By: Angela Soric
Apple’s latest patent application supports the company’s interest in becoming greener. Apple is said to be experimenting with incorporating solar power cells into their devices, likely including the iPod and iPhone. The patent, dubbed “power management circulatory and solar cells” is a system for portable devices to either use solar cells to power the device entirely or to help provide energy to the battery. The system is likely to contain a battery monitoring system that would decide whether recharging of the battery is necessary. There’s also speculation of a technology that would allow the device to configure the solar cell circuitry to continue generating power even when a subset of the cells are hidden from sunlight.
The solar cells could be placed on the front and back of the device, which would allow for a greater surface area to collect more solar power.
