What is Digg?41 Comments
- Mookeh, on 05/29/2008, -1/+17Hardly a development for the upcoming iPhone - this article discusses developments that may take years to reach us.
- TaylorAB, on 05/29/2008, -1/+15"Scott Bourne, executive producer of the Apple iPhone Show on iTunes said he would not expect to see the implementation of a product of this kind for at least five years, but said that it is exciting to consider that it could happen."
Five years seems far away.. - fezzasus, on 05/29/2008, -2/+13No, just no. iphone and ipods live in pockets. They hardly get light.
When they are taken out, you avoid direct sunlight because it makes the screen hard to read.
The most promising technology is the semiconductors that can harvest thermal energy (simple principle. two materials are heated, one gains a higher electron mobility than the other so electrons from the first material fly over to the second, creating current). This way your i[whatever it will be called] can be charged from it's own heat and your body heat. - JoeHammer, on 05/29/2008, -5/+10Why don't they work on getting an iPhone with some decent storage capacity first?
- shoover, on 05/29/2008, -2/+6The headline is really misleading - there is no indication from the article that they have more efficient solar cells at all, and the solar capability is just to extend battery life, not replace dependency on it.
The 1M number was referring to power consumption, not solar power productivity.
Buried as inaccurate. - UnseenLlama, on 05/29/2008, -0/+3Yeah. Because before the iPhone came along, all phones had 4gb, 8gb, or 16gb as standard storage, right?...
- nreynolds, on 05/29/2008, -1/+4I'm pretty sure apple has already considered ipods. In fact, I'm fairly sure they make them...
(i know what you meant but pointing out malformed sentences makes me feel big) - 471776, on 05/29/2008, -0/+2Or you could just not read the story. Or block the "Apple" section.
- lukifer, on 05/29/2008, -1/+3Apple patents stuff all the time that it doesn't bring to market. Sheer speculation, buried for inaccuracy.
- cdigioia, on 05/29/2008, -2/+4"it would take 250,000 to 1 million solar-powered wrist watches to generate the energy needed to power one iPhone (and keep the watches ticking). In other words, “the rate of energy consumption of the iPhone is about 250,000 to 1 million times larger than a standard sports wrist watch.”"
"And keep the watches ticking"...anyone else see how horrible their 250,000 to 1,000,000 higher energy consumption reasoning is?
They mean it's 250,000 to 1,000,000 greater than the excess energy produced by the watches, a completely different matter. Especially since most watches, if properly designed, don't wast money on solar materials creating excess energy.
Seems like a rather large error for a Forbes article. - woofers07, on 05/29/2008, -1/+2yeah well five years ago, five years seemed pretty far away too, but that went pretty damn quick, at least for me.
- Virgule, on 05/30/2008, -0/+1Interesting. If I believe the Unit Converter widget, a watt is to horsepower what a kilowatt-hour is to foot-pound.
It place 'watt' under 'power' while 'kilowatt-hour' is under 'energy'. - locojones, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Wow even Forbes is drinking the zealot kool-aid. Is nowhere safe from the Apple *****-sucking?
- PensiveGoat, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1"...an iPhone equipped with Apple’s potential new technology could generate around 1 watt of energy..."
Since when is a watt a unit of energy? - Akram, on 05/29/2008, -1/+2I'm gonna be nice and assume that although highly unlikely, you've never looked another phone other than the iPhone.
Before the iPhone, every phone had 120GB, so the iPhone is really lacking memory. I agree it should be Apple's no.1 priority.
dumbass. - fezzasus, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1You need to consider the power consumption to surface area. The air still consumes much more power than the iphone
- TheKorn2, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Actually, I DID read the article, you ***** MORON. Where do you think I got the idea from? It certainly wasn't in the article synopsis! (...idiot! Think before you open your mouth!)
- rodrigo74, on 05/29/2008, -1/+2Still, it would be nice to have the ability to charge a bit an iPod/iPhone by just leaving it sunbathing for a while, especially when it dies just in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing that can be done about pockets, but protective cases can be made transparent.
