There's been a lot of talk for quite a while now about the next
generation for mobile power supplies (aka batteries). This next wave of
battery technology is in the form of fuel-cell batteries. C|NET
reported on
Toshiba's methanol powered fuel cartidge back in September,
and today,
Canon announced a fuel-cell technology that mixes hydrogen
and oxygen to generate an electrical current.
It all sounds like an episode of MacGyver to me and more than a little
dangerous. However, the performance of fuel-cell batteries promises to
revolutionize the consumer device market. Imagine not having to charge
your Smartphone or Pocket PC more than once in a week! Sounds good, eh?
Well, that's what fuel-cell is promising -- anything from 35 hours to
60 hours of use before refuelling. This could mean that in the
not-so-distant future we could see a notebook/tablet PC that can run
for a full work-day without being plugged into the mains.