ExtremeTech: A unit of the LG conglomerate, LG Chem, has developed a new flexible battery in the shape of a cable just a few millimeters thick. The cable is produced by coiling a nickel–tin wire anode, wrapping it with a lithium cobalt oxide cathode, and filling the resulting tube with an electrolyte. Despite their thinness and flexibility, the wire devices have the same voltage and energy density as a smartphone battery. A 25-cm-long version was able to power an iPod Shuffle for 10 hours. Previously developed flexible batteries were flat, which limited the shapes they could take, and used less-effective materials for their anodes and cathodes. LG hopes to have the battery ready for market by 2017, when it could be used in any number of new form factors for common electronics.