A few sites have been reporting on NEC's latest development, a battery that can be fully recharged in only 30 seconds. The 'organic radical battery' can take charges on a similar level to nickel-hydrogen cells used in many electronic devices.

The price will be around the same of nickel-hydrogen cell batteries, since it does not contain any expensive materials. NEC will first roll out the battery as a commercial computer emergency power source, later we will see hybrid gasoline/electric motors for cars, cell phones and just about anything else you would use a battery with.

So PC users should be among the first to try the new technology although details on it are still pretty scarce.

Wow, I still don't know if I'd trust it to charge that fast, and maintain a good charge. But if they say it works, then I'll have to wait for it to hit the mainstream and read some reviews on it.
Let's hope it works, cause it always sucks having to wait to charge any batteries, especiall if they run out when you really need them (taking pictures, etc.)

You can charge NiCads and NiMH batteries lots faster than what most chargers that you can buy at radio shack or wal mart will do. (I have seen some 15-minute ones there but they are only for AAA and AA batteries)
I recently began driving my RC Car again, and I have a pretty cheap NiCad charger for the car's 6-Cell 7.2V pack. It has a 15 minute timer on it, but with my new batteries it takes about 23 minutes. But if you buy the more expensive chargers you can get it down to that 15 minute mark without a problem.