New battery tech could double smartphone battery life by 2017

Get ready to waste more time on your phone. An MIT spin-out, SolidEnergy Sytems, has developed a new kind of "anode-free" lithium-metal battery that is smaller and has double the energy capacity of most of the lithium-ion batteries that power today's smartphones (including Apple's). 

The secret, according to company founder Qichao Hu, is the batteries have very thin, high-energy lithium-metal foil, which holds many more ions than the more widely used graphite. More ions means more energy capacity, and the batteries are twice as energy-dense as lithium-ion batteries. Bonus: they're also safer and rechargeable. Read more...