As laptops have grown in popularity in both corporate and consumer markets, so too have complaints about their batteries. While continuous refinement in production and material technologies have reduced the weight and increased the charge life of batteries, the ubiquitous power source still suffers from a gradual—and in some cases, not so gradual—loss of power over time.

This shortcoming, in addition to its obvious inconvenience, floods landfills and collection centers with partially-used batteries, as demanding business travelers replace them with fresh models for maximal life. But now, Westborough, MA firm Boston-Power is rolling out a new line of rechargeable laptop batteries that go a full 1000 charge cycles without noticeable degradation—several times what current batteries offer.

Already slated for use in HP laptops, Boston-Power's longer term plans include some hybrid car applications, and further improvement of its production methods to eliminate heavy metals from the manufacturing process and ease recycling—a good idea, given the ease of recycling currently offered by other battery technologies.