Power your gadgets with $19.99 solar charger

Do you need power for your cell phone, MP3 player, digital camera, and other portable gadgets? Our friend Mr. Sun has an endless supply (well, not endless--5 billion years and kaput!). What you need is a way to harness those rays and turn them into energy you can use.

GoldenGadgets has just such a harness: the Portable Hybrid Solar Charger, currently on sale for $19.99--shipping will run you about $5.

What makes it a "hybrid" charger? Simple: It can draw energy from the sun (8-10 hours buys you a full charge--bad news for those of us who live in Michigan, where we're lucky to get 8-10 minutes of sun. Hey-oh!) or from a USB source like your PC, which does the job in about 4 hours.

The charger comes with a generous assortment of tips: BlackBerry, Motorola, Nokia, Mini-USB, USB, and iPod/iPhone. (Unless my eyes deceive me, there's also one for Palm, though the product listing doesn't mention it.)

Speaking of which, the product listing doesn't specifically mention iPhone 3G compatibility, either; however, one of the user reviews claims it works fine. (The demo video up top shows an iPhone getting charged, but it looks like a first-generation model.)

Sure, you can get an iPhone battery pack for as little as $6.99, but that powers one device and one device only. This eco-friendly charger can juice just about everything in your carry-on bag. Until someone invents a teeny little windmill, it'll have to do.

[yanchineseguy]

Those instructions look like they were OCRed. Or.. well, you know.

Also, I don't see a tip for my Samsungs.

[happydays312]

i see a tip for sony ericsson. bottom left one, no doubt

[pHenom_713]

Hey Rick.. been always been a big fan of cheapskate.. here's a coupon I used to get me an additional $2.49 off the total price. So instead of paying $25 with shipping, I only paid $22.45

coupon code: ING09

[joe643]

Thanks, phenom, that coupon code. By using it and choosing the lowest shipping option ($2.70), the total comes to $20.42.

[pHenom_713]

Your Welcome.

I guess you choose the 1-5 shipping days.. I used it for 1-3 shipping. can't wait to get it.. I'll be keeping this in the car for emergencies.

[rickbroida]

Nice! Thanks for sharing, Phenom!

[pixelpusher220]

From what I can tell this does *not* charge your devices via solar power. After charging its internal battery for 8-10 hours, *then* you can plug in a device and have it fully charged off the *battery* in 4 hours.

My definition of 'emergency' isn't a 12 hour wait...

Still though nice to leave it on your dash and have some power available (but your cig-lighter does that too).