Putting a charge into battery life. I'm Fred Fishkin with technology Boot Camp, a report on gadgets and gear. Frustrated by the battery life on your laptop computer? You're not alone. While there have been some improvements in battery technology, there hasn't been enough. That has often meant....you simply can't use your laptop when you need a laptop most. The biggest chip maker, Intel, has worked on designing processors to maximize battery life. But at Intel's Research Labs, Manny Vara says more needs to be done...

"Today we already do a lot of things in our microprocessors to turn off parts of them that are not being used. It's pretty straight forward, everybody does it. But what we don't do and nobody does is if you look outside of the actual microprocessor or the chipset, what could you do to the rest of the computer to actually turn off things that are not being used. "

That could extend the life of laptop batteries...and save on the power used by desktop PCs as well. You can find us on the Web at BootCamp.com. I'm Fred Fishkin.