Hasta La Gadget!

Oh sure, we’ve seen quite a few solar chargers in our day, but rarely do we get the chance to actually use one for the weekend. A new outfit by the name of Kiwi Choice gave us such an opportunity recently, and today it’s officially launching the U-Powered USB portable solar charger. Put simply, this here device folds out into a tri-pointed thingamajig with a trio of solar panels ready and willing to catch sunlight and store it within. The impatient among us can also juice it up via USB or AC adapter, with a full charge taking at least four hours. The device boasts a power capacity of 2,000mAh, and there’s also a magnet for storing it underneath your vehicle’s seat or dashboard. Oh, and there’s even a LED flashlight on the front in case of emergency.

The company ships the device with 11 different tips, one of which plays nice with Apple’s dock connector. We tested it out on a few obvious candidates, and while it had no issue juicing up our iPhone 3G, the in-house iPad saw the dreaded “Not Charging” logo appear moments after it was connected. The bundle also includes an AC plug and an in-car cigarette adapter for times when the solar charger is pooped, but unfortunately, neither of those options would charge the iPad, either. We will say, however, that it managed to charge every other handheld we had just fine, and while the build quality wasn’t exactly world class, it’s suitable for tossing in the car and having around when energy is needed. It’s available today for $49.99 if you’re interested.

Kiwi Choice launches U-Powered USB portable solar charger originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 May 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And the good Froyo news just keep flowing in. TechCrunch have flexed their exclusive muscle this morning in revealing their discovery that Android 2.2 will come with built-in tethering and WiFi hotspot support. That means you’ll be able to use your phone’s 3G internet connection to hook your laptop up to the worldwide webosphere, with a choice of wired or wireless methods. Of course, this dreamy scenario will be subject to the big bad network operators permitting — or at least not forbidding — you to do such awesome things with your hardware, but at least we know the goods are being baked into this forthcoming release from Google. Frozen yogurt for all!

Android 2.2 ‘Froyo’ to include USB tethering, WiFi hotspot functionality originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 05:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, Apple. Just a few short months ago, a USB port was (largely) a USB port, charging pretty much any gizmo we could find without so much as a fuss. Now, loads of USB ports are throwing temper tantrums when faced with the energy-hungry iPad, with most simply refusing to charge the thing. Apple contends that a 10W USB port is needed to effectively rejuvenate its first tablet, though some sockets will do the trick so long as you have the display switched off. If you’re looking to quickly evaluate the strength of every USB port in your home or office, QuickerTek’s aptly-titled iPad Charge Monitor ain’t a half bad option. You simply plug this LED-infused dongle into a suspicious port, then connect the product you wish to charge to the other end; the device then glows to tell you how much power is flowing out, though there’s nothing included to deal with all-but-guaranteed bouts of frustration from seeing too few LEDs light up. It’s up for order right now at $29.95, and while you’re over there, you can pick up an iPad solar panel and an iPad external battery pack for $250 each. What a bargain.

[Thanks, Lan]

QuickerTek iPad charge monitor tests your USB port’s output potential originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 14:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Using Apple’s Camera Connection Kit, it is possible to hook up a USB hard drive to your iPad and read files. The catch is that you’ll need to jailbreak the iPad first.

Maxwell Shay, iPad owner and now iPad hacker, offers a rather involved but straightforward walk-through on his blog. First, you need to use the Spirit jailbreak to open up the iPad and allow third-party apps to be installed. Then you need to grab an application called iFile (available in the Cydia application repository on your jailbroken iPad for $4, with a free trial), along with the “Nano” terminal text editor.

After that, you’ll need to be confident of your command line skills, as you’ll be using SSH and editing PLIST files. The step-by-step instructions will get you through.

Then you need to hook up the USB drive. The iPad’s port will not power it, so you’ll need a desktop version with a power adapter, or a Y-cable that will let you plug the drive into the iPAd and a second, powered, USB port (your iPad charger, for example).

Maxwell demoes his hack using the iPad PDF viewer Goodreader, available in the real App Store, but any file-browsing app should see the contents of the drive. From there, you can browse and open files, as well as copy them to the iPad’s internal storage. You probably don’t want to do this on the go, due to the limitations of plugging the drive into a power source, but if you want to grab a bunch of photos or movies from a friend’s home, for example, this hack will let you copy them for take-away.

That overpriced Camera Connection Kit is starting to look a lot more useful. In fact, although Maxwell doesn’t try it, this hack should also let you use the SD card reader from the same kit for arbitrary file storage, not just for photos and videos.

How to Mount External FAT32 and HFS Hard Drives [Time More via Engadget]

See Also:

• Video: Hackers Have Already Jailbroken the iPad
• iPad Jailbreak Ready for Download
• Jailbreak App Turns iPhone Into 3G Modem for iPad
• iPad USB Camera Connector Works With Keyboards, Audio In-Out …

OCZ actually slipped this one into its CES 2010 reveal lineup, but at the time, no official product name was mentioned. All we knew was that an ultra-sleek external SSD was on tap, and we couldn’t wait to wrap our sickeningly sweaty palms around it. Fast forward to today, and OCZ has finally slapped a certified moniker and even a shipping status onto the Enyo, a downright gorgeous portable SSD with a native SuperSpeed USB interface. Encased in aluminum, this beaut will ship in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB flavors, with speeds of up to 260MB/sec (read) and 200MB/sec (write) promised. The company says that these are making their way out today, but mum’s the word so far on pricing. Not like it matters.

Update: We’ve received pricing direct from OCZ for the US market. The 64GB model will run $229.99, while the 128GB demands $409.99 and the 256GB version places a $819.99 dent in your credit limit.

Continue reading OCZ’s Enyo may be the sexiest USB 3.0 external SSD this world has ever seen

OCZ’s Enyo may be the sexiest USB 3.0 external SSD this world has ever seen originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 May 2010 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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