Hasta La Gadget!

Some might think a ten-hour Macbook battery mighty fine, but we’re happy to say that Cupertino’s not quite satisfied. AppleInsider spotted a pair of Apple patent applications detailing a improved way of juicing up those lithium-polymer cells, which should greatly increase the number of recharge cycles they can endure — or, optionally, allow Apple to use denser batteries that last longer on a charge. We’ll break it down for you: the graph in the upper-left shows how Li-ion batteries currently charge, first very rapidly (constant current, increasing voltage) and then more slowly (constant voltage, decreasing current) to top the cells off.

What Apple’s proposing is the multi-step method depicted on the right, where current and voltage trade off, to charge the battery while being far less harsh on the physical chemistry of the electrodes inside. As you can see in the bottom graph, the multi-step CC-CV cells lose much less of their potential after 300 recharge cycles, but that’s not all Apple’s cooking up — the company figures that it can increase the thickness of the electrodes to improve battery life (by as much as 28Wh/L, according to one chart) without negative effect thanks to the softer charge. Sure, we’d rather have plant-eating graphene supercapcitors, but this sounds like a plan for now.

Apple patent application points to denser batteries, improved charging technique originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Superconductors pass electricity with zero resistance and make stuff float. Superfluids have zero viscosity and can climb vertical walls to escape containers. Supercapacitors? Well, they don’t do anything quite so dramatic, but they could result in batteries that charge faster and hold more charge than ever. Capacitors in general have to run a balance between capacity and fast charging, but these fancy ones with diamond-shaped nanopores in zeolite-templated carbon, developed at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, are said to offer the best of both worlds. How good? Cellphones that charge in minutes, electric cars with longer lasting batteries, and free Superman Underoos for all. Naturally there’s no word on when these things might actually escape the lab and show up in real batteries, but you already knew that, didn’t you.

Diamond shaped supercapacitors could result in faster-charging, higher capacity batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, can everyone please stop talking about the iPad? RIM’s been skirting around Apple’s tablet, saying only that its upcoming PlayBook slate would have “comparable” battery life, but now it’s dropped all pretense and called the iPad out by name. Specifically, the Canadian company’s senior business marketing VP Jeff McDowell has promised that the PlayBook will offer “equal or greater” battery endurance to Apple’s device, while using a smaller cell size. The latter part isn’t hard to achieve, considering Apple filled most of its slate’s innards with Li-Pol juice packs, but the promise of matching its autonomy from the wall socket is a big claim to make. Many people consider that to be among the iPad’s foremost strengths, so RIM is surely aiming high by pledging to not only match it, but potentially better it. The PlayBook we saw in person wasn’t quite up to that level yet, but there’s still time until that March launch for RIM to turn bold words into a beautiful reality.

RIM: PlayBook battery life will be ‘equal or greater than the iPad with smaller battery size’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most of our favorite gadgets are constructed with parts made of rare earth minerals, and as many of you already know, China produces the lion’s share of the stuff. So news that Hu Jintao and company recently took control of 11 rare earth mines in order to more tightly manage the mines’ production is of great interest to hi-tech companies and consumers the world over — and could mean your next hybrid, smartphone, or PC just got a bit more expensive. The Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources indicates that nationalization of the facilities was prompted by illegal strip mining and dumping of toxic tailings in nearby waterways, but given China’s pledge to reduce rare earth exports by ten percent this year, it seems likely that the move isn’t entirely driven by environmental concerns. Consumers needn’t worry too much, however, as Japan and the US are currently searching for ways to break China’s monopoly on rare earths and keep us flush in affordable flat-screen TVs and hybrid cars for years to come.

China nationalizes eleven rare earth mines for environmental and strategic reasons originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota wants to take your range anxiety out for a walk behind the woodshed and obliterate it from the known world. The means for doing this, the Japanese giant has revealed, might very well be contained in its new magnesium-sulfur batteries, which promise to double the energy density of the current industry-best lithium ion cells. Of course, the catch here is that the new magnesium goodness is nowhere near ready and is projected to come in 2020 at the earliest, but we’re gladdened to see a long-term view being taken by car manufacturers with regard to powering vehicles electrically. Alternative methodologies currently under review in Toyota’s labs also include aluminum and calcium materials, showing that there is indeed no lack of ambition for making plug-ins respectable road warriors.

Toyota working on magnesium batteries for PHEVs of the not so near future originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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