Employees at Apple have filed a patent for integrating solar 
cells into portable devices by placing them underneath the layers of a 
touch-sensitive display, according to the filing.<br><div><span><br>Solar power could help make devices truly portable, freeing from the need for wires to connect them to a power supply.<br><br>When
 generating electricity from solar panels, the larger the panel the 
better -- but as the patent "Solar cells on portable devices" warns, 
after allowing space for buttons, screens and a way to hold the device, 
only a small area is left on most devices for solar cells.<br><br>One of
 the ways around that suggested in the patent is to stack a 
touch-sensitive layer, a display and solar panel on top of one another. 
That could make Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch good candidates for such a
 power supply, as the display occupies almost the entire face of those 
devices.<br><br>The use of solar powered charging in portable devices is
 starting to get more attention, for more immediate consumer use as 
well.<br><br>When Vodafone announced its plan in April to reduce its 
emissions of the greenhouse gase CO2 by 50 percent by 2020, it also 
announced plans for solar-powered phone chargers and universal phone 
chargers for Vodafone-branded handsets.<br><br>At the recent ITU Telecom
 Africa 2008 conference, Ugandan Minister for Communications and 
Information and Communication Technologies Ham-Mukasa Mulira talked 
about trials of solar-powered charging conducted there, which had showed
 promise.</span>
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