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Google Television

Future Google TV Devices Might Come With a Solar-powered Remote (theverge.com) 31

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Epishine, a company that makes solar cells optimized for indoor lighting, has announced its technology is being used in a new remote control for Google TV devices, as spotted by 9to5Google. The remote will rely on rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones, and thanks to the use of solar cells on both sides it may only run out of power when it gets buried and forgotten in the dark abyss of your couch cushions.
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Future Google TV Devices Might Come With a Solar-powered Remote More

Future Google TV Devices Might Come With a Solar-powered Remote

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  • Evidently ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Thursday November 20, 2025 @04:29PM (#65808165)

    ... they've never seen a man cave.

  • And this is innovative how? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Thursday November 20, 2025 @04:30PM (#65808173)

    I had a solar powered calculator in 1980 or so.

    • Re: And this is innovative how? (Score:4, Informative)

      by diffract ( 7165501 ) on Thursday November 20, 2025 @05:19PM (#65808343)
      I have a Samsung tv with a solar-powered remote that I bought some 3 years ago, but this is news because an American company is doing it

      • My Samsung remote only has cells on the underside, so I have to flip it face down every morning so it can charge up. Luckily it also has a USB-C port so if it ever gets low after your power goes out, you can still charge it from a power bank :)

        I guess the innovation is putting the on the front too? And of course Google controls the newsfeed, so that's why it's a "story".

        • Odd, I have a similar Samsung remote for my TV and only once in 2-3 years have needed to flip it so the underside is up after the TV prompted me (was actually a couple weeks ago).

          The living room it is in isn't a full-on man cave, but the main window has double blackout curtains (more for sound absorption) and the other window gets almost zero sun with a covered patio in front of it. That room also almost never has the main lights turned on, maybe a couple times a month for 5 minutes at a time.

          The remote ha

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kisai ( 213879 )

      Someone probably had a patent on it.

      Solar cells are much more efficient now, so perhaps they have enough to power a bluetooth/wifi chip instead of infrared.

      But that said, I wonder how much cheeto grease the solar remote can take before it doesn't work anymore. People forget the reason the remotes stop working is usually not even the battery, it's because the remote button faces wear off or the actual button materials wear down. You might only replace the batteries twice in the device's lifetime.

      • The remote from my TV is some 13-14 years old. Still looks like new.

        What are you doing to your remotes???

      • Solar cells are much more efficient now, so perhaps they have enough to power a bluetooth/wifi chip instead of infrared.

        How did you not think about how long a pair of AA batteries in your remote last before making this comment? No there was no technical reason for this. Even with BT or any other customer RF transmitter (no they don't use WiFi that would be insanely silly) which is present in countless remotes on the market batteries last the best part of an entire year. Not only can you trickle charge them off the type of cell found in a 30 year old calculator, but that is actually similar to the cell that these products act

    • Forget calculators we're talking about TVs Google is innovating by ... introducing a product Samsung introduced in 2021 (I just realised it's been nearly 5 years since I stopped changing TV remote batteries).

    • Yes calculators already had this for many decades, but it just shows how much more energy a common remote uses for not having been able to use it. Now most remotes for new devices are just bluetooth and not IR based, and BT chips have become so much more power efficient that it can work good enough with a solar-element on the remote to add enough charge to the battery so it doesn't drain too much by usage. As during the day most remotes are not in use, so keep charging.

  • No thanks. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Thursday November 20, 2025 @04:30PM (#65808175)
    I'll stick to my Ikea Eneloop knock-offs. Remotes typically last ~8-10 months on a charge, and then it's 40 seconds to swap in a new pair from the charger when they're depleted.

    • What I typically do is leave in the no-name AAA alkaline batteries that the remote came with, and it works for a couple of years until I move on to newer gear.

      Then after I've left it idle for 15 years, I'll come back and open the remote to discover that the batteries have leaked all over the inside and destroyed it.

      • The batteries that remotes typically come with are carbon-zinc chemistry for three reasons - 1, they're inexpensive, 2, they're not prone to leaking, and 3, they'll actually outlive alkaline batteries in very low-draw applications like a remote control.

        Eneloop-type NiMH batteries won't leak either.

        Alakaline batteries are the leakers and the quality of these batteries seem to be diminishing and tend to leak after a few years if left inside the gadget they're powering. Name-brand Energizer is a big off

    • Yes. Eneloops and rebrands for the win. Got a few hundred AA / AAAs for my smart devices - door, motion, water sensors, and locks. Using disposable alkalines would be crazy. And yet that's what most of these devices came with.

    • Remotes typically last ~8-10 months on a charge

      What's a charge? It's been 4 years since I've replaced a remote battery on my TV, and it still works perfectly. I don't understand this fascination with hanging on to silly outdated practices.

      No it's not 40 seconds. It's using something, finding out it gets flaky, you press the buttons harder, point it a bit better, eventually it dawns on you that the battery may be dead, you get up off your arse (why do you even have a remote if you need to get up anyway), go look for replacements which you use so rarely s

  • The disposable battery market should be dying (Score:3)

    by FudRucker ( 866063 ) on Thursday November 20, 2025 @04:34PM (#65808191)
    With the popularity of solar power and the 18650 rechargable battery would make that happen if I had a say in it

  • Headline is wrong (Score:3)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Thursday November 20, 2025 @04:38PM (#65808209)

    TFS clearly says it's indoor lighting powered, not solar.:-)

    • Yup. My Samsung TV remote has this feature, and it works pretty well (as long as you don't lose the remote under the couch cushions for too long).

      • Yup. My Samsung TV remote has this feature, and it works pretty well (as long as you don't lose the remote under the couch cushions for too long).

        Likewise but I use a programmable one and the original one is in a drawer. I should see if it still has a charge.

  • Given that most of us have used solar powered calculators for decades now I'm rather surprised that someone hadn't done this before.

    Feel free to mod this "Redundant." I won't be offended.

  • My Samsung remote has had the solar panel in the back for some green washing too. So glad I can save 100mah of power every 3 months!
  • This has been normal technology since the 80s. This feels like an advertisement for Google.

  • Seems like you need to pick a new word if you're going to start making devices to be powered by interior lighting.

    Perhaps, photonic power?

    Also, wouldn't this make way more sense as a piezoelectric device? My viewing area for my TV is the darkest part of the apartment.

  • Yet another feature I have no use for.

    How about making your remotes findable with my phone? That would actually be useful.

  • The other night, in the middle of the night, while I was semi asleep, I put the remote for my soundbar into a glass of water on the nightstand, instead of just on the nightstand. Discovered it the next morning. Completely ruined of course.

    So, based on my experience, waterproof remotes would be more useful than solar powered ones.

  • Not news. Nothing to see here. Also, the Samsung SolarCell can be recharged by USB-C too.
  • "The remote will rely on rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones." Ahem. Nearly *all* my battery-operated devices rely on rechargeable batteries. (My wife has an LED candle fetish - I taught her the finer points on using our smart charger such as assessing battery capacity and refreshing older batteries.)

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