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Water-powered mobile phones? No, it's not a con!

by Staff Writer | posted on 17 October 2007

"When the handset is turned on, metal and water in the phone react to produce hydrogen gas," explained Oh Yong-soo, vice president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics' research centre.

The quote comes from Arne Hess, not a naive beginner who'll fall for the first plausible con-trickster. He picked up this lead from Korea Electronics Show, where Samsung revealed this fuel cell technology.

Most fuel cells, Hess says, need methanol; the Samsung invention generates its own hydrogen - or will do, when it appears in 2010. It's only a prototype right now, but when it arrives, it will operate from water (he doesn't say how long the metal lasts, however, or what metal it is).