Smartphone makers just love building their devices thinner and lighter with each iteration—even though they’re all plenty light and thin, and what we could all really use is a bigger battery. Enter the UK’s Intelligent Energy and their iPhone 6 prototype with a fuel cell that lasts an entire week and runs on hydrogen.
The fuel cell produces energy by mixing hydrogen and oxygen, and the redesigned phone comes with exhaust ports for the heat and water vapor it produces. Charging is handled by pumping hydrogen in through a modified headphone jack, but in the future, Intelligent Energy plans to use removable cartridges that phone companies could incorporate into their designs.
But that doesn’t mean you’d be stuck paying for cartridges like the stone age of AA batteries for mobile technology that we’d all just as soon forget. IE has already gotten the fuel cell small enough that it can fit in the current iPhone 6 along with the standard battery. That way, you can use the standard battery on a regular basis and pick up a few fuel cells for those times when you might need a little extended life.
According to The Telegraph, IE is still working out price and a release timeframe for the technology in future smartphones. They’re looking at “the price of a latte” and are rumored to be working closely with Apple already, though Apple declined comment. Either way, they do have an unnamed partner they’re working with, says Intelligent Energy CFO Mark Lawson-Statham:
“Our view is that this is a couple of years out but really it’s about how quickly does our partner want to press the button and get on with it?”
(via Yahoo)
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