[Macworld]

Post your comments for Future Apple devices may be solar powered here

[aalexzander]

I don't know if they will be completely solar powered, but it does sound like this will at least extend the battery so it simply lasts longer. Or you could perhaps use smaller batteries to save space. Either way this is a fantastic idea.
Alex Alexzander

[flowney]

Global warming (more sun, greater danger of hydrocarbon release), more power hungry cellular networks such as HSPA, the need to operate in areas with poor or non-existent power grids -- Yes, it all makes sense. Of course the hand crank on some models of the XO (One Laptop Per Child: http://laptop.org/en...re/index.shtml) certainly has its charms. It works at night too.

[aalexzander]

What I wouldn't mind having is a simple exercise bike attached to a battery that we could use to store power for any device. Why not popularize something that so many americans need to do anyway? Exercise, and use a natural resource. US.

Alex Alexzander

[dwilliams]

Wasn't there a previous Powerbook model that a 3rd part vendor made a plastic-form solar charger? The device replaced the outer plastic shell that was designed for "customization".
Seems like they are trying this again...

[dougoftheabaci]

Extra bonus: There's been new advances in solar-technology that allow for a new standard in black, making a material that absorbs more light than any previously created material.
Benefits of this? Darker darks, higher contrast with lights.
My only question would be would the machine capture back some of the light given off by the display? Super efficient displays that way.
I'm looking to buy an upgrade around the time of February, hopefully this will be incorporated to any upgrades that show up around that time.

[rlav]

greenhouse gase?

[SGP_MacUser]

I see this beyong the extension of battery power.

I see this as extended usage. Extending to more outdoor uses without easy access to power supply to recharge the internal battery. You may use it during your outdoor hike, camping, driving, travelling, sports, sailing, etc.

It may also be used by people like journalist covering disasters where power may be cut-off, by security forces, paramedics etc.

[GripperDon]

Please dump AT& T so we can ALL have an iPhone that would be even better that solar power it would be "iPeople POwer"

[richcon]

In terms of the engineering, it'll be interesting to see how they pull this one off in practice. Normally the bottom layer is made up of a light, and you can't exactly place the solar cell under the light.
Would this be used with a new display technology where the imaging layer creates its own light (like OLED) instead of using a backlight, but that is transparent when not emitting light so light from the sun can reach the solar cell beneath it?

[richcon]

dougoftheabaci said:

My only question would be would the machine capture back some of the light given off by the display? Super efficient displays that way.

The most efficient thing to place behind the lighting element in a display is a mirror, to reflect nearly all of the light produced forward and out the front of the display. Putting a solar panel in place of that mirror would be expensive and only reclaim a very small minority of the energy (since photovoltaic cells generally only have an efficiency of around 10-25%.)

What you're describing would only be slightly more efficient than ditching the mirror and just painting the back black. :)

Presumably they're talking about the display picking up sunlight hitting it and converting that to electricity. But again, I'd love to see how they'd pull off something like this in practice.

[abhimatgautam]

I would like to see how Apple makes this. Still confused how this would not interfere with the screen, but I'm sure Apple could pull it off.