Well after sitting around on my laptop and noticing the little bubble pop up telling me I have to move my butt quickly and find the charger before it died. I suddenly remembered a few years ago something about a battery that was set to revolutionise the way use our portable electronics.
As it turns out, a quick Google search later, I found a story from 2001 in the Economist.com about a Mobile Fuel Cell, they also had a prediction in there that this technology might be available within five years but fast forward eleven years and I’d all but forgotten about it as I never hear anything about this type of battery. In fact, the laptop manufacturers seem to be more intent on pushing Intel UltraBooks and Netbooks which have batteries capable of lasting 6-9 hours or more but not Mobile Fuel Cell. It reminds me of those predictions from the 50s and 60s that the futurists has where they expected us to be zipping around in flying cars and using robots to do all of our chores. I guess although we don’t have robots in the home, we do have microwaves, dishwashers and washing machines. Though not strictly robots, they do make doing the chores one hell of a lot easier so I guess they were on the right path.
But that doesn’t help my or your I guess, insatiable need for power on the move. These days, nearly everyone has a Smartphone, they suck so much life out of your Mobile Phone when you have the Internet and a bunch of apps running, it’s not even funny. On the Fuel Cell entry on Wikipedia, it has a list of other uses for a Fuel Cell beyond cars and buses, so why do we not have them yet is the question?
It seems I’m not the only wondering what happened to them, with AppleInsider.com covering a story about the prospect of Fuel Cell powered Apple MacBooks and other mobile devices. With Apple’s patent applications published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office entitled “Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device” and “Fuel Cell System Coupled to a Portable Computing Device.”
Maybe it’s only a matter of time before somebody comes up with something. I mean, how cool would it be to be able to use your Mobile Phone or Laptop for weeks or even months at a time without charging them? You could throw away all of those chargers you have lying around your home. No longer needing to dig around for a charger for your device as it is flashing up the dreaded ‘Find me a Charger’ message.
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