

Microsoft – InstaLoad Battery Installation Technology - Uncle_Sam
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/licensing/instaloadoverview.mspx

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ComputerGuru
Can't we just admire the simplicity of this without starting all the MS-
bashing? PLEASE?

Seriously, this is ridiculous. Whatever this is, it _is_ an improvement over
the current style. Hell, you know what, _label_ the battery slots with an
arbitrary direction if you're so worried about "confusing the user" - and then
work in other ways, too.

But all this hating is completely out-of-line with the hacker/engineer spirit.
How hard is it to just _appreciate_ a nifty hack when you see it? No matter
who it comes from?

~~~
raquo
While this is great design in isolation from the rest of the world, it will
only add more confusion _unless it is ubiquitous_.

Currently you just have to look for labels like + and - in the battery slot,
and with such devices there may be no such labels at all, or instead some text
that says "put batteries any way you want", or, even worse, some cryptic
graphic that attempts to say it. More processing power required != good.

Disclaimer: not a Microsoft hater, just my thoughts.

~~~
ComputerGuru
My point is, go ahead and put in the current +/- sign. On the box, packaging,
site, manual, whatever you can talk about how it'll actually work in any way.

Those that look for the +/- will find it. Those that misread it or are too
thick to understand it will put them in wrong _and your device will still
work_. And those that saw the cool picture on your device's package will play
around with it and test different ways then say "waaaaay cool!"

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hristov
This is interesting, but will it work in practice? It seems that this merely
relies on the little bump on the plus side of a battery to differentiate
between the positive and negative end. But this would make the clearances very
small, so I am not sure it will work in practice with different batteries and
people jamming them in and out, etc.

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adolph
This is so obvious, simple and powerful. Bravo Microsoft!

I wish they could rent out Jonathan Ive to show the world how brilliant it is.
63 years of people struggling to read scratches on plastic have past before
someone focused on how to make this common but not-often task better. I can't
wait to see it deployed in devices.

"The AA battery size was standardized by ANSI in 1947 but had been used in
miniature flashlights and electrical novelties for some time before formal
standardization." - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AA_battery>

~~~
qeorge
I thought Ive worked for Apple?

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woodrow
Interesting that it's a mechanical design and not an electronic solution,
which was my first intuition.

One interesting thought: is the lack of battery installation diagram going to
cause consternation in consumers who are by now very accustomed to battery
installation diagrams?

~~~
woadwarrior01
That was the first thing which came to my mind as well. I thought they've
probably got a bridge of schottky diodes for every battery. The mechanical
design makes it seem very elegant.If it were a schottky bridge, it'll still
have a forward drop of ~0.3 - 0.45 volts, which is pretty big for 1.5 volts
batteries.

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bonsaitree
While this does do away with one more modal interface in side-by-side battery
arrangements, judging only by the pictures, it looks extremely shock-
sensitive. It would seem suitable for office/home use as long as it's not in a
small child's toy or something like an RC car.

Additionally, "idiot-proof" mechanical contacts like this are commonplace,
going as far back as '80s, in high-amp "industrial" battery chargers.

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patrickk
As Seth Godin once said, the layout of batteries is broken and the obvious
solution is to _very simply_ rearrange the wires so that both batteries face
the same way. Have a gigantic + and - to indicate the correct direction.
There's no need to add all the extra parts so the batteries can fit both ways
and label the solution InstaLoad.

See:
[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4101280286098310645...](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4101280286098310645&hl=en#)

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vilda
I don't think this is a completely new idea. Few year ago I saw something
similar in my pocket radio. It looks different though.

I see similar concept in Minolta Z3. It's used for protection only though -
placing batteries in wrong position just disconnects the circuit.

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Kadin
I'm very surprised there's no prior art here. It seems like something I've
seen before, although I can't think of any specific examples. (I've definitely
seen old flashlights designed for those big square 6V lantern batteries so
that, as long as you put the thing in with the contacts facing up, they would
always work...)

If there's no prior art in the wild, then my tendency is to wonder why not --
I find it pretty hard to believe the guys at Microsoft are the first to think
of this. I wonder if some poorly-manufactured batteries would short out the
contacts, and that's why other designers have shied away from doing it?

