Solar Rechargers  

On a random impulse today I decided I wanted a solar power gizmo recharger (as plugging the phone, iPod, Archos and other bits and pieces into the wall each night seems rather wasteful of CO2 emitting power generation). The nearby electronic shops all failed to provide, but after a bit of surfing I found myself at the ever-reliable TreeHugger, who had slipped this item past me somehow a week or so ago.

The only problem is they don't seem to be on sale anywhere yet, but hopefully that will soon be corrected (apparently Vodafone is doing a trial here in Sydney but information is difficult to find on how you go about getting one).

If this gizmo works as well as the promo blurb says, then Soldius, of the Netherlands, are on to a good thing. Applying a mysterious, unexplained technology called Maximum Solar Power Tracking (MSPT), the Soldius1 is apparently capable of charging a mobile phone in just 2 to 3 hours. This is much faster than the previously reviewed Solio.