We’re all used to it now but when the iPhone first debuted, a common criticism leveled against it was battery life. Apple’s always been aggressive with power management across its iOS devices, but compared to the feature phones that were nearly ubiquitous at the time, the iPhone is a hog, and users buying one had to switch from charging their phones once every few days to charging it one or more times per day.
Apple’s only improved the battery life of the iPhone since then, but as our gadgets become ever more power hungry, there’s always going to be an increasing demand upon lithium-ion tech. In a new patent, Cupertino seems to have identified a new way to improve battery life, and while it’s hardly as esoteric as Apple’s more wild-eyed patents, it’s plenty exciting for those who want a longer lasting iPhone or MacBook.
The patent is for a new CC-CV charging technique that would allow Apple to increase the capacity of their batteries by thickening the anode active material inside the battery cell in both “volumetric and gravimetric energy density”… all without a corresponding increase in battery size or charging time.
Across all of their products, Apple has been trying to increase battery life without a charge, mostly by packing as much battery in as possible. The iPad and MacBook already boast ten hour battery lifes; the 13-inch MacBook Air sits at around 7, while the 11-inch gets about 5 and a half hours without flash installed. Clearly, the goal is eventually to have all-day battery life… and this just might be the technology that eventually gets us there.
