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DoCoMo Will Launch Fuel-Cell Mobile Phones By 2005
prostoalex writes "Japan's major telecom provider NTT DoCoMo plans to use fuel cells for its 3G phones. 'Users of cellphones with a fuel-cell battery would carry a cigarette lighter-type fuel container to refuel the battery', says Reuters."
Will that fuel also be compatible with the user? For internal use that is... ;-)
..just another way my cell-phone company can rape my wallet. propietary fuel cells....yay
---Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START
Hmmmm. I am kinda of taken back at the thought of carrying a can of flammable (I assume) stuff to recharge my phone?
How may days / hours do I get on a "can"?
Jackson
Their new product?
Batteries shapped like Zippo lighters.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Users of cellphones with a fuel-cell battery would carry a cigarette lighter-type fuel container to refuel the battery.
A propane tank with a shoulder strap and you're good to go for 10 years.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
This is entirely motivated by hype and the desire to use a buzzword.
Isn't it far easier and cheaper to just to plug the phone in occasionally and carry a spare battery if you have to?
Energy storage in fuel cells is actually quite expensive, especially compared to electricity. The main advantage is far longer battery life. But for phones, which last for days anyway, why?
Hook the fuel cell to your car gas tank and you can talk forever.
So now my cell phone will cause more than noise pollution?
Methane two or three inches away from my nose. Another brilliant idea from DoCoMo.
Good luck taking your new phone on a plane trip...
With a phone the size of a Quarter, I shudder to think how hard it'll be to handle the ripcord on a fuel powered phone...
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I would assume they meen the refill is the size and shape of a cigarette lighter, which would be nice that way you can cary them every ware, even planes (do airlines even let you carry lighters on planes anymore or did that stop with the whole 9/11 crap) would make a good emergancy phone for when you dont have access to a plugin to recharge
I had an accident with my bicycle the other day : I landed on my trusted Alcatel cell phone and it splintered into a million pieces. I hate to think what would have happened if the phone contained flamable liquid or gas under pressure.
...
Then again, I also landed on $.50 my gas lighter, which was in the same pocket as my busted phone : *it* decided against breaking apart and cracked one of my ribs instead. So I guess the fuel cell phone has a chance to be safe, but still
Also, doesn't such a device emit CO2 and/or water in the process of generating electricity ? where do the exausts go ?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
exactly! and he wouldnt have a cell phone..but hey, they want to do that to make others feel guilty about buying SUVs and yadda yadda ya..I believe in Freedom of speech but they're just wack.
The article here did not give very much technical information. What type of fuel cell is being used? Hydrogen? If so, what do they plan to do with the water created? Batteries in cell phones are nice because they don't create any waste products when used. I don't see how a cell phone would be able to use a fuel cell without it being very bulky - it would have to have space for the water, and space for the hydrogen. Furthermore, the user would have to remember to empty it.
...people holding up their cell phones at rock concerts?
Everyone who's asking about the potential battery life/ polution from/ etc the fuel cells might like to read this article in scientific american. It's pretty old but gives a fair idea of what the technology involves. And heres a couple more.
:)
Basically they have the potential for much longer battery life (magnitudes greater than lithium) and produce water and C02 as waste products. and cheap vodka could potentially be used for the fuel
Oh this is mad - fuel cells are a wonderful idea - but to have to have refills?! Oh please - can the lot of them and send the guys back to the research lab until they can make them rechargeable.
"Methane two or three inches away from my nose. Another brilliant idea from DoCoMo."
**taps shoulder**
Uh, chief. That's not a cellphone.
That's just great! Now when I honk and politely wave (the international hand sign for "your # 1" of course) at the soccer Mom driving 40 mph on the freeway in front of me whilst applying her make-up and talking on her cell phone, she'll be able to immediately retalliate by tossing her handy fuel cell communication grenade at me through the sun roof on her 5 mpg SUV!
What's next? Kids running around with self pumping Super Soakers powered by napalm!!?!?
I tried to control myself...I swear!
If you don't have something nice to sig, then don't sig anything at all.
"they did come up with the what would jesus drive aimed at SUVS..."
Well, let's see here. He's a carpenter (meaning he has lots of tools, equipment, and supplies) who does a lot of traveling to exotic areas. Sounds like he'd use something like a Ford Excursion.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
Also I have known them pack up in a long meeting.
Whilst you have to basicaly be plugged in all the time you use them they are not that mobile a solution.
I had been hoping that freeplay, who make the wind up radios would lauch something after an article I read some time ago where a laptop solution was hinted at. However nothing has come to market. Interestingly they have a mobile charger.
