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And yet Apple still won't touch the lowest hanging fruit that exists... back porting the ability to hard set the maximum charge level to 80% from the iPhone 15 models to the older models.

There are three people in the world that care about this, and they are all on this site..

Seriously though, what's the big deal?
 
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Lithium-ion batteries have never really been safe, anyone remember the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 disasters?
Tesla's cars "randomly" catching fire? Generally anything with Lithium-ion batteries suddenly starts to smoke/burn?
Don't forget the Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" Lithium-ion batteries that was worldwide disasters waiting to happen.

Apple going back to old but gold Nickel metal hydride batteries and improving those is certainly needed.

Again, electric cars are not safe due to Lithium-ion batteries.
 
I for one think this is great news. The world’s largest and richest tech company should be pushing the boundaries in all areas. They’ve already disrupted the CPU industry with SoC, if they can make a giant leap in the battery game, it will benefit everyone and the planet in the long run.
 
Incredible how everything thinks it shows their sophistication by claiming that batteries haven't improved in 30 years, or that this is impossible.

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If you want to say improvements in density have been limited over the last TEN years you'd be closer to accurate. But over the past ten years other features, like safety, lifetime, and fast charging have been a higher priority.

As for improvements, you'd have to be living under a rock not to know that the next buzzword in batteries in LiIon solid state batteries, and that Toyota claims to have achieved stunning results with these (... in the lab..., which is why you can't buy them right now.) https://www.pcmag.com/news/toyota-inks-deal-to-mass-produce-solid-state-ev-batteries-with-932-mile

It certainly is not impossible that Apple could spend the money to commercialize this tech faster, for Apple purposes.
Of course, in true internet fashion, the general response will be fury that Apple batteries cost twice as much while ignoring the benefits/quality you get for that twice as much...
 
I suspect it would probably also shut down the third-party battery market for old Apple products, meaning if you needed to replace a battery on an old MacBook Pro or an old iPhone, you can only buy it from Apple. 🤪

(right now, you can still get third-party replacement batteries off Amazon for cheap and replace your device batteries yourself if you have the tools, but if Apple becomes the sole supplier of these extra-special custom batteries, that will all change)
You might still be able to use third party batteries with reduced battery life, unless they throw a proprietary controller in the battery which is prohibitively expensive for anyone else to copy...
 
This is very true. The gains in capacity per volume have been steady and continuous, but slow.

Expectations at the existing rate (w/o breakthroughs) is to reach about the same energy level as gasoline per volume (gasoline is very energy dense) somewhere in the mid 2030's. Hopefully there will be a breakthough along way (like this rumor) that nudges that along a bit faster.

I guess it's up to one's definition of "slow". Tripling in 10 years seems pretty impressive to me. I think the problem is that people get board by linear. Moore's Law and that compound interest song from Mary Poppins have people excited about exponentials. But linear with a good slope isn't bad.

Energy density of gasoline is a good reminder of how much energy we're truly able to store in these. Another good reminder is that those pineapple looking hand grenades from WWII hold about 50-60Whr of energy. A Macbook Pro basically holds two hand grenades that are just discharging a bit more slowly than a weapon would.
 
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I hope they can finally move the iPhone up from a 500 cycle rating to at least 1000 like most of their other major products, from the Watch to the Macbook Pro. That was also my hope with the stacked battery rumour that didn't pan out for the 15. It's the only real wear item on the phone and probably the single biggest cause of a lot of waste.
 


Apple is developing custom batteries with significantly improved performance that it aims to bring to its devices starting in 2025, ETNews reports.

macbook-air-spacegray-purple-battery.jpg

Apple's custom battery technology has reportedly been in the works since 2018, with the company actively seeking patents and hiring new personnel related to the project. The company is reportedly seeking to create an "all-new" kind of battery with significantly improved performance by becoming directly involved in its use of materials.

Apple is apparently curating the battery's cathode materials to determine its performance, energy density, output, and stability. The battery apparently uses a completely different composition from those that currently exist on the market, adopting a new composition of nickel, cobalt, manganese, and aluminum.

