Li-ion Battery Care

With the currently widespread use of Li-ion batteries (starting from mobile phones, laptops, and so on), it's interesting when people discuss about how to care for it in order to get the most out of it. Here are 2 of the most interesting articles I've found so far on the subject:

• Getting Great Battery Life
• Apple - Batteries - Notebooks

Recently, I also found a thread started by DarkDvr back in 2010 on the XDA-Developers forum specifically for Android-powered devices. The 1^st post there summarizes his findings regarding Li-ion battery care taken from sources like Wikipedia and BatteryUniversity. Here is my compilation of some interesting points, not just from the 1^st post, but through the entire thread (page 7 as of this writing):

1. A complete, full FIRST charge is recommended for 12 hours.
2. The slower the charge - the longer (long-term) battery will serve you. Trickle-charge (USB) is best.
3. Frequent partial charges about 40 to 90 or so percent are probably the best.
4. Calibrating should be done every 30 or so days/partial-charges: drain it fully (keep turning the phone on after it's "dead" until it doesn't turn on anymore) and then charge it to 100%.
5. Don't worry about charging your phone to 100% everytime. Charging to max voltage every time reduces battery life.

However, at the end of the day,

The thing with Li-ion batteries is that you don't really have to worry too much about them, it'll die regardless. Just keep it cool whenever possible, and don't let it die to 0% (aside from the calibration cycle).

Credits to DarkDvr and others on the forum. ;)

LG Optimus One P500

Finally, my first Android phone! :D It's the LG Optimus One P500, an entry-level Android phone. After some research over the internet, I picked this one because of its quite superior hardware specification in its price bracket. I got mine from Global Teleshop, Balikpapan for Rp1.999.000.

Definitely not perfect, but I think it's generally a nice phone to experience Android. Here are 3 things I have in mind after having it for a few days.

Battery Life

I've been reading that Android phones drain their batteries pretty quickly. Of course it depends on the usage, but thanks to the 1500 mAh battery packed with the Optimus One, I think I can get up to around 24 hours battery life just by occasionally turning off the data communication when not in use and setting the screen brightness to minimum. This is actually good.

Touchscreen Bug

I guess this was something I overlooked when doing a research on the phone. I can say that it's true Optimus One has a touchscreen bug: it lags when I hold my touch on the screen (observable while playing Angry Birds). :P Some say that it's an Android problem, and not specific to this phone only. However, higher end phones should handle this better compared to the Optimus One. Workarounds for this issue involves flashing a custom ROM or just a custom kernel developed by mik_os on the XDA-Developers forum. Once I finish familiarizing myself with this phone, I might try that.

Dust Problem

It's unfortunate that I just knew this problem after I bought the phone. Users of the Optimus One reported having dust getting in the screen of their phones. ideaguy shares his research results regarding this problem on the TechEnclave forum. Guess that I'll just have to see what happens with mine. :-|

ROM, Firmware and Flashing

I've been interested in the Android operating system, and recently been digging more information about it. One thing I just found out is that Android phones are highly customizable you can even overclock the processor! Suddenly, a lot of technical terms are encountered. I like to know the actual meaning of jargons in order to have a good understanding and be able to use them correctly. There are 3 terms I’d like to discuss here: ROM, firmware and flashing. We find these terms regularly when reading about customizing the Android, and I found myself in a hard time since I didn’t have the exact knowledge of what they mean and how they relate to each other. The information below is extracted from an article on AddictiveTips I found after some googling. I simply rewrite it here in a more concise manner as a summary for quick reference.

OK, let’s start. So Android is the operating system. ROM stands for Read-Only Memory, the internal storage of the device containing the operating system instructions that need not be modified at all during normal operation. That’s why it’s read-only. The read-only operating system is also called a firmware as they stay “firmly” in the ROM without modification access to the users of the device. The ROM used in smartphones and tablets etc. is a kind of flash memory. Installing or modifying the firmware on a device’s protected flash memory (the ROM) requires a special procedure called flashing. There you go! :)

As a note, when it comes to smartphones and tablets, the term ROM is used to refer to the firmware. So now you know precisely what it means to flash your phone with a custom ROM, right? :D

All But Flawless

I stumbled upon this video on YouTube which I think is so cool! :D The artist is Bayu Ardianto, but he so-call himself jreng! there (an onomatope for the sound of guitar strum in bahasa Indonesia). He did brilliant covers of Radiohead's Paranoid Android and Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, but my favorite one is his own song: Nyaris Sempurna (English: All But Flawless).

The videos take the form of "VideoSongs", a medium defined with 2 rules:

1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice)
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds)

City of Light

Perth evening skyline as seen from Kings Park, the largest inner city park in the world (with an area of 4.06 km², it is even larger than New York's Central Park which is 3.41 km²). Apart from Paris, Perth is also known as the "City of Light" since the residents lit their house lights and streetlights as American astronaut John Glenn passed overhead on the Friendship 7 in 1962; an act they repeated when Glenn was above them again on the Space Shuttle in 1998.

Relaxing Buddha

The head of the Reclining Buddha in Wat Pho, Bangkok. The image is 46 meters long and 15 meters high, decorated with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet. It is Thailand's largest and most beautiful piece of fine arts of Buddha in the reclining position, depicting the passing of Buddha into nirvana.

Car Wash 101

To detailing enthusiasts, car washing is something that should be done by oneself (i.e. not done by anybody else without proper knowledge on how to do it, usually including automatic carwashes). This is done to reduce the potential of inflicting swirls onto the paint caused by improper techniques commonly found. Car washing is also normally the first step in any detailing process and is the most often thing we do as a regular maintenance procedure, so why not take a look at how it should be done.

There are lots of online videos out there, and I'm sharing my favorite one so far here, that shows how to wash your car properly in a pretty comprehensive way. It's done by Mike Phillips, a celebrity in the car detailing world. I like his articles and videos because they are well composed and simply make sense. Enjoy this one!


One thing that I'd like to emphasize is the usage of a good wash mitt, because I see a lot of people use traditional sponge which can scratch paint (or even worse: chamois!). But if you feel like a lambswool mitt is too pricey to start with, there are actually other choices you might want to check out. How dirty is too dirty to safely use a rinseless wash? is another nicely written article by Mike Phillips which also lists some alternatives to choose from to replace the traditional sponge.