Battery bottleneck [Editorial]

PORTABLE electronic gadgets like laptops, mobiles, cameras and now e-readers have long felt the limitations of the humble battery. Battery performance has increased six-fold in the past century. But the performance of the electronics they power has increased 10,000 per cent in the past 35 years. Magic new gadgets can do twice as much as the previous model, but they last half as long before they start bleeping ´feed me´.