Ask any user of digital-things-not-tethered-to-the-wall, and one of the bigger worries you'll likely hear from them is battery life. It stinks when your laptop can't go as long as you want it to on a charge; it double-stinks when you have to plug in all of your smartwatches, tablets, mobile phones, and handheld gaming devices each night just to ensure you'll be able to use them the next day.

Unlike microprocessors, however, we just aren't seeing the kinds of steady evolution in battery life that one might expect to find in each successive generation of digital devices. Sure, manufacturers can make all the other components in a device smaller and more efficientwhich either allows a device to consume less energy or, on the flip side, allows a manufacturer to stuff more or bigger batteries into the device to begin with.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, an internal team at Google is allegedly researching battery technologies, and has been since late 2012 or so. The main focus is on improving the potential of lithium-ion batteriescommon to most devices nowadaysand the potential development of solid-state thin-film batteries that could be mass produced without costing a fortune.

These solid solid-state thin-film batteries put potential energy in the form of thin, flexible layers that transmit current over solids instead of liquids. They could be used inside mobile devices or embedded in the human body, depending on the application. They could even be used in a super-thin device like a battery-powered electronic contact lens, for exampleand they're much safer than a typical liquid battery, owing to the lack of flammable liquids.

Google is also working with the Chicago-based AllCell Technologies to develop batteries for other Google projects. That includes the company's Project LoonGoogle's high-altitude balloons designed to provide Internet access in areas that might be otherwise difficult or cost-prohibitive to wire up conventionally.

The company's interest in battery research should come as little surprise. Among the tech giants, batteries are a growing concern. Rival Apple is allegedly working to build up its own battery division, likely prompted by the company's not-so-secret research into some kind of Apple car. And, of course, Tesla is also working to fire up its own battery manufacturing courtesy of the company's Nevada Gigafactorywhich could help lower the cost of batteries for the company's cars and possibly allow Tesla to experiment with the "whole-home" battery the company is rumored to be working on.

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