MyBattery 2.1.0 has two important new features, in addition to some bug fixes and "polishing". These bold new features are described in this document, so read on!
THE NEW HISTOGRAM
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The histogram display now shows 9 hours of data, to support the full discharge cycle of an external battery pack. The new, bigger histogram forced me to change the format of the histogram data. The first time you start up the new version of MyBattery, your histogram data will be cleared, and MyBattery will begin collecting the histogram data using the new format. All other information, including the data collected by MyBattery to provide the remaining time estimates, will remain intact.
EXTERNAL BATTERIES
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A new phenomenom in the PowerBook world is the external, long-life battery, like the VST ThinkPack or the Technöggin PowerPlate. These external batteries last several times longer than the internal battery pack, and plug into your PowerBook's battery charger port.
The Power Manager, which is the part of the Apple Macintosh OS that manages the battery, has no provisions to support external batteries. This makes it virtually impossible for MyBattery to differentiate between a battery charger or an external battery. While MyBattery will attempt to guess when an external battery is attached, most of the burden falls on you, the user, to inform MyBattery when you are using an external battery.
MyBattery can record information for as many as three batteries. In version 2.1.0, you can identify each of these as being either an internal or external battery.
To prepare MyBattery for an external battery:
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1) Bring MyBattery to the foreground, if it isn't already.
2) Choose "Preferences..." from the "MyBattery" menu.
3) Define one of the three batteries as being an external. Typically, battery #1 is your default internal battery, so it's best to define battery #2 or battery #3 as an external battery.
When you are about to use an external battery:
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1) Plug in your external battery.
2) Bring MyBattery to the foreground.
3) From the "MyBattery" menu, choose the battery that you've defined as an external battery.
4) MyBattery will now begin monitoring the voltage of your external battery, and present you with estimates of your remaining battery life.
When you are done with your external battery, or starting to charge it:
2) From the "MyBattery" menu, choose a non-external battery.
3) MyBattery will revert to monitoring your internal battery.
NOTE: The first several times you use MyBattery with your external battery, the remaining time estimate will be very conservative. After several discharge cycles, however, MyBattery will have collected enough data to present accurate estimates.
Jeremy Kezer
143 Songbird Lane
Farmington, CT 06032
America Online: JBKezer ...or... Internet:jbkezer@aol.com