Solar iPhone? Probably not

It would be no good for us in the UK, we don't get enough sun!

Another problem is that Apple doesn't love the Sun (NYSE:JAVA) as much as the Sun does likes Apple, else there would be Java support for the iPhone.

Answer: solar powered iphone case for recharging on the go.

Its important to remember that solar cells can get a charge from non-solar light like, I dont know, an LCD screen!

Could it be that everytime you are using the screen, a portion of the light is trickle charging back into the battery? Like the brake-charging on a Prius.

Just an idea!

It's not so far-fetched.

The iPhone has a 3.7v, 1400mAh battery. This solar panel:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5635

Which would fit on the back of the iPhone.

Apple lists the iPhone as having 8 hours of talk time and 250 hours of standby. Let's be pessimistic and scale that back to 6 hours of talk time and 200 hours of standby. That translates to current consumption of 175mA during talk and 7mA in standby. The solar panel delivers 60mA (albiet in full sunlight), but even if we assume 50% efficiency, it still will charge the iPhone during non-talk time. I wouldn't mind buying/using a clear plastic rear-facing holster that put the solar panel on the back of my iPhone facing the sun.

So it's not far-fetched, but if you keep your phone in the dark, it's admittedly less than practical.

hmmm ... so if a built in solar panel extends battery life by 5% during normal "out-of-pocket" use that's a dumb idea. and when I get home and set my iphone on a sunny spot on the table and extend the battery life 15% that's a dumb idea. and if i'm driving to work and place my iphone on the dashboard to increase battery life, that's a dumb idea too.

don't you see the value in this is not to charge your phone entirely by solar, but if the environment is conducive you can simply increase battery life. i think it's brilliant, and as consumer demand for "supplemental solar power" increases for consumer electronics, we can expect component and implementation costs to drop.

whether or not the technology is practical right now, the benefit to consumers is obvious.

What we need is a solar charging device that can plug into the dock... give it a short wire to the solar panel which clips outside the pocket, maybe a longer wire for 'gargoyles.'

A solar iPhone is silly (at this time). Incorporating kinetics like those in Sony's odo line of gadgets would be smart though.

Do the math. NO electronic devices will feature this. Imagine leaving your iPhone or laptop in the sun for longer than 5 minutes. I'm sure AppleCare doesn't cover warped and melted products...

If anything, they might release a small solar array with an iphone connecter on one end so you can charge your ipod/iphone while it sits in the shade, with the solar charger in the sun, but that seems pointless to me.

I tend to think that that patent has something to do with collecting the light from the display. i mean the light source is already there when the display is on even in the dark... almost like the power used to light the display is generating some power from the solar panel... almost like recycling the energy i think its clever...