HP saves the world with long-life battery

HEWLETT PACKARD is now offering a crazy three-year battery for its portable computers.

Well, not actually a three year battery. That would be beyond the capabilities of the battery technology that exists today.

What's more accurate is to say that the company now has a battery that will charge and re-charge for at least three years without suffering from the capacity degradation that's usually seen in notebook batteries.

The battery technology was actually developed by a company called Boston Power, which spent the last three years developing it before HP decided to snap it up, brand it Enviro and sell it from the beginning of next year. For a $30 premium, since saving the environment is obviously something customers are prepared to pay for.

According to the bods at Boston, current laptop batteries go about 300 charges, that is, one a day for a year, before degrading in capacity. This new Enviro battery jobbie does three times that, or 1,000 cycles, they claim. Hence the three years.

Boston says it took the company three years to bring this new battery technology to market. But we suspect that this is only half the truth. Did it really take three years to develop? Or did they just spec up the whole thing in a day and then spend the next three years in a lab, going "Yup, still full. Yup, still full. Yup, still full. Fancy a pint?" Inquiring minds want to know. µ