It's been suggested that mobile consumer electronics battery technology, including laptop computers, had hit a "glass ceiling" of sorts, what with there having been no major breakthroughs in the category since the arrival of lithium ion (LiIon) batteries in the early-mid '90s. However, a firm called ZPower (formerly Zinc Matrix Power) is poised to launch a line of rechargeable, silver-zinc batteries for mobile electronics, which it claims last significantly longer than traditional lithium-ion batteries, pose no overheating or fire hazard, and are kinder to the environment as a bonus.

According to the company, this battery technology advance (which isn't completely new, but has never before been marketed for use in notebook computers, cellphones, and the like) offers 40% more runtime than traditional lithium-ion batteries (a metric that translates to two-hour runtime extending to three hours, or a five hours' runtime becoming seven hours), with the added "green bonus that more then 95% of the primary manufacturing elements can be recycled and reused. Financial incentives will be extended to consumers who recycle.

Best of all, perhaps, ZPower batteries contain no lithium and are inherently safe from the spontaneous combustion hazard that has lurked in the background with lithium ion batteries ever since the Sony-made LiIon units in a few of the early PowerBook 5300s burst into flame back in 1995, prompting Apple to recall all machines that had shipped and provisionally switch back to less-efficient but safer Nickel Metal Hydride cells for the duration of PowerBook 5300 production. They switched to LiIon again with the PowerBook 3400c, although the heat issue has remained a concern over the past decade.

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