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jacksoncarter
It seems like something you've seen before, because it is. There are lots of
devices that require batteries to be inserted.

Perhaps there's no prior art, because it's an unobvious advancement to battery
technology. Is that so hard to believe? Why do you find it hard to believe the
guys at Microsoft were the first to think of it? They create lots of battery
operated devices like mice and keyboards and microsoft has a ton of geniuses
working for them to boot.

I've never seen anything like this before. I wish all batteries were as easy
to insert as this invention makes them.

~~~
jncraton
I'm sure the guys working on Microsoft hardware are a brilliant bunch. I have
no doubt that they possess the ability to come up with this type of
innovation. The part that amazes me is that with all the other engineers that
have worked hard to design battery enclosures no one had thought of this yet.
It's so simple. Brilliant, but simple.

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rbanffy
I have to wonder - with how many different types of AA or AAA cells did they
test it?

I have seen a huge variety of different ones and I am not sure none of them
will short the terminals and ruin the other battery in the process.

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gfodor
This is definitely one of those usability things that Microsoft is oh-so-
famous for like this:

[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000059....](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000059.html)

Basically by trying to make it simpler, they're making it harder. Not only do
you have one more part to break, but the first question people immediately ask
when opening up a battery compartment is "which way do I insert the
batteries?"

Now, there is going to need to be a disclaimer stating clearly that they don't
need to put them in any particular way. Next, the user is going to be forced
to digest this message. Then, with some unease, put the batteries in without
regard to their direction, despite the fact that the hundreds of other times
they've used batteries they've had to do this.

Microsoft has introduced another branch in the decision tree: "does this
device require I insert batteries in a certain direction?" To answer this, I
still will probably have to rely upon information printed on the device, since
remembering which device fits this criteria will likely not be memory I can
trust since I change batteries rarely. (And, if I mis-remember it, I could
break an expensive device, so I will have to check to be sure.)

So, what Microsoft in the end is saving here is _not_ the need to check the
indicator on the device. It's still necessary for me to check until the entire
world uses this in every device. All they've done is make it so I don't have
to physically rotate the battery in my hand (50% of the time :)) after doing
so.

Additionally, troubleshooting now becomes harder if the device does not turn
on. If it doesn't turn on, are the batteries dead, the device broken, _or_ did
the magical asymmetric battery compartment break?

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yesimahuman
Disruptive isn't always such a bad thing. Give them some credit for coming up
with an idea a lot of people will wonder why they never thought of.

~~~
gfodor
A much better idea would be to come up with a battery compartment shaped in
such a manner that the direction the batteries go is _self evident_. This
means the user does not have to make any additional decisions. This is a
technology hammer applied to a problem that requires a different type of fix.
The user now has to make an additional mental leap. It is not simplifying the
world for people, despite what it does at first glance. It's making it at
worst harder at best no harder than it is now.

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Spark23
All compartments (I could find around me) have the spring which holds the
battery on the flat side of the battery... thats the indicator I use, without
searching and reading any tiny diagrams

~~~
gfodor
See, there you go. This was never a problem. Microsoft is trading the time you
spend rotating the battery with your hand for time in which you have to read
the damn instructions on the device.

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dnewcome
I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't an active voltage-sensing solution.
If it works well with all batteries (even cheap ones) then I guess it's a good
hack though.

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mrinterweb
It would take me way too long to stop looking for the +/- instructions to
insert the batteries in the first place. This would only confuse most people
who already know how to insert batteries. I have never had any sort of
problem, nor have I found inserting batteries a non-intuitive action. Until
all batteries can be inserted in a haphazard style, this does not solve a
problem.

~~~
mhb
Maybe they can also invent a new symbol you can learn which indicates that it
doesn't matter how you put the batteries in.

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jsz0
Faced with this problem my first reaction would have been to simply make the
battery diagram more legible and high contrast but this is a bit more elegant.
Maybe there's a language barrier here too. Is the classic -/+ diagram widely
understood around the world?

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jws
Some people seem to be unable to get the batteries in the right way reliably.
My wife (masters in a science from a top N university) has a significant
failure rate on battery changing. Not having to worry about it would be
better.

