[2017-03-27] NH Today – Tech Talk

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Transcript

WGIR_2017-03-27_Six-Myths-of-Charging-Smartphones

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

Airing date: 03/27/2017

Six Myths of Charging Smartphones – Google Chrome Saves Battery – With Alicia Preston

Craig Peterson: Hi Craig Peterson here. This morning I was on New Hampshire Today. Now Alicia Preston was sitting in for Jack this morning. If you don’t know her, she has been on TV for years. A TV reporter. Now she’s done a bunch of other things too. So she’s got a different perspective. It was kind of fun talking to her today about some of the myths surrounding our batteries and rechargeable devices.

Alicia Preston: I think we’ve got Craig joining us now. Do we not? Excellent. Good morning Craig. How are you?

Craig: We do. Good morning. Doing really well Alicia.

Alicia: So I’m excited to have you on because I’m not a techie person but I think that stuff is really cool. So what’s the new stuff? The first thing I want to see, you sent over some things that you want to talk about. I’m most intrigued by the first thing which is six persistent phone charging myths debunked. Debunk them.

Craig: Yeah. That is interesting. Well you’re old enough to remember some of the first laptops and cellphones right?

Alicia: Sure. Yeah, of course.

Craig: Yeah. Do you remember something called like nickel-metal hydride, nickel-cadmium batteries? All these new battery technology that was out. I remember the first time I got a laptop in fact. I was sitting out by the pool. It was so cool Alicia. Because there I was with my 16 grayscale LCD display. Now that’s getting kind of techie but I had a whole half hour worth of battery life in that thing.

Alicia: Was it an AST?

Craig: And AST? No, no it wasn’t

Alicia: I actually don’t know what that is. Dave just told me to ask out. Like I said I’m not a techie.

Craig: The voice in your head eh.

Alicia: Yeah, exactly.

Craig: So, yeah. It was really, really cool. It was really nice. But it had a type of battery that had problems and our battery technology has progressed over the years. And true today, we’re using various types of lithium-ion batteries, lithium air and things. So we’ve got all of these habits from the old days that we’re using today, right? So it used to be you didn’t want to charge your battery for too long because you’d burn out your batteries.

Alicia: Sure.

Craig: So, your phone right? Don’t leave it plugged in for more than 6 hours. Do you remember those? Right?

Alicia: Sure.

Craig: And they developed memories. Do you remember those?

Alicia: Oh yeah. And if it went down too far, it wouldn’t charge all the way. All that kind of stuff.

Craig: Yeah, exactly. So if you didn’t run it all the way down. So there’s a lot of those rumors that are still out there today. So I took a little time on my radio show over the weekend on Saturday to talk about some of these things. So, number one myth out there right now is that you should not charge your phone overnight. You should not leave your phone plugged in. These smartphones today are really smart. That’s kind of the bottom line here ok? Including the charging circuits. And the type of batteries that we’re using today is incredible. And the circuits that are charging them are incredible. So, here’s the answer to myth number 1. Leave your phone plugged in at night. Don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t leave it next to my bed. I wouldn’t leave it next to my head.

Alicia: Because lithium batteries catch fire and blow up?

Craig: Yeah. Next to my head might be bad.

Alicia: Progress.

Craig: Ok. Now you might think that you’d wake up from the smell of smoke. But some people haven’t. The next one is, again, this was from old batteries. It’s no longer true. Which is charge your battery all the way up and run it all the way down. You no longer need to do that. The batteries that are in our smartphones, that are in our laptop computers nowadays, are designed to last a thousand charge cycles.

Alicia: Wow.

Craig: And that means a full cycle Alicia. So, you know, if you charge it today when it’s down 50% and you charge it tomorrow down 50%, that’s only one cycle.

Alicia: Oh wow.

Craig: So that battery might last 6 years. 8 years or longer. Which is really good. So don’t worry about charging it. Don’t worry about using it. You can use your phone while it’s charging. Don’t buy cheap chargers. A couple of years ago we had a lady who died when she was using her phone in her bath tub because she had a cheap charger. Use a brand name charger.

Alicia: Well can we go, let’s back up a minute. Hello? Everybody. Do not use something plugged into an electrical socket while in a bath tub. Cheap charger or not, don’t do that.

Craig: Exactly. My mom told me that, right?

Alicia: I’ve learned that a long time ago.

Craig: A long time ago. Exactly. But they will catch fire as well if they used cheap chargers. My favorite out there, besides the brand name chargers like your Apple chargers, your Samsung, comes from Anker. A-N-K-E-R. And there’s often deals for those. Keep an eye out. Leaving your phone 24/7, no problem. Don’t turn them off other than maybe once a week. Reboot your phone just so you’re refreshing it, right? There could be bugs in the software.

Alicia: Sure.

Craig: Location services are not killing your battery. That’s myth number 6.

Alicia: Really?

