Battery life is the key to mobility

There are of course many factors when it comes to mobility, but battery life tends to be the Achilles heel for most devices.  Today for the second time I left the NC10 unplugged inadvertently at my desk.  I did not use it that much directly (more in ambient third screen mode) and only discovered it was unplugged at the end of the day when I went under my desk to pull the cord.  Yesterday I actually did the same thing, but realized when the system refused to update the BIOS without a DC connection. 

Now on the train home I see I’ve got about 35% or about 1:16 left to run at this current brightness (3 of 8) and activity (Firefox, Tweetdeck, Windows Live Writer and iTunes) level.   I only woke the system from sleep once after an extended away period in a meeting which is killer considering any other laptop I’ve used would absolutely have been dead by lunch. 

Hasty Airport Purchase – Kensington Universal 70W DC Power Adapter

01/10/2009 - kensington power adapter

While I had power on my recent American flight overseas it was not via  standard jack and unfortunately was of the cigarette lighter variety – a plug I did not have in my bag.  Passing back through Heathrow yesterday I decided to check into the Dixons there and was sold the Kensington Universal 70w DC Power Adapter .  Like similar systems from iGo, there are a number of tips that work with various devices and Samsung was listed on the box so it seemed good to go.  Unfortunately, the Samsung NC10 is not a currently supported device so I have a sleek travel power adapter that’s worthless for my rig.  There isn’t even a tip for my Lenovo work machine so this unit is a total wash for me.

In theory it’s solid, but in practice not so much so…