iPhone Battery

Remember how long you had to wait for a white iPhone? Well a transparent iPhone is probably many, many years away, if even possible, but one researcher has gotten a step closer by creating a lithium-ion battery that seems invisible.

The transparent battery features overlapped electrodes that make the battery invisible to the naked eye. Developers Yi Cui and Yuan Yang created the battery at Stanford and say they would like to talk to Steve Jobs about creating a transparent iPhone some day.

VitaminWater has figured out a way to make your daily commute better by turning bus shelters into charging ports.

iPhones have made waiting for the bus a little more tolerable, and now you can charge your device at bus stations in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. The ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky invented the "Alternative Energy Source" -- an ad campaign to promote the VitaminWater Energy drink by offering USB ports for charging mobile devices at bus stations. Now there are two reasons to walk a few extra blocks to find a bus shelter, to stay out of the rain and to charge your iPhone.

If you're one of the millions of iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS owners who have updated to iOS 4.3, you may have found the battery on your device drains noticeably faster that it did before. This isn't the first time Apple firmware updates have changed battery consumption, but luckily there seems to be an easy way to improve the situation.

Ping has been cited by Pocket-lint as a possible culprit on the iPad, iPod touch and iPhones running iOS 4.3. The software runs Apple's iTunes-based social networking service, which makes it possible to connect with friends and get related music recommendations. For those who use the service this battery fix won't help, but if you don't find Ping useful then you can turn it off.

Apple, like everyone else, is looking to increase the battery life of its mobile devices. The lithium-ion battery found in current model iPhones takes up a large amount of space yet still often fails to meet our power-hungry needs. A patent revealed by AppleInsider could mean that better batteries are in the works.

Apple's idea is to make current batteries hold more energy without increasing their size. High-density power cells would also up energy density without increasing charging times or reducing minimum life cycle. A charging technique described as multi-step constant-current constant-voltage (CC-CV) would be used to achieve this higher energy density.

Looking to give your iPhone 4 battery a boost? The juice pack plus from Mophie sports a massively powerful 2,000 mAh capacity battery in a sleek case. Besides fitting the iPhone 4 so well, this additional battery adds up to 8 hours 3G talk time, 7 hours 3G data time, and 11 hours video playback depending on usage conditions.

The case features an ergonomic design and rubberized bumper that will come in four colors (black is currently available and ships in 1-2 days). Your iPhone 4 can be charged and synced without removing the juice pack plus, and a built-in LED status indicator tells you how much charge is left.