On 06/02/2014 04:46 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Mon, 2 Jun 2014 12:27:57 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

But anyway, one of these dayds I might be in a situation where
it is to my advantage to take a bus or rapid (the name we sue
for something like the subway here) and it would be nice to
have the laptop at least last the ride. But that is not now
so it is not a big issue.

My new $150 Acer 720 Chromebook battery lasts about 8 hrs of
intermittent operation. I haven't timed it, but it easily lasts all
day without a charge. That seems to be the trend in ultrabooks and
tablets these days, where the battery is something like 75% of the
volume of the device.


Lithium Ion cells discharge unevenly, some cells supply more current
than others and the inverse is true for charging. Something must be done
to "equalize" them, kind of analogous to series silicon diodes in a
power supply. My friend has a high tech lithium battery for his Harley,
it has a computerized charger that balances the cells. The battery will
still start the bike on an alternator charge, but the battery is peaked
out by the computer charger. Not all battery packs are equal.