Xmb is the same speed for me, especially in in-game.
As for the battery display thing, it's a running joke in the EU official playstation forums.

They have the method patented. SONY has to find a different method. I've been thinking "just introduce mic support in text chat"

I hate it to...

I could get around that so easily. Like you said, voice communication talk in a different option. Its not rocket science, i cant imagine it being that hard to implment either.

why are people whining about the Battery/clock thing ??

it flashes for a whole 1 SECOND before it goes, is it seriously destroying your gaming experience that much !!!

I guess some people want to whine for the sake of whining.

it isnt big but after downloading 2.80 the error sound whenever i download something is gone

Okay, so if you are in a game, and quickly want to see what the time is, then waiting for that battery gauge to dissappear is quite annoying. Especially when all Sony has to do to change it, is to change a few coordinates.

Putting a man on the job, finding out where to put the gauge and actually moving the gauge shouldn't take more than 5 minutes max., which is why it is weird that it hasn't been done yet!

I'm not saying it's not easy believe me I use the XMB a lot in game and like you said it will only take them 5 min but then again it's just 1 second of your life it's not something to shout out at Sony about. We should be more focus on cross game voice chat which people have been screaming about for 2and a half years and they give us a lame text chat.

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=78298

Hmm, more characters allow per chart message is something I wanted!