Laptop Fuel Cells Coming Soon

tomsastroblog writes "Soon laptop batteries could last all day and be recharged from a cartridge. BBC News has a piece on fuel cells as laptop batteries, and what their adoption could mean for laptop usage." From the article: "At the Cebit technology fair in Hanover, Taiwanese hi-tech firm Antig said its fuel cells should be on the shelves of computer shops by early 2007. The first versions of the methanol-using units should keep a laptop going for up to nine hours. Fuel cell technology got a boost recently when international air flight regulators changed rules that banned passengers from carrying flammable methanol onto aircraft."

Hardware: Laptop Fuel Cells Coming Soon ...

[Anonymous Coward]

...again...

Seriously, hasn't this appeared every few months for the last 2 years? Can't we have stories about products being 'here' - and preferably built in, rather than having a giant can of Zippo hanging off the side?

I'll get modded down as Cynical or something, but any way you view it, it's true...

You realize...

[Burning1]

Laptop fuel cartrages mean new DRM and propriatary designs as well as messy (and dangerous) 3rd party refil kits.

Consumers aren't the only ones looking forward to this.

More useful

[Epsillon]

IMHO, more useful than a Li-Ion replacement fuel-cell would be a fuel-cell powered universal PSU. Should be:

* No bigger than a mains PSU brick
* Easily replenishable whilst running
* Inexpensive
* Under ten dollars shipping on eBay

OK, that last was a wise crack, but let's sort out the machines that are out there first. After all, what's the point of having your Lappy 486's 41 pounds of allegedly portable dominance running for nine hours if you can't watch a DVD on the 'plane? (RTFA: Media bay, not battery slot)

Not just laptops, but cell phones too

[donutz]

There's a several-months-old PC World article that says that fuel cells for mobile phones will be arriving (in Japan) in 2007 [pcworld.com].

Re:We should think about polution as well

[pentalive]

Even better, what about several of these running in a closed environment, like a plane in a 4 hour flight! re-cycled smog!
What does methanhol burn to? probably CO2 and water vapor?

Are fuel cells the right answer?

[jolyonr]

I was thinking before that I'd really love to be able to have a laptop with 9 hours of battery life - something I could use in the departure lounge waiting for my transatlantic flight (someone else always gets the seats near the power sockets before me) and then use on a 7hr flight without worrying about battery life.

That's why I got the IBM X41 - I have a 7 cell extra-life battery plugged into the back, and a second slim battery that plugs onto the base of the laptop. The two together give me between 7 and 10 hours of battery life, depending on what I'm doing (usually programming, so I'm not a 'power' user).

Buying the IBM was one of the best decisions I've ever made (no connection to the company, or to Levono who now own their PC business). After my recent flight from London Heathrow to Toronto I had 1.5hrs of battery life left on the machine when I shut it down as we were preparing to land.
 
So... this wasn't that expensive - the laptop and all batteries were less than 1000GBP including tax... is there really a genuine need for fuel cells?
 
Jolyon

Re:Sounds Dangerous

[fm6]

It's a neurotoxin! It casues blindness! And it's highly flammable!

Sounds like a terrorist's dream.

Sounds like whiskey. Well, that's an exageration. But the key fact here is that methanol (methyl alcohol) and ethanol (ethyl alcohol, or just alcohol to most people) are both alcohols, and thus share characteristics, such as flamability and toxicity. The main difference is that methanol is not considered safe for beverage use in any quantity (though some people drink it anyway), whereas ethanol is considered safe is small quantities (though some people dispute this).

So, not a terrorists dream, just something that's a little more dangerous than a substance that's already allowed on planes.

Dupe - Ten-year-old News Story

[billstewart]

Just about every year since the mid-90s Internet boom we hear that fuel cells will be available Real Soon Now. They're a really cool idea, you obviously want them, and I hear that they're packaging them with a free copy of Duke Nukem Forever....