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
which is probably what you would go in for, too :)
Except for wet pockets, this sounds pretty cool. I know I'm not the only one who has too many chargers... Ugh. Now if they could make a fuel cell that I could plug in any device into... That'd be cool. Forget searching for the ONE outlet in a whole airside.
I think some people think the idea of refueling is a bit arcane sounding, but the point of fuel cells is the higher energy density and the somewhat increased flexibility we have in creating new technologies to exploit the form of the energy. Batteries haven't improved by much in many many years of research.
According to FuelCellWorks, the DoCoMo phone will have up to 300 hrs functioning time. This is an improvement on my current cell phone, which lasts about a week. Furthermore, the use of little canisters for refueling is pretty much like carrying around a spare battery. It gets around the recharge problem. If I'm in a rush, I don't want to have to stick my phone into the power socket for half an hour.
At some point, I think we won't need to refuel. DoCoMo or someone else can make a device that will use electricity to regenerate from the fuel cell waste products back into fuel. Highly inefficient, but convenient when you run out of your little canisters
To kill people who use cell phones in their car.. wait a minute. Maybe this is good.
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On a related note (gee-wizz tech that has drawbacks), those new PDA's and cell phones with builtin cameras: you can't take those into secure or otherwise classified facilities. Something to think about if your travels take you thither.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
I didn't realize that christians and enviromentalists were in the same catagory.. Cool.. I guess
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...fuel-cell battery would carry a cigarette lighter-type fuel container...
"Hey buddy, can I bum a charge?"
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Fuel Cell Powered Laptops...
What premium would you pay for a Laptop or PDA you can recharge in a snap ?
So, in addition to MP3 players, FM radios, digital cameras, and voice recorders, phones will now also have lighters?
_nfotxn
Running water is here to stay, fossil fuels are not. To be honest I didn't read the article but unless it's a hydrogen powered cell I can't really see this being a logical step forward over enviromentally "free" energies like what hydro-electric dams produce.
Yeah, you know.. save Jonah's whale and all that.
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
Actually, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen are NOT used in most fuel cells because of the dangers involved in using them. Most fuel cells use a redox reaction involving hydrogen and oxygen IONS, thus generating an electric current.
Well, most carpenters and handymen I know of are too poor for that, and certainly the Carpenter of Nazareth would be similarly tapped out. Most have aging light trucks or panel vans. What would Jesus drive? Probably something like this. (No, I don't think Mike Watt is God, but I think they jam together on occasion.)
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Fuel cells produce CO2 and H2O. This is fine for cars which already leak out all kinds of nasty chemicals. But I don't think cell phones will sell well if they start peeing the user.
How is mirroring a site that is not slashdotted "informative"? You're really fucking lazy if you can be bothered to scroll down and read the article but not to click on the article link.
My 6310i does _18_ days on one battery - and spare batteries are £18 ($25 or so?).
I assume this is for people who, unlike me, don't use their phones only for data calls, and can't carry a spare battery in their laptop case or with their PDA.
Ah well, new gadgets are always good, and I'd love to get more than 3 hours out of my laptop as well - I'm sure I can hook something up to feed one off the other.
Beep beep.
I know that there's no combustion involved, but the reaction that takes place certainly evolves some heat. I think even the water released is in its gaseous form. The question is, how hot will the fuel cell get under normal use?
I know thatI wouldn't like something scalding in my pocket.
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
... your phone doesn't pass emissions tests?
When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all
because the moderators are LAZY too! For articles that short I feel cheated when I click on the link so I thought I'd do other lazy fellows a service by pasting it here so they wouldn't feel cheated like I did.
There is no god
Instead of carrying around an ultra-expensive fuel cell outfit, try this instead:
1) Get a small AA or AAA battery pack with the same voltage rating and power connector as your phone
2) Fill it with Titanium-Alkaline or Lithium photo cells (very high-capacity compared to recharables)
3) Keep this on hand for backup power just like you would the tech-fetishist hydrogen tank. If after 6-36 months you run low on backup power, just buy more batteries at any nearby store that sells cameras, etc. If you noramlly keep your internal battery charged, then the external cells could last you for years!
Savvy people have done this with camcorders, phones , PDAs and even laptops for years. You can even get AA/AAA packs shaped like the mfg.'s rechargable units that fit right onto your device.
