One of the cool discoveries I made after having my new MacBook was the lights on the MacBook battery.
There are five green LEDs on each battery which, when the laptop is charging (connected to the mains) will display how much of the battery is charged, along with which fifth is currently charging.
The main benefit to me is that I can leave the MacBook upside-down on my desk (or anywhere, really) and know how far it’s been charged without having to open it up. It’s really quite a handy little feature.
I’m not sure how long Apple have been implementing this in their notebooks, how common it is among other notebook manufacturer’s products or even how much effort it takes to make this happen, but I do know it’s quite a neat little feature.
I’ve been tutoring in a public (read: “state-run”) high school in the area and they have the iBook G3s, which have four such indicator lights on their batteries.
My old Powerbook G3 (Lombard, c.1999) has four LEDs on the batteries too. This is particularly useful, as it can take two batteries at once. As a result, owning more than one battery is more likely, so it’s useful to tell which is charged and which isn’t.
As the other two posts have pointed out, Apple has used this feature for quite a number of years (not long after 2000, I think). Yes, it is very handy, and no, it wouldn’t require much effort for competitors to implement. Why don’t they implement it then? Well, change is hard for some companies…. Apple isn’t one of them.
My old HP TC1100’s batteries had an own button that you could push and which would then light up to show how much has been charged. IF you have multiple batterys, this is very very handy.
See - Other companies can invent too. Dont be a fanboy.
LOL. You can’t invent something twice. Don’t be naive.