The company is considering the use of carbon nanotubes to improve the conductivity of battery materials, delivering better performance from lesser-used battery materials. Apple is also looking to increase its battery's silicon content, replacing graphite to increase capacity, and shorten charging and discharging times.

The result is expected to be an innovative battery type that has not yet been commercialized. A source familiar with Apple's plans suggested to ETNews that the Vision Pro headset has dramatically increased the company's need for high-performance batteries. The headset features just two hours of battery life. Other devices such as the Apple Watch and iPad have been left with the same "all-day" battery life since their introduction.

Apple's custom battery project was reportedly co-developed with the company's electric vehicle project, but the mobile applications are now the main target for the technology. It is expected to begin being added to Apple devices starting in 2025.

Article Link: Report: Apple Developing Custom Batteries for Launch in 2025
Custom módem with a custom battery? Yes please. The power savings hopefully should be enormous
Again I said hopefully because knowing the modems are built on intel tech which is absolutely dog 💩 🤣
 
Another means of locking customers into Apple for high priced replacements.
 
This is great! But unfortunately likely limited to ’Pro’ and ‘Ultra’ lines for first couple of years if released under Tim Cook, especially as the points of differentiation between the various lines become smaller and smaller over the years (low hanging fruits picked a while ago…).
 
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Cancel your M3 orders and wait for M5 with the new battery tech in 2025.
 
If this battery leap is as big as the one from Intel to Silicon it's gonna be wild!
 
Again, electric cars are not safe due to Lithium-ion batteries.
Nothing is without risk, but did you know how the engine in a gas powered car works?
It's internally combusting. It has a relatively higher rate of catching fire than eletric cars...

Also, Lithium is as old but gold as it gets. think about how many laptops, smart watches, smartphones are out there all at once right now.
 
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A[[le and Tesla are both working on improved batteries. Some of the materials they are looking at overlap. But Tesla has different needs. Because a car's battery is so large the cost of the raw materials is large. I doubt Apple needs to care about the cost of the raw materials in a phone battery.

Question: Will Apple use this new technology to make the battery smaller or to get more run-time from a same-size battery?

In any case, batteries are what will make sustainable energy possible. The sun does not shine at night
Good question about how Apple would implement an improved battery. I'd guess possibly both smaller and more run time. Kind of the way Hybrid car tech works.

But I disagree that batteries are a sustainable energy source. First, there is a limited supply of materials, same as oil. Second, those access to those materials is largely owned by China, who has been buying land in every place they've been found. Geopolitical concerns re: war with Taiwan would be a large risk factor. Third, depleted batteries contain multiple hazmat, and disposal is a huge and growing problem.

No one is suggesting any other alternatives to batteries for portable devices, so sustainable or not, they're here to stay for the foreseeable future, I'll grant you that!
 
Nothing is without risk, but did you know how the engine in a gas powered car works?
It's internally combusting. It has a relatively higher rate of catching fire than eletric cars...

Also, Lithium is as old but gold as it gets. think about how many laptops, smart watches, smartphones are out there all at once right now.
Nothing you say is untrue. And sure there are more fires and explosions in IC vehicles than EVs (but less than hybrids, according to the article you provided). But we're talking about phones & consumer electronics here. And just for snicks and giggles, why not check out this episode of Mythbusters Jr. about lithium batteries?:
 
Again, electric cars are not safe due to Lithium-ion batteries.
Actually ICE cars catch fire at a greater rate than EV cars:


Quote:
The result? Hybrid-powered cars were involved in about 3,475 fires per every 100,000 sold. Gasoline-powered cars, about 1,530. Electric vehicles (EVs) saw just 25 fires per 100,000 sold.
 
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But I disagree that batteries are a sustainable energy source. First, there is a limited supply of materials, same as oil. Second, those access to those materials is largely owned by China, who has been buying land in every place they've been found. Geopolitical concerns re: war with Taiwan would be a large risk factor. Third, depleted batteries contain multiple hazmat, and disposal is a huge and growing problem.
Actually the recyclability of EV batteries is one of their strengths. They can recover 95% of the material and the companies in the U.S. doing it are already profitable. Great video on one such company:

 
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