Fair enough, a methanol-powered battery might well deliver three times the current for twice as long as its lithium equivalent, but carrying around a canister of explosive liquid doesn't ring my bell. Refueling my mobile phone, on the bus, with highly volatile accelerant splashing all over the other riders would make me pretty unpopular, I suspect. Especially if the bus caught fire and exploded while I was listening to "The White Room," oblivious.
Rumors seep from MIT about gas-powered miniature jet engines the size of coins, with micro-turbines spinning at a million revolutions per minute. The jet engines of a Boeing 747 output the same amount of juice as a nuclear power station, so apparently even a fairly poor, underpowered miniature jet engine can dramatically outperform current batteries. But this is technology that's still prohibitively out of reach, and it also begs the question of refueling and coping with a mobile phone that needs an exhaust port. Micro-jets of super heated gas waste burning though your jacket (and into your skin) is a price still a little too high for 20 hours of talk time.
As dictated by Morpheus, a power source as abundant as the sun must surely provide some hope for the power-hungry commuter, and much of the research into new batteries seems to be angled toward the sky. Already we can pick up a solar collector pretty cheap, though the trickle charge that dribbles from them (particularly in today's greenhouse gas addled climate) is only useful to top up a battery during extended periods of inactivity. A well prepared user can make good employ of such photovoltaics, of course - leaving one ready on the dashboard or in the office window, topping up the iPod for the journey home, but even the flexible, printed versions now becoming available don't quite replace a tube of lithium ions.
One of the most exciting (for me and my personal area network, at least) is currently to be found undergoing military tests at the Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center in Natick. Different fibers of nanostructured material are being woven into an active fabric that can generate and store electrical charge, making soldier's uniforms into both battery and charger. Again, this is distant enough to ensure we won't be seeing it branded with a cell phone carrier logo any time soon, but it's one of the few genuinely exciting developments in combating the portable power shortage from which the modern man about town is suffering.
Of all the recent developments in accessible power, the USB socket has proven to be the most useful. Not that the computer data bus was designed for that purpose, but the world's mobile technology is gradually changing from three-, six, nine- and 12-volt power requirements to a nice, round five - the new universal standard as established by the USB port.
Since most gadgets will now talk to a PC, it seems the manufacturers thought it'd be a good idea to tap into the five-volt supply at the same time, and since the USB port is not a difficult hole to find in the desks and walls of the modern world, personal area network users tend to agree. A range of rechargeable AA batteries are even available now with a flip top cover that reveals a USB plug for direct recharging, so although a universal charger still hasn't quite been achieved, at least we have a more suitable outlet than the national power grid.
Perhaps it's not entirely the onus of the manufacturers to ensure our electronic friends remain lively, however. It would seem that for the foreseeable future, the personal area networker is going to have to accept responsibility for his own power requirements. Technology is advancing faster than the power supplies - a demand driven by mobile technophiles like myself - so we must face the some of the storm when it comes to perpetually dead batteries.
Our pockets are rich with dynamic, exciting gadgetry that makes portable power an increasingly valuable commodity and an exciting realm that's surely due for a revolutionary breakthrough. Factoring a recharge contingency into your personal area network in the meantime is a small price to pay until the nano-batteries are woven into the fabric of your M65 regiment field jacket and you become your own power source.
Spanner has written articles for several publications, including Retro Gamer. He is a self-proclaimed horror junkie, with a deep appreciation for all things Romero.
