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Fuel Cell Laptop announced by Toshiba

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-isn't-that-special dept.

Steve writes "Following on from the Fuel Cells approved for airline cabins story a week or so back, it would seem there will soon be a need for that approval: Toshiba has announced a fuelcell powered laptop for 2004,and possibly a PDA."

11 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Yawn by rschwa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wake me when I can get a fuel cell in either:

    A 'Standard' battery form factor (AAA, AA, C, D)

    or

    A small doohickey I can plug a standard AC mains cord into.

    1. Re:Yawn by aero6dof · · Score: 3, Insightful
      How many D cells does your laptop take?

      Hit the snooze until you find a laptop that takes batteries in standard form factors. Heck, many PDA's now have built-in or custom fitted batteries.

  2. Finally by jeffasselin · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It's time the batteries finally caught up to the way we want to use our laptops.

    With the popularity of wireless networks, it has become a pain to have to plug in the laptop to the electric outlet while you spent that money to set up a wireless entwork so that you could stay on the net without any wires.

    Although network technology is much newer, it seems it has managed to progress faster than battery technology sofar.

    Apple is one company who has done all they could to extend battery life (the G3 processor uses so little juice it helps a lot), but every company is still at the mercy of the limits of the battery companies.

    --
    If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
  3. Re:Just like printer cartridges by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm concerned that you're right. Low Methonal solution souldn't be a problem, as you can pick it up for a few dimes a bottle, however, it seems likely they'll hold you to the warrantee with some certified/proprietary mixture (then get someone to add reverse-engineering fuel mixtures to the DMCA) which you can only buy with their quality name on it, or from licensed moonshiners.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  4. Probably missing the point by DougJohnson · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The idea isn't to "upgrade" your old equipment to use feul cells. The entire tech industry desperately needs something to sell some new products. How many walkman's do you need? (or should that be walkmen?)

    The point is to not have to have batteries at all so you just pump it up with some butane/methane whatever every now and again. This is a HUGE upgrade, not having to replace/recharge PDA batteries every couple hours of use could improve screens and processor power. And to top it all off, means that the manufacturers will make more money selling NEW things.

    You can bet that this is only the first of a coming shift in consumer electronics.

    1. Re:Probably missing the point by klevin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Unless you're the battery industry. In which case, it would seem like a good idea to come up w/ fuel cells that fit into standard battery form factors. That way, you don't get completely cut out of the action.

    2. Re:Probably missing the point by rschwa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The point is to not have to have batteries at all so you just pump it up with some butane/methane whatever every now and again. This is a HUGE upgrade, not having to replace/recharge PDA batteries every couple hours of use could improve screens and processor power. And to top it all off, means that the manufacturers will make more money selling NEW things.

      This is exactly why I am non-plussed by this news. All we need is for every manufacturer to start selling the 'custom fuel mix' required for their device, or the 'custom fuel injector' or whatever.

      As another poster said, a universal wall-wart replacement would be ideal for laptops and largeish devices, and standard formfactor batteries would be ideal for smaller devices.
      Sure, there are plenty of applications for the integrated custom battery/fuelcell, but why should every product be saddled with the additional design and material cost of having the power source integrated when it can easily be handled by a portable universal device. My baby's vibratey chair eats C batteries for lunch, but I'm only going to use it for less than a year or so - Why should the cost of the thing go up to build in the refillable powersource.
      Of course, once the fuelcell is sufficiently inexpensive, like a mass-producable nanotech 'chip' that can be stamped out for a few cents, your idea is good, but until then, I think replacing current form factors is the way to go.

  5. Re:Fuel cells? by GooberToo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He violated federal law that was in place prior to 9/11. Deserved what he got.

    Translation: He's a moron.

  6. Consumable costs will be the killer by Billy+the+Mountain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One manufacturer is proposing to supply a 120 ml cartridge that last 10 hours on a laptop. The price is going to be an estimated $3 - $5 per.

    Although wholesale costs for methanol are $0.33 per gallon. I'd be hesitant to pay five bucks to "recharge" my laptop once, OTOH I'd be willing to pay $2.50 for a gallon of methanol that's probably good for forty charges even though it might involve a bit of a hassle to transfer the liquid into "refill" containers.

    --
    That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
  7. Re:Old and new by ianscot · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Although network technology is much newer, it seems it has managed to progress faster than battery technology sofar.

    New industries, once they take off, nearly always progress much more rapidly than established ones. People (Bill Gates for one person) say stuff like this comparing airlines and computers: "If airlines had improved as fast as computers in the last X years, we'd be traveling from New York to California for a dime in three minutes." Not a fair comparison.

    Similar progress lines showup with you too. Learn to play tennis or something. At first you suck, but if you're trying at all you can get basic strokes and so on down quickly -- you'll get better pretty fast for a while. Then you hit a sort of lull, where you level off and it's frustrating how little progress you seem to make. Every now and again you'll get a little burst of progress for one reason or another -- often sparked by an external source like a new racket or something -- but there's no way the rate of change will go back to that early one. Ask a pro tennis player how much work it takes to dramatically improve her game at that level. There's a point of diminishing returns thing going on.

    --
    "Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
  8. Re:Battery Life Could be Better Today by brunes69 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think you fial to grasp how laptops are use din the workforce. Everyone I have eveer worked with who used a laptop used it both as their travel AND primary PC. Get back to the office, popup a mouse, plug in to monitor, plug in ot network, and you're good to go. All your files are always there, ready for use. Most people do not have both a workplace desktop and a laptop, they just use the laptop for both. saves them time and hassle and the company money.

    Now with that out of the way, how "useless" is your CDROM, floppy drive, x86, and video hardware now? SUre, the smaller screen arguement is valid, but totally ditching the CDROM or floppy isn't. Most laptop manufacturers allow you to swap out your CDROM or floppy for an extra battery when on the road already anyways.