MacWorld Review of HyperMac
Posted by Rob Garner in HyperMac on March 31st, 2010
Just discovered this review of the HyperMac batteries on MacWorld.
MacWorld - Sanho HyperMac External MacBook Batteries
For anyone looking for a good independent review of the product and performance this is a good place to start.
Rob
Getting the most from a HyperMac battery
Posted by Rob Garner in HyperMac on March 25th, 2010
Having spent some time away from the office and having had the opportunity to speak to a few customers, we have found that depending on how the HyperMac battery is used it is possible to eke out some extra time of useful power.
Essentially the best results are to be had by, fairly obviously, starting with a fully charged MacBook and HyperMac battery. Then whenever running on battery power, always have the HyperMac battery connected to the MacBook. This way the load is spread between both the internal MacBook battery and the HyperMac, gently discharging both.
The alternative of running the MacBook until the internal battery is flat and then connecting the HyperMac has its plusses and minuses. What seems to happen is that fairly rapidly the HyperMac battery charges up the MacBook battery to a point where the available power is shared between the two batteries according to their relative size. A bit like sharing a pint between two glasses.
However, whilst the Macbook will now run on its own internal power for a while, which could be useful in many situations, in discharging the HyperMac and charging the internal battery, both get noticeably warm. Whilst this warming up is perfectly normal and is exactly the same as charging from mains power, it does mean that energy is being wasted as heat. The energy lost as heat is no longer available to power the MacBook and so there is less usable power from the combined batteries.
I have not tried to make any measurements of the difference, except to say that subjectively there seems to be noticeably longer useful life by making sure that the HyperMac and MacBook are working together from the start. Maybe as much as 10% but different usage conditions make it hard to say - but certainly enough for me to want to post the findings here.
Travel Case for HyperMac Batteries
Posted by Rob Garner in HyperMac on March 9th, 2010
We have started looking around for a suitable range of carry cases for the HyperMac batteries to keep them nice and shiny whilst on the road and provide somewhere to keep the leads.
We saw this post on MacRumors Forum:-
Around reply #9 & #10 there is talk about some good results with WaterField designs Gear Pouches
SFBags WaterField Designs Gear Pouch
We are looking to see if we can get either these pouches or something similar in the UK. hope to have something appearing on the site soon
Choosing a HyperMac Battery
Posted by Rob Garner in HyperMac on March 8th, 2010
The Table below, provided by HyperMac and shown in the main web site pages, gives a good guide to what can be expected from each of the HyperMac models, but what can really be expected from each?
At first glance, the “Wireless Productivity” test may look a little artificial, however, these conditions are probably similar to what can be expected working on documents whilst on an aircraft with the cabin lights dimmed.
So the Blue figures represent probably about the maximum amount of time that can be eked out from a fully charged HyperMac Battery plus the MacBook internal battery.
If you are planning on having the screen set a little brighter and maybe running the processor or graphics card a bit harder, editing some pictures or watching a movie, then this is more power hungry and the time available will go down. This is where the Red numbers are useful.
For each model the, Red numbers show how many times the internal MacBook battery capacity the HyperMac provides. For example a MBP-150 battery provides 2.2 times the capacity of a MacBook Pro 17″ - So if the 17″ MacBook Pro runs 3 hours of any particular kind of use, the MBP-150 will provide another 2.2 times this, an additional 6.6 hours or nearly 10 hours in total.
So if you know how long your MacBook internal battery lasts with the applications you intend to use whilst away from the power sockets, multiply that time by what the HyperMac provides and add to the internal battery time to get the total.
Hope the above Helps.
Reporting Map Data Changes
Posted by Rob Garner in Navevo ProNav on March 5th, 2010
We are working with Navteq to report new or missing map data. so if anyone finds a road or point of interest that is different to what is on the map, they can now report this directly to Navteq at:-
https://mapreporter-test.navteq.com/dur-web-external/
Along with Garmin, Navevo use Navteq map data so we know it is already quite accurate. However, roads do change and, like all maps, some things are missing or different. By reporting differences between the map data and what is found actually on the road the map continuously improved.
Current feedback is that for the routes most travelled the map information is already very good, less is known about out of the way places.
If anyone finds anything that is not how it is shown on the map it would be very helpful for everyone if this can be reported to Navteq, ideally with a photo, so that Navteq can more easily see what the issue is.
The GPS System - How it works
Posted by Rob Garner in Navevo ProNav on March 5th, 2010
I think everyone has the idea of satellite navigation working by picking up signals from satellites in orbit somewhere. However, we wanted to know what is happening in a bit more detail so we desided to look a bit further.
Currently there are around 30 satellites involved in providing the signals for the Global Positioning System used by all current satellite navigators.
Unlike the satellites used for communications & TV, which are in geo-stationary orbit above the equator so that they appear in a fix position in the sky, the GPS satellites are arranged in a number of lower orbits tilted relative to the equator, and each satellite orbits the earth twice per day.
The satellites orbit at a height of 12900 miles above the surface of the earth and the orbits are arranged so that at least 6 satellites are visible at any time from almost everywhere on the surface of the earth. Normally in the UK around 10 satellites are visible at any time.*
Each satellite broadcasts precise data about its own orbit, general information about the orbits of all the other satellites and a very, very accurate time signal derived from the atomic clocks on board each satellite.
Back on the ground, the navigator on the windscreen picks up the signals from the orbiting satellites. These signals are actually quite weak so the navigator needs quite a good view of the sky, which is why they don’t tend to work well indoors or in tunnels.
Once the GPS reciever has information from a number of satellites the receiver calculates the time taken for the signals to arrive from a satellite and since radio signals travel at the speed of light**, the navigator can then work out the distance to each satellite. With the position of each satellite known from the data it sends and the distance known to 3 or more satellites, the navigator can work out its exact position in terms of latitude, longitude and height above sea level.
However, calculating the time taken for the satellite signals to reach the receiver assumes that the receiver also knows the time very accurately.
It would be far to expensive to include such an accurate clock in any navigator, so the system uses data from 4 or more satellites to work out its exact position in terms of the 4 unknowns:- Lat, Long, Height and Time.
So the time displayed on a GPS receiver is almost certainly the most accurate clock around.
Thats the basics of the system. Follow this link for a much more detailed description of the GPS system.
Rob
*The orbits are arranged as six orbital planes inclined at approximately 55 degrees to the equator and with 60 degrees right ascension to each other, that is how far around the equator each plane is spaced. Each orbital plane contains 4 satellites so there is a total of 24 active satellites in the basic system with some others also active and some spares in case of satellite failure
**Actually the speed of light changes a bit between the vacuum of space and when traveling through the atmosphere so the satellites also transmit some correction data to help the receiver make a more accurate position calculation
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