It’s a tempting idea: for sunny climates, put solar panels on the top of a laptop so it can absorb sunlight as needed. I know it worked well for solar calculators twenty years ago, but these machines are going to need more power. Then again, as hard drives are replaced with SSDs and digital displays get less LED and more like LCD or liquid paper, it’s possible this could work as a partial or complete fueling method for PCs.
ACi has planned a couple of models for the Ultra-mini series PCs. The higher end models are also expected to feature touch screen, 2GB RAM and near 12-hour battery life by trapping solar energy. ^
So far, like many “green” issues, this could fit under one of two pitfalls: first, being marginally green and contributing to no actual practical change; second, being hype that might be vaporhardware, as the article linked above carefully hints.
What I don’t get is why it’s so hard for laptop makers to learn from Apple and Averatec and Asus: people don’t want little black technological machines. The old word for technology was that it was exotic. The new word is that people want it to fit into their lives and be pretty, like a food processor or telephone. How many laptops does Apple have to sell before the laptop industry finally groks that it needs to make white laptops, hide ugly technological seams, and simplify everything it can? Why is it so hard for you people?
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