In the wake of recent MacBook Pro battery life controversies, Apple has added two notable job listings to its website this week: Battery Algorithm Analysis Engineer and System Power and Control Architect. The new job listings seek employees to develop algorithms that will improve battery life and power management, while another mentions a “budding electrical test lab” Apple is growing internally for batteries.
These positions were added on December 14 and 15, respectively. The System Power and Control Architect opening has the following expectations (emphasis ours):
Develop, prototype and evaluate system power management algorithms. You analyze power control solutions that improve battery life, system energy efficiency while providing flawless user experience. You work closely with SOC, system and software engineers to create, prototype and evaluate HW/SW solutions for multiple product segments. You use data driven analysis to quantitatively evaluate success metrics and perform multi-dimensional sensitivity analysis. You develop collateral to enable software and system teams to adopt successfully prototyped power management concepts.
Here is Apple’s summary for the Battery Algorithm Analysis Engineer:
In this position, you will be expected to verify advanced lithium-ion battery management technology through battery testing and data analysis. You will also be asked to create test plans and conducting battery tests. You will be expected to process test data to generate steady-state and dynamical models, identify model parameters, and implement various model-based algorithms in different test platforms to evaluate their performance.
As of November 28, Apple was also looking for a Sr. Battery Test/Process Engineer. That role notes that Apple has a “budding electrical test lab focused on internal testing of batteries.”
It is difficult to know whether these job postings have developed because of Apple’s recent decision to remove time remaining estimate from macOS, but it’s certainly clear Apple is continuing to investigate new methods of analyzing battery life and power usage that could perhaps lead to a new method of offering users an on the fly estimate based on usage opposed to just the percentage that remains.
Apple earlier this week removed the battery time remaining estimate from the menu bar in a macOS update. We explained the company’s reasoning after its internal investigation determined batteries were performing as expected and that erratic estimates and more were leading to most complaints among users. While the removal of the estimates helps clear confusion for those that are getting decent battery life otherwise, we also noted three alternative methods that Apple could potentially use to offer usage estimates.
If you haven’t accurately tested your MacBook Pro’s battery life, check out our how-to guide or watch below. We got around 8 hours in our own tests.
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