Power & Batteries
USB-C solved the connector and not the confusion
One port now carries a dozen incompatible capability sets. The shape is standard; almost nothing else is.
Power & Batteries
Charging, chemistry, heat and why capacity fades.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
Power & Batteries
Battery percentage is an estimate, and a fairly rough one
Your device does not measure charge directly. It infers it, and the inference drifts.
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Power & Batteries
Wireless charging wastes energy as heat, and the heat is the real cost
Inductive charging trades a measurable amount of efficiency for convenience, and the losses land inside the device next to the…
Power & Batteries
Why the last twenty per cent of a charge takes so long
Charging a lithium cell has two distinct phases, and only the first one is fast. The slowdown is chemistry, not throttling for its…
Power & Batteries
Why a 10,000mAh power bank will not charge a 5,000mAh phone twice
The capacity printed on the case is measured at a different voltage from the one your phone receives, and conversion costs more on…
Power & Batteries
Not all lithium batteries share the same chemistry, and the rules change with it
Cells sold under one umbrella term differ in energy density, lifespan, safety and how they should be charged.
Power & Batteries
Where the electricity goes when everything is switched off
Standby consumption is small per device and adds up because there are now dozens of them, and some of the largest offenders look…
Power & Batteries
Heat is what actually ages your electronics
Chemical and physical degradation processes speed up with temperature, which makes cooling the most effective form of maintenance…
Power & Batteries
The memory effect was real, and it has nothing to do with your phone
A genuine phenomenon in an older battery chemistry became folklore that is now applied, wrongly, to cells that behave in the…
Power & Batteries
Why an electric car battery outlives a phone battery
The same underlying chemistry lasts far longer in a vehicle because the pack is managed, buffered and cooled in ways a phone cannot…
Power & Batteries
What is actually inside a phone charger
A small brick converts mains alternating current into a precisely regulated low-voltage supply, and the way it does it explains…
Power & Batteries
What happens when a lithium cell fails, and what to do about it
Thermal runaway is a self-sustaining reaction rather than a fire in the ordinary sense, and that changes how it should be handled.