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CES 2013: Lenovo 27" Tablet and Nectar Fuel Cell iPhone Charger

jayducharme said:
Right. I don't know why people bother with computers; paper and pencil have existed forever.
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People bothered with computers largely because they let people do things better or faster. This trivial generality is a poor argument in favour of a tabletop touchscreen as an excellent idea for R&D teams or marketers to use to collaborate. The fact that some inventions have been useful doesn't mean that every invention is useful, yet that is pretty much what you typed.

EDIT: all you dweebs who know nothing about ergonomics and viewing angles should put your iPads flat on your actual coffee tables, cue up Netflix, sit back, and see how long you last (the size of the screen is irrelevant). Or try playing a game on it while resisting the temptation to pick it up to see it better, interact with it better, and sit more comfortably.
 
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Mousse said:
So long as it does NOT replace my desktop machine at work. It's bad enough huge helping of stress by the end of the day. Last thing I need is a side order of sore arms to go with it.

I wouldn't mind playing angry bird of that big screen. I could use a protractor to get accurate trajectory on my birds.:D
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"...I could use a protractor to get accurate trajectory on my birds.:D "

lol..nailed it.
 
Carouser said:
EDIT: all you dweebs who know nothing about ergonomics and viewing angles should put your iPads flat on your actual coffee tables, cue up Netflix, sit back, and see how long you last (the size of the screen is irrelevant). Or try playing a game on it while resisting the temptation to pick it up to see it better, interact with it better, and sit more comfortably.
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Yeah, it's not like the thing has a kickstand to lean it back on or comes with a kit that allows you to move it about and rotate it so it's either perfectly flat or nearly vertical.

No. You have to lay it flat.

DWEEBS OLOL
 
shortcrust said:
Anyone know why it would lose even 10%? If it's a gas canister then surely it shouldn't lose anything over the course of a year.

Apologies if I'm being thick!
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Two theories:
1) Some small scale reaction happens in the power cell, even when it isn't actively 'in use' charging something.
2) No seals are absolutely perfect, so some small amount of butane leaks out over the course of a year once the container is punctured.

Or, it could be a combination of factors.

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Oh, and for those comparing it to the $50-70 solar-charged battery packs? You're forgetting something in your conversions. Charging a battery *from* a battery is only about 50% efficient at *best*. And, it only works while the source battery can maintain higher power levels than the destination battery, so once you go past a certain point on the discharge curve of that source battery? It won't charge the destination one any more until it's been recharged.

That's why many of those 8,000 - 11,000+ mAh battery packs typically won't charge an iPhone's 1400 mAh battery to 100% even once. (That and the fact that the dinky little solar panels included on most of them simply can't provide enough juice to charge their internal batteries all the way, no matter how much sunlight you give them.)

If you really want a portable charging solution, buy a decent battery pack, and a separate solar cell capable of providing sufficient juice to charge the battery. You can use it to charge your phone directly, and then plug in that battery to collect the 'spare' sun for later. Go for something with a 12W rating or better if you can.

A rough rule of thumb for figuring out how much solar panel you need to charge a modern cell-phone or tablet effectively is to have *at minimum* triple or quadruple the surface area for solar cells as you have for screen.
 
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tbrinkma said:
Two theories:
You're forgetting something in your conversions. Charging a battery *from* a battery is only about 50% efficient at *best*. And, it only works while the source battery can maintain higher power levels than the destination battery, so once you go past a certain point on the discharge curve of that source battery? It won't charge the destination one any more until it's been recharged.
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You don't understand electronics. 'Higher power levels' is a meaningless phrase. Your efficiency statement is incorrect.

Either higher voltage source batteries are used, or switching power supplies are used to maintain output voltage and keep charging. Either way, the source battery can be pretty much completely discharged.
 
shardey said:
Yeah Samsung must be an idiot for an "unfunctional" tv shape... oh wait have you ever went to a movie theater? Crazy how they don't have flat screens.
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What the heck are you talking about? I'm talking about this nonsense:

samsung-s9.jpg
 
Holy crap !!

What a lovely picture frame .... :eek:

Who every dreamt up the idea of attaching an external physical camera to an iPhone is nuts.

You already have to attach it anyway, why not use it ? If its just about the "ease of use of software" on IOS, this doesn't hold my thought... ok,, but its not ease of anything if you have you have a device connected, just because you want better pictures
 
MrDc2 said:
Yep. I know. It's a dumb regulation and I shouldn't have to explain my reasons.