Craig: It still has an impact but it’s so minor that it’s probably not worth messing with it besides which, GPS, the location services, are providing the function and you lose that function. So don’t worry about it. You know 5 years ago Alicia, you were right. You know, you probably want to turn them off. Nowadays, other than the fact that the NSA is watching.

Alicia: Hello NSA. How are you?

Craig: It doesn’t really matter. And I got really great news for everybody. The guy that invented lithium-ion batteries. He’s 94 years old. He’s a professor of engineering down in Texas. And this guy, his name is Goodenough. He’s invented these batteries which are much better than batteries we’ve ever had before. He has invented a new battery type. It’s a lithium glass battery. It holds 3x as much power. And it charges in minutes.

Alicia: But does it blow up?

Craig: And it doesn’t.

Alicia: Oh, ok.

Craig: It will not catch fire. It will not blow up. Exactly. It doesn’t swell or anything else. So this battery, think about electric cars like the Tesla. I know you got one in your garage on in the sea coast.

Alicia: Oh yeah. Of course. Right next to my Harley.

Craig: Right next to it. Exactly.

Alicia: Yeah. Of course.

Craig: So the Tesla uses laptop batteries. So think about what’s going to happen here now. We’ll be able to make a car probably within 5 years, that you can charge up here and you can drive all the way to Washington, DC on single charge.

Alicia: Wow.

Craig: And then you can charge it up in a matter of maybe an hour, just plugging it into a socket. So everything is changing yet again. That’s the bottom line here.

Alicia: Progress.

Craig: It is. It’s progressing.

Alicia: But it gets more complicated. Progress is getting more complicated.

Craig: Yeah. Yeah. We got this whole internet of things now. We are close. Levi’s announced that they have a jacket they’re going to be releasing this fall. The coat itself has fibers in it, on the sleeve, that are touch-sensitive. And Bluetooth links into your phone. And so you can be wearing your jacket and if you rub your sleeve up your hand, up the sleeve, it’ll tell you the weather forecast. If you cross the sleeve, it will read the last text message to you.

Alicia: Dude, that’s just straight up creepy. I’m sorry. David can you help me here.

David Losh: I already own 6 pairs of it now. Hey Craig, real quick, because you kind of on the topic of batteries there. And I know last week, reading over here. Great thing that you sent over to us and everything. Of course on your website, which is?

Craig: http://CraigPeterson.com.

David: There we go. We got to get a little play there for that. Really quick, Google Chrome. It’s always been known to be a battery hog. It’s always taken processes. It’s always taken down computers and just bog it down and basically kill your battery. I noticed in your, again, your last thing that you sent out was they’re revamping it somehow?

Craig: Yeah. It’s kind of neat. There’s a new version of Google Chrome hitting the streets. In fact, it should be like this week. And what it does is it completely changes everything. As far as your opinions on Google Chrome and using it in your laptop goes. It is now about as efficient, in some ways, more efficient than using the default browser. So on your MacBook Pro, you’re probably using Safari which has been pretty good. Google Chrome is now better for your battery. The same thing is true if you’re running Windows, you’ve got a Surface tablet, etc. They really done a whole lot of work here in figuring out how they can keep these processes in the tabs under control. So if you don’t have a tab open, the new Google Chrome is going to take away CPU and memory from that tab in order to save battery. So again, we’re thinking about all of this stuff. Google has been very good about it. Android’s made some amazing, amazing leaps forward here in battery efficiency. And we can continue to expect that. And basically in 5 years from now, you’re going to charge up your phone in the morning, it’s going to have these programs like the new Google Chrome and the new battery technology and you don’t have to charge it up until the next week.

Alicia: That’s crazy.

Craig: Oh, it’s going to be crazy. Hey, I’m speaking today down in Newburyport. Down at the Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank. Their annual meeting. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about down there. I’m keynoting about the future technology, where we’re going, and what it’s going to provide for us. It’s exciting, but I agree with you too Alicia. Some of these stuff is actually kind of scary.

Alicia: It is. And I want to thank you very much for joining us this morning and I’m going to walk with this thought that if you’re wearing that jacket and it reads you your last text, what if your last text was like to your spouse, what are we having for dinner? So someone gives you a hug hello.

Craig: Yeah.

Alicia: And all of a sudden your jacket goes, what are we having for dinner? In that Siri voice. That’s just creepy. I don’t even want to…

Craig: Or something worse.

Alicia: Or something worse. You know. Morning radio has been nice but yeah. You know where I’m going.

Craig: Yeah. Exactly.

Alicia: Ok. Have a great morning. We will talk to you again soon. Thanks Craig.

Craig: Ok thanks. Bye-bye.

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Craig: Well I can’t tell you all the memories it brought back. Alicia and I were on WNDS TV together and a few other things we’ve done over the years. She’s always kind of fun. Alright. Well take care. We will have, of course, another Daily coming up today and tomorrow as we keep busy. And I’m going to be busy today. I’m getting ready for my keynote speech on keynoting at annual meeting for a bank down in Newburyport, Mass. Make sure you visit online, http://CraigPeterson.com. Take care. Bye-bye.

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