“Employees at computer, phone and software company Apple have filed a patent to place solar cells on portable devices, Trade the News reported Monday,” Miriam Marcus reports for Forbes.
“Outfitted with such technology, Apple’s devices, like the iPhone, could have photovoltaic cells stacked underneath LCD touch screens, thus maximizing the area available for harnessing the sun,” Marcus reports.
“The filing said that information regarding the performance of a device’s solar cells could be displayed on the main screen next to info for battery power, text message alerts and time of day. Or this information could also appear on top of the solar cells themselves, which are likely to display some version of the Apple logo,” Marcus reports.
“In any case, Apple’s new technology could herald the next generation of wireless mobility. Without the need to electrically charge devices–either via outlets or USB cables–users could at last start to break free from on-the-grid power connections,” Marcus reports.
Full article here.
Arnold Kim reports for Mac Rumors, “The most interesting technique described by Apple, however, is the integration of the solar panels behind the actual LCD screen of a portable device. The solar panel would absorb ambient light that passes through the LCD screen of the device. This could eliminate any additional footprint typically required by the solar panels. If successfully implemented, Apple’s iPhone, iPod and laptops, could require no outward changes in design to add solar power.”
Full article here.
United States Patent Application #20080094025, published April 24, 2008, filed October 20, 2006, “Solar cells on portable devices,” is here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Leo S.” for the heads up.]
Cool.
But I don’t think this will necessarily mean the end of power from USB. Instead, I think it will just be a great way to extend battery life. Especially as 3G chipsets and other things of that nature come along to zap more power.
Perhaps this is coming sooner rather than later????
I hope you can reverse the Dock to a voltage output so I can jump my car from the cigarette lighter….
do they still call them cigarette lighters?
Wow, just wait till Greenpiece gets a hold of this news. I bet they will start to whine…”Apple products are going to suck the energy from the sun and we will experience global cooling.”
Meanwhile, way to go Apple.
This is the future of things, slowly starting to make an entrance into the mainstream. Photovoltaics will be in many devices in the not-too-distant future, as well as on more buildings, in vehicles, and powering utility devices.
And the copycats have no shame!
Integration of the solar panels behind the actual LCD screen of a portable device is yet another example of a brilliant idea that Motorola and Nokia and numerous others have shamelessly copied from Apple. Years ago.
http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19426026.100-selfpowered-displays-keep-gadgets-alive.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5742367.html
Up here in Minnesota we don’t go outside for 6 months a year because it’s too cold. How would we recharge a iPhone?
iPhone users in Alaska, you are hosed.
They already had that in china.
It was on an ad, theres this chinese guy with a ipod-nano thin phone, that had a large display(not multitouch of course), had a very washed out LCD colour phone.
Quite cheap, but the language came only in Chinese… dang, i should have bought one… oh well
Up here in Minnesota we don’t go outside for 6 months a year because it’s too cold.
I thought real Apple users didn’t go outside… ever.
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Maybe the cells will work while users peck away inside coffee shop windows or something.
@ Anders
This is a rumor, I don’t bother until they announce it. IF and when they do, they may have licensed one of those technologies.
Or, being in the Apple spirit, engineered an even better screen that they could patent and actually ship it sometime soon.
Either way, it would be cool. I have one of those windup radios with solar cells on top. Works quite well.
I don’t think that such small footprint as the iPhones screen will provide enough power to break free from the power outlets or USB connectors. It is going to help the battery to last longer, but no to recharge complete over sun light. Other issue is that we do not use our iPods or iPhones enough time under the sun light for that. How much time does any one of us uses the phone exposing it directly to the sun light? This solar cells are good because we can make batteries last longer, but they are not a outlet substitute.
Let me correct myself, yes patent filed, for what, who knows.
How about a device that recaptures the lost CPU heat energy instead?
Doesn’t my 20 year old solar powered calculator count as a “solar powered portable device”?
i know i love the fact that my watch (citizen eco) has run for years off a similar idea, but unless they have some incredible panels in the lab what many have pointed out is true, this only extends battery life.
having said that, when i can run my iPhone for 1-3 hours longer because of the light it got while walking to class, i will be impressed as hell.
I wonder how do these solar panels know when the light source is the sun, as opposed to some artificial light (neon, incadescent, etc), so that they only work when exposed to the light from the sun?
I can’t imagine anyone here being so literal as to take it that a solar panel must have sun light in order to work… No other kind of light would work…
Minesotans (or Alaskans) needn’t worry; If there’s enough light to read a book, there should be enough juice from those solar cells.
It’s a perpectual energy device. As long as your screen is on it’s recharing it’s batteries via photovoltaic cells behind it.
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Apple once again breaking the laws concerning the conservation of energy
Some potential consequences:
It could put a crimp in the iPhone accessory case market. (If it’s encased, it won’t charge.) So one either leaves it exposed (inviting theft) or it sits on one’s table (where you’ll forget it).
Here’s a contest:
Let’s pick the first pundit to lambast Apple for making a device that doesn’t work at night.
This would be very nice. Some watches already do this, though their power requirements are much less. I also agree that this would initially just extend battery life rather than replace charging…
P.S. – @Road Warrior (NLI)
No points for guessing which environmental activist slams Apple for using dangerous amounts of silicon in their solar cells.
#1. stuff LIKE this has been around since last century
#2. may be good to power calculator, but only good to extend iPhone/iPod life
#3. BizZAro, efficiencies are so low that the light of the screen can’t power itself, much less the entire device
#4. GreenPEACE may be annoyed at losing their “target”, but will just find another … there are quite a few valid targets out there to choose from and even a good record for one product does not give another product a free pass
(Greenpeace is an organization with a valid, useful, POSITIVE mission. Their TACTICS have become more and more questionable, of late, but their GOALS are in our best interest – like it or not. Ask my grandson about his parents’ mission of keeping him (and them) out of jail by limiting his behavior. NOT happy! But, in his best interests … even if he doesn’t understand that yet.)
@Anders
The Apple patent app describes a device different from those you link to. They sound similar on the surface, but the details show that Apple is describing a object and manufacturing method quite different from Nokia or Motorola. A couple differences include a series of layered photovoltaics to increase probability of light interception; shock absorbing material between layers; combined with a touch-sensitive screen.
Apple has made no claims that their 2006 filing represents the first use of solarpower in LCD screens, so quit using that straw man for taking smug pokes at the company.
Road Warrior (NLI)
“Apple products are going to suck the energy from the sun and we will experience global cooling.”
Actually, Apple products are going to suck the energy from the sun which use to reflect out into space, so we still will be experiencing global warming.
What good is this for future space travelers heading away from the sun?