Apple wants to power their gadgets… with the sun.
Apple Inc, has filed a patent to place solar panels on portable devices. This is big news. Considering that the iPhone battery is losing it’s reputation of being good, I would say this is a good time for Apple to start working on this. It’s a brilliant idea, which in my opinion should have been done a long time ago.
The commenters on this article (only two) say that their calculators have been solar powered for roughly more than 14 years now. Both complain that Apple shouldn’t have the right to patent this idea considering the calculator has been doing it for such a long time. But really, I say this to the commenters. I highly doubt that anyone considers a calculator as a “portable device” since it technically has been portable since the day it was invented. A telephone… we used to depend on telephone lines, now we have cell phones. MP3 players… we had juke boxes, now we have iPods. These are what I consider modern day portable devices, which is what Apple patented for.
So, any opinions about having a solar powered iPod? Anybody scared? Anxious? So excited you can’t stop shaking? It’s okay, I’ll understand…
Jun 6, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Tim says,
Apple (steve jobs in particular) has an exsclusivity complex about their designs, and while I feel that its very unlikely to patent the idea of a “solar powered device” (I marveled at carrying my ti-83+ around in my pocket just last week), they probably can and will develop a particular design of incorporating a solar cell into a device. Too bad the rest of the industry will just minutely alter the design and follow suit.
Jun 7, 2008 at 2:48 pm
frank says,
cool blog!!! I like this one and solardoug.wordpress.com . I love all the solar issues. Keep up the great work our planet deserves it. It’s been great to us and let’s be great to it. It’s everybodies duty to chip in and help mother earth. Alternitive energy is the least we can.