Lithium-ion is, by far, the most common form of rechargeable battery found in today's mobile devices. However, a shift towards silver zinc may be looming on the horizon thanks to a new product in development by ZPower, Inc. Ross E. Dueber, president and CEO of the company is scheduled to address attendees at the Batteries 2008 conference in Nice, France starting tomorrow, where he will tout the advantages of his silver-zinc technology scheduled to launch in "a major notebook computer in 2009." Whether we will find out the identity of this "major notebook" in the coming days remains to be seen, but the impending release does offer some hope for consumers frustrated by the battery life of their precious portable gadgets.

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Sheathing something as slick and pocketable as the iPhone in a holster feels wrong to me for many reasons, but this particular holster adds the handy ability to charge your drained batteries with its own rechargeable Li-ion battery back. It's good for one full charge before it needs to be recharged itself. Handy, and at US$25 the price is right, but this thing is huge. Product page says this only works with first-gen iPhones and iPod touch--but I don't see any reason why you couldn't squeeze a 3G in. [Product Page via BBG]

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Researchers at UT Austin have devised a new way to create lithium iron phosphate--the compound inside high-density Li-ion batteries being developed for cars and power tools--that uses microwaves to cut costs. The new method requires lower temperatures and less time via the nuking process--just like throwing that Tombstone in the m-wave rather than the oven. This opposed to your laptop battery, which uses lithium cobalt oxide and isn't capable of the quick bursts of current needed to get something like the Chevy Volt rolling. All the better to crash your Tesla with. [Technology Review]

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A new "intelligent" lithium-ion battery is supposed to prevent explosions and fire accidents by sending constant updates on its own health. Developed by researchers at NTT DoCoMo, the battery uses a 8-bit microcomputer "brain" to monitor its condition and relay the information to the mobile phone user.

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The problem with the lithium ion batteries powering your iPods and notebooks is that they can be a mite explode-y. But German scientists at Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research have figured out how to replace the liquid electrolyte ka-bloom goo with a non-flammable polymer, which, on top of not blowing up, is a solid material, so it can't leak either. But, there are two big catches.

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Sure, we have heard word of lithium ion batteries being possibly implemented in a Prius before, but Mercedes-Benz is going beyond concept speculation with its S400 BlueHybrid, which promises Li-ion HEV action to be hitting the production lines by 2009. At present, that makes the S400 BlueHybrid the first Li-ion HEV with a set mass-production time frame.

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