Is this the fuel cell that will crack the code to the data center?
Microsoft hopes so
The controversial idea of using fuel cells to power data centers has been under discussion for the past couple of years. Probably…
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The controversial idea of using fuel cells to power data centers has been under discussion for the past couple of years. Probably…
Ambiq Micro, a semiconductor company in Austin, Texas, has been working for the last five years to build a lower-power chip by…
Though smartphones are getting slimmer by the year, there are still plenty of people who would compromise on a thin-and-light device for better battery…
Startup Eos Energy, which has been building a low-cost grid battery using air and zinc, is ending out the year by going back…
Although we’ve seen amazing technological progress in mobile devices for the past decade, they’re still held back by portable power. Simply put, changes…
A year and a half after taking the lead at the Department of Energy, Ernie Moniz reflects on changes to the loan programs, and how the government and Silicon Valley can fund energy innovation.
Most portable battery packs suffer from the same challenge as our mobile devices: They take a while to recharge. Not so with the Pronto, which can grab enough juice from an outlet in just five minutes to recharge a phone.
Seasonal issues concerning battery life have become a expected part of each new iOS release. But with iOS 8, Apple has included at least one new feature that will make battery performance issues much easier to diagnose.
Should energy storage be as clean as the renewable energy that it will be paired with?
Startup EnerVault has hit a major milestone: a demonstration site for its flow battery made of iron and salt water.
Introducing the dual-carbon battery from a brand new startup out of Japan.
Looking for a quick charge, here are some of the best remote charging options you can carry with you.
The humble lithium ion battery could be a lot better, according to Qnovo.
GE wants to use old-school technology in our newest mobile devices. It’s resurrecting the mechanical relay on the microscopic level, saying its mechanical switch technology could squeeze more capacity at lower power out of our smartphones.
The Galaxy S5 is rumored to feature a larger, higher-res display than its predecessor, so why not a higher-capacity, fast-charging battery to go with it?
Foursquare has finally released its latest update to the masses, with passive location features pushing relevant notifications to users.
Sensors are everywhere, but if we can build a generation of more efficient energy-harvesting chips, sensors could go in even more places. Here’s how researchers are trying to make that happen.
Researchers took individual strands of yarn and covered them with batteries that can be folded without losing their effectiveness.
The Nexus 5 is the second phone we’ve seen that incorporates envelope tracking technology, which has nothing to do with mail delivery. The technology greatly reduces the power needed to transmit an LTE signal.
Apple has acknowledged that a manufacturing issue has affected battery life for a limited number of iPhone 5s devices and will replace those phones free of charge.
A new type of low cost power grid battery, backed by Bill Gates and VCs like Kleiner Perkins, uses basic materials and has an important deal with power grid giant Siemens.
An iOS 7 device with everything turned on can run down your battery faster than the same device running iOS 6. To avoid having to charge your iPhone so much, iOS 7 requires you to select which features are important to you.
The Note contains a Qualcomm chip called an envelope tracker, which will dramatically reduce the amount of power needed to run its LTE radio. We’re going to see this technology in a lot more devices.
Do you find yourself stopping in coffee shops just to charge your phone? These 10 tips will help you make it through the day on just one charge.
A new report tips a 3450mAh battery for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 — the largest battery for a Samsung phone yet.
The tiny interlocking combs of specialized ink could power human implants, drones and cameras. Each microbattery is thinner than a human hair.
New Yorkers soon will start seeing strange kiosks popping up in parks and other public places. They should be welcome sights, though, since anyone can plug their phones into them for a quick battery refresh.
New Texas Instruments chipsets won’t help your device run longer on a single charge, but they will allow for 30 percent faster recharging. And the Li-Ion battery in your mobile device will last longer over the device lifetime.
Fast, low-power resistive RAM could corner the nonvolatile memory field, and also exhibits the ability to store charge like a battery.
Quantance has gone back to its investors for a $12 million Series D, which it plans to use to bring its envelope tracking chip to market. The technology promises significant gains in LTE device battery life.
