In 1999, Apple and Lucent introduced a technology to the casual computer user allowing them to connect to their network and/or the Internet through wireless technology dubbed AirPort. The ability to work on a laptop around the office or home without a tethered cable quickly became possible.

However, current power/battery technologies have left much to be desired. Despite their makers’ claims, most laptops have a real lifetime of 2-3 hours per charge, hardly a workday or lazy day in the backyard.

So, whereas Airport and its comparative technologies, like Bluetooth, freed the laptop to access the world of data beyond their machine without wires, power concerns have kept us tied down from true processing mobility.

While there are several possibilities for long-term power supplies, including long-life lithium batteries and power-generating hand cranks, mobile computing needs something akin to the AirPort solution: a radio wave-based energy grid. This grid would be accessible near any power base station (which in turn would convert AC current into the wave-based current), allowing people the true freedom to move, compute, and connect without the need of wires.

To accommodate power-pricing issues, the grid would need to contain a sort of identification that would designate the power source’s owner. Only the owner, or those who she elects, would be able to access this secured grid. The potential would exist for firms to "rent" power, allowing users to tap energy while in the airport or coffee shop.

Aside from the convenience that no battery drainage or battery swapping offers, consider the amazing reduction in weight, with a laptop no longer needing to carry a 2 lb. battery. Also gone would be the large power "brick," common with popular laptop electrical cords. Most importantly, however, computer users would become truly mobile, restrained only by their need to stay within range of a power station.

Airport