I have created a brainstorm http://maemo.org/community/brainstor...attery_output/ to explore concepts to boost the battery on the N900. The premise is that application improvements alone won't achieve all-day-computing for "power users" (pun intended) and that basic hardware power solutions need to be explored too.

2nd solution would be my primary goal
getting power management to a point where you actually save power isnt very easy I learned with my first netbook (6h batterylife), finding a proper setup for a specific device will need a lot of brainstorming and testing.. I am up for it!

@chemist. I agree, only so much can be achieve through software optimization. Eventually a better battery is needed. I realize it isn't something the Maemo community can implement, but hopefully we can influence it.

Personally, given the current thickness of the N900, I wouldn't mind another 2.5 mm if it would double the battery output.

thickness? no width and length! but please stay focused!
once I receive my device I will do some optimization testing and try to write it up in a script or send nokia the details of measurements and improvements I have done so they may put it up as Std. if its not strangling performance.

I will have a look at process grouping to put all daemons with a similar threatening in one group and so on.

What about a simple powersaving app? Just a widget on your desktop, if you press it, it disables 3g, all other widgets, animations, reduce cpu speed etc. (Like putting it into a simple phone mode or something)

So when you're not planning on using the device for a little while, you just press the button. Or/and as someone else proposed here earlier, a function that disables dataconnection when idle.

thats stuff I gonna test!
does it really save power swapping networks from 3G to 2G or even off, what is the benefit and for how long needs it to be turned off/swapped to really save power. Negotiation needs more power then keep-alive-pings.
I would concentrate on things that run all the time, like timers watchdogs daemons first. The in anycase powerhungry connections come after GSM for me, if I want to use it as primary cell phone this is always on too. only internet connections like xG and wifi are left then and there the benefit calculation/measurements come to play!

Set Away after 5 but don't do N/A in 15, powerdown the network-connections instead?

Folks, I think my point was this...no matter what you do to optimize the software, a bigger battery will always give you more run time. I realize this is a Maemo forum, but I'm looking for some thoughts on the hardware side. E.g. laptops have extended-life batteries, even HTC has one for their phones (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...999#post492999), so why not for the N900?

I would love to see an extended capacity battery with a replacement backing with a better stand and a camera cover that doesn't cause haze.

It'd also be great to have the option of an inductive power recharging ability similar to the palm pre:

http://www.palm.com/us/products/acce...ne-bundle.html


The nokia version would probably be priced similar to palm's, and would be somewhat expensive, but it would help ease the worries of the seemingly fragile usb port used constantly for recharging, and it would just make daily usage easier...

As workaround you can use an extended power supply
http://europe.nokia.com/find-product...ra-power-dc-11