Hasta La Gadget!

Let’s be honest, we’d scorch the Earth to eke just one more hour of power from our superphones. Fortunately, as residents of the western world we’ve got plenty of juice to power all of our gadgets. Still, we can definitely see the attraction of a solar-powered cellphone meant for the peoples of developing nations living off the grid. Throw in a flashlight and you’ve just changed somebody’s life. That’s what we’ve got in the ZTE S316, a dead simple candybar with color display and torch. Also announced is the S101 charger with its own built-in flashlight that can be used to charge select, non-solar devices and costs just $12 to $13, maybe less on volume. The third solar device comes from China’s OKWAP and is built by Inventec. The $40 GS109 (pictured above) feature phone is destined, believe it or not, to be an object of ultimate desire when slung from the neck on a lanyard as proof of ones prosperity. Spec-wise, this dual-SIM solar-powered phone packs a video camera, color display, microSD slot, MP3 player, and even Bluetooth 2.1 — a lot of features for a solar phone.

Linking the three devices is Intivations SunBoost solar conversion technology allowing the devices to charge in conditions less than ideal. The ZTE S316, for example, draws a max of about 113mA when on a call, while the solar cell pumps out about 50mA to 60mA of juice depending upon the natural lighting conditions (it even charges when cloudy). That’s about two minutes of natural light exposure required for every minute of talk time to keep the device going. The solar cell on the GS109, meanwhile, produces about 70mA in direct sunlight to keep the device humming. Remember, the idea isn’t to charge a phone from 0% to full but to keep a device continually charged at about 70% to 80%. Intivation is so confident in its tech that it claims to provide “a far better charging experience than anything else on the market today.” Both the S316 and S101 charger will be available in April while the relatively swank GS109 will hit next month. See them all in the gallery below.

ZTE and OKWAP team with Intivation to deliver next generation solar devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen the magic of piezoelectrics before, but if a team of Cal Bears can really deliver, their spin on things will actually make a difference in the retail realm. Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley have concocted so-called “energy-scavenging nanofibers,” which could one day be “woven into clothing and textiles” in order to convert into electricity the energy created through mechanical stress, stretches and twists. If everything works out, these movement-lovin’ clothes could theoretically power your phone and / or PMP as you walk, and for those concerned with cost, we’re told that the organic polyvinylidene fluoride materials use to make the nanofibers are easy and cheap to manufacture. Too bad there’s no direct confirmation that PVDFs are machine washable, but hey, that’s why you’ve got the local dry cleaners on speed dial.

Cal researchers create ‘energy-scavenging nanofibers,’ look to energize your next A&F sweater originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OpenPeak is a company so open it just can’t resist throwing the word into damn-near every product it makes, and the new OpenTablet 7 is no exception. The number refers to the size of the thing: a seven-inch TFT LCD tablet with LED backlighting, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth, and 3G connectivity. It’s all powered by an Intel Moorestown processor, and is designed to serve as a “fully functioning telephone and multimedia platform,” the latter bit helped by a microSD slot and not one but two cameras. It will quite naturally run the OpenPeak platform, which is powered by Flash, meaning no concerns about back and forth name calling here. No concerns about pre-ordering yet, either, as the company hasn’t seen fit to tell us when this will be shipping, or how much it will cost when it does.

OpenPeak introduces Morrestown-powered OpenTablet 7, sticks with Open naming scheme originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At Mobile World Congress, HTC reveals that it will release an Android 2.1 update for the Droid Eris and Sprint and GSM Heros. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-10453979-78.html” class=”origPostedBlog”3GSM blog/a/p

The Samsung Wave offers the carrier’s Bada OS, and the Pulse Mini runs Android 2.1 pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-10453950-78.html” class=”origPostedBlog”3GSM blog/a/p