In a concept design only, Eric Strebel and Jim Nogarian prototyped a solar panel which can rotate with the sun. The case has three angles on the bottom, a flat surface for sunlight directly above around noon time, and two 45 degree angle for morning and afternoon sun. It’s a good idea…I think.
After a little bit of research it appears the direct sunlight approach to solar is a thing of the past. New technology allows diffused light to generate electricity through the solar panels and thus maximizes any solar panel even slightly exposed to sunlight.
Putting this information aside, The Solcar Vox does look like a fresh idea on charging your USB gadgets or other devices which charge via USB like the iPhone.
If you like the idea you can pre-order the prototype which is
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Here is another USB prototype design and it’s called the Infinite USB Plug. The pictures look great and the concept is clever, however it just doesn’t work. Never will.
Designed by Gonglue Jiang, the Infinite USB Plug allows you to keep adding your peripherals without the need USB hubs or hot swapping your devices on USB ports when needed. The color coding on plugs will make it easy to identify which plug belongs to which device.
The problem is the way USB typology works. When connecting multiple devices via USB you cannot daisy-chain them. You cannot piggy back them, it must be in a logical pyramid typology. Which means, this concept requires a hub.
Designed by Gonglue Jiang, the Infinite USB Plug allows you to keep adding your peripherals without the need USB hubs or hot swapping your devices on USB ports when needed. The color coding on plugs will make it easy to identify which plug belongs to which device.
The problem is the way USB typology works. When connecting multiple devices via USB you cannot daisy-chain them. You cannot piggy back them, it must be in a logical
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Cruising around last night, I found CoolBuzz posting some new USB designs – which are far from Cool Buzz. (sorry guys). Lets take a look:
I like the idea of convergence, but a cyber-latte which “fills up” during USB data loading is a little rediculous. Maybe good for a 2nd grader who needs to understand the concept, but I think we are all savvy enough to check capacity using the properties function.
Next up, and along the same line would be the hourglass and pie-chart shape. Wouldn’t you love to have that pie-chart sticking out the side of your laptop? Introducing a heating plate on that huge platter to keep your latte warm might be worth it, but even then a hard sell. The hourglass?  Come on. No comment there.
The only product I could see working is the Empty or Full USB device, and this would only work in one niche market. NASCAR.
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