Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
Also, keep in mind that some of the slowest improvements in technology are with battery capacity and battery life. eInk's big advantage right now is that it is downright stingy with power, so you can get away with a very small battery and therefore a light and thin device. As a result, it's going to be very difficult to make a super-thin device with a 6" screen that can show high-quality video, run a constant wifi / wireless Internet connection, and still has a battery life anywhere near what we expect or want from an ebook reader.
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I suspect that the current research into wireless charging will succeed before battery life reaches that stage-but that's just my SWAG. The last report I remember said that they were able to charge devices at more than a foot away from the charger. (Note that wireless charging isn't 'broadcast power' so it doesn't run into the inverse square law. IIRC it creates a magnetic field that channels the power to the device. Don't know that they've tried more than one device on the same charger, yet. That might be a problem. Anyway, that makes wireless charging more akin to 'beaming' power than broadcasting it. Still has pretty high losses, I think (can't recall hearing any data on that yet either) but it's got to be more efficient that broadcasting it.)