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New battery technology could charge an iPhone in minutes and last 3x longer

A new type of battery developed by the University of Texas could spell good news for all those Apple fans hankering for longer battery life in their iPhones.

The team, led by 94-year-old industry legend John Goodenough – has been working on a new technology that could see its way into Apple products and competing smartphones in the near future. These new battery cells are solid-state, eliminating one of the primary causes (metal whiskers known as “dendrites”) of short circuits. This would make it easy to avoid a Samsung-style exploding smartphone fiasco.

Goodenough, as well as having a truly excellent name, was responsible for creating the lithium-ion batteries widely used today, so we trust he knows what he’s talking about. The new tech offers triple the energy density of standard li-ion batteries, meaning three times more charge in the same amount of space. The cells also stand up well to repeated recharges and can operate at extremely low temperatures.

These batteries could also charge much faster than today’s technology, and their manufacture should be better for the environment than lithium-ion to boot. What’s not to like? Much of this research is theoretical right now, of course, and it could be a few years until we see this technology reach the market – but it’s a promising step and could be the next big leap forward in battery technology.

The University is currently looking for manufacturing deals to make these faster, more powerful, and safer batteries a reality. Apple will surely be interested – it could potentially offer three times the battery life in a future iPhone, or make the battery three times smaller to make space for other hardware features.