They've been working on this for a long time. You'd think that if people were going to spend four or five years investigating this kind of technology that somebody might think about the practical aspects of this and possible pitfalls. Like what if you got this brand new fuel cell laptop and you couldn't take it anywhere.

While laptops are more popular these days in general because of their smaller size, someone using the laptop at a desk or carrying it back and forth to work doesn't necessarily care that much about the battery life. The big win is when you're travelling, which most of the time is by plane.

Oh, but besides banning everything from fingernail clippers to knitting needles, the airlines have decided to ban every possible type of incendery device they can think of, from zippo lighters to matches. (Although TSA recognizes that X-ray machines aren't good at detecting things like cardboard with a little bit of sulfur on the end, so that the rule on matches is kind of lax.)

So I wonder what they're going to think of fuel cells. My guess is they're not allowed. So at first you won't be able to take your laptop with you on a flight at all (since various fuels are not allowed in checked luggage either), though with enough lobbying they might relax the rule a little like they finally did for zippo and allow laptops without any fuel. How handy.

I think laptop fuel cells are in for an uphill climb.