Filed under: Accessories, iPhone
Solar powered iPhone case may not work when visiting the Sun
Eco-friendly traveler? Check! Hip professional? Check! Outdoor enthusiast? Check! Hip profess--wait a minute! OK, so Solar Arcadia may not have the greatest product pages around but that does not stop them from offering this environmentally friendly piece of iPhone case awesomeness.
The case is essentially a lithium ion battery pack with a solar panel that doubles as a flip cover for the iPhone. The construction is said to be leather, however I cannot imagine this being very kind to Mother Nature. There is also an LED status indicator that informs you of the capacity of the case's battery pack when charging and discharging.
The instruction manual notes that an empty iPhone battery can be re-charged in 3 hours when the included Li-Ion battery pack is full. When the battery pack is empty you can set the case to direct charge mode and get your iPhone recharge on straight from the power of the Sun itself!
Note that it does take a full 12 hours of direct sunlight to fully charge an empty iPhone battery, and in December that much sunlight could be hard to come by (at least here in the Northern Hemisphere). However, it is possible to charge the case's battery pack without being attached to the iPhone. So, if you are on a long flight with a window seat it's possible to charge your backup battery while watching the latest episode of Family Guy that you torrented bought from iTunes.
The case may not be the most attractive and is not to be used in conditions where it gets to be hotter than 150° F -- but these things are unimportant. You care about the environment; this is why you bought a Prius and hold the MPG record for your local hyper-miling club. Now get out there and begin harvesting all of that solar energy! Besides, there isn't a wind-powered iPhone case available... not yet, anyway.
Thanks Kirk for sending this in!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
rTwelve xbl:Chilblane said 6:37PM on 12-08-2008
So, I generally keep my iPhone in my pocket....
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Jake Pollack said 8:59PM on 12-08-2008
(smallish pockets) keep solar flap outside of pocket and rest of it in? Could look doofy, but it could work.
potato said 11:26PM on 12-08-2008
It won't work. The amount of energy a solar panel is able to absorb from the sun is proportional to the angle between the solar rays and the panel itself. This is to say, if your panel is hanging out of your side pocket, its angle to the sun is roughly 90 degrees, and therefore almost (but not entirely) useless.
13tales said 6:44PM on 12-08-2008
I think I'd get this leather messenger bag with thin-film solar panels instead...works better and looks better. http://tinyurl.com/5wdsct
Also, unlike my iphone case, it wouldn't spend 70% of its lifetime in my pocket, a notably poor place to collect solar energy.
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Sam said 6:02AM on 12-09-2008
I'm impressed with that company. In keeping with the whole enviroment first movement they hired a family of sasquatches (is that the plural of sasquatch??) to endorse their product.
sujovian said 6:59PM on 12-08-2008
"The construction is said to be leather, however I cannot imagine this being very kind to Mother Nature"
I'd say leather is very kind to mother nature. animal skins are biodegradable and renewable. Sure it's not kind to the cows, but then that's another thing altogether. They could make it out of plastic, which makes a great landfill filler.
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DistortedLoop said 9:45AM on 12-09-2008
How biogradeable is leather after its been tanned? I honestly don't know. An awful lot of chemicals go into making leather products. Seems like a lot of leather products from hundreds if not thousands of years ago have been found by archeologists. A discarded leather product is gonna be around for hundreds of years or more, which is better than plastic which never degrades, but it's not going to help short term landfill overflow issues.
Dan Fellini said 6:49PM on 12-08-2008
I'd TOTALLY buy a wind-powered iPhone case. That would rock.
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Aron Trimble said 7:32PM on 12-08-2008
I'm not kidding, that would be the coolest case ever!
Silen7Cartographer said 7:13PM on 12-08-2008
Interesting idea, that's for sure.
Too bad you compared it to a Prius though, at least solar-powered electronics actually do something for the environment, instead of just allowing one to pretend to care.
/diesel Jaguar gets 60mpg. Eco fun!!!
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daenney said 7:17PM on 12-08-2008
"There is also an LED status indicator that informs you of the capacity of the case's battery pack when charging and discharging."
Isn't it supposed to be "a LED" seeing as L is a consonant and not a vowel.
And what would the point be of a solar-powered recharger on the sun, you'd be better of with a helium or hydrogen powered charger :-P.
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Aron Trimble said 7:29PM on 12-08-2008
According to the Grammar Girl:
"The rule is that you use 'a' before words that start with a consonant sound and 'an' before words that start with a vowel sound."
Which comes from here: The Little Penguin Handbook by Faigley, L.
Oh, and, I love you!
Casey said 7:44PM on 12-08-2008
Say it out loud.
An el-ee-dee.
daenney said 9:05PM on 12-08-2008
Ha, fair enough with the saying-it-out-loud thing which makes sense too, but I actually pronounce it as LED (lead, Pb, probably because it is pronounced as LED in Dutch) not el-ee-de, hence the confusion.
Seeing as the rule is about phonetics and not spelling I have to admit that an LED is actually correct, though it is weird to the eye...
Jesse said 8:10PM on 12-08-2008
A hand crank charger would be better.
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Jake Pollack said 9:01PM on 12-08-2008
......no it wouldn't
bikeham said 9:09PM on 12-08-2008
It's always puzzled me that there are so many solar powered battery chargers when rechargeable batteries are designed for temperatures well below that encountered when exposed to the sun. Bleh!
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Stephen.4 said 9:29PM on 12-08-2008
Aaron, you forgot the price: $49.95. Just here to help you out, haha.
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Jake Pollack said 9:58PM on 12-08-2008
haha i was actually just about to ask the cost. thank you...
tys said 10:36PM on 12-08-2008
I like it!
I could see using it while on a bike tour. Just strap it to the handlebar bag and let it charge up while riding along.
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