Laptop Thoughts: Subconscious Mode will Extend your Battery 54%

"Here's how E-MiLi works: It slows down the WiFi card's clock by up to 1/16 its normal frequency, but jolts it back to full speed when the phone notices information coming in. It's well known that you can slow a device's clock to save energy. The hard part, Shin said, was getting the phone to recognize an incoming message while it was in this slower mode."

Researchers at the University of Michigan may have come up with a way to extend your cellphone battery life by as much as 54%. Professor Kang Shin and student Xinyu Zhang have come up with a novel approach to minimize the amount of energy used by wifi to minimize idle listening. Their new approach is called E-MiLi, which stands for Energy Minimizing Idle Listening. Apparently the process is compatible with current hardware, with a firmware upgrade. Hopefully the approach proves effective and hardware manufacturers pick this up asap!