Engadget has a brief on a new alloy that becomes magnetized when it’s heated up. The magnetic field can be used to generate electricity as the article notes. The article talks about using it in electric cars to charge the batteries, but I wonder if it could be used in laptops for the same purpose? Or even smartphones, though I don’t know if smartphones generate enough heat. The battery cell count could potentially be reduced without sacrificing battery life, or the battery pack could be left alone and the “battery life” could be increased without adding extra cells.
The article doesn’t detail if it’s the change in temperature, or if the alloy just needs to be heated up, or how much it needs to be heated up. Also, no idea how strong a field is generated. The video makes it look somewhat impressive, but then that piece of metal is pretty small.
Still, definitely looks like something worthy of note.