Where's my solar-powered iPhone?

September 21, 2013 07:08 AM ETComputerworld - Now that we're finally getting those jetpacks futurists have promised, it's time to update our first-world wish list to include solar-powered smartphones.

The good news is that smart people are working on it -- including Apple. The company recently posted a job listing for an engineer with experience with solar power.

Apple's job opening could be unrelated to any project that even explores solar power -- the expertise required could be applied to other thin-film technologies. But it's clear that Apple is interested in -- and working on -- solar smartphone technology.

In February, Apple filed a patent for a method of integrating solar panels into a mobile touchscreen. The company has older patents for solar gadgets as well.

Now, patents don't always equal intent. But the patents and job listing have rumor mongers speculating about a solar-powered iPhone 6.

Forget about that. It's not going to happen. Solar technology almost certainly won't be built into an iPhone within the next two years.

And if such a phone were to arrive on the market, it's very unlikely to be totally solar powered. Solar panels on phones might extend battery life, but phones will still have to be charged by plugging them in or via wireless charging.

But never say never. In fact, it's very likely that advances in thin solar paneling will make that technology irresistible for extending battery life beyond what batteries themselves can achieve.

Two low-cost solar-powered Android phones emerged in 2011.

Two years ago, Samsung announced a $350 solar phone called the Replenish, which was advertised as environmentally friendly. (You can still buy the phone for about $99 at Walmart or even less on other discount electronics websites.)

The upside: The Replenish is made from about one-third post-consumer recycled plastic. A solar panel on the battery cover extends battery life when charged in sunlight.

The downside: It's an obsolete throwback that runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo) and has a physical keyboard, a small screen and a 2-megapixel camera. And the solar panel is pretty weak: An hour of charging gives you 20 minutes of talk time. Better than nothing, I guess.

The other solar-powered Android phone was a device called the Umeox Apollo, which launched in February 2011. Counterintuitively, that phone was targeted at the low end of the market. It had a tiny screen, a lousy camera and other limitations. And it didn't gain any significant mind- or market share. That may be why its Chinese maker dropped any mention of the phone from its website.

Between 2006 and 2011, a handful of other solar-powered Android phones emerged; all of them failed in the market.

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How about a solar-powered, submersible laptop for $350?

Computerworld - Next week in Ghana, a Canadian company will officially launch a solar-powered laptop that may soon find its way into North America, perhaps as a Chromebook.

The firm, WeWi Telecommunications, has built a rugged and submersible laptop that's designed to handle severe environments and quickly charge up on solar power. What's especially interesting is the price: It starts at $350.

The London, Ontario-based firm is calling it SOL, and the system was built to solve the problems developing countries have, said David Snir, the CEO and founder of WeWi. "We traveled to Africa and we saw the need," said Snir, who noted a frustrating inability to get electricity when working in that country.

SOL will also be released in North America by the end of the year and its specs and capabilities may find appeal in the U.S. market.

The solar-powered SOL laptop could come to the U.S. later this year.

The laptop weighs about five pounds, and is about 2 inches thick at its highest point. But that's part of the trade-off for having solar panels.

The four solar panels are little smaller than the 13.3-in. LCD display and open up in butterfly fashion. The panels are protected by the clamshell cover.

In sunlight, the solar panels can charge the replaceable battery in about two hours. (In cloudy conditions, a full charge might take up to three hours.) The battery is good for about eight to 10 hours, said Snir. The solar panels can be detached from the notebook and -- connected by wire -- placed in a sunny area to charge the unit while a user works at a desk or under a shady tree.

The system has been tested with Ubuntu Linux, which is being installed on it. But other operating systems are possible. In North America, Chromebook is one of the possibilities.

"We love Chrome," said Snir. "We see huge potential in Chrome."

Chromebooks require an Internet connection, something that's not an always an option in some regions of the world. For North America, "we are absolutely considering coming out with a version using Chrome," said Snir.

Channel partners will have the ability to install their own operating systems, as well.

The system is rugged. The shell is made of fiber-reinforced polymers. The internal electronics are protected as well, and there are shock absorbers inside to help protect the system from falls. For $50 more, there's a version that is submersible.

"Instead of making sure water would not seep into the computer, we said it's going to happen anyway," said Snir. With that design approach in mind, all the electronics are coated with hydrophobic nano materials that completely repel water, he said.

The system will support 3G and 4G networks, along with Wi-Fi, and it has SIM card support. There is an Intel Atom chip, and a 320GB hard disk drive. The SOL can support 2GB to 4GB of memory.

There's really not much mark-up on the system, said Snir.

"We really want to get Africa connected and we really want to help developing countries," he said. "We're not out to make a huge amount for money from our laptops."

Patrick Thibodeau covers cloud computing and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at  @DCgov or subscribe to Patrick's RSS feed . His e-mail address is pthibodeau@computerworld.com.

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Small and midsize businesses are moving to the cloud to host their communications capabilities. Learn how enterprise-quality phone benefits, online management, conferencing, auto attendant, and ease of use are built into a system that is half the cost of a PBX.

Read now.

View the original article here