Following the close of a year which saw the politicization of clean energy technologies, the struggles of dozens of solar manufacturers and electric car companies, and a “cleantech cliff” for startup investing, the 2013 ARPA-E Summit could be a sober affair.
A battery accelerator program and San Jose State University will start offering classes on battery technology and business starting this Summer. California has emerged as a leader in battery innovation.
Verizon is now reviewing iPhone and Android apps, but not based on how fun or useful they are. It’s concerned about the resources they consume, which means Facebook and many popular games get docked.
Most external battery packs are big and bulky and unattractive. Mophie has come up a thinner snap-on battery pack, Helium, that adds about six hours of extra Internet time to my iPhone 5. No wonder it is on my want list.
The modern centralized method of energy generation and distribution is inherently inefficient, and that state is embodied by a little known chart. It’s also this chart which could show just how efficient the energy grid could be with distributed energy storage and technology.
A startup called Seeo, backed by Vinod Khosla and Google.org, has created a safer lithium ion battery that’s being trialled with a solar panel system developed by SunEdison. Batteries can provide much needed energy storage systems for solar.
There’s still some venture capital money out there for next-generation lithium ion batteries. Startup Leyden Energy has raised $10 million to continue to commercialize its tech for tablets and start-stop vehicle technology.
A young battery startup called Imprint Energy has designed a new type of battery that uses zinc and can be screen printed. It’s innovation could enable entirely new types of wearable electronics.
If approved, the future of A123 System’s lithium ion battery tech will fittingly be owned by Chinese auto giant Wanxiang. China is increasingly becoming one of the most important markets for electric vehicles in the world.
What happened in cleantech on GigaOM Pro?: a hot new report on next-gen battery innovations, a column on why design matters for cleantech, and much more.
Without electricity, today’s connected and mobile lifestyle for individuals and communities would be radically different. Countless consumer electronics, the internet, electrified transportation, and other emerging technologies demand electricity. To meet product demands along with consumer demands for mobility, freedom of information, and freedom of action, storing electricity is increasingly important.
Big companies, like GE, need to take on cleantech challenges and carve out a protected space to incubate start-ups.
Two battery startups join forces on the long road of next-generation battery manufacturing. Contour Energy Systems, which makes fluorine-based batteries, has acquired Actacell and its lithium ion battery material tech. ActaCell will operate as a subsidiary under Contour Energy Systems.
Batteries fall pathetically short of our customary fossil fuel energy storage medium. When we wake up to a declining global availability of petroleum, we won’t just switch over to electric cars.
The U.S. government continues to give small grants to early stage next-generation battery technology in an effort to boost innovation in the U.S., and provide energy storage for electric cars and the power grid.
A new coolant called CryoSolplus, being developed at one of Germany’s Fraunhofer institutes, aims to make electric car batteries last longer by using paraffin droplets that are three times better at absorbing heat than water.
Quantance’s LTE power boosting technology is now out of the labs and on its way to device manufacturers. It has begun shipping samples of its qBoost chips to handset makers and radio silicon vendors, but most significantly it claims to have landed its first customer.
The growing number of devices in our daily lives means that we are consuming more and more electricity. This is something that worries lots of people, including me. A new study from a Palo Alto-based not-for-profit group takes a look at thte iPad’s energy consumption habits.
IBM has made a lot of noise about its lithium air battery, which it says can hold as much energy in a given volume as gasoline can. But General Motors isn’t all that convinced that lithium air battery technology is worth the investment.
If battery makers could enhance just the basic electrolyte — the guts of the battery — it could provide a major breakthrough for batteries. That’s what a year-and-a-half-old startup called Boulder Ionics is trying to do.
How many of us have gone through numerous batteries for our laptops, because aging batteries start to lose their ability to charge? Yep, me too. Stanford’s materials scientist Yi Cui is working on a lithium ion battery that could last six times longer.
The single biggest constraint for mobile devices today is batteries, and this includes the new iPad. If Apple wants to keep delivering cutting-edge improvements to its always-on, lightweight tablet, it needs to know the stakes in the looming battery race, and how to break through them.
