Friday, August 24, 2007 5:05 PM
Cool Green Gadget (and Husband Gift)
I am about the last person on the planet you could ever call
a gear-head, but I’ve recently discovered a gadget I can’t wait to get my hands
on: The Solio solar charger. You just leave this little guy in the
sun for a few hours and then toss it into your handbag or car for all of your
on-the-go charging needs. It works
on cell phones, PDAs, Ipods, cameras, and even portable game players, which
means you’ll never be stuck with a dead battery AND you won’t have to keep any
duplicate chargers in your office or car.
I suppose you could even ditch all of your plug-in chargers and use the
Solio exclusively (it can also be charged in a wall socket if the sun has set
for the day). As you’ve probably heard, leaving all of those chargers plugged
into the wall even when you’re not using them wastes a ton of energy—appliances
that are plugged in but not being used (aka “energy vampires”) can cost you a
whopping $250 a
year in electricity bills and waste 1000 pounds of CO2. So the $100 I’ll spend on the Solio
could actually save me money.
I think I’ll start by buying one as
a gift for my husband—he loves gadgets and is moderately eco-conscious so he’ll
be really into it (though I’m not sure if he’s quite man enough to handle neon
pink, so I’ll be getting him one of the black, white or silver ones!). Plus his
phone/PDA never seems to be charged (or is supposedly “about to die”) when there’s
something urgent I need to talk to him about. With a sun-fueled, totally portable charger he’ll have zero
excuses for not being in touch.