You missed a critical part of making cell phone batteries last longer. Sure shutting down unnecessary parts of the device is a large part. But one of the largest parts of power drain in a cell phone is the radio. Modern radios in cell phones periodically query (connect to) the nearest cell-phone sites to self-identify and to figure out what the proper power setting should be if a connection (call) is initiated.

The frequency of this interaction, the logic behind what level of power it is conducted at all go into dramatically impacting the power drain of the phone.

so a good way to improve battery life is to tweak and tune and tweak both the voice and data connections. And since the iPhone is heavy on the data connections, my suspicion is that Apple spent a lot of time figuring out how to deal with internet applications and websites that periodically exchange 'keep-alive' messages. And in doing so have dramatically improved battery life by using less of it.

Check it out. This new, cheap technology could be the answer to cell phone life, plus laptop computers and hybrid electric vehicles. The U.S. government's Argonne National Laboratory has improved the capacity and stability of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

The technology is based on a new material for the positive electrode that is comprised of a unique nano-crystalline, layered-composite structure.

Argonne scientists said they used an active component that provides for charge storage, which is embedded in an inactive component that stabilizes the structure.

In testing, the new materials yielded exceptionally high charge-storage capacities more than twice that of conventional rechargeable lithium batteries. In addition, by focusing on manganese-rich systems instead of the more expensive cobalt and nickel versions of lithium batteries, overall battery cost is reduced, the researchers said.

The new technology was presented Tuesday, May 8, 2007 in Chicago during the 211th meeting of The Electrochemical Society. I hear the manufacturing labs have already started rolling.

Battery technology is certainly improving. I think that the point of the article is that the I-Phone announcement doesn't coincide with the availability of new battery technology.