Maybe we could liken it to polarized plugs (for those of us in 110v AC land).
We could have labeled plugs with + and -, and then told people to match them
to the outlet when they plugged in a device, but over all, redesigning the
equipment was more likely to work.

~~~
narkee
I think everyone should stop prefacing personal assessments of people by
quoting their credentials first (MSc/PhD from a top X university), as I feel
it should have absolutely no bearing on how intelligent one perceives them to
be. I've met some seriously incompetent grad students, and they all seem to
get their degrees in the end regardless.

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jarin
Wait, if Apple can make an Ethernet port that works in either normal or
crossover mode, why can't Microsoft make a non-fragile battery solution?

~~~
astrange
Well, Apple made auto-crossover NICs by buying auto-crossover NICs from Sun.
The important part was that nobody _else_ did that.

Seems like you should be able to just handle batteries put in either way,
though.

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fizzfur
cool, it doesn't care........... wait... on second thought the only time I've
hit the problem this solves is when a device has poorly labeled the contacts.

Pretty sure this is more expensive/waste of components versus a big clear [+]
icon on one side.

Guess it could help devices for the blind?

Or devices where you have to _throw_ the batteries in from a distance :)

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ww520
That is a very clever idea, simple and sweet. Too bad it's patented.

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perplexes
This will cause greater confusion than Apple's one-way both-batteries style,
or even how most devices are now (through conditioning). I hope they have a
good way of explaining "any direction is fine". I would stare at it in
disbelief for a few moments.

~~~
yumraj
Maybe, but have you thought that it's not because there is something wrong
with the invention, but rather because you have been trained so far in your
life to look for the +ve and -ve terminals.

If this catches on, in a few years maybe people will get so used to this that
the current way of doing things will seem oh-so-primitive.

This seems like a classic disruptive technology, so simple but so useful.

~~~
xcombinator
Of course you have been trained, but what about the fun factor? I mean people
love to fit, insert things into other things and feel they fit. Kids feel good
when they insert a cube block inside the square hole.

USB cables and Apple batteries design are very good in this regard. No need to
look at symbols. It gives you instant sensitive feedback. I'm highly
kinesthetic so that is brilliant design for me and a lot of people. Like blind
people.

~~~
confuzatron
USB plugs/sockets are awful. Sure, you can't insert them the wrong way round,
but visually it's hard to see which way round is the right way without trial
and error. The position of the USB symbol is supposed to help, and does to
some extent.

USB plugs should either work successfully inserted both ways round (like this
battery system), or be asymmetrical (and even with asymmetrical plugs, things
can get annoying when you cant get a clear look at a socket - eg SCART + the
backs of AV equipment)

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r3570r3
This can pose some serious problems if the device gets spoilt at some time.
However, Microsoft has done an excellent work in creating this totally
innovative and ingenious solution to a problem which was more like a way of
life than a problem.

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joseakle
Nice hack, but come on, do they really have to license it? What´s next
Instaload toilet paper, egg pans, swimming goggles, socks?

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ck2
This is all fine until kids grow up with a few devices that don't care - then
they get a device that's not willing to pay the royalties so the kids try to
shove the batteries in the wrong way anyway and damage the device.

Aren't people getting a mini-science lesson to learn +/- anyway?

What happens the first time the kid needs to jump start his car?

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michaelneale
Would this just be a full wave bridge rectifier?

I used to do that (4 diodes) for batteries AND powersupplies when I built my
own guitar effects board power source. I was tired of either putting things in
the wrong way and either a) not working or b) frying some electrolytic
capacitor (if was a high current supply).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode_bridge>

Seriously - is it just that or did they find a way to make it have low enough
resistance to put in every device ?

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mhb
It would be if you don't RTFA.

~~~
michaelneale
Yes i probably should have. But I am annoyed that I have broken enough
electronics that rectifiers weren't always part of it (but that is unrelated
to batteries).

Fwiw in the apple magic mouse you can only mechanically out them in one way.

~~~
mhb
Besides the advantage of being passive and cheap, this solution also avoids
the voltage drop of diodes.

