New Optical Film From 3M May Double iPad Battery Life [Contact Film Said To Increase Screen Brightness To Impressive Levels While Positively Affecting Battery Life]

While iPad–and by extension, iPad 2–news always comes at us hot and fast, it's not every day we hear out of the folks at 3M, who are arguably the world
leaders in terms of chemical products. But the kings of Post-It Notes have a
new surprise, and it's all about a polymer film that will drastically
increase the battery life and screen brightness of your iPad 2 (and quite
possibly your original iPad to boot).

We already know that the iPad 2 has a pretty impressive battery life, what
with its A5 chip and substantially sizable battery churning out fully ten
hours of life. But the film, as the folks at Cult of Mac and 3M explained,
works to boost the brightness level of the iPad 2 screen without pulling
battery juice, thus allowing you to turn down the brightness and get the
same level of use, but at a greatly increased battery life. In fact, they're
currently pegging it at fully double its current life, meaning about 20
hours of operation on a single charge with the new film.

Plus, further reports suggest that one of Kindle's biggest selling
advantages over the iPad 2–it's outdoor readability levels–will be wiped
out thanks to this new film from 3M.

The film is currently on display out at the SID Display Week show in Los
Angeles running through the rest of this week if you want to get an eyeful
of it yourself. The lone problem, though, is that Apple doesn't seem to be
talking about this themselves, so actually getting this film on your iPad 2
display may be a taller order than you might expect. Hopefully 3M will go
third-party on this one and you'll be able to apply that film yourself,
boosting the battery life and getting to use your iPad 2 outdoors just like
a Kindle.

No word, sadly, on just when that day will come, but would you like to get
your hands on some film that would reportedly double your iPad 2′s battery
life by letting you dial down the brightness? The comments section waits for
you to fill us in!