Digital Home Thoughts: Toshiba SCiB Batteries - 5min Charge, 10year Lifespan

"How does this sound: a battery capable of recharging to 90% in under 5 minutes while remaining useful (i.e., 5,000+ recharges) for 10 years or more? Sounds like the stuff of jetpacks and food replicators right? Nope... March, 2008. It was a long, long time ago when we first brought you news of these so-called "Super Li-ion" batteries. In March of 2005 to be exact. Now they're here, courtesy of Toshiba who just announced their Super Charge ion Batteries, or SCiBs. The wee 2.4V version measures 62 x 95 x 13-mm / 150-grams while the big, bad 24V version measures in at 100 x 300 x 45-mm and 2000-grams. Oh, and they won't short-circuit and explode. The problem? The first production run is for industrial-use (non-CE) class devices like hybrid cars and the like. Oh pretty please Toshiba, with sugar, won't you make a laptop version?"



Amazing! I totally remember reading that article a couple of years ago about the breakthrough but also remember being extremely skeptical about the whole thing. But apparently we only have to wait about 100 days or so. Of course the pessimist in me wants to know how much it will cost, what devices will it be a part of, and will this technology be available in AA and AAA sizes? Of course, this could entirely revolutionize devices... I would love to see what new devices will be available in the next year. Cameras, cell phones, laptops, music players, here we await.