- BradHAWK, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Yes I did notice it. I'm not sure if the error is in the reasoning or the writing. And I don't know why you're being dug down.
- NuclearWookie, on 05/29/2008, -1/+2I think the idea is kind of appealing. If your iPhone is running low on juice, just put it face-down on a windowsill. Hell, if they could get the solar efficiency to be high enough, they might even be able to sustain in-call power levels if you're outside.
Also, thermocouples won't produce that much power, and charging something with its own waste heat will get you in trouble with the laws of thermodynamics. - fezzasus, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1The idea is crap. Solar cells add an additional layer to the screen, making the device thicker - you might as well increase the size of the battery. Additionally, apple are moving towards organic displays, current organic solar cells have a much lower efficiency and lifespan than inorganic solar cells.
The MAIN reason for this solar cell is to harvest wasted light emitted from the backlight, by the time the solar cell is efficient enough to be used, the back lighting will be much more efficient with little to no gain from harvesting the light.
Obviously you wont be able to charge it to a greater extent than it's original charge just from it's heat emission, which is why the thermocouples will also be lined on the back side of the case, which will sit next to your thigh or in the palm of your hard while in use. - HookmasterCH47, on 05/29/2008, -1/+2Just because Apple patents something doesn't mean we're going to see it come to market.
- fezzasus, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1It's a circuit. Electrons out of one end and in at the other. Welcome to highschool science
- DiggOrNotToDigg, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Motorola had applied for solar lcd last year...Its the same thing
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/motorola_p ... - TheKorn2, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1I think it's funny that Apple's "solar strategy" includes putting things on portable electronics items.
I believe I had a calculator in 1983 that had a solar cell on it. Looks like prior art to me! (Yes, the solar cell wasn't beneath the LCD, but that's a pretty obvious combination.) - tells, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Why does the article focus on the new iPhone? Wouldn't it make more sense if apple were to use solar energy for products more exposed to sunlight? To add speculation on top of a speculative article, I could really only seeing solar power at its current efficiency generating enough power to sustain something closer to an E-ink reader.
- Ramble, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1And how would you recharge the deficit of electrons?
- samcrut, on 05/29/2008, -2/+2This is actually a brilliantly evil ploy on Apple's part. With solar skin on the phone, the users will be more likely to leave their phones sitting out in plain view. That means they'll get stolen and have to be replaced. Sales will be almost double what they would have been without all the rampant thievery!
- fezzasus, on 05/29/2008, -1/+1or ever.
- JoeHammer, on 05/29/2008, -1/+1Read comment below.
- gALEXy, on 05/29/2008, -1/+1Given that most ipods probably spend most of their time inside people's pockets and in protective cases, it seems silly to make solar powered ipods, how bout a solar powered macbook air? That sounds more reasonable to me. Think of the surface area too. Which side of an ipod is usually "face up" and which side has the most space for a solar panel.
- dekadent30, on 03/19/2009, -0/+0get purple iPhone for free here: http://www.viddler.com/explore/freeiPhone only rule is that you must be US resident, free iphone get it!
- synyster, on 05/29/2008, -1/+1i dont' think that's apple's problem, since apple doesn't directly make Flash memory(i think all their memories are from toshiba or sumsung). and i also believe there are already 100G flash memory at the market, so all apple need to do is fit one of those into iphone.
- JoeHammer, on 05/29/2008, -1/+1I was referring to the fact that the iPhone claims to be an "all-in-one" device. And I don't give two craps about a $500 ipod-like-device that has the same storage capacity as the one that came out in 2001.
- JoeHammer, on 05/29/2008, -1/+1It's pretty obvious you didn't read the article.
- inactive, on 05/29/2008, -7/+1I want apple to consider ipods first.
- inactive, on 05/29/2008, -11/+5I wish they would stop posting apple ***** on Digg....
I mean, I do enjoy bashing apple whenever I get the chance, but it gets boring after a while. Apple is crap, you know it, I know it. Can't we have some *GOOD* news on Digg for a change? - debuggercll, on 05/29/2008, -14/+2Tomorrow's news: "Millions get skin cancer"
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