The Yogen Max foldable laptop charger eschews fuel cells or any other fancy schmancy type of portable power technology for the worst source of power ever: you. Although the details are sketchy nonexistent, Easy Energy’s charger purports to recharge things like MP3 players or even laptops with your beastly muscles. Just step on the pedal for an unspecified amount of time, and your batteries will be charged an unspecified amount. It’s an eco-friendly and potentially convenient concept prototype, especially if you travel a lot, but seriously, they expect me to work to charge my laptop? That’s nonsense. Utter nonsense.
I don’t have a USB volcano, but if I did, I bet I’d want to use it all the time, everywhere. I can do that with this USB power bar, which has a rechargeable 2200 mAh lithium battery inside plus a 5 volt USB power port to charge all your USB stuff. It also has a power level indicator, and a flashlight thrown in for good measure. A variety of included adapters let you charge iPods and common cell phones, and you should be able to charge things at least once or twice from dead. Once you’ve run the power bar’s battery out, you can recharge it from a USB port on your computer, or from another power bar. It’s $32 from USB Geek, which isn’t that much to pay to have a volcano available anytime, anywhere. There’s no telling when it might come in handy…
Wireless power transfer has always been a futuristic concept, and although we’ve seen nifty demos of various kinds of wireless power technologies, there hasn’t been a heck of a lot of progress from the consumer perspective (this is all I can think of). eCoupled’s video of an induction countertop wirelessly powering a blender is a convincing demonstration of high wattage power transfer in real life. So far, they’ve been able to push 1,400 watts through the induction coils at 98% efficiency, which is just about as good as a physical wire. As a bonus, the technology is also able to transfer data, at up to 1.1 mbps, meaning that the primary charging coil can talk to the devices it’s pumping power into and adjust its output accordingly.
This is just a demo, and unless you’re a bajillionaire you can’t buy the counter top or the blender. But it’s nice to know that some of this stuff is starting to get put into consumer devices, because I’m getting fed up with plugging in my blender every time I want a smoothie. Sooooo much extra work.
The Furutech Powerflux “may be the most sophisticated power cord and connectors in the world.” Their words, not mine. What’s so great about it that justifies the pricetag that’s alarmingly close to two grand? I’m not sure I can answer that question, but here’s what Furutech has to say:
Powerflux conductors are 68-strand α (Alpha) OCC twisted around μ–conductor strands with a special-grade PE insulation or dielectric. (Alpha conductors are fine OCC wire treated with Furutech’s Alpha Cryogenic and Demagnetizing process.) The dielectric is surrounded by an inner sheath of RoHS-compliant PVC incorporating carbon powder that enhances damping, and that in turn is covered by a full α (Alpha) conductor wire braid shield. Another flexible PVC outer sheath and a Nylon braid jacket finish the job.
The extraordinary FI-50 series connectors are a result of the meticulous way that Furutech engineers examine and improve each and every element of signal transfer using breakthrough technologies to reach their Pure Transmission Technology goal.
Furutech’s beautifully-finished FI-50(R) IEC and FI-50M(R) Piezo Ceramic series connector housings are made of multiple layers of carbon fiber in a damping and insulating acetal copolymer, surrounded by nonmagnetic stainless steel bands. The connector bodies combine two “active” materials: Nano-sized ceramic particles and powdered carbon. Nylon and fiberglass are incorporated as well forming an extremely effective, mechanically and electrically nonresonant connector body that may just be the most sophisticated in the world.
Oh, now it all makes sense… It’s the cryogenic dielectric piezo nano ceramic acetal nonresonant copolymer! That’s where my money is going! Totally worth it, I’d say.
Finally, a practical reason to go somewhere on a bike. The OHM Personal Energy Device, designed by Xavier Unwin, is a little generator that siphons power from your bike’s wheels to charge your iPod or cell phone or anything else that can suck down 5 volts. All you have to do is clip some magnets to your spokes, align the charger with the magnets, and start to peddle. The unit’s internal 1200 mAh lithium battery gets charged inductively as the magnets move past it, and depending on how insane serious of a cyclist you are, you’ll be able to charge your cell phone in 45 minutes to an hour. This is a much more effective charge rate than some other portable chargers we’ve tested, with the trade-off being that you have to put work into this one. Consequently, it will certainly slow you down a little bit, but if you’re riding a bike, you can’t be in that much of a hurry anyway, right?
The OHM is currently in the concept stage, but I figured that it’s such a simple and straightforward idea that someone is bound to put it into production sometime soon.
I’m not going to defend some of Monster’s questionable claims or pricing policies when it cames to their ‘high-end’ audio and video cables. But one product they sell that I will recommend, particularly for travelers with a bag full of electronics, is their Outlets To Go compact powerstrips. They’re small, lightweight and even feature a circuit breaker to protect your gear if you happen to find yourself in a sketchy hotel room. Previously, the OTG powerstrips were only available in 3, 4 and 6 outlet models, but Monster has just introduced a new version that features 3 outlets plus a USB jack for recharging cellphones, MP3 players or even digital cameras.
The Outlets To Go 3 USB model has a suggested retail price of $29.99, and while you can get easily find a cheaper powerstrip on the market, you won’t find anything that’s easier to stash in your carry-on luggage.
I’ll admit that I’ve played a few sessions of D&D. To be honest, the only reason I haven’t played it more is because I can never seem to find a group of people to play with on a regular basis. But when I first caught sight of this e-Ball power strip, I immediately thought of a D12.
This concept design does in fact have 12 sides, all but 1 of which can be used to power a device. It would certainly look pretty crazy with all of the wires coming out of it, but I would totally buy it. That is if it were a real device that worked with US plugs.
There’s recently been a flood of new powerbars that are all designed to cut down on the amount of energy your electronics waste when they’re in standby mode. And while the CheckTap might seem like another drop in the bucket, it does bring some new ideas to the table. Its most unique feature is that it connects to your PC via USB and can be controlled or programmed using the included CheckManager software. The application allows you to set up schedules for when each socket is on or off, and provides feedback on how much energy you’re actually saving with your current configuration. It even features a virtual tree that grows at different rates depending on the CO2 emissions your setup has managed to reduce.
The CheckTap, which was designed by Lee Jeong-soo from Incasolution Ltd., won the Grand Prix at the 2008 Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva and the website claims it can actually reduce the power consumption of all the devices plugged into it by up to 70%. (Compared to leaving them all in standby mode.) While it’s not available for sale just yet, there is an official website for the CheckTap that features a couple of demonstration videos if you’re looking for more info.
Yesterday I wrote about a solar power pack that wasn’t quite powerful enough to run things like laptops. If you really must have a solar powered laptop, and that laptop is a MacBook Air, QuickerTek’s Apple Juicz will get the job done. In spite of the horrendous misspelling of the word “juice,” the product seems pretty solid. It’s a fold out solar panel that expands from a 10.5 inch square into a 5 foot by 3.5 foot array capable of generating up to 55 watts of electricity, which is easily enough to both power and charge your Air.
I’m not sure why this is a Macbook Air only product; there’s no reason it couldn’t be adapted to power anything else, and 55 watts is a lot of power to play with. That’s enough electricity for two Asus Eees, for example. As it stands, though, you’ll have to purchase a MacBook Air specific adapter ($100) or have QuickerTek modify your existing adapter ($25), and no other adapters are available. The panels themselves will run you a cool $1000 for the 55 watt version, $600 for a slightly smaller 27 watt version, or $500 for an 18 watt version.
Related Tags: Eco-friendly, Laptops, Power
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By Evan Ackerman
