Apple announced a handful of somewhat interesting features
and products at Macworld in San Francisco today, including new features in
iLife ‘09, the ability to wirelessly download songs on the iPhone, iTunes music without digital rights
management restrictions, and a new MacBook Pro. But the announcement that
caught my eye was a new battery design for the MacBook Pro: it essentially
limits the lifetime of the new laptop, ensuring its worthlessness after the
battery dies.
Apple’s team of dedicated engineers specializes in making batteries that fit into the sleek cases that houses its laptops. And in the new MacBook Pro, the engineers aimed for a battery that was thin and holds more energy than ever. At the keynote, Phil Schiller, vice president of products at Apple, claimed that the battery lasts eight hours, depending the use, and can be recharged 1000 times, giving it an effective lifetime of about five years.
The trick to improving the battery charge, however, was increasing its size by about 40 percent. And the limited volume within a laptop case meant that the engineers had to take something out. The component that got the boot is the housing that allows the battery to be removed and replaced when it wears out. (A great explanatory video is here.)
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