First Laptop With Full-Sized Solar Panels Will Run On Ubuntu 155
iwritethings writes "The Sol, a rugged-looking laptop with built-in foldable solar panels is designed for use in the military, education and developing countries where electricity is scarce. The Canada-based makers behind the Sol claim that the device can run directly off solar energy or can harness the sun's rays to charge the laptop's battery in under two hours. Once fully charged, the battery is expected to last between eight and 10 hours. While the concept of solar charging gadgets isn't new, this type of battery life is unprecedented. There's no word on when Sol will launch, but its headed to Ghana first, and it will run Ubuntu Linux."
Re:In a nutshell (Score:5, Funny)
I want you to have one. You obviously need a new caps lock key.
Save Frequently (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Matte screen (Score:3, Funny)
Has anyone ever tried using a laptop in the sun?
This is Slashdot. We haven't even been in the sun.
Maybe LED backlighting could get it barely bright enough without sucking down the battery in 3 minutes.
My 2.8ghz 17" Macbook Pro probably consumes around 30 watts for normal usage, so with a 13" screen and lower powered everything, I would imagine this laptop would do fine - especially if they were to replace the hard drive with an SSD. Unless there has been a dramatic improvement in solar panel technology, I believe you should be able to get about 10 watts per square foot of panel, right? This looks like it has around 1.5sqft of solar panel, so while it might not be able to run continuously on solar power, using it in the sun should certainly supplement a fully charged cell such that it could run all day long without another charge?