Not really -- if you really are planning to grill up some meat (or mushrooms and pineapples, they're good too) today or this weekend, you'll need a little more heat than your iPhone will give. But it's true, Apple's little handheld can get nice and toasty when it's really working*, and illustrator Chad Covino made a little Fourth of July BBQ-themed sketch about that very subject. We love it -- very nice work!

My iPhone does get hot, but not so hot I can't pick it up -- usually when I'm running 3D for a longer stretch of time or when the phone is doing some serious calculating like audio or photo editing, I start to feel the heat coming off the back. Batteries are to blame for some of the more extreme problems, however, and that's not a huge surprise, given that batteries in any mobile device have their issues. The good news in that case, however, is that the phone is unlikely to actually explode -- the repair guy Wired talks to says that "a little bit of smoke eventually is probably the best bet." Not that a smoking iPhone is a good situation at all, but you can at least be sure that your iPhone is not quite as hot as the fire under your burgers this weekend.

[* Note that the Apple KB article referenced here about temperature warnings/"don't leave the iPhone in the glove compartment" for the iPhone 3G and 3GS is not a new post, nor is the temperature alert screen unique to the 3GS; the KB was simply updated to include the newer device. Jim Dalrymple at The Loop has a solid rundown. FoxNews incorrectly reported that the support article was specific to the 3GS, but then did cite PC World's Melissa Perenson and David Coursey with personal stories of wicked-hot 3GS units. If your 3GS is overheating, check in with Apple support or your local AT&T store. -Ed.]

Do you have Pre-envy due to the Touchstone and wireless charging capabilities? Well, good news then. A company called WildCharge has stepped in to give you similar charging capabilities with your original iPhone or iPod touch. The bundle is just shy of $80 and includes the charging pad and a gel skin that needs to be attached to your phone. Once installed, just lay your phone on the pad and get your charge on.

The skin unfortunately adds an unsightly hump at the base where the dock connector is, but that may be a small price to pay if you really need your iPhone charged sans wires.

The iPod touch version is available now with the iPhone version coming next month.

It's time once again for Ask TUAW! For this round we take questions about cleaning a malfunctioning Mighty Mouse, opening files and applications with the return key, expanding a Boot Camp partition, finding alternatives to Adobe Acrobat, caring for your notebook battery, and more

As always, your suggestions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

Apple's push notifications sure are neat, but they aren't the brass ring for developers on the iPhone. That, so far, would be background processes. And while Apple has said that background processes would just be too much of a drain on the iPhone's battery, that doesn't mean they don't want them, too.

Ars Technica reports that Apple is still trying to figure out a way for certain apps to do it. There's two options laid out here: one is user-based, in which the user actually approves certain apps to run in the background, with the consequence (if you do choose to enable that) of lower battery lifetime. The second has Apple approving apps for background action, allowing certain developers to run based on limits of "resource usage such as RAM or network bandwidth."

Obviously, there are pros and cons to each plan -- giving the power to the user means they will be able to choose when the battery is drained (on a particularly busy day, for instance, or when the iPhone is plugged in), but it also means that users will have the ability to crash their own phones (allowing too many background processes could cause issues). And of course, while leaving the choice in Apple's hands will make sure background processing is only used in the "right circumstances," we all know how great Apple is at app approval.

Ars concludes on the same point that I would: if background processes are really going to make a difference, they'll likely rely on a future iteration of the iPhone, as the one we've got now is just not built to run apps all the time, no matter who chooses them. Even if Apple is working out a way to run certain apps in the background, they are almost certainly spending more time beefing up the iPhone hardware as well.

I have a MacBook Air. Although I can get about 5 hours of mobile use out of it by dimming the screen, turning off all wireless, and only running one app at a time, there are times I'd love to be able to stay unplugged for much longer. I could always get a solar charger, but that won't work well when it's dark out.

