Hewlett-Packard early next year will begin offering a new line of "Enviro" batteries for laptop users who want to upgrade to longer-lasting and more sustainably designed batteries. HP and Boston Power have been testing the Sonata lithium-ion batteries for three years.
Laptop battery time typically starts to drop significantly after 150 or so charges, or cycles. The "Enviro" batteries are designed specifically for laptop use and even after three years of use, the batteries will be able to keep 80 percent of their initial charge. The "Enviro" batteries are also environment friendly according to Christina Lampe-Onnerud, founder and CEO of Boston Power.
An HP representative on Tuesday said that the Sonata batteries will cost between $20 and $30 more than traditional batteries and will be available on some consumer laptop machines. There will be a three-year warranty, and no system changes are required.

Toshiba said Wednesday that it will showcase a 512GB solid-state drive at the Consumer Electronics Show next month and begin shipments in the second quarter of 2009.
To date, this would be one of the largest-capacity solid-state drives for use in laptops and come close to matching the size of mobile hard-disk drives.
Toshiba said it is releasing a broad family of "fast read/write SSDs" based on 43-nanometer Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash technology that will be showcased at CES. MLC technology allows solid-state drive makers to deliver higher capacity drives at lower prices.