One of the trends that I’ve been following lately is the development of solar power technology for cell phones. I recently wrote an article about this for DialAPhone which reviews all of the different solar cell phone options that I’m aware of. It covers the following ten options:

1. Solar cell phones. These are handsets themselves that are solar-powered.
2. Solar cell phone sleeves. These chargers go around the cell phone.
3. Solar backpacks. These gather energy to power many small devices including cell phones.
4. Solar USB panels. This is one of the newer options out there.
5. Solar clothing. Swimsuits are particularly popular although I don’t know how practical this is.
6. Solar straps. These wrap around your wrist and gather the sun’s energy for your phone.
7. Solar cell phone accessories. Solar-powered phone speakers are an example.
8. Solar panels for buildings. This offers power for phones indoors.
9. Solar cell towers. This is a big-scale project for solar cell phone power.

If this topic interests you then I hope you’ll read the full article that I did on each of these options by followign the DialAPhone link above. If you know of any other solar cell phone options that I’ve missed then please let me know in the comments here!

Tags: cell phones, mobile technology, solar cell phones, solar power, solar power cell phones

It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between cell phones and laptops. Mobile phones that were once getting tinier and tinier have started to get bigger again so that people can use them in place of laptops for a lot of daily functions. At the same time, there are notebook computers that are getting smallers and smaller so that they can be carried everywhere like a phone is. Will the phone and the laptop be one and the same some day?

Cell phones are increasingly capable of doing many of the things that you would do on your laptop. People are even writing entire books on their mobile phones. However, there are some things that limit people from using mobile phones as true computers. One of the major problems is battery power. You can plug a laptop in anywhere and use it. This may not be true of your mobile phone. Plus a laptop battery often lasts longer than a cell phone battery. Scientists and engineers are working hard to create technology that will improve battery life of cell phones. If they are successful in doing this, will laptops become obsolete as they are replaced by mobile phones that can provide all the same functions?

I’m tempted to suggest that laptops will continue to exist but that desktop computers will disappear. I have two laptops and a desktop and I almost never use the desktop. The laptops are just more convenient even when I’m working at home. If I can use my mobile phone as a mobile computer and I can use my laptop like a desktop then what do I need a desktop computer for? Unless, of course, I want a big screen desktop for gaming and watching Internet TV. In that case, maybe I do need a mobile phone, a laptop and a desktop but I no longer need a television!

Tags: cell phone technology, mobile phone batteries, mobile technology, powering cell phones, Wireless