The underside of the iBook has two metal "dots" exposed. These are connectors for a theoretical third-party iBook charger... I read somewhere that this would be an ideal product for the K-12 industry... create a station that can charge 10 or more iBooks at the same time.

Prediction:

At Macworld in San Fransisco, January 2000 (or perhaps in time for the holiday season, ie: November), Apple will announce a "wind-up" / "crank" battery charger for the iBook. This crank will connect to the bottom of the iBook, using the two metal connectors.

The wind-up charger will either be Apple branded, or maybe direct from the company that created it, Freeplay. My guess is it will be Apple branded.

It will take 45 seconds of winding to get 2 hours of battery life.

Apple will claim this is better than Compaq's charging keyboard, because when people are surfing the 'net, they usually aren't typing.

For more background, check out this Wired story, or this MacCentral story.