For the last fifty years.
From Motherboard:
Image: screenshot, iOS 7
Compared to often-dizzying pace of evolution in many areas of consumer electronics, there haven't been many leaps and bounds in the advancement of modern batteries in recent years. They're still expensive, toxic, and never seem to offer up as much juice as we want them to. And while industry luminaries like Google's Larry Page might dream of a day when devices don't need to be plugged in at all, the actual gadgets we own and use every day can't be powered on dreams alone.
Over the weekend, the New York Times offered up a juicy report about advances in battery technology that's giving many tech critics pause. Mostly this is because of the figure behind this new technology: Apple. The company that's been known to create or obliterate entire segments of the consumer electronic market with a flick of its wrist is now toying with several different ideas for charging its much-discussed-but-never-confirmed wearable "iWatch." And so even though its existence is still up for debate, the "iWatch" is already expected to disrupt the entire battery ecosystem in profound ways.
Whether its crushed silicon tripling battery life or sulfur-based batteries quadrupling it, battery breakthroughs are perennially on the horizon. The problem is that, even if battery yarn or a pee-powered battery is theoretically possible, making them cheap and durable enough to replace the lithium-ion polymer batteries we all rely on has yet to happen. Now, Apple is apparently solving the battery problem by instead working on alternative charging methods....MORE
