Today I was doing some research for a good solar powered iPhone charger.  I went the direction of a DIY [Do It Yourself] project then realized this is all a waste of time.  Maybe there are a select few that would jump on a DIY solar powered iPhone charger project, but considering the complexity of the tutorials I found, very very unlikely my average reader would actually do it.

So to save yourself the 30+ minutes of looking for a good tutorial, just spend 3 minutes and buy one that will A) work better, B) look better and C) be cheaper.

The project directions can be found here and you’ll quickly see it’s a complex project that requires some tools you might not have, plus supplies you’ll surely need to buy.  All in all, it’s about a $70 project, (more…)

The world is going Green.  This is your chance to keep those USB gadgets, yet charge them without consuming electricity and leaving your carbon footprint.  The idea behind this USB tutorial is taking the kinetic energy of your bike and turn that into re-powering any USB gadget.

I found this fun little project off the Instructables website.  Apparently the author received some grant funds from Lemelson-MIT program and put together a team of 6 students to create this solution.

The team got their idea from shake-up flashlights which are based off the Faraday Principle - which is a type of electromagnetism reaction to generate energy.

You will need to get a bread-board and create a small circuit to capture the energy produced by the bike and turn it towards your USB gadget.

Next, you’ll need a motor provider that will actually “capture” the energy, feed it through your newly made circuit.  There are many options for this, check (more…)

How would you like to connect wirelessly to your iPhone?  Imagine sharing your photo’s or [soon to be] video with your TV or monitor without a cable?  How about sync your iTunes without the white USB connector, or update contacts, schedules, calendar and more without making a connection.  How about getting real crazy and juicing up your iPhone without a plug?

Well, all of this will be possible with the new Alereon wireless USB technology for the iPhone and those who integrate into their peripheral.

The demonstration consists of a small wireless USB peripheral connected to a typical iPhone or iPod’s edge connector. The adapter enables any iPhone or iPod to both provide extra battery power/charging as well as synchronize wirelessly to iTunes whether on a Windows or MAC OS machine. Future enhancements will enable connectivity to HDTVs for displaying photos or videos.

The ultimate vision of Alereon is to have a peripheral device integrated into (more…)

I’ve seen plenty of cigarette USB chargers, but this one design from Belkin out does them all.

It’s not bulky.  It will sit flush in your car.  It’s got feedback via the blue LED light.  It’s iPhone compatible, meaning it’ll charge anything.  Only $15 USD.  Awesome.

I went to buy it on-line and it’s not yet propagated into the e-commerce sites, but give it a couple weeks.  It’ll be there.

Source:  Belkin.

America takes comfort in the fact we lead technology, but with mobile devices we are the exception.  Europe is way ahead of us and so is China.  In fact, back in Dec 2006, China made the decision to standardize cell phone charges to have a micro USB port.  The reason, to reduce waste.  Back then, you purchased a phone and you’d get a new wall charger.  The charger was loaded with lead, plastic etc.  Today, you simply get a USB cable.

Last week 17 mobile phone companies officially made the plung to accept micro USB as the connection for recharging cell phones.  This decision was based on the same reasons as mentioned above. (more…)

USBFever has a 5 port USB wall charger for those a bit light on USB ports, yet need something to charge those iPhones, iPods and PDAs.

The USB SuperTravel has 4 standard USB ports and one miniUSB port.  It’s no longer required to haul around your laptop just to power up your gadgets while on the go.

The kit includes world voltage acceptance with plugs that cover you in US, UK, AU and EU.  The charger will auto detect the voltage and adjust accordingly so no mess with figuring out which fuse or setting is needed in different countries.

USBFever is offering the USB wall charger for $26. (more…)

No pun intended, but this laptop fan is cool looking with a great design.  The Dog shapped USB cooling fan is an ideal adition to those working from laptops.  With two 6″ built-in cooling fans, it can dissipate heat away from the bottom of your laptop and cool down the the under belly of your laptop.

The USB cooling fan for your laptop comes in either a Dog or Penguin shape and acrylic top.  It’s almost a shame you cover up the design with your laptop.

Here is a side view of the laptop cooling pad: (more…)