iPad 4 with solar bezel

[iPadPublisher]

Friend of mine installed a small, very thin solar panel on the roof of his suv that trickle charges his battery. The main idea is to keep it from ever completely draining should something be left on, etc.

Wondering if that same concept could make its way to an iPad. Slow solar charge. iPads lay around a lot...

 

[miles01110]

Not by Apple.

 

[Pressure]

Not in the bezel but they do have a patent where the solar voltaic cell is imbedded in the screen itself.

 

[Michael CM1]

That's nifty on a truck, but on an iPad? I NEVER leave mine in an area where it gets enough sunlight to even think about it being charged like that. It's hard enough to charge without using the big brick that came with it.

If you want solar charging, it would be smarter to set up solar cells outdoors pointing south and then creating a dedicated battery/outlet setup to use for that. Otherwise, you're probably wasting your time and photons.

 

[screensaver400]

There's not enough surface area on the back of iPad to meaningfully charge it, much less on the bezel. 8 hours of charging would probably net you 5 minutes of usage.

 

[Gav2k]

Many moons ago it took a panel the size of an open MacBook 13 to charge my windows phone 2005 ish and it was 8 hours to charge it

 

[GoCubsGo]

Hope not. I'm not outside enough with the iPad. Unless I start taking it with me everywhere I go ...

 

[669532]

...and photons.

Arn't we running out of those?

 

[ManicMarc]

It would be better if the smart cover did this.

 

[iPadPublisher]

It would be better if the smart cover did this.

True...

 

[poloponies]

I have one of these, which couples a fairly robust solar panel to a battery:

http://solarjoos.com/

Even then I could barely recharge my original iPad with it and the current iPad gets barely a trickle. The technology is getting there but it's definitely not there yet.

 

[iPadPublisher]

I have one of these, which couples a fairly robust solar panel to a battery:

http://solarjoos.com/

Even then I could barely recharge my original iPad with it and the current iPad gets barely a trickle. The technology is getting there but it's definitely not there yet.

Looks like the technology isn't there yet. Interesting though...

 

[Medic311]

not until solar technology has improved substantially.

however, each year they are discovered more and more efficient ways to manufacture solar panels (reduce costs) but unfortunately not much advancement in terms of energy production efficiency.

however, many universities are doing extensive research to incorporate nano tubes into the solar panels to exponentially increase the surface area exposed to the sun.

eventually we will get there

 

[yeah]

Why not send electrons from the air into our iPads?

I don't think that's possible.