QuickerTek has announced the MacBook Air External Battery, a US$350 external box designed to let you run your MBA for up to 16 hours before plugging in. It's relatively small (7" x 3.5" x 1" -- 17.8 cm x 8.9 cm x 2.5 cm) and adds 1.2 pounds to the weight you'll have to lug around.

In order to connect the external battery to your MacBook Air, you'll either have to send your existing MagSafe cable in to be converted for use (US$25) or buy a modified cable from QuickerTek (US$100). The final bill for the MacBook Air External Battery and the cable is almost as pricey as that solar-powered charger, but it's going to give your MacBook Air much longer battery life. Now if QuickerTek could just come out with a battery to let me play Monopoly (click opens iTunes) on my iPhone for 10 hours straight...

Apple released two separate software updates yesterday. The MacBook Battery Update 1.4 "improves the ability of MacBook batteries to maintain a charge when the system is shut down and not used for an extended period of time" and is for 13" MacBooks.

In addition, the Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 2.5 adds RAW support for the Nikon D3X and Epson R-D1x in iPhoto '08 & '09 as well as Aperture 2.

The battery update and the RAW update are both free downloads from Apple.

As usual, the fine folks at iFixIt immediately took apart the newest piece of Apple hardware to arrive at their offices, a unibody 17" MacBook Pro. The whole process was detailed with step-by-step photos, some of which reveal an internal battery roughly the size of a baby dolphin.

In case you're curious, and we know you are, that's a 7.3V 95Wh (12820 mAh) battery, Apple model #A1309. It contains no mercury (Hg) and weighs in at 1.5 pounds (0.7 kg)! The folks at iFixIt note, "It's only a matter of time until you'll be able to buy this battery online from companies like us."

It reminds me of the battery that came in the clamshell iBooks (in size at least). It sure looks easy to replace...

[Via Ars]

If you were wandering the halls of Macworld Expo last week, you might have seen a familiar face -- no, not the everpresent TUAW video crews, but the gadget-loving visage of Richard Thalheimer, founder of The Sharper Image and current head honcho of RichardSolo. The RS booth was a brief walk away from The Sharper Image's floor presence, but I believe maturity prevailed and no miniature helicopters or USB missile launchers were seen to buzz the competition's displays.

The RichardSolo iPhone and iPod extended-life batteries were visible at the show on attendees' iPhones, and most people visiting the booth seemed to be satisfied customers or would-be customers (Steve reviewed the latest model in November). Buyers at the show were eligible for a $30 discount on the original and newer 1800 models, but if you missed that opportunity you can still save: through the end of January, use coupon code 'Macworld' at checkout and get $20 off either product (usually $50US for the lower-capacity model and $70US for the 1800 model).

There's a good list of still-running Macworld Expo discounts at dealmac, but if you know of any that aren't on the list, shout them out.

[via MacObserver]

Apple posted details about how much it will cost to replace the battery in the new 17-inch MacBook Pro notebooks announced at last week's Macworld Expo.

The cost works out as follows:

• United States: $179
• Canada: C$219
• Europe: €179 (including VAT)
• United Kingdom: £139 (including VAT)
• Japan: ¥19,800 (including tax)
• Australia: A$299 (including VAT)
• China: 1498 RMB (including VAT)

Apple says batteries can be replaced and your laptop returned to you the same day if you make an appointment at an Apple retail store. Otherwise, mail-in replacement will take three to four business days after the unit arrives at depot.

Apple also says that battery replacement services may be available at your local Apple Authorized Service Provider, but the prices may vary from those listed on Apple's website.

Note that Apple claims these batteries will last three times as long as conventional laptop batteries (up to five years or 1,000 cycles), and any defects in the first year of ownership are covered under the existing warranty. It's not clear whether AppleCare would cover battery replacement during the extended warranty period if it wears out, since the battery is considered a consumable item. Jared points out in the comments below that AppleCare currently does cover batteries that wear our prematurely (before the rated number of charge cycles). Just FYI, you can check the cycle count of your battery via Apple System Profiler / "More Info" in About This Mac, by viewing the Power section.

