Eco Charger From Carphone Warehouse Shuts Down Automatically When Your Battery Is Full

Now this idea is smart, though technically speaking it is simple.

A cellphone charger that shuts itself down when your battery is already full, presented by Carphone Warehouse. Though its physical design is aesthetically rather unpleasing, but the function is said to "save up to 300,000,000 kWh of electricity yearly – the equivalent of £85 million", assuming that all UK residents use this. An unrealistic assumption, however.

So care to buy one? It is £23. But speaking about environmental friendliness, so what will happen with your existing charger? Recycle it or what? It would be even greater for Carphone Warehouse if it provides trade-in with our current charger.

Source : UnwiredView, Pocketlint. Read More......

LG Solar Powered Phone And The Solar Powered Trend

We already knew that Samsung created the gorgeous Blue Earth cellphone, and now Samsung's Korean counterpart, LG, also announced its own solar cell phone. This time, the deal is more concrete, LG promised to give you 3 minutes talk time for 10 minutes cellphone exposure to the sun.

While it seems novel and innovative, we should really question whether solar powered phone is really beneficial or only a fad. Actually, most common folks work in indoor environment. There are only a handful day jobs that require people to work outdoor under the sun. Police, Army, Pilots, Field Engineers, Extreme sports athletes, perhaps. But these kind of people may find military standard phones more suitable.

I have an idea here. Why not combine the ruggedness of military standard phones with solar cell? Wouldn't it be great? Because if I were a sergeant in a drill, and my cellphone gets low battery, I can't risk my career by running out of my training only to charge the phone. But may be I can ask my friend to just expose the phone to the sun. Still...this kind of scenario is too far fetched.

And let's get real, common folk like you and me will not have the time to fry our phone under the sun for 10 minutes to get 3 minutes talk. We are too busy with our emails and phones and fax that come to our desk. And come on, that electrical plug is always within reach either at home or in office, so plugging in charger is much more convenient, and much more make sense. So, there is really no practical need for these solar powered phones. It's just a fad that will be gone before you know it!

Moreover, who needs this solar powered charger, unless you are Lara Croft. Though, again, we never see Lara Croft use a cellphone during her adventures ! :)
permalink Read More......

Samsung announces Blue Earth, solar powered phone

Samsung has just announced today the Blue Earth, a solar powered touch screen phone. The Korean manufacturer claims that Blue Earth gets enough energy to make call anytime via solar panel in the back of the phone. If it does live up to its claim, it will be interesting to measure Blue Earth's battery life with regular use.

There are no more details however on specs. If only Samsung Blue Earth able to load micro-SD, play mp3/mp4, and HSDPA, this will be an amazing treat to all of us. Yet these features are energy hogs, so let's not give too much expectation that all of these features will be available in the Blue Earth.

From design perspective, Samsung Blue Earth is beautiful, with smooth rounded edges, and blue color that reminds us of a blue pebble. The phone body is made of PCM, a form of plastic which is extracted from water bottles.

The picture shows gorgeous screen, and a feature that enables you to count the step you've taken (pedometer), and how many equivalent trees you have saved from your walk. A cleverly implemented idea that match the whole theme of the phone.

According to Pocketlint, it will be available in second half of 2009 in UK.

Of course there are previous attempts by Nokia and NEC on this eco-friendly thingy phone. But apparently there are not enough economic motive (read : less profit) for them to keep this thing going. Let's see whether Blue Earth can sell well in UK, and the world, so we can talk with blue pebbles which glows and only need the sun to power it up. You've got the idea.

permalink Read More......