Hasta La Gadget!

We live in a world where just about any mobile device that one carries these days – be they smartphones or tablets, are capable of playing back some music. And the amount of storage that these portable devices hold can reach insane levels, in fact, a whole lot more than your regular hard drive back in 2000. This would mean you would be spoilt for choice when it comes to the amount of songs that you can listen to, and chances are you would not have enough time to go through the entire playlist in a single setting. The thing is, sometimes, you want to share your eclectic taste in music with your mates, and your smartphone’s speaker just ain’t cutting it. Good thing there are alternatives out there like the $99.95 Portable Solar Powered Speaker.

The Portable Solar Powered Speaker not only lets you share your favorite tunes with the general public within an acceptable radius, but as its name implies, it is capable of offering an infinite amount of charging for your compatible power hungry devices – as long as the sun shines, that is. The speaker would pair up with a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone, tablet, or other wireless music player, where audio is played back via a 2.5”, 3-watt full-range speaker which delivers crisp sound. Its rechargeable battery has been rated to deliver up to eight hours of operation from a five-hour charge thanks to its built-in solar panel, and it comes with a rugged, water-resistant IPX4-rated exterior to boot.

[ Portable Solar Powered Speaker copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

If you’re on the go a lot, away from a power outlet you may have tried all sorts of things to help get more run time from your gadgets. A new solar power kit has turned up and features a small portable battery that can be recharged from the sun or a wall outlet. The charging kit is called the Sherpa 50.

The first time the Sherpa 50 turned up was during CES 2012 and it was delayed over a year and a half coming to the market. The good news is that it is here now and for $399.95(USD) you can get the complete kit including an AC inverter and a portable battery. The device can also be purchased a la carte – without the AC outlet or the solar panel, for as little as $199.95.

In addition to the standard AC outlet, the device also has a USB port for charging devices and a special port for your laptop. The battery weighs less than a bottle of water according to the manufacturer and can give you one full recharge for most laptops, and multiple recharges for other gadgets.

The battery can be charged completely in about five hours using only the included solar panel. You can also recharge the battery from the wall outlet in about three hours.

The Sherpa 50 is available now from GoalZero.

Most Android tablets are pretty much the same nowadays, traditionally. However, one company is looking to shake things up with an Android tablet that’s meant for the outdoors person in all of us. The Earl, as it’s called, is solar powered and comes with a thick robust outer shell to protect from the outdoor elements.

The tablet is referred to as a “backcountry survival tablet,” and it comes with all the features that most hikers would want out of such a device, including the typical wireless connections including NFC, as well as GPS with topographical maps that are preloaded onto the tablet. There’s a two-way walkie-talkie built in to chat with other hikers who have an Earl tablet as well.

The device sports a 6-inch e-ink display, so it’s certainly nothing that you would watch movies or play games on, and there’s also no camera to take photos, but we’re guessing you’d use your dedicated shooter anyway if you wanted to take photos of the beautiful scenery. It won’t be a tablet for most everyday users, but it seems that it’s an option for the survivalists.

As for price and availability, the Earl tablet is actually trying to raise money to fund its production. The tablet’s website is currently taking pre-orders at $250 a pop, which is 30% off the retail price of the tablet when it eventually launches. The company is seeking $250,000 and they’ve raised almost $13,000 so far as of this writing, with 32 days left to go.

[via Android Community]

Earl Android tablet is solar powered and battle-ready is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Early this morning at Moffet Air Field in Mountain View, California, Solar Impulse finally took off on the first leg of its barnstorming tour across the US. Of course, this isn’t the first time the sun-powered plane and its pilots, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, have flown long distance, but it is the first time it’s taken wing through American airspace. Why has it come across the pond? To raise pubilc and political awareness about the benefits of going green and increasing energy efficiency — and perhaps pick up an additional sponsor or two for its second-gen aircraft (currently in development) meant to fly around the world in 2015. “With the technologies we have onboard, we can divide by two the energy consumption of our world, and produce half of the rest [energy we need] with renewable sources” according to Piccard.

This first portion of the journey will end in Phoenix, and it’ll take around twenty hours to get there, as the plane’s meager output limits its average speed to around 40MPH. Should any of you want to join along with Piccard and Borschberg as they fly across the country, you can hit the Solar Impulse Across America website to see a livestream from the cockpit, along with real-time altitude, air speed and battery status of the aircraft. And, you can watch a video of Solar Impulse taking off on its North American journey and hear Borschberg talk about learning to fly it after the break.

Filed under: Transportation, Alt

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A major milestone for solar technology is coming up, as one pilot will be taking on the task of flying from San Francisco to New York on a plane that’s powered only by solar energy. Bertrand Piccard will be taking off in a plane that he and his design partner André Borschberg call Solar Impulse, which has been in the works for almost 10 years.

Solar Impulse has a wingspan of 207 feet, which is 2/3 the length of an American football field and the same wingspan as many commercial jets. The plane also sports 12,000 solar cells and 900 pounds of batteries to keep it going for a prolonged period of time. The team of two tested-flew the plane in 2010, and it was able to stay in the sky for 26 hours straight.

However, only Piccard will be making the journey across the country, but it won’t be as fast as what a commercial jet could make the trip in. Solar Impulse has a top speed of around 50 miles per hour, so it’s expected to take a few days for the plane to reach New York, whereas a jumbo jet could make the trip in just a few hours.

If the Piccard name sounds familiar, than you’re on to something (no, not Star Trek). In 1999, Piccard circled the globe in a gas-powered balloon, and his father, Jacques Piccard, was the first person to descend to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 1960. After Piccard completes the flight across the US, his next goal is to take the plane around the entire world, just like he did with the balloon.

[via Smithsonian Magazine]

Pilot to fly across US on solar-powered plane is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.