Both 9to5Mac and AppleInsider are reporting on rumors that a 17-inch, unibody MacBook Pro will debut at this week's Macworld Expo. Most interesting is the rumor about the machine's battery.

Specifically, the alleged laptop's battery would be non-removable, very slim (consider the MacBook Air's battery) and able to run "...much longer" than the current model. The announcement of a new 17 inch MacBook Pro wouldn't be a very big surprise, but a non-removable battery would. People like removable batteries for obvious reasons.

Mike Rose guessed that we'd see a new 17 inch laptop when we all listed our predictions. We'll all see what happens in just a couple of days.

For full Macworld Expo coverage, bookmark the TUAW Macworld Expo 2009 landing page.

[Via Engadget]

Sony announced today it plans to lay off 16,000 workers, close a handful of factories and reduce electronics investment by a third, as their comeback effort falls apart. Sony is both Apple's competitor in the mobile phone market and their partner for computer components, including batteries.

"Five or six" factories will be closed, with only one named so far: Sony Dax Technology Center, in France. Several other factories in Japan will be closed, and one other abroad, according to the IDG News Service.

8,000 full-time employees will be laid off, along with another 8,000 temps and contractors. Those 16,000 people represent about nine percent of their workforce.

Forbes.com's announcement of the layoffs attributed some of Sony's loss of revenue to Apple's dominance in the music player market, a torch Sony once carried.

Sony hopes the moves will save them a billion dollars going into its next fiscal year, which starts in April.

There's a good tip at CreativeBits today on prolonging your battery's life. Specifically, it's about letting it run through "cycles."

When your battery is fully charged, be it in your laptop, iPhone or iPod, and you let it run until the device dies, you've used up one cycle. Over time, it will lose its ability to retain a full charge. However, there are simple steps you can take to prolong its life (or draw out its death. However you choose to look at it). The folks at CreativeBits recommend at least one cycle every two weeks.

You can also use tools like CoconutBattery and iStatPro to see how many cycles your laptop battery has completed and to monitor its health.

For a more thorough look at your laptop's battery check out our article on battery calibration.

If you remember when the first, first-generation iPhone launched, Jose Trujillo sued Apple over the fact that the handset has a non-removable battery. That lawsuit has now been dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly said in his opinion, "Apple disclosed on the outside of the iPhone package that the [battery has] limited recharge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced by [an] Apple service provider."

"Under the circumstances, no reasonable jury could find that deception occurred."

Trujillo sued Apple in Illinois state court in July 2007, accusing the company of consumer fraud.

[Via MacRumors and Bloomberg.com.]

I'll skip the obligatory mini-biography of Guy and cut to the chase: the dude gets a whopping 36 hours of standby time with his iPhone 3G. True, many other phones get better battery life and can go for days without a charge. But anyone banging their iPhone on the wall, wishing the darn thing didn't suck down the juice like a preschooler in the Sahara will appreciate his detailed account of the settings used to eke out lengthy iPhone standby time. Oh, and those other phones? As Guy says, "...it's better to have a cool phone that you have to charge everyday than a sucky phone that you can charge once a week." How do you keep your iPhone alive?

If there's anything I've learned about the iPhone 3G since July 11th, it's that the battery life is horrible. If I'm just texting and making the occasional call, I can survive for a day, but if I try to play games or use 3G I know it's going to go to the dreaded red battery icon quickly.

That's why there are a growing number of manufacturers who have extended battery packs for the iPhone on the market. For example, I looked at the Kensington Mini Battery Pack and Charger (US$49.99), but the website doesn't show that it works with the iPhone 3G.

My next choice was the Richard | Solo Smart Backup Battery. This US$49.95 lithium-ion battery pack has saved me from running out of juice prematurely more than once!

Read on for more information about this must-have sidekick for the iPhone 3G.