Current laptops or notebook computers have one major obstacle to overcome: short battery life.

Despite their sleek style and ever increasing higher performance levels, laptops have never been truly mobile. With batteries averaging around 3 to 5 hours of usable power, most laptops are limited in the amount of time they can spent away from the warm electrical embrace of a wall plug-in.

As most laptop owners will attest, running out of power when you're sending that all important business email or watching your favorite movie has always registered high on the annoyance meter. In today's lingo --- it sucks big time!

Sure, things are improving, as new technology come on stream (dual-core processors, hyper-threading) users are getting longer battery life from their laptops. But even as laptops become smaller and more efficient, short battery life is still a limiting factor for most laptops.

Fully loaded power sapping gaming laptops have been hardest hit by this problem. Try playing a game or watching a movie on battery power at your favorite beach for any extended time and you will see why laptop batteries are in dire need of an overhaul.

Laptop manufacturers are no doubt aware of this issue and may be relieved help is on the way. Actually, the solution to the power-challenged laptop is already here.

Once more, new technology comes to the rescue.

Short battery life for laptops and for all handheld electronic devices will probably be solved by two new energy sources: micro fuel cells and printable solar cells.

Micro fuel cells can use such fuels as alcohol or methanol and offers ten times the power of conventional batteries using only 1/20th the weight. Perfectly suited for laptops or notebook computers. It actually burns fuel which can be quickly replenished by merely refilling its reservoir or replacing a fresh fuel cartridge. As everyone knows, recharging a conventional cell battery takes hours, this new battery will only take seconds to recharge or rather refuel.

One of the major leaders in this new technology is MTI with its Micro's Mobion