April 23rd, 2010 byAs I explained on Wednesday, we’re replacing Ubuntu’s notification area with a consistent set of menus. As part of that transition, we need to adapt system components that have previously been using the notification area.
One of the simplest of these belongs to Gnome Power Manager, and displays the charge status for the batteries in devices connected to your computer — the computer itself, any wireless mouse, phone, and so on.
In Ubuntu 10.04, Gnome Power Manager has already been patched to use a custom status menu (“application indicator”). So, probably, not much will change when it shuffles over to the system area. But we’re still interested in feedback on the design and any improvements we can make.
Once you’ve checked out the full battery status menu specification, we’d be glad to have your comments either here or on the Ayatana mailing list.
The toolkit
52 Responseshide comments
This design is so much better.
I couldn’t make this out of your post nor the commit messages of g-p-m, but is this being fixed upstream?
i wish i could see the battery information without clicking the icon. just by hovering the battery indicator. or at least i could see the percentage remaining as i could use before.
Seconding the sentiment (it’s great) and the question of Hylke: Are you doing this work upstream? If not: Why not?
I think it’s great !
Very sleet and easy for the eye…
Looks great to me. I really like the idea of having everything centralized, and that seems like the perfect solution to power.
Hylke: Absolutely. The application indicator patch was posted upstream. https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=609654 And we’ll be doing the same with any other design tweaks we make.
Would be nice if you could implement this idea too:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23754/
I like that it will tell me if my MP3 player or my Phone (Palm Pre) charge, that is an excellent idea and I don’t know why no one has done it yet!
Paradiesstaub: Have patience, we’ll be discussing the sound menu later.
This discussion is about the battery status menu.
I have very little to add other than i’m impressed! It looks exactly how i would want it to.
A massive improvement and one i can’t wait to try
I wish the power applet would also show the battery run time *in* the panel, like the old gnome Battstat applet did. That’s by far more convenient than the current “information on mouse over behaviour”
@Matthew: great! thanks
The dialog that pops up when clicking a device in the menu could use a redesign as well. It’s crowded and the information could be better presented. It’s currently missing on the wiki page.
I would love to see a cpu frequency scaling monitor integrated, or at least a simple way to change the cpu power on the fly.
I wouldn’t show an empty battery icon if there is no battery. show nothing or a very faded something.
I, personally, would like the capacity of the battery to be displayed in the menu thingy. Other than that, it looks really good! I like the iPod indication thingymabob, too!
maybe some actions to save power in a submenu when battery is in use:
power save >
()change processor governor
()change lit intensity
()disable bluetoth
() wifi power save mode
() etc
() Remember my preferences (to the next time I got on batteries)
Nice work.
A couple questions:
1. will the battery icon still be animated to give an immediate high-level indication of charging status? OOPS! just read the spec–looks like we’re good to go there!
2. will a mouse-over the menu icon reveal actual status will a click be required?
3. will there be a way to change whether the charge status in the menu is displayed in % or time? Which is better for the target audience? I prefer % charge, but want a way to access both bits of information.
ver 2.o
submenu power save as in the example below:
Power save (Enabled) >
Disable
—————–
()change processor governor
()change lit intensity
()disable bluetoth
() wifi power save mode
() etc
() Remember my preferences (to the next time I got on batteries)
()notify me (when power save is turned on)
It was really cool!
An option “Disable reduce screen brightness” for when you’re watching a video would be great!
I can’t imagine this indicator without on-hover tooltip. Hope this gets implemented!
Great Idea for the icon!
Hope you can enable it soon
I second Martin: I wouldn’t show an absent device. Actually, in the worst situation (desktop without any device involved about charging), I wouldn’t show any icon at all.
Besides, the mouse icon is a bad idea as it has nothing to do with power settings!
Finally, you could use 4 or 5 bars instead of a gray level to make the current charge less accurate, yes, but more readable.
I think Diego’s got a good idea there, too–being able to quickly change my screensaver/brightness settings when I’m about to watch a video would be killer.
yzarc: Since wi-fi power save mode is something that you’d only want to turn off for routers that weren’t compatible, maybe it should go with the rest of the wi-fi settings, instead of in power settings. What do you think? Perhaps the Power Settings window could have a list of cross-references to that and other things you can do to save power.
fmarcia: Where would you show the battery charge for the mouse?
