Anyone who has used a battery-powered device knows how annoying it is to sit and wait for it to recharge. Now Toshiba has come up with a novel Lithium-Ion battery that recharges 80% of a battery's energy capacity in only one minute. This is about 60 times faster than the typical Lithium-Ion battery in use today :).

The new battery employs latest advances in nano-material technology, which allows the negative electrode to use new nano-particles to prevent organic liquid electrolytes from reducing during battery recharging. The nano-particles quickly absorb and store vast amount of lithium ions, without causing any deterioration in the electrode.
The battery also has a long life-cycle (loses only 1% of capacity after 1,000 cycles of discharging and recharging), and can operate at very low temperatures (-40° C). Other advantages include: very small and light (3.8mm thick, 62mm high and 35mm deep), and eco-friendly (less energy wasted in recharging). The battery also has a very high energy density of 600mAh (Milli-Ampere Hour).
Toshiba will bring this battery into commercial production by 2006. The first users would be in the automotive and industrial sectors, where the slim, small-sized battery will deliver large amounts of energy while requiring only a minute to recharge. The size, weight and safety will make it ideal for hybrid vehicles.
There is no info about when it will be ready for laptops, so keep carrying all those heavy laptops for now :).