As our phones have been blessed with more ‘high end’ features’, which drain the battery life faster and the fact that we like to use these features a lot, it is no wonder that we are in need of some improvements in this area. You might say that the battery technology has not been able to keep up with new and more demanding features, and of course the change of user pattern – After all, we are still using the same Lithium Ion technology that came out in the 1991 in Sony’s laptops. Obviously there have been a lot of improvements since then, but the technology remains the same and the question is, if this technology has now become as good as it possibly can be.

Recently, the company ZPower has introduced a new line of rechargeable silver-zinc batteries, which they claim can offer 40% more runtime in portable devices. Yesterday ZPower’s chief executive was interviewed on CNET (Click here to see the full interview)  where he told a little bit about the new battery technology that ZPower plans to bring out sometime next year. The technology has been around for years, but has primarilly been used in military applications, and now ZPower has brought it down to the size where it is possible to use it in portable devices like mobile phones. 

Environmentalists will be happy to know that ZPower batteries have no heavy metals or toxic chemicals and that as much as 95% of the primary elements in these batteries can be recycled and reused - And to encourage people to do so ZPower will be offering financial incentives. Apart from the obvious benefits for the environment this will also help ZPower to make up for the high prices in silver making this an economically viable project. 

If you are a barablu user (of course you are!) then let me just remind you that we have done a lot of work to minimize the amount of battery that barablu consumes – In fact the actual application hardly takes up any battery at all, but since many users connect via Wi-Fi, the battery can be affected – This is also why we have come up with the Auto-roaming feature – So you can seamlessly switch between 3G and Wi-Fi, and this way make sure that you won’t drain your battery more than absolutely necessary.

Written by
michael thomsen

Did you know that you can enable Auto-roaming in barablu for Nokia?  

What it does?

Auto-roaming enables you to roam freely between 3G and Wi-Fi. For example, if you are connected to Wi-Fi and you leave the hotspot, then barablu can automatically connect again using GPRS, Edge or 3G.

This way you can make sure that you stay connected to barablu all the time - And you don’t have to manually sign into barablu if you loose your connection.

How to activate Auto-roaming and how it works?

Go to options à Account Settings à Auto-roam à And select your preferences.

Once you have opened the Auto-roaming menu you get 4 options:

• GPRS Only:

This means that barablu will only connect using GPRS. If you loose your GPRS signal you will also be signed out of barablu.

• Wi-Fi only:

This means that barablu will only connect using Wi-Fi. If you move from one Wi-Fi hotspot to another hotspot then barablu will automatically connect to the new Wi-Fi hotspot -  If you are not within reach of any hotspots then you will stay signed out of barablu.

• Wi-Fi and then GPRS:

This option prioritizes Wi-Fi connections. If you select this option then barablu will first connect using Wi-Fi. If you loose your Wi-Fi connection then barablu will automatically scan for other Wi-Fi access points to connect to – If barablu does not find any Wi-Fi connections, then it will connect via GPRS.

• GPRS and then Wi-Fi:

If you select this option you choose to prioritize GPRS connection – This means that barablu will always try to connect via GPRS/Edge/3G – Should you, for whatever reason, loose your signal, then barablu will first try to connect via GPRS, and if there is no signal at all, it will scan for Wi-Fi connections and connect you if there are any available.

Pretty neat, huh?

There is one thing you should remember, though.

barablu will only connect to connections it already knows(hotspots where it has already been connected once before). So, if you find yourself a new Wi-Fi hotspot you will have to manually log in the first time, but after that barablu will do it automatically.

Hopefully, this cleared up some of the confusion about this very useful feature – And if you are one of those who were thinking about trying it out before, but was not entirely sure what it did, then now there is no excuse – Start Auto-roaming so you can be logged into barablu at all times.

Happy Auto-roaming!

Written by
michael thomsen