You may be able to use your smartphone for double the time as early as 2017 with new tech.

Smartphone tech is moving forward at a lightning speed but mobile battery technology has not managed to keep up. Our phones are an increasingly important and central part of our daily lives. For this reason, they are becoming faster, more powerful and with higher resolution displays. Those features require energy.

Unfortunately, the amount of energy they require is too much for the average smartphone battery life.

Among the main struggles faced by smartphone owners is the need for a better phone battery. Mobile battery technology is falling short of an average user’s usage requirements. As smartphones become more awesome, they are consuming a larger amount of juice in a smaller amount of time. The phone lithium-ion batteries have not increased in capacity at the same rate as phones have increased in need.

However, new technology under development by SolidEnergy Systems may have the potential to change that. The company has been focused on improving drone battery life, but this tech could also have other applications – smartphones, for example.

This mobile battery technology uses lithium metal foil anodes instead of using graphite.

The foil makes a considerable difference. Today’s mobile battery graphite anodes are considerably thicker. In fact, the foil is only 20 percent the thickness of the anodes made from graphite. This is important because it gives batteries more physical space for improving capacity.

SolidEnergy CEO Qichao Hu said this difference will let tomorrow’s batteries hold twice the capacity. Said simply: batteries will be able to fit much more power into the same amount of space. Hu explained that this means twice the capacity in the same physical size battery or the same capacity in a half-size battery.

Moreover, SolidEnergy isn’t just working on a concept anymore. Its prototype battery was unveiled last year. At that time, the prototype was already half the physical size of the battery in an iPhone 6. Yet, it had a 2.0 amp hours capacity. The iPhone 6 battery has a 1.8 amp hours capacity. Therefore, in half the physical space, the mobile battery technology already offered more than twice the capacity.

As the fast food chain scrambles for a more healthful image, its wearable tech effort flops.

For a very short time, kids were finding McDonald’s fitness tracker devices in their Happy Meals. This wearable technology gadget was taking the place of the traditional toy the company ads to its kids’ meals.

Shortly after rolling out the Step It wearable technology, kids started complaining of skin irritations.

The McDonald’s fitness tracker made headlines and drummed up a lot of attention for the Happy Meals. However, shortly after its August 9 roll out in the United States and Canada, it was removed. The removal of the wearables was voluntary by the fast food chain. It was in response to several complaints of wrist irritation from wearing the Step It activity bands.

A spokesperson from the company released a statement. It said “We have taken this swift and voluntary step after receiving limited reports of potential skin irritations that may be associated from wearing the band.”

The McDonald’s fitness tracker is under investigation to determine the source of the skin issue.

The spokesperson underscored that the safety of their customers is of their highest priority. They are conducting a thorough investigation into the problem with the wearable technology band. In the meanwhile, an alternative Happy Meal toy is being distributed to children.

The Step It activity tracker was essentially a pedometer that was worn on a child’s wrist. It was a very basic device meant to promote activity. It provided blinking lights to encourage kids to keep up the good work when they were moving around.

The wearable tech device was designed with four buttons. The first was a power button. The other three let the child identify his or her activity. Activities included: walking, jumping rope and general sports. This allowed the device to more accurately track the type of motion it was sensing.

The McDonald’s fitness tracker isn’t the first wearable technology to have been taken down from skin irritations. The current ruler of the activity band market, Fitbit, once suffered similar struggles. Its own first wearable had to be recalled in 2014 and in 2015. The Fitbit Surge has also received some complaints regarding skin irritations.