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Hydrogen batteries soon a reality?

V

vmistery

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 6, 2010
952
697
UK
Hi All,

I was casually reading the news this morning and saw that a company has developed a hydrogen battery they have retrofitted to an iPhone. Big news is it lasts a week on a charge so clearly a big thing if it works. Is this some thing MacRumors fancies looking into a bit more to see if it is possibly upcoming either for the 7 or 7s? Any one got any thoughts?! Sounds amazing to me as I burn through battery life.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...will-charge-your-Apple-iPhone-for-a-week.html
 
Last edited:
vmistery said:
Hi All,

I was casually reading the news this morning and saw that a company has developed a hydrogen battery they have retrofitted to an iPhone. Big news is it lasts a week on a charge so clearly a big thing if it works. Is this some hinges MacRumors fancies looking into a bit more to see if it is possibly upcoming either for the 7 or 7s? Andy one got any thoughts?! Sounds amazing to me as I burn through battery life.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...will-charge-your-Apple-iPhone-for-a-week.html
Click to expand...

Sounds very interesting. But I noticed this in the article:

For the commercial launch the company is developing a disposable cartridge that would slot into the bottom of future smartphones and contain enough hydrogen-releasing powder for a week of normal use without recharging.
Click to expand...

Although it would be cool to have a week-long charge, it sounds like that under this current implantation, the battery is essentially disposable. I mean technically the actual battery is rechargeable, but what good does that do if you need to buy "batteries for the battery"? Unless these cartridges were very cheap, I don't think this would work well.
 
JohnApples said:
Sounds very interesting. But I noticed this in the article:



Although it would be cool to have a week-long charge, it sounds like that under this current implantation, the battery is essentially disposable. I mean technically the actual battery is rechargeable, but what good does that do if you need to buy "batteries for the battery"? Unless these cartridges were very cheap, I don't think this would work well.
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Ah yes that would be a big downer. I wonder if you could recharge it via a tank like their prototype rather than expensive sounding cartridges. Still a faff though. I wonder if as the article alludes Apple really are looking at it for this purpose.
 
vmistery said:
Ah yes that would be a big downer. I wonder if you could recharge it via a tank like their prototype rather than expensive sounding cartridges. Still a faff though. I wonder if as the article alludes Apple really are looking at it for this purpose.
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I highly doubt this specific technology would ever make it into an iPhone, or any phone for that matter. But, this could be the precursor to a future battery-charging technology that we will see later on. Too early to tell at this point, but it would be awesome if Apple became a leader in battery tech instead of always falling behind with these rather small battery lives.
 
Despite how such articles are written to make it sound like such developments are just around the corner, I think there's still a long way to go before this technology can be practically applied to a mobile device. Maybe the 12 or 12s. ;)
 
And I got so excited there for a minute! I really would like an extended battery life
 
While I embrace new technology is there really a need for a week long battery? In my opinion I would rather charge overnight than have to swap out a component weekly.
 
timeconsumer said:
While I embrace new technology is there really a need for a week long battery? In my opinion I would rather charge overnight than have to swap out a component weekly.
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For me as someone who travels extensively it would be a godsend to have a proper 3 day or better battery life. I burn through my battery in under a day as it is as it has to act as my hotpot. Id prefer it to be a normal charging mechanism but If it was a simple cartridge system where you got them refilled at a supermarket when doing your shopping I'd much prefer doing it that way than charging it every night. Get a couple of spare cartridges (assuming we are talking £10-£15) and I don't think anyone would have an issue.
 
vmistery said:
For me as someone who travels extensively it would be a godsend to have a proper 3 day or better battery life. I burn through my battery in under a day as it is as it has to act as my hotpot. Id prefer it to be a normal charging mechanism but If it was a simple cartridge system where you got them refilled at a supermarket when doing your shopping I'd much prefer doing it that way than charging it every night. Get a couple of spare cartridges (assuming we are talking £10-£15) and I don't think anyone would have an issue.
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Fair enough. £10-15 seems a bit expensive in my opinion but I also live in a city where they have free charging stations all over the place. I also typically carry around a portable charger that allows me to charge from 0-100% 3 times before it needs to be recharged.
 
timeconsumer said:
Fair enough. £10-15 seems a bit expensive in my opinion but I also live in a city where they have free charging stations all over the place. I also typically carry around a portable charger that allows me to charge from 0-100% 3 times before it needs to be recharged.
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That sounds convenient?
 
C DM said:
Where is that common thing, out of curiosity?
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Its in Portland, Oregon. Most of the places I frequent will charge your phone for you or will allow you to plug in for free while you are eating. And then throughout the city there are charging stations.
 
timeconsumer said:
Its in Portland, Oregon. Most of the places I frequent will charge your phone for you or will allow you to plug in for free while you are eating. And then throughout the city there are charging stations.
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Interesting, haven't seen it being all that common around California. Certainly some Starbucks and a few other cafes and places of that nature, but far far from many places beyond that.
 
C DM said:
Interesting, haven't seen it being all that common around California. Certainly some Starbucks and a few other cafes and places of that nature, but far far from many places beyond that.
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Gotcha. Yeah Portland is an interesting city. I'm also from California and I haven't seen much of that there. But in Portland it's a common thing.
 
timeconsumer said:
Gotcha. Yeah Portland is an interesting city. I'm also from California and I haven't seen much of that there. But in Portland it's a common thing.
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I'd still say as convenient it might be to be able to charge whenever/wherever, it's still a ways off from the convenience of not needing to worry about charging for, let's say, a number of days.
 
C DM said:
I'd still say as convenient it might be to be able to charge whenever/wherever, it's still a ways off from the convenience of not needing to worry about charging for, let's say, a number of days.
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I completely agree it's not as convenient as a battery that would last for days. But I'm not sure I would want something that requires me to replace cartridges of some sort. If they could get a battery that could last for days or weeks while allowing me to recharge it as needed then I would definitely be interested.
 
timeconsumer said:
I completely agree it's not as convenient as a battery that would last for days. But I'm not sure I would want something that requires me to replace cartridges of some sort. If they could get a battery that could last for days or weeks while allowing me to recharge it as needed then I would definitely be interested.
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I'd rather have a battery as there is plenty of battery charging infrastructure around and none for hydrogen! Personally I'd not really mind replacing a cartridge though if I was getting a big benefit from it, how hard could it be?

timeconsumer said:
Gotcha. Yeah Portland is an interesting city. I'm also from California and I haven't seen much of that there. But in Portland it's a common thing.
Click to expand...

On my travels I haven't seen that many places that do this, depends where you go. My main issue is that with heavy usage I don't really get a day and I really don't want to be searching for a charging place in an unfamiliar city where I can't speak the language. At the moment I ust carry around an extra device to charge the phone from but it isn't a particularly elegant solution.
 
It would be great, but you can look back to 2010, 2005, or even 2000 and see articles talking about brand new battery tech that will revolutionize mobile devices, yet not a whole lot has changed. Sure battery tech has improved, but it seems to be at a pretty similar pace as manufacturers cram more and more into said devices, so we don't notice the battery life getting much better from year to year.
 
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