Toshiba powers cell phone with methanol fuel cell -- no, you can't have one
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted October 1st 2008 4:47AM
posted October 1st 2008 4:47AM
Toshiba continues to tease us with its prototype liquid fuel cell-powered gadgets: last year it was a Gigabeat media player, and at this year's CEATEC you can check out a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that's been crammed inside a cell phone, lending it a robust six hours of talk time (compared to the paltry three or four hours of a traditional battery). Toshiba won't reveal the capacity of the DMFC, but they have said that a 50ml cartridge is good for about 15 refills. No release date yet, but the phone "might" be available "as early as next year." In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a woman holding a flip phone with "DMFC" clearly visible on the display.
Wouldnt want one of these blowing up during use.....
i'm confused...aren't we meant to be going from fuel to electric? or is that just for cars??
Yeah I find that quite funny.
Cars going to electric from fuel, while consumer electronics are going to fuel from electric.
Its a really interesting world we live in :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell
At first I read "...powers cell phone with methane..."
I'd never have a low battery if that were true.
Nice concept, I am still skeptic. Is charging a LiPo really that difficult?
The model looks so creepy. Also I call dibs on first ciggeret
better than DoCoMo's 2 part phone model, I thought she was going to chain the parts together and beat me to death. Come on Japan! We can do better than this, the amount of cute girls in Japan is ridiculous.
I get the feeling that model is going to take our souls...
She's in the uncanny valley... which is uncanny considering she's real.
hehe yeah, she is kinda "wierd" looking... not bad... but just doesn't look that "real"... maybe she's been under the knife a bit... or a bad combination of light & makeup gives her a strange "glow"... but I think she's gotten her nose and maybe eyes done...
@law
I get the same feeling about her ...
hm yeah i see what you guys are saying but uh...
i'd hit it.
That's because she's an extra-terrestrial.
Yeah, compared to Samsung and LG models, they could catch up quite a bit.
Look into my phone...look into my phone...you think HD-DVD was a better format...you think Sony sucks...
It seems it's entirely made out of plastic, I don't really like.
Now about the phone, it's alright I guess.
Keep the phone, I get the girl, we call it even.
Does it start like a lawnmower? No thanks. I'll have one of those plastic Japnanese Lady though.
When others like Sony have shown fuel cells for mobiles, they have also included a small battery since fuel cells don't deliver lots of power and don't typically start immediately. I wonder if this thing also has a battery inside?
I guess I don't understand something here. While I love the idea of double the talk time, the nice thing about a battery is that I can plug it in anywhere and just rock and roll for what amounts to a few pennies of electricity, but with this how in the freak do I recharge? Is it going to cost like $5 or $10 every time I want to power up?
JUNO?????