Materials giant 3M has a new battery innovation that could deliver gadgets that could run for 40 percent longer without being charged, or could be significantly smaller with standard battery life.
Battery life: It’s the bane of a mobile device, second only to spotty mobile broadband coverage in terms of annoyances. We’ve seen promising battery technology, but no major advances just yet. However, we can do so much more with our devices on a single charge.
MIT Professor Donald Sadoway’s lectures were good enough to convince Bill Gates to invest in his startup called Liquid Metal Battery. Now you can watch a glimpse of a mini lecture by Sadoway, because the TED conference just released his TED talk. It’s worth a watch!
Here’s what you need to know about flow batteries: how they work, what innovation is happening in the market, who buys these batteries, and what are the benefits?
While some day in the future we could all have our own personal home battery systems combined with solar panels, Japanese home owners could get these goodies sooner, rather than later.
Although it’s still winter, now is the time to do some spring cleaning on your Mac to help it run more efficient and reliably. Here are six simple steps to take that will get your Mac sparkly clean and running like new.
During my CES show floor travels, I swung by Motorola’s booth and see the Droid Razr Max. Why? Because battery technology hasn’t changed much and Moto claims a 21-hour runtime for it’s latest Android smartphone. But it’s still only 8.99 millimeters in thickness!
Innergie just launched its PocketCell portable battery, and sent me a review unit for use at CES. The portable battery and cable system has already saved my hide here at the show and I’ll be buying my own as soon as I get back home.
I just took delivery of Samsung’s $40 spare battery charging station for my Galaxy Nexus. The second battery will give me peace of mind in case I run through my first one, but the included dock, or stand, is mediocre at best: take a close look.
There are hundreds of startups, massive battery conglomerates and university labs that are trying to push the battery envelope and create as much power at the lowest cost for these little energy storage devices. Here’s some details from my GigaOM Pro report.
If your work area is anything like mine, you have an assortment of power bricks and USB cords cluttering things up. The iDAPT i4 solves the charging dillema by creating a universal and interchangeable charging station, using swappable tips to cover the gamut of mobile devices.
Batteries continue to be the bane of mobile devices, but research done at Northwestern University could change that, with longer-lasting batteries that charge in minutes, not hours. Imagine a battery that lasts 10 times longer than today’s power packs with a 15-minute recharge time!
Electric vehicle startup Coda Automotive has cut the price tag on its inaugural electric sedan by $5,000 and boosted the warranty on its battery by two years.
Apple over the weekend sent out a notice to registered first-generation iPod nano owners detailing a recall for the product, due to battery issues that could cause some units to become excessively hot. Here’s a detailed guide for getting your replacement, and why you’d want to.
Amidst the stock slump that lithium ion battery maker A123 System’s is facing, the company touts a new production contract with GM.
The supply of batteries for electric cars could far surpass the demand for electric vehicles over the next few years, estimates Lux Research. It could be a “severe mismatch,” that could cause consolidation and the need for new markets for battery makers.
Batteries are decidedly evil. My desk is littered with gear that requires them, and I’d be at a loss to watch movies, control my computer and television, and use many of my Mac peripherals without them. Create a plan that will ensure you never lose power.
The death of a battery: We’ve all seen it happen. In phones, laptops, cameras and now electric cars, the process is painful and — if you’re lucky — slow. But why does this happen?
A next-gen, lithium-ion battery startup — backed by Vinod Khosla’s Khosla Ventures — called Seeo has raised another $15 million from investors, according to a filing. Khosla Partner Pierre Lamond is listed on this latest filing, and Seeo previously raised at least $10.6 million.
Boston Power took the wraps off some details about its electric vehicle battery tech, and it says it expects other partners (beyond Saab) to deploy the electric car battery tech later this year and in 2012.
The automotive battery joint venture between Johnson Controls and Saft has gone sour and according to analysts with Needham & Company Johnson Controls is unhappy because the Saft deal is holding it back from the power grid battery market (and Hitachi might be a better partner).
