Regardless of make, model, year, smartphones and PDAs low on battery power will always send out an alert urgently asking its owner to plug it in. Which makes sense, since a dead mobile or handheld is of no use at all.

But at first glance, an alert that asks the user to unplug the phone may seem unnecessary. After all, what's the point of wasting the gadget's resources (which, compared to computers, are usually just enough to make things work). Turns out it makes a big difference, at least according to Nokia's recent announcement regarding the release of the Nokia 1200, 1208, and 1650:

Kirsi Sormunen, Vice-President of Environmental Affairs at Nokia said, "Around two-thirds of the energy used by a mobile phone is lost when it is unplugged after charging but the charger itself is left in a live socket. We want to reduce this waste and are working on reducing to an absolute minimum the amount of energy our chargers use. The new alerts also play an important role, encouraging people to help us in this goal by unplugging their chargers."

Not a bad feature at all. Especially when you consider that leaving your charger plugged in may waste up to 95% of the electricity it consumes.

Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm writing about mere cellphones (not smartphones mind you), it's because Nokia hopes to apply this new battery full alert to their later, high-end models.