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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
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?
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 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
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
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."
So now my cell phone will cause more than noise pollution?
... whatever, the rest being renewable energy. If you're in the US, it won't make much difference of course ...
It already does, but you don't see it. Your phone uses electricity that is produced in a power plant that most likely generates smoke or nucler waste. Apart if you live in a country that is well-equipped in renewable energy that is.
With the new fuel cell cell phone (god that's odd to write this), you just move the pollution problem in your pocket, *and* you guarantee that it'll generate 100% fossil fuel pollution, instead of 95%, 90%
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
which is probably what you would go in for, too :)
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
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...
...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.
_nfotxn
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.
... 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
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.
....I'd like to report a fire...yes, it's my cellphone....please come quick.... *HAND BURNING*....quick, I said!!!!!.... *DIALTONE* ;-)
-psy
Actually, fuel cells are remarkably efficient. I have seen specs on some fuel cells that list 90% efficiency, while I've seen most listed between 40 and 60 percent. Not very much heat produced at all.
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.
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/
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
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?