solar power

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DIY solar powered Game Boy Pocket never needs to be plugged in (if there’s sunlight)

by Brad Linder Comments Off on DIY solar powered Game Boy Pocket never needs to be plugged in (if there’s sunlight)

When the Game Boy Pocket was released in 1996, it was a smaller, lighter alternative to the original Game Boy with an improved (but still greyscale) display). But it still offered similar battery life (about 10 hours), while running on just two AAA batteries (rather than four AA batteries). But over the past few decades, […]

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Will transparent, solar-charged batteries see the light of day?

by Lory Gil 1 Comment on Will transparent, solar-charged batteries see the light of day?

Looking for an easier way to top off your smartphone battery? There are phones that support quick charging, and wireless charging. One day there may be support for solar charging — without the need for traditional solar panels. Researchers at Kogakuin University in Japan have been working on a transparent lithium-ion battery that can be recharged […]

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SunVolt is raising funds for an $85 portable 10W solar charger

by Brad Linder 6 Comments on SunVolt is raising funds for an $85 portable 10W solar charger

Putting an array of solar panels on your roof to power your home is still an expensive proposition. But portable solar chargers are getting more and more affordable all the time — and now a Kickstarter campaign is aimed at raising money for a portable charging solution called the SunVolt. The SunVolt is a messenger […]

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OLPC’s ARM-based tablet, laptop can run on solar power alone

by Brad Linder 10 Comments on OLPC’s ARM-based tablet, laptop can run on solar power alone

Modern computers aren’t just a lot faster than the PCs you probably used ten or fifteen years ago — they also use a lot less power. But most computers designed to run desktop operating systems still use enough energy that they can’t, say, run directly off the power generated by a small solar panel. But […]

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Pixel Qi suggests low power tablets could be powered by 1W solar panels

by Brad Linder 10 Comments on Pixel Qi suggests low power tablets could be powered by 1W solar panels

Pixel Qi’s display technology allows you to seriously reduce power consumption when you cut off the backlight and use a tablet or notebook in high contrast, black and white mode. So while a 10 inch Pixel Qi screen uses around 2.5W of power in full color mode, it uses closer to 0.5W in black and […]

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iUnika netbooks are dirt cheap, solar powered

by Brad Linder 16 Comments on iUnika netbooks are dirt cheap, solar powered

Spanish electronics company iUnika is showing four new netbooks including several solar powered models. That’s right. Netbooks with an actual, honest-to-goodness feature that sets them apart from the hundreds of other mini-laptops flooding the market right now. The laptops aren’t exactly top of the line as far as netbooks go. They sport 400MHz MIPS processors, […]