Pages

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Really? I didn't know that.


I'm the first to admit I'm no techie.
And I'm only blonde to the roots.

But when I was reading about Karl getting his new iPhone, I had a forehead slap blonde moment.




In part from his post:

“You’ll want to calibrate your battery,” said the dude.
Calibrate it?What the fuck? “What do you mean?” I’m picturing opening my iPhone and hooking it up to a voltage meter with black and red leads, maybe an oscilloscope to check the frequency and make sure I’ve got a nice wave pattern on it or something.
“You use the phone until it’s completely dead,” says the dude, “then charge it up fully, use it AGAIN till it’s dead, charge it up fully, and you’re good to go.”
Oh. That. I thought that was called training your battery’s memory. Because, you know, rechargeable batteries DO have memories. If you’re one of those people that routinely slaps your phone on the charger when it’s down to a half-charge then you’re going to seriously shorten your battery’s lifespan. Seriously.

Ahhhh, so that's why my battery never seems to hold a charge. I routinely slap it in the charger to "top it off".

I'll be letting it run down from now on, so if in the middle of our conversation we disconnect, I didn't hang up on you ...I'm calibrating. (sexy,eh?)

Thanks Karl!

13 comments:

Karl said...

Not a problem. My mom didn't know that, either. I keep telling her to let it run all the way down, but she doesn't pay any attention. Which is odd, since she comes to me for all of her tech needs.

John D. said...

I didn't know that either! And I do the same thing as you do Nanc.I always plug it in when I'm not using it. Which is about 99.9% of the time. My Mom calls about once a month. Other than that...nyet.

Kellan said...

How funny! I'm not techy either - not even close!

Hope you have had a good weekend - see you soon - Kellan

Whit said...

I never knew that either. I had to replace two batteries on my laptop before someone mentioned it.

Anonymous said...

Too funny 'calibrate'! My folks have 5 cordless phones (who needs that many phones), and they insist they be on the chargers at all times, oyee.
Then they miss call's if they are outside.

San said...

Yep, knew it.
Thought everybody did.
I mean, hey, it says so right in the hndbook. (thought it was only guys who didn't read those things.) ---jkng---

Anonymous said...

Can you "retrain" your battery once you've screwed it up? (Not that I've ever done that...)

Audubon Ron said...

One would think THEY could invent a battery that can be topped off and not calibrated. I call it a battery that's "Not Worth A Shit."

Terri said...

Just catching up on your blog, been oh so busy lately. Looks like life is throwing you a few curveballs - sheesh. Hope you are fully recovered now and that they don't come back!

dlyn said...

I don't get why they can't make a battery with a good memory to begin with. They must be male batteries ...

Anonymous said...

My wife works for a wireless company...

I didn't know that either until she blasted me for always using the excuse "but I couldn't call you babe, my battery was dead!"

Queen of the Mayhem said...

MAN! I am always charging it when I lose one bar! It all makes sense now!

I am not even blonde! That's all I need is to shorten my battery's lifespan!

debra said...

I only charge my phone when it is nearly dead---which is much of the time. The rep from the wireless company that starts with V chastised me for having a swollen battery. She said I overcharged it. Not true!!!!! It doesn't hold a charge, and I charge it when it's on empty. Swollen battery indeed. Do you think she was looking at the feet I'd been standing on all day???