I think that the design is awesome, really integrated. What i would like to see is an option to change the CPU frequency mode (idle, dynamic, full-power) on the same icon.
Looks nice, but I have one suggestion:
– I wouldn’t change the icon (when the mouse battery is low) since it can be confusing. I would just slightly change the color of the background (not the color of the icon – that’s the indicator of laptop battery) so it could draw user’s attention. If the user clicked on this indicator, he would see the background of the information about mouse also change so he/she could know what’s wrong.
One improvement I can mention, is the use of green color for the “100% charge completed” icon.
Well,this isnt my own Idea though,this was something Jon McCann mentioned when he had reviewed symbolic and Humanity icons,and I since i liked the idea , had done this for Humanity in Lucid update.
IMO, it makes sense to use green to alert the user that the charge is full:
- It would help prevent the user from over-charging their batteries and saves the battery life. [not overcharging the batteries is a huge battery saver]
- User would at times like to know that the charge is complete to remove the AC and travel to a different location.
I like the ipod charged thing but is that info available to the os? Im just thinking about feasibility. It would be nice to have info from all devices with batteries like mice and such.
Matthew Paul Thomas, Actually I got the power save actions from the powertop app. I think ubuntu should have a daemon that deals with the activation of these power save actions when they are available. This daemon would be to the battery menu what the gwibber daemon is to messaging-menu. the options could be accessed directly from the battery-menu or a launch for this app could be placed there (as in gwibber example).
Maybe my ideas are not so useful for the current designer discussion but I’m very sure that battery-menu is a good place to locate power-saving stuffs, thx your attention
The spec mentions UPS’s a couple of times, but doesn’t say how they will be represented visually or what actions will be available, if any. Maybe fleshing out the use cases with a UPS one would help?
Hello
[q]
“X (estimating…)” if it is charging or discharging, but an accurate time estimate cannot be made yet
[/q]
http://www.xkcd.com/612/. Better show % of charge rather than, “I’m doing something about it”. Less frustrating to know something is actually in knowledge rather than “soonish to be known”
Names regarding buttons should be started with capital letters and/or foregoed with “humanity” type icon representing this button.
[q]
Unfortunately the Linux kernel does not provide real-world identifiers for multiple batteries in a computer; they have only serial numbers, and labels of the form “BAT0” and “BAT1”. So we cannot show useful distinguishing labels like “Battery (front slot)” in the menu.
[/q]
Considering you could estimate time to “Fully Charge” and/or “Time to discharge” for the batteries could also be recognised as
[generic battery icon] [#number(starting from one)]. Lifetime [estimated lifetime for fully charged battery]
User usually will know which one is which. Option to mark it and save it with custom name ( which could be then used instead) for future reference (according to serial number and/or label) in menu could be useful.
Mentioned option to turn off things like BT/WiFI/CPU throttling for power saving while on battery is a must. We all know how battery life on Linux well could be
. Simple option (if defiened by user) available while on batter on list named like [Predifiend {ower Saving] followed by notification bubble ( option to turn it off) with info on what have been turned off should do the work.
Just my thoughts.
Cheers.
From spec page: “For example, if your notebook battery is estimated to discharge in 1 hour 47 minutes, and your wireless mouse battery is estimated to discharge in 27 minutes, the menu title should appear as a mouse icon containing a red sliver. ”
Mizmo said on #gnome-art something like this: so if laptop battery is going empty within 5 minutes and mouse battery in 2, the indicator title will warn me about the mouse, but not the laptop battery…
I agree with her: in a similar use case laptop battery should be prioritized (this could make the model really complex) or a different icon (and unrelated to specific battery/device) could be showed for critical statuses, when 2 ore more devices are going empty in the next… 15 minutes? 10 minutes?
Tyler Brainerd, Benjamin, bhm: CPU frequency scaling, you say? “Some people write software that lets you choose different power profiles depending on whether you’re on AC or battery. Typically, one of the choices lets you reduce the speed of your processor when you’re on battery. This is bad. It is wrong. The people who implement these programs are dangerous. Do not listen to them. Do not endorse their product and/or newsletter. Do not allow your eldest child to engage in conjugal acts with them. Doing this will reduce your battery life. It will heat up your home. It will kill baby seals. The sea will rise and your car will float away.” — http://mjg59.livejournal.com/88608.html (from which CPU frequency scaling was removed from Gnome Power Manager: http://svn.gnome.org/viewvc/gnome-power-manager?view=revision&revision=2788 )
nomono: I’m not sure what you mean. Are you saying that the whole rectangular area of the menu title (the same part that highlights when you open the menu) should go red when the battery is low?
vish: If we showed all fully-charged batteries as green, the title icon would be green a lot of the time that you were plugged in, which might be distracting. To avoid that we could show fully-charged batteries as green only for mobile devices, not the computer itself, but that would be inconsistent. Have you considered that? Do you think it matters?
