It may be a bit far-fetched, but it seems that iPods may soon be able to draw power from the sun.

A patent application dated 24 April 2008 showed the integration of solar cells in various mobile devices such as mp3 players and laptops.

Currently, it's possible to charge your iPod with an external, third party solar charger, but it's cumbersome and expensive.

Interestingly, contrary to conventional solar charging methods, Apple isn't thinking of users leaving their iPods in the sun to bake, but rather recycling light from its LCD displays. This wouldn't replace the need of a battery completely, but it could increase battery life.

And we're not just talking about iPods, almost all Apple products with an LCD screen will benefit from this technique.

Motorola had previously filed a patent for a similar technique in 2001, which claims to allow 75% of light to pass through the LCD to the solar cell behind it. It's not clear whether this filing by Apple will clash with it.

[via Macrumors]