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Apple officially unveiled its new iPad, coming to stores March 16. Tablet screens don't get any better than this

Travel lighter! Get more work done! Never run out of power! Don't leave home without these tech essentials. I travel frequently in my job as a reporter—in fact, I’m typing this on a plane right now. After each trip, I start to evaluate which gadgets I used the most, which apps I found most useful, and—most importantly—which gadget mistakes I made.

2011 has turned out to be a groundbreaking year for electric vehicles literally.

Common batteries are electrochemical cells. And they may get better thanks to living cells: the multicellular organism called brown algae.

Here comes the next generation of innovators revolutionizing batteries. Per-Ivar Sellergren is helping Volvo put energy storage--both batteries and high-power supercapacitors--in the body panels of cars. Photo by Christian Aslund Per-Ivar Sellergren Senior Research and Development Engineer Volvo Car Corp., Goeteborg, Sweden Sellergren, 60, is helping Volvo put energy storage--both batteries and high-power supercapacitors--in the body panels of cars

Here's how you may soon charge your phone by tapping on it rather than plugging it in. Thanks, science! Australian researchers have made a breakthrough in thin-film piezoelectric technology, working out a way to turn the chunky piezo electric tech we're already familiar with into super-thin layers that are actually much more useful. If your eyes glaze over at the merest mention of physics then at least read this: The tech could abolish wall wart power plugs forever.

We're not trying to exclude those who use smartphones not of the Apple variety—it's just that the iPhone clearly needs the battery bump the most. While there are myriad new choices of external iPhone battery packs—the Mili PowerSpring 4 comes to mind—none outshines the Mophie Juice Pack Air, which weights a mere 2.5 ounces and incorporates one of the more well-designed cases available

The more you talk on your cell phone, the faster your battery runs down - right? Imagine talking into your mobile device with the opposite effect - charging the battery! An engineer in South Korea, Dr. Sang-Woo Kim of Sungkyunkwon University, has developed new technology that converts the noise into electricity.

Now here's an incredible idea : A super-thin transparent screen coating for smartphones that could continuously top off your battery with solar power. The technology is coming out of a small company called Wysips , which has perfected a transparent coating less than 100 microns deep that captures enough energy from the sun to generate electrical power. It relies on the application of super-thin strips of photovoltaic cells laid down on a display screen, and then a precise layer of cylindrical lenticular lenses deposited on top

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--Lithium spontaneously combusts in air, yet the battery in your computer--and any of the stacks in the new breed of electric vehicles--is made from it. Lithium even burns in water, which is too bad because a lithium-water battery could be both cheap and powerful.