How does a YC backed company create a video with audio that's clearly watermarked. Presumably they could afford the $17 license...
Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks
151–160 of 201 posts
Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks
#152Curious why they didn't go with Kickstarter for the BatteryBox. The product looks really interesting, and I think I'll order some.
Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Active power management is nothing new to lithium ion batteries.
You're right, see for example http://www.qnovocorp.com/ Guess execution is king ;)
I found this useful paper from qnovo that describes the charging process they use. It's very interesting.
http://www.qnovocorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Qnovo-In...
Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, snake oil salesmen are usually happy to let you buy some snake oil.
This is a little more difficult when knowledge moves faster than product delivery. "Snake oil salesmen" did their thing because they could move from community to community and stay ahead of the news about a fraud coming through. I have no idea if this battery thingy is all it's cracked up to be, but the group won't last that long if they don't deliver.
Pre-ordering solves that problem. The product is delivered to everybody at once, before any knowledge can spread.
Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's very unlikely that airplanes will be battery powered in the medium-term future. The chemical energy stored in hydrogen bonds is just so much denser than the electrical energy stored in concentrated lithium ions. I know that battery-powered planes have been built, but it just seems so uneconomical to me. Do you have evidence that could persuade me otherwise? Or perhaps am I misunderstanding? By light airc…
In short, I strongly believe that you're incorrect. (Note: I'm talking about general/recreational aviation here). dchichkov mentioned the Antares, which is a high-performance electric self-launch sailplane. In this category, there's also the Pipistrel Taurus G4. Lots of other electrically-powered light aircraft exist, and they are all held back by battery weight, volume and cost. There is a large number of advantages…
Thanks for the detailed response! Do you think there's any chance that these electric planes will used for cargo/passengers? (Or do you think they'd mainly fit into the recreation/tourism/short-hop flights? Are there other current/future plane uses that I'm not thinking of?)
Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks
#156Here is a classic example of a startup launching an Altair Basic with the potential produce a Microsoft-like giant. Incidentally, I think this is also the first father/son team we've funded.
What makes you think this? Portable batteries like this are dime a dozen (maybe not for macs, I don't own one). Or the real play is licensing the battery tech which doesn't really seem Microsoft like at all since the company would likely fade into the background as the big battery companies use the technology. I don't mean to be offensive, just curious why you are so confident this company or product is a industry ga…
The new YC fascination (recent RFS) appears to be in solving big problems without building the big product right away. You can build an add-on that works you towards some level of driving automation well before you build an entire robotic car, for example.
PG's line there is a reinforcing hint for those that missed the Boosted Boards example previously or weren't too optimistic in response to that RFS. Hopefully it helps more people think about how they could approach big problems in an initially accessible way.
Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks
#157Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
In short, I strongly believe that you're incorrect. (Note: I'm talking about general/recreational aviation here). dchichkov mentioned the Antares, which is a high-performance electric self-launch sailplane. In this category, there's also the Pipistrel Taurus G4. Lots of other electrically-powered light aircraft exist, and they are all held back by battery weight, volume and cost. There is a large number of advantages…
Thanks for the detailed response! Do you think there's any chance that these electric planes will used for cargo/passengers? (Or do you think they'd mainly fit into the recreation/tourism/short-hop flights? Are there other current/future plane uses that I'm not thinking of?)
I'm agnostic in that regard. Some very smart people (notably, Elon Musk) have said that electric propulsion is the future also for passenger aircraft in the more distant future, but I have not seen any detailed reasoning or numbers to indicate how this would work.
Presumably, there would have to be huge efficiency gains over combustion jet propulsion since the energy density of batteries would in any concievable circumstance be much smaller than hydrocarbon fuels. One possibility would be to fly higher, utilizing the smaller air resistance and the fact that battery-electric propulsion does not have the oxygen limitation with altitude that combustion processes have, but I haven't seen a detailed argument regarding how plausible this is.
If we ever build a "flying car", it will have to be electric and use fixed wings in addition to propellers since this is required for generating energy-efficient lift. In the "short-hop"/low-speed/personal transport category, there will definitely be possibilities.
Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have one of the original cables before they got shut down. It's just a magsafe end with a barrel connector on the other. No DRM voodoo.
DRM voodoo is in the charger, it speaks 1-Wire telling computer its make model and power. Most likely can also be controlled over 1-Wire.
The magsafe connector talks 1-wire, not the charger itself. It provides serial number and version info but no DRM/crypto. The Mac also uses the 1-wire to control the LEDs on the connector. See my teardown for the details: http://www.righto.com/2013/06/teardown-and-exploration-of-ma...
Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks
#160They claim that their 50 Whr battery can power a MacBook Pro for 6 hours, a MacBook Air for 12 hrs. By my math, that would mean that the MacBook Pro would only be consuming an average of around 8.3 watts an hour, the air only around 4.2 watts an hour. That seems absurd to me, considering the power supplies that ship with the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air are 85-watt and 45-watt respectively. They are assuming that…
The difference in power draw between idle and 100% utilization on a modern computer is enormous . The power adapter needs to be able to handle 100%, but the sort of usage where you get 6-12 hours of use while on battery is very much near idle almost all the time. I have a 15" MacBook Pro, which has a 95Wh battery. Apple claims 8 hours of battery life on it, and in my experience that's an understatement. It also ships…
> The power adapter needs to be able to handle 100%
Actually it can't; there used to be a support article on Apple's site named HT2332 that details how Macbooks will underclock with the battery removed, because the adapter cannot supply enough power with the system at full load. Other manufacturer's laptops have also been doing this, so Apple is not alone.