ....

Conspiracy theory

Firmware beta 2.2 2 has been seeded to developers for the iPhone, iPhone 3G and first gen iPod Touch. However, the latest iPod Touch ships with a yet unreleased firmware and the beta that's been seeded out isn't for the new iPod touch.

So, what gives?

Aside from the cellular radio and bluetooth, the touch and the iPhone are identical... right? (or should I ask, "aside from the speakers, display and the volume controls, the old and new touch are identical, right?")

Is this a signpost about something new coming?

Or just a nothing that should be ignored?

Does anyone know what display sizes the video chip in the iPhone and iPod touch can drive?

Can someone write a little benchmark app and benchmark the iPhone and iPod touch?

I'm just curious... and January isn't too far away... I'm just sayin'....

We The People...

I want my MTV

Dire Straits |MTV Music

Ok, I'm impressed. I've been dissing MTV for years for the LACK of music for being "Music Television" and today, MTV (mtvmusic.com) gained some cred back with their move of putting every music video from their archive online.

For Free.

This also includes MTV unplugged, etc. so there's some amazing stuff in there.