Duncan Lock: I was assuming UPSes would be presented in exactly the same way as a battery for the computer, just with a “UPS” icon and name. Is there any reason to treat them differently?
bhm: I think the only point in showing a percentage charge is so that a human can get an idea of how much time is left. But we have computers to do those sort of calculations now. If a battery’s estimated time remaining is wrong, its percentage will be even less informative.
> I think the only point in showing a percentage charge is
> so that a human can get an idea of how much time is left.
> But we have computers to do those sort of calculations
> now. If a battery’s estimated time remaining is wrong,
> its percentage will be even less informative.
While that’s a nice idea, it’s incredibly misguided. First, I’ve just watched my 11.10 install bounce the “time remaining” from 2:44 to 3:40 to 2:43 in a matter of minutes. Until computers can perform these sorts of calculations accurately, this data is akin to a Windows 95 file transfer progress dialog.
Second, the percentage remaining is only less informative when the time remaining is 100% accurate — which will never be true, as it is an estimate. I’d prefer not to sacrifice accuracy for a more convenient unit, which leaves me to go searching for a new battery applet because a basic Ubuntu install lacks a fundamental feature which is no more difficult to implement than the display of information which is not only readily available but a component of the already-visible information the user would supposedly prefer. Argh.
I definitely still want the mouseover text; I do a lot of things with mouseover. Don’t show batteries not present. Show a percent charge, too; it really is important. I’d rather have a percent than a time for some cases. I really use power history a lot; I don’t know why it’s not an option. I don’t care what device is charging, I want the battery icon shown not that of the device. Remember that this will be used by lots of laptops with nearly dead batteries; minutes is always a lie, there.
“battery is not present” is garbage. Do you really think user need this information on the top of menu? When user has no battery he actually know about it…
Also I don’t see option to change my power plan quickly (power saving, performance etc) Sometimes it’s vital when I work on my laptop.
Tnx for your work and good luck;-)
Agreed on calculations. I wasn’t as clear as I wanted to be.
I’d rather see “% Charge” over “X (estimating…)” as info on what’s going on. When estimated just show the out of calculations.
I don’t think the menu should be displayed whilst no power management is needed (i.e. on a desktop PC with nothing plugged into it) it should then become visible if something is plugged into it. The battery icon should also go green when any of the devices are fully charged. Clicking on the icon and opening its menu then restores the icon back to its original state as the user has acknowledged that something is charged and no longer needs notifying. The same should apply to devices that are almost out of charge but with the icon going red. Devices in the menu should also have stock monochrome icons that match with the ones in the messaging menu E.g. one for mobiles phones, mice, iPods/MP3 players, Cameras, USB HDDs/sticks and laptop batteries. If the icon does appear on a desktop PC running off the mains I don’t really think a battery not present option is required as the user will already know this.
I think the menu should have the following options/layout:
Laptop Battery 1 Hour remaining (90%)
Nokia 5800 Xpress Music Phone charging (72%)
iPod classic charging (100%)
Wireless Mouse 50 minutes remaining (10%)
—————–
Screen brightness >> Slider for screen brightness and check box for dimming whilst on battery power
Manage hardware >> List of hardware that can be toggled on/off (Wireless, Bluetooth, Webcam, unmount USB HDDs etc.)
Power Settings
The new design idea looks great. Love the simplicity and functionality. Also, btw, love that you’re interacting with the community! Keep up the great work.
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/23819/
Please also try to incorporate this brainstorm into the reworking of the battery menu – an option for increasing battery lifespan (not life) would be amazing !
Imagine not having to buy new batteries very year and being able to say to a Mac user that “I have been using the same battery for 5 years now” as well!
