Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

I’ve recently started using active noise cancellation headphones that are powered by a single AAA battery, and this significantly lightened my battery life anxiety[0]. It’s a completely different feeling when a device that’s with you every day is not “disposable” anymore and liberating to not be hostage to battery condition. It’ll probably last for as long as I maintain it, and if charge runs out at an inconvenient moment I can simply pop in a spare.

In case of smartphones it could work if we go through a fundamental shift: switch to e-ink or similar, reduce expectations of hardware performance, be much more efficient as app developers and have reliable ways of testing that efficiency. I’d welcome this personally, but I doubt even Apple with its marketing prowess could make it desirable for mainstream audiences after years of stressing CPU, GPU, RAM numbers and gaming capabilities.

I suspect it’s probably less of a possibility with laptops. Keeping battery designs proprietary, being free from regulatory friction, being able to charge for replacement is probably part of the incentives that got them where they are in terms of capacity and size. If we mandated using standardized easily replaceable batteries a la AA/AAA, we would have bulkier laptops that can’t last a day (let alone on any demanding task), and spares would be too bulky to carry for those who want to walk light.

[0] Stressing over battery charge and battery health of our devices. A situation where battery runs out just as we vitally need the device is enough to be in once, so we charge defensively. We also know that battery health decreases over time (the device is gradually “used up”), and we try to prolong it: we experience stress every time the battery is too low since this runs it down and every time we leave it connected for too long because constantly topping up the charge to 100% also runs it down. So we subconsciously track short-term battery charge and long-term battery health, and we are painfully aware that they deteriorate with every second—and unlike external wear, this deterioration concerns not aesthetics but device’s ability to be more than a brick. (It is probably less concerning to those who drive a fossil fuel car everywhere, those who spend most of their time home or at work, or those who feel financially and ethically OK just getting a new device whenever it seems as if the battery doesn’t hold or a new model comes out.)

Despite their aggression and desire for sugar, wasps are useful and important pollinators the same way that bees are.

> I've seen power tools from certain companies adopt the same battery type across multiple of their tools

That's because electric power tools are sold as a platform: you choose a brand and buy in to their platform. For example I mainly use a driver + drill so bought in to Milwaukee. Ended up buying a lot of other kit from them too.

Seems highly unlikely anyone would stop to check the camera when coming back into the US with a personal phone. They would need to be checking millions of phones for a tiny number of hits.

> my daily use for it was checking if the coffee was cool enough to drink

My wife has the same issue with hot coffee which drives me a little nuts. She uses a normal mug most of the time. Because she isn't certified in coffee temp detection like I am; she waits and waits, gets distracted, and eventually it becomes too cold. So she reheats it in the microwave, usually to the point where it's too hot, and that cycle continues after it gets too cold again. She's probably reheated coffee in the microwave up to 4-5 times a day at times. It's hilarious and ridiculous. As an engineer, admittedly, I enjoy the hilarity so much I'm not sure if I care about it being resolved!

The issue is two-fold:

1) She lets the coffee hit the outermost parts of her lips and subjects herself to getting destroyed by the high temp lol. I don't understand why this is so difficult for people. Your outermost lips are more sensitive. Don't do that. You don't attack hot coffee like it's a fine bourbon. Also you can feel the temp and steam to know not to even attempt based on your preference and tolerance.

2) She isn't sitting at a desk consistently like most of us. She's everywhere in the house and then leaves, and her coffee intake isn't a priority like many of us.

If I put her coffee in a stainless steel mug with a lid, then it takes too long to cool to her temp. She leaves the lid off to cool and then forgets about returning to it in time. And she doesn't end up drinking the coffee because it becomes too cool. So now she would have to transfer to a microwaveable mug to reheat and start that cycle so she doesn't even bother. If I'm prepping her a roadie coffee, I must pour it, leave the lid off for a period of time and then place it back on so she will attempt drinking it in time in the car to commit to it. If it's too hot, she will more than likely just abandon it and not check back in before we reach our destination.

I got her an Ember mug so she can read the actual temp and control it. But it's not dishwasher safe of course. So she doesn't tend to use it. And from the fresh brewed carafe to the Ember still is too hot, unless the lid is off for some time like the stainless steel mug, lol.

The ideal mug for her would thus be an Ember mug that is dishwasher safe and thus have some sort of twist mechanism to disconnect the battery and status/controls portion from the core mug function. And probably have a vent mechanism on the lid (maybe a double pop on the Ember lid to vent more?) to more quickly get the temp down from initial temp, as the heated mug portion can ensure the set temp is hit anyway.

Someone please build that and save me! Or don't, and I'll enjoy the entertainment derived from the struggle. :)