Quote:
Originally Posted by Max Cow Disease
How do the various battery apps work, as far as battery details are concerned? Most of them seem to claim an accurate representation of battery charge (to a singular percentage point), temperature, remaining charge time, etc. Some of them also claim to alter the charge cycle so as to maximize battery life/efficiency, of which I'm skeptical.
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They are reading the values exposed by the charging circuitry, so they are showing you the same information that the OS has access to, but maybe doesn't show you (my macbook, for example, knows all kinds of things about the battery that it doesn't tell me by default, like temp, power going out, power going in, mAH capacity, etc.)
I am highly skeptical that any of the kinds of apps you are talking about do anything to alter the charge cycle - lithium ion charging is a hybrid combination of constant current and constant voltage charging, and it is notoriously unforgiving - you really only have one technique to do it right, without risking damage to the batteries, swelling, fires, etc. It's highly unlikely that any consumer devices have a programmable charger built in - it's almost certainly a dedicated chip with a dedicated charge algorithm.