The big main benefit of fuel cells (especially in devices like phones/pdas/laptops or there are the same thing anymore) are two, and an obvious two:
Your %^&*ing batteries don't wear out and have to be replaced, frequently at a cost of more than something new, meaning some landfill waste, and the dead batteries themselves are mucho icky. This also means the devices have a much longer practical use lifespan,so they won't be replaced as often, which will force manufacturers to emphasize quality & reliability & easy internal upgradeability over blinkenlights & bloat-auge & casual tossability
FAST "recharge" time. FAST as in not hours or even minutes, but in under a minute tops to full power
ALSO, this makes the concept of fuel cells get to joe consumer, that it's viable. For instance, it is trivially easy and cheap to make your own fuel at home, ethanol or methane for example, either of which are quite clean fuels. This causes mindshare, the experimental mindset, acceptance of new technologies, more R&D leading to larger scale, more decentralised power (read, kill the monopolies) and so on and so forth.
downsides are....ummm....hmmm..... precious metals used for catalysts go up in value? Nice investment opportunity there...
....I'd like to report a fire...yes, it's my cellphone....please come quick.... *HAND BURNING*....quick, I said!!!!!.... *DIALTONE* ;-)
-psy
is a Soviet made nuclear reactor for my cell-phone. I dont care if I had have a truck for the battery, I would still own. "I'm sorry our conversion was interrupted, but I had a nuclear melt-down". It would sure beat whining about my Nokia having a stand-by time of 5 hours after one year of using it. Just get some nice uranium and keep the cellie on for 150.000 years.
You do know that a whole bunh of batteries we have on the market are a lot more dangerous to the environment compared to say, ethanol, or something else for the means of getting energy for something.
as a sidenote: hydro-dams aren't all good even, since when you flood areas during parts of the year, as is the case in Sweden, there is a whole bunch of gas produced, which then goes on and helps ruining the ozone layer.
I think the only sustainable method is to hand over all power to me. That way I could gather all good-looking chicks, kill the rest, and not need any electricity as I would keep warm anyways. perfect solution.
Now that we've moved to rechargeable batteries for everything, they're not making as much money selling us disposable ones. I guess getting us hooked on disposable fuel cell cartridges is a way to make up the deficit.
Of course, there's no technical reason we couldn't refill our own cartridges with methanol, but like wiht inkjet cartridges, they'll probably put chips in them or something to keep us from doing that. Flammability? Safety? Bah... it's about money, the old razor blade business model.
President Bush on Thursday stopped by a booth by MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc. of Albany in Washington, D.C., and made a cell phone call from a phone powered by MTI's direct methanol micro fuel-cell system, according to the company.
Thursday was Feb 6, 2003.
wheres the exhaust go?
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
we all know children have no access to the anarchist's cookbook anymore now that libraries are filtered ;)
People forget that the lithium ion cells they use all the time - cell phones, notebooks - can cause real injury if they go ary, too. There's a large energy density in those cells, and large energy densities mean capability for disaster. Overcharging, shorting, physically deforming, any number of things could cause a charged lithium ion cell to catch fire or explode.
If you'd carry a lighter with you, they're certainly going to be no more dangerous. Likely a good deal safer, even.
..don't panic
Cool, imaqine the instructions: To recharge fuel cell, insert in behind and fart...
Oh well, what the hell...
Millions of people do already, its called a lighter...
Will it fly? The list of forbidden items continues to grow.
Cost of new (top of range) mobile phone ~JPY35,000
Cost of same phone 1 year later ~JPY5,000
Cost of new battery for same phone ~JPY6,000
If DoCoMo make a new plugin-type battery it will need to be for the whole range or people won't buy new phones!
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
That's pluging in your cell phone for "free",
"free" meaning paying your electricity bill at the end of the month anyway right?
Fuel cells are "free" as in "beer/methane", so that is the obviouse choise for the slashdotter!
Moderation: +4. Modded 70% Funny and 30% Overrated. 100% Saturated.
you feel cheated??? out of what exactly? That is so weak.. I think if people dont have enough time (1.5 seconds) to load the webpage, they wont be reading your idiotic repeition of it.
Isnt that copyrighted material? The people who have been cheated are the writer, the host of the writer's work and the advertisers that support their website. VERY poor attempt at a Karma grab. I hope you've learned your lesson.
-- "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." Jean Jacques Rousseau
Flammible fuel for mobile phones? Why not skip the middle man and develop a charging system where we rub a glass rod through a swath of cat's fur?
If you can actually notice a difference in your monthly electric bill for months you charge your phone at home and months when you don't I'd be VERY surprised.
Furthermore would charging from home cost more than buying fuel cell refills? I doubt it.
Not to mention charging at work costs you nothing, charging from your car is a negligible cost...etc.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Fair enough, but the energy has to come from somewhere, and has to be paid for...
And anyway, it might even be the case that in the future you'd be able to get "fuel cell refills" as easily as batteries, and they'd be _much_ more enviroment friendly!
(Not that a nice propriaty "cell phone fuel cell refill" would be surprising, alas)
Moderation: +4. Modded 70% Funny and 30% Overrated. 100% Saturated.