Troll much?
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No, just because you think that it is "dumb" doesn't give you a right to carry devices with many times the maximum liquid allowance.

And why is it "trolling" to point out that you made a stupid comment that is ignorant of well publicized TSA carryon guidelines?
 
The tabletop touchscreen has potential down the road. The cost to manufacture one will only go down every year.

It definitely has digital board game written all over it.

And it sure would free up a lot of storage space in our house.
 
nick_elt said:
Shame you have to buy the cartridges from them and you just cant fill them up like a lighter.
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I think it won't be long before the cartridges are jailbroken or that 3rd party refillables are sold by the likes of DealExtreme and Amazon as it normally is with these things.
 
That $10 for each fuel capsule is ridiculous. They should have made it compatible with the refill port used in high end butane lighters. Then you could get large cans of butane for far less money. You can get 8oz butane cans for $1 to $2 each.

Dropping the cost from $1 per iPhone recharge to $0.01.
 
jvmxtra said:
This is what happens when your fav company goes too coporate. Mr.Cook is too busy playing politic game + money grabber that this company stop innovating and stop caring for it's own passion(which btw is gone w/ Steve gone) and follow the money..

Again, I look for other company when trying out fantastic ideas..
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While you are looking, let us all in on your fantastic ideas.
Since it seems so easy, you sure must have some, besides just criticizing?
 
KdParker said:
I will remember this statement.

An integrated house with multiple surfaces that work together is something totally different that one individual table with a giant screen.

Now...a fully integrated house with wall displays that can be moved all around with me. Sure...I could get behind that.
.
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This is going to happen. Already all of my screens work together a little bit since I can Airplay pretty much anything from my computer to any of my TVs (and my projector) as well as pretty much anything from my iPad and iPhone. And Airplay is a piece of crup compared to what it will be five years from now. I have a great computer on my desk, but my desk is a big dumb surface. If cheap enough and good enough, I would like a smart surface on my home office desk. The iCloud is integrating a ton of my stuff, but this is only going to get better.

These surfaces might be ten years away, but they seem somewhat inevitable to me. It will either be this or something like Google glasses that will carry the day, I think. And I'm thinking that people are going to be more comfortable not wearing displays. So I think lots of integrated touch screen surfaces throughout our houses and work place will be common. But we shall see.
 
All Taken said:
Frankly i'd rather see more of the journalists 'touch' around Macrumors, not to the point of a Gizmodo article but the articles of late here seem written by a robot.
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Sponsored articles happen around MacRumours from time to time. Sad fact this is. And if the articles here were like Gizmodo I'd already have left never to return.
 
Just like inkjets..

nick_elt said:
Shame you have to buy the cartridges from them and you just cant fill them up like a lighter.
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Well you have to figure it's just like the toner and inkjet market - or anything else that uses a consumable. Although with inkjets, you can at least get the OEM cartridges re-filled.

And unless patents totally protect it (and I'm ignorant about that with inkjet cartridges - I know Brother, HP, et. al., always fight it using chips and such), but I think eventually someone will engineer a refillable cartridge for it.

I wouldn't mind owning one, actually. I find myself more often without an available outlet and in a situation indoors where a solar panel isn't the best - nor is a Li-Ion battery that i could have forgotten to charge. If I can sit down in a chair devoid of sockets and use this, that would be fine.

Even though I agree with most of the commenters on this thread regarding the price-point for both the cell and the refills being a tad high, I actually think they were spot-on for the market they targeted.

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velocityg4 said:
That $10 for each fuel capsule is ridiculous. They should have made it compatible with the refill port used in high end butane lighters. Then you could get large cans of butane for far less money. You can get 8oz butane cans for $1 to $2 each
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Agreed. And unless they have some kind of chip in the cartridge and memory in the charger to say "Woah there, chuckles! This cartridge has been long gone and spent" - doubtful but possible - making one to fit that actually has a refill port would be trivial.
 
9.99?

gilesrulz said:
They want me to spend $10 on $1 worth of butane? :rolleyes:
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$10 for a leaky butane cartridge. My $1 lighter holds it's butane for years and you can refill it from a can:
1-6030-fume-a-wand-butane-refill-l.jpg


Maybe it's some kind of highly refined butane that costs more than the lighter type of butane, but it doesn't market well.
 
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