Panasonic pleads guilty to laptop battery pack price fixing

Panasonic and its subsidiary Sanyo have agreed to plead guilty to price fixing conspiracies involving laptop battery cells and automotive parts. They will pay a total of $56.5 million in criminal fines, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said.

Sanyo agreed to pay $10.7 million for the battery cells conspiracy and Panasonic will pay $45.8 million for its role in the automotive parts conspiracy, the DoJ said in a news release on Thursday.
LG Chem, a manufacturer of rechargeable batteries, has also agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $1.056 million criminal fine for price fixing involving battery cells, the DoJ said. Sanyo and LG Chem were involved in a battery cell conspiracy from about April 2007 until about September 2008, it said.

"The guilty pleas against Sanyo and LG Chem are the first in the department's ongoing investigation into anticompetitive conduct in the cylindrical lithium-ion battery cell industry," it said. Both companies conspired to fix the prices of battery cells sold worldwide for use in notebook computer battery packs, it added.
Lithium ion batteries are rechargeable and are often used in groups in more powerful battery packs for electronic devices. While flat, or prismatic, cells are more common in cellphones or thin-and-light laptops, cylindrical cells are used to make up most removable laptop battery packs.

Sanyo, LG Chem and their co-conspirators agreed during meetings and conversations to price the battery packs to customers at predetermined levels and to issue price quotations to customers in accordance with those agreements, according to the charges. "Sanyo, LG Chem and their co-conspirators collected and exchanged information for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon prices and took steps to conceal the conspiracy," the DoJ said.

"Pleading guilty and cooperating with the division's ongoing investigations is a necessary step in changing a corporate culture that turned customers into price-fixing victims," the DoJ added.

Gadgetwise: A Waterproof Phone With Battery Stamina

The Sony Xperia Z phone is tougher than it looks.

 
The phone is waterproof — in water up to three feet deep for a half-hour, according to Sony — but it looks like a standard smartphone, lacking the macho armoring of most devices built to withstand the elements.

 
The phone uses an Android operating system and is powered by a quad core Snapdragon chip, which, at least on paper, isn’t as fast as the chips in some competing phones. But the chip is snappy nonetheless.

 
The device is on the larger side, with a 5-inch, 1920 x 1080p HD screen. Sony makes much of its access to Bravia TV technology, but the screen is not definitively better than an Apple Retina or Samsung Amoled screen.

 
The phone also has a 13-megapixel camera with High Dynamic Range capability, which means that in a sunlit room, it should capture details from the shadows without having the window look like a glowing rectangle. In practice, its photos weren’t clearly better than those from the aforementioned competitors.

 
The Z has NFC capability, so it can trade information with other NFC devices with a touch. Sony has cleverly marked the NFC spot on the back of the phone, so you’re not reduced to rubbing your phone all over some other device hoping to connect, as is often required with NFC.

 
A battery “stamina” mode shuts down background operations while the phone is sleeping. You can designate which apps should keep running, so you can still get alerts.

 
With the Android Jellybean 4.2 operating system, it of course connects to the full suite of Google goodies, including Web backup to contacts and your calendar, as well as easy access to Google Plus, Google Maps, YouTube and the Chrome browser.

 
The Xperia Z is available through T-Mobile for $100 upfront with 24 monthly payments of $20, for a total of $580.

How to Extend Your Ultrabook Battery Life

One of the most appealing characteristics of an Ultrabook™ is battery life. Mobility often demands that your laptop last a full workday between charges -- sometimes longer.

 

As great as the battery life of a typical Ultrabook may be, it’s still finite. The average battery life is generally less than the theoretical battery life, and your mileage may vary significantly depending on how you use your laptop.

 

Intel understands that the processor consumes a lot of energy—both for the processing itself, as well as for the cooling necessary to maintain the processor at a reasonable temperature. Intel has designed the Core processors with cutting edge technologies engineered to help them operate efficiently, and generate less heat, so you can use your Ultrabook even longer on a single charge.

 

Even with superior technology your battery will only last so long. Luckily, there are some things you can do to eke out every last ounce of juice and extend the battery life to its absolute fullest. Try these tips:

 

1. Dim the display

 

Lighting up all of the pixels on the screen is one of the biggest power drains for your Ultrabook. Try reducing the brightness of the display to the lowest possible setting without making it so dim that it affects your ability to see the display or use the computer.

 

2. Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

 

Even if you’re not actively using them, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are constantly scanning the area for available connections and continue to consume power. If you know you don’t need them, turn off wireless connections like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, or cellular data.

 

3. Shut down unused applications

 

Just as wireless connections suck power even when idle, unused applications running in the background continue to use system resources and battery life as well. It’s OK to leave open applications you’re still actively using—that’s the benefit of using a multitasking operating system. However, you should shut down any tools or services you aren’t using to conserve power.

 

4. Disconnect unused peripheral devices

 

Devices and gadgets plugged in to USB ports draw power even when they’re not actively being used. If you want to get every last minute of battery life out of your Ultrabook, disconnect any unused USB peripherals.

 

5. Change your power settings

 

To automate your power savings as much as possible, go into the power settings in Windows and select the Power Saver profile. The power profile has two separate modes—one for while the Ultrabook is plugged in, and one for when it’s operating on battery power. You can customize the “On battery” settings to designate how many minutes should elapse before Windows will dim the display, turn it off, and finally enter into sleep mode. You can also choose a default display brightness to associate with the power profile.

Samsung Series 9

Wringing extra minutes out of your battery is one way of making it last longer. There is another facet of battery endurance to consider, though. How long will your battery work before it simply dies?

 

Most of the long-term damage to your rechargeable battery occurs when it’s at or near full capacity. When the battery is at 100 percent, it heats up, and the excess heat breaks down the core of the battery cells, making them less capable of holding a charge. Over time, the capacity declines, and eventually the battery won’t hold a charge at all, and you have to replace it.

 

Some Ultrabook systems also use proprietary technologies to further extend battery life. Samsung has developed PowerPlus, which includes a feature called Battery Life Extender mode. When you enable Battery Life Extender mode, PowerPlus limits the charge on the battery to only 80 percent of its full capacity. In Battery Life Extender mode, the battery never approaches or reaches 100 percent, so you avoid the overheating and damage to the battery.

 

By following some simple tips to minimize or turn off components that drain your Ultrabook battery, you can make sure you have enough juice to get through the day. And, with an Ultrabook like the Samsung Series 9, you can extend the overall life of your battery—saving you from having to replace it, and saving the environment from landfills piled up with exhausted batteries.

 

Twitter: @sajilpl