Texas Instruments has developed a new gauge on battery life. The main innovation is that their system measures in addition to voltage also electrical properties.
Credit: ABS Alskan
[The] chip [...] can tell mobile-phone users down to the minute how much talking or standby time they have left–a degree of accuracy much greater than that provided by existing battery gauges. Such a precise gauge could allow smart-phone developers to squeeze more energy out of the battery, potentially increasing by half or more the amount of time that it lasts between charges. (A Better Gauge on Battery Life)
Rarer charges are also at least a small step towards a longer battery endurance, which is imho one of the most challenging problems in the near future.
