Skip to main content

More Power in Your Pocket

Toshiba announced their latest DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cell) evolution.

This pocket sized device is targeted at Flash Memory based media, such as MP3 players, but they also have a Hard Drive suitable version. The improvements in playing time are considerable.

This is off the back of their recent revelation on their Nano-Technology battery that reaches 80% of it's charge in one minute.

The days of true mobility are approaching...rapidly. One of the problems with Mobiles and laptops has been the poor performance of the power sources and with this the tie to a fixed point for charging. With the new options soon available will be able to more for longer periods away from the electricity socket. The DMFC MP3 player will be available this year. The Nano-tech Lithium Ion battery is slated to be available next year.

With these powers sources at hand we will be able to make the most of the internet access now available on flights and more mobile usage. It also raises interesting questions on a re-emergence of realistic options for battery powered cars, with fast charging times that will significantly extend the effective range. As a friend suggested, imagine pulling up to a red light and getting the battery on your car recharged to 80% while you wait for the lights to change to green. Now that is a vision that I hope will be realised.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

PC over IP - The Teradici Effect

Teradici are hoping to blur the lines between PC and Data Centre. Their solution allows a use to view multiple screens and control the blade PC over IP. This is kind of like the dumb terminals with a new edgy deployment. The intention is that all of the computing power is performed offsite in a centralized area, the Data Centre, and this will save on power and maintenance costs as the engineers are co-located with the hardware and therefore don't have to go out to the client site for basic maintenance. The Teradici Company Article found in the Wall Street Journal

e-Olympics

This year's Olympics should be the best ever for coverage. Fring are looking for onsite commentators and as a means to encourage people are offering a 3.5G phone as your reporters tool. I hope that this will be the games of the micro blog. The potential for services like Twitter or Jaiku to open up access to the games in a way never seen before is encouraging. Essentially there are three dimensions to the games: Nation Event Athlete Typically broadcast of the games ha content defined by the nation. The USA channels closely follow the USA squad, the same for UK, NZ Australia etc. This is targeted at the national pride. For those people who are actively engaged in an event themselves, marathon, it's the event that is king. There will still be an element of "my country" but this is equally balanced by "my sport". The final element is the followers of a specific athlete. Friends, family and fans may elect to follow all of the events surrounding a person. ...

Cashless Society? Micropayments up for disruption

New Zealand, although small, is a long way ahead in many aspects compared to the UK. Some of their new schemes are being adopted by the UK government. What I remember from my first trip here 6 years ago was the impact of the EFTPOS system. Long before the UK was using Chip and PIN New Zealand was moving towards a cashless society with the ubiquitous EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer Point of Sale) cards and terminals. The system is good and robust. But the one place you can't find it for some of those micropayments is on the public transport system. Buses would benefit from some form of electronic payment system. There is one drawback of the system in it's implementation today, the time taking to pay. For small payments, say a Moro (think Mars) Bar at the local dairy (corner shop) is the time taken for the system to recognise the card and for the user to select the account (Cheque, Savings or Card) and input their PIN. This would certainly slow down the boarding process...