A lot of companies and researchers are working away on the promises of the lithium air battery. Is it too good to be true?
Was Tesla Motor’s CEO Elon Musk on the right track when he said he’d bet on capacitors over batteries for the future of electric cars? A group of high-profile investors seem to think so and have backed ultracapacitor startup Ioxus with $21 million.
Over the last decade, most of us have slowly found ourselves increasingly dependent on a single type of battery: a lithium battery. This has led to some interesting questions on why lithium has become the preferred choice, and what comes after lithium?
There could be a delay in iPod production as a result of the closure of a polymer factory, owned by Kureha, near the Japanese earthquake’s epicenter. The polymer is a tiny but important part of lithium ion batteries and Kureha dominates that market. Here’s why:
With my daily commute, Nissan’s all-electric LEAF car isn’t a good fit for me, but GM’s extended range electric car the Volt isn’t exactly an inexpensive car. Here’s how the economics work out and why a plug-in hybrid car could be a real game changer.
For the average iPhone or iPad user, there’s probably no such thing as too much power. Luckily, a myriad of products in a variety of styles exist to help the power-challenged. Which is best? It depends on what you want to use it for.
Contour Energy Systems has launched an opportunistic attack on a niche consumer market right in time for Christmas. The Caltech battery spinout formerly known as CFX Battery announced a line of disposable coin cell batteries specifically engineered to make 3-D TV glasses last longer than competitors.
What happens when a hardware modder finds spare parts in his shop? He cobbles together an old-fashioned, hand-crank method to charge one of the latest and greatest 4G smartphones, of course. It’s not the low-tech solution that makes this video entertaining, it’s definitely the cackling joy.
What happens when a hardware modder finds spare parts in his shop? He cobbles together an old-fashioned, hand-crank method to charge one of the latest and greatest 4G smartphones, of course. It’s not the low-tech solution that makes this video entertaining, it’s definitely the cackling joy.
The Apple Battery Charger caught me as a product that made perfect sense. But what rubs me the wrong way is that it decided to sell batteries for these devices with a few claims that make its product better than any other.
At a cost of $29, which includes six reusable AA batteries, this little white charger offers you the chance to power all of your wireless desktop accessories with a clean conscience knowleding you’re doing your part to help the environment.
Though some critics like to vilify Apple (s aapl) for its practice of building devices with inaccessible batteries, the benefits definitely outweigh…
The rumor mill surrounding the Apple (s aapl) tablet is so intense as to possibly beat out the hype surrounding any other…
It’s not exactly the most scientific test ever conducted, but a very practical experiment conducted by Softpedia’s Filip Truta reveals that the…
Apparently, you can buy a decent external iPhone (s aapl) battery solution for $15 — or less. Fellow geek, Josh Bancroft, was…
If you have a first-generation iPod nano (the one that looks like a slimmed-down version of the iPod video and comes in…
At first I thought I was alone, and that my iPhone 3GS was defective, but now it looks like battery complaints relating…
Does your iPhone crave power like a mad dictator? Even after trying some of Clayton’s excellent tips on power conservation, you might…
I recently wrote about extending your MacBook’s battery life via a firmware update. Today I am going to outline how to extend…
The other day, in my post 9 Ways to Get Better Battery Life, I detailed a number of steps you can take…
One of the reasons I’m a die-hard laptop aficionado is that I live in a rural area where power blackouts are not…
America has a new president, so it’s only fitting that you should have new accessories for you iPhone, right? Today we’ve got…
What’s the best way to extend the service life of your notebook battery? Not runtime between charges, but how many charges you…
The simplest way to get extended runtime with a laptop computer is to have a second battery charged and ready. For example,…
I’ve had my iPhone for about 5 months now, and up until about 6 weeks ago it was pure bliss. Then suddenly…
Energizer has released a cool new gadget to help extend the life of your iPod charge. The new Energi To Go can…
Apple has already upgraded its yet-unreleased iPhone. They announced this morning a battery capable of 8 hours of talk time, and over…