I agree with almozavr. There should be some easy way to change the power “profile”. I.e.a simple menu displaying “Full throttle” (with charger plugged in this is the default), “Full throttle in the dark” (for low-light conditions) “on the go” (On battery power this is default) , “on the go, bright screen” (for sunny conditions) and “dynamic” which tries to adapt power usage regardless to whether you’re on battery power or plugged in. There should also be a “customize”-button to make your own profiles.
(But why is this page really killing my CPU? Midori uses 100% CPU when I’m trying to read or write in here..)
Martin, fmarcia, caleb, almozavr: Perhaps there is a misunderstanding here. “Battery not present” is for when a notebook/netbook has a battery slot but there is, unusually, no battery in there right now. (For example, if you’ve taken it out to replace it.) Maybe the item could be worded more obviously? But then, if your computer doesn’t have a battery slot or a wireless mouse, then (as Connel Hooley suggests) you won’t have this menu at all. So in context, it might be clear enough as it is.
JakeT, M, caleb: Mouseover text saying what, specifically?
Sandeep, Carl: Your suggestions seem like they’d belong in the power settings window, not the menu. Do you have a specific example of how you’d want to change power profile frequently and/or urgently? That’s the general test for whether something should be in the menu, rather than deeper in the interface.
I’d just to quickly agree with Carl and Almozavr, three power profiles like in Windows (Power Saver, Balanced and High Performance) would be great!
I’d just to quickly agree with Carl and Almozavr, three power profiles like in Windows (Power Saver, Balanced and High Performance) would be great!
@mpt – sorry I didn’t realise it would only be displayed when a battery was removed, therefore I don’t think it needs rewording like you say.
@mpt. Good point.Some users do use it on full charge and dont mind overcharging.
However using green only for mobile would make it inconsistent.
What we could do is , use green for all charged state icons in the dropdown menu,
but for the panel icon: Maybe something like the mute animation but a slower fadeout? Green once charge is done and it fades out to white/black in 3mins?
Dude, this is awesome.
this is beautiful!
icons in the indicator menu should be standard
in doubt.. only icons
@vish…: your idea about using the glow animation like the sound icon sounds good but wouldn’t a one time notification like that be be better suited to a notify-OSD bubble? For instance if I move away from my PC for 5 minutes to make a cupper I will not see the battery icon glow animation and will be unaware something is fully charged, may be it could flash on and off using the fade in and out animation you mentioned every 5 minutes or so? The flashing could then be stopped by either unplugging the fully charged item or clicking on the battery status menu?
@MPT Please add the percentage remaining to the menu. Three characters more (of 5 with parens) really don’t hurt.
1. The profiling only converges after some profiling runs on the time. 2. There might be issues with the battery (from aging or other causes of degradation) and keeping an eye on the percentage could help figure that out. 3. percentage is a more direct measure than the profiled time and doesnt promise things it can’t hold. If you profile while idle, but then you are under load when you use the battery (watch a movie on a plane) then bets are off.
I recently set up a Brainstorm regarding the new sound menu with mock-ups. Any official Canonical input would be really good
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/24627/
Good news, everyone.
Sorry for my intrusion, and beg my pardon, if I overset your plans,
but I’ve worked at some project a couple months already,
and I’ve released first version of public release recently,
and I’ve found this post, so would like to announce it here – http://live.gnome.org/BatteryStatus
I also can’t wait fixing this bug – https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/indicator-application/+bug/541858
so I could add label with battery charge/time information for indicator as I did it for applet.
About CPU frequency – I’ve read comments here after code/package has been uploaded,
and I know who Matthew Garrett is (his presentations about power management are really awesome),
but if you don’t like and don’t want CPU scaling, you can simply just disable it
(via gconf – /apps/battery_status/show_powermode, or via applet’s “Show” -> “Power Modes”),
however I think about how such kind of power management could be improved.
About power state of other devices – I’ve tried to make G-P-M show percentage
of 3 RF mices, one bluetooth keyboard and couple phones -
looks like that UPower/G-P-M just can’t provide power state of such devices,
so I haven’t hardware for testing and implementing such feature at this moment.
About battery dialog – I’ve (reconsider and re-)implemented it,
because I think, that user really should have easy and useful way to get full info about battery,
but in a compact elegant way.
About code’s quality – I know, that it’s not at good state,
but I have a lot of plans for refactoring it.
About design and usability – I will be very appreciate
for any well-reasoned comments and ideas from Canonical/Ubuntu designers
about how this project can be improved.
Any [constructive] feedback are welcome.