PDAMart: Batteries Could Be Life of the Party

[ Thanks to Chad
Capellman for this link. ]

“Two announcements were made Wednesday which have
nothing to do directly with each other now, but could eventually
contribute to the greatest PDA ever made.”

“The two announcements, one by Motorola and one by start-up
Transmeta, could eventually lead to the elimination of limited
battery-life problems that currently plague many mobile computing
devices and force manufacturers to excessively simplify even
more.”

“Motorola announced Wednesday it is developing a powerful
miniature fuel cell that runs on liquid methanol and may one day
replace traditional batteries in cellular phones and computer
devices.”

“Advances in microprocessors have been made at a consistent rate
for several years. There is something of an inevitability to the
Crusoe announcement.

“Advances in battery life, however, have been painfully
slow…”

“To a large extent, the need to limit features on PDAs has been
at the core of the success of Palm Computing. Whenever a Palm
Computing device user launches into the reasons why his device is
better than a Windows CE device, battery life is usually the first
or second point made.

“Wednesday’s announcements, however, might signal the beginning
of the end of that argument.”

Complete
story.