If there’s one feature inside a car that can be considered a “legacy device” it will have to be the cigarette lighter socket. It’s a holdover from a time when cigarette smoking was still considered cool and not the cancer developing addiction that it truly is. But despite the fact that cigarette smoking is not as popular anymore, the cigarette lighter socket still remains as a standard feature in all cars. [Read more…]
I’ve rarely encountered this situation, but I’m sure a couple of you guys have. Let’s say you were stuck in a place – it might be a desert, in the middle of the ocean, or even in your neighbor’s barbecue party – and you need to make a call right away; it’s a life and death situation. What can I say, your neighbor throws the most boring parties and you need to call somebody to rescue you. The thing is, your cellphone’s batteries are just about to die and you don’t have a charger with you. Heck, even if you had a charger you don’t see a wall outlet and that kind of makes it hard to charge your battery.
Fortunately, a company called Yogen thought of that situation ahead of time and created a charger for emergency situations such as that. They’ve created a portable charger generates power if you keep on pulling on its ripcord, so you can easily charge your mobile gadgets on the fly.
The Yogen charger measures 55 mm x 90 mm, 23 mm in dimension and approximately 98 grams in weight. By pulling the charger’s lawnmower-style ripcord, you get to charge your mobile devices that are connected via USB. The charger’s internal alternator will instantly generate power to charge any small to mid-sized personal electronics device such as cell phones, MP3 Player, PDA, iPod, GPS device, cameras, etc. The LED indicators on the charger will show when the mobile devices are being charged.
I personally don’t see myself using this charger often, but having one handy for long trips would be a good idea.
[via]
A means of charging your gadgets up on the move is a must if you’re away from power sockets for any length of time, but the bulk and weight can be off-putting, so it’s good to see an elegant and compact solution from Powertraveller: the minigorilla.
As you’d expect, it comes with all the most common tips in order that you can charge up notebooks, cellphones and other portable devices — 20 notebook tips plus a number of others in fact.