After reading multiple posts and comments about Apple's patents, there are a lot of people who feel this is counter productive...I don't know why.

IMHO, the patent system is broken when a company can file a patent without actually having a solid working product first, this sometimes happens. But clearly, in a lot of Apple's patents, such as this one, it isn't the case. If Apple, or another company, invests billions of dollars into R&D to make a product, they should be able to protect it. In fact, it would be counter productive if they couldn't protect it because it would discourage them from investing in R&D and then the nice things wouldn't even be invented in the first place.

I'm just saying be realistic and stop making it sound as if lithium-ion batteries are intrinsically dangerous so that you can push your agenda for your design

A lithium-ion battery will not normally reach 120C. It will only do so if damaged or if there's a defect. Just like you don't want to be driving around in a car with a damaged gas tank. You're in just as much danger sitting on top of a tank of gasoline as you are sitting on top of a lithium-ion battery pack.

Lithium-ion batteries are not any more intrinsically dangerous than other high energy content materials. Whenever you concentrate high energy things, they must be treated with respect. Just because you have to take different precautions when working with lithium-ion batteries as opposed to gasoline, does NOT mean lithium-ion batteries are more dangerous.

You realize that you're talking about lithium-metal right? All mainstream electric vehicles are using lithium-ion which is a different technology. A lithium-ion battery _will_not_ catch fire when exposed to air and water. Lithium-ion batteries will catch fire when heated to above around 120C which can happen by an internal short circuit, or if punctured by a piece of metal.

Stop spreading FUD. Lithium-ion batteries are much safer than lithium-metal batteries, which is why lithium-ion batteries are being used despite their lower energy density.

I think this is more about the merchant than the buyer. I assume that paypal could make this cheaper for the merchant than the current norm (ie. merchant having to pay for a credit card processing system where a simple tablet and wifi/3G connection could work).

"Two cases in point, a Toshiba laptop with AMD and a 13" MacBook Pro with Intel, the fans run annoyingly at high speed, the bottoms are hot enough to fry eggs on. That's just sitting with one web page open. How long can one expect machine like that to last? A year? two maybe?"

This is an exaggeration...my 13" MacBook Pro doesn't get hot or have the fans turn on with a single web page, nor does this happen while browsing the web/watching youtube.

It's just a solid oxide fuel cell. The only magic is that Bloom Energy is able to market them.

The inks are made out of ceramic/metal powders, probably either sprayed or screen printed to make a typical sandwich type solid oxide fuel cell (or maybe a ceramic tube). It's a standard way of making solid oxide fuel cells. Electrical efficiency is likely 40-50%, total efficiency (assuming they are able to recover some waste heat and, for example, heat hot water) would be around 80%.

Because it's cheaper to do it that way. A CO2 tax could correct this though.