Apple iPhone 5S
A woman holds her new Apple iPhone 5S after buying it at an Apple Store in Tokyo Reuters

Apple is believed to be working on ways to introduce fuel cell technology to electronic devices to boost battery backup times. We have seen such power sources at work in propelling cars before though British firm Intelligent Energy believes their technology is scalable for application in laptop or even mobile devices. The two sides though refused to commit to a fixed timeline for the launch of fuel cell powered devices such as an iPad or a Mac, except that it could be a possibility within the next few years.

Fuel cell powered iPad could run for days or even weeks before requiring a recharge, reported the Daily Mail that first carried the news. The report further emphasized on it being kind to mother nature. The tech involves combusting hydrogen and oxygen in a highly controlled manner to derive electricity, mentions 9to5Mac.

Intelligent Energy Web site further elaborated on this, claiming it is air cooled fuel cell systems that would be at work in consumer electronic devices. The site also stated the system would be fed oxidant by low power fans that will be required for cooling purposes as well.

The move to adopt fuel cell tech to boost battery times also complies with the green energy company that Apple has come to be known as, reports SlashGear. Apple has been into building solar power farms of their own to power its data centers.

Apple has often been criticized for below par battery times on its iPhone even though its iPad and Mac series allow for all day usage quite comfortably. Samsung too had highlighted the deficiency in a new ad campaign dubbing iPhone users as wall huggers. Unfortunately, things are not expected to improve much even with iPhone 6, if recent rumors on this are to be believed. The 4.7 inch iPhone 6 is expected to come with a 1,900 mAh power source, which can be considered a modest attempt at best compared to the 2800 mAh battery on the Galaxy S5. Similarly, the 5.5 inch iPhone 6 is expected to include a 2,500 mAh battery.