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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Tech Introducing...

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 1:19 PM

...the solar-powered phone. It's called the Solar Guru, and it's only available in India, so it "also offers the very Indianized feature called 'Mobile prayer.' This comprises of various religious prayers and wall papers."

Stranger tech superhero Anthony Hecht wonders if it comes with a little hat-holder so you can keep it pointed at the sun all the time.

Comments (6) RSS

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"Apart from the conventional charging method, a full solar charge of around 10 to 14 hours for this phone is said to provide enough power for around four hours of talk time."

So, do they have 14 hours of daylight in India?

Seriously it sounds like a gimmick because they say 4 times how the solar panel cannot really charge the phone.

Kind of reminds me of the hype about plugins and battery cars....

Posted by WwAgD ? on June 10, 2009 at 1:29 PM

We can actually imprint OLED solar cells onto the surface of the plastics now - and can get up to 9.4 percent efficiency - not as good as the 20 percent range you get from other photovoltaics, but cuts the weight down quite a bit.

And the plastics can even be nanoPV themselves - serving a dual purpose of charging your phone and providing an attractive outer case.

The literal phone shell itself can charge the phone now. Check it out at UW Tech Transfer (about ten panels on this and other solar research at the UW on display today at the UW Tower).

Posted by Will in Seattle

on June 10, 2009 at 1:35 PM

@1: I guess they're aiming it at people who don't need to talk on their phone four hours a day.

Posted by Gloria on June 10, 2009 at 1:39 PM

@3 - there goes the teen girl market.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on June 10, 2009 at 2:07 PM

Que the reports of people's phones blowing up after being left in the sun all day long.

Posted by Super Jesse on June 10, 2009 at 2:25 PM

Bethany, where did your timely blog entry on how 30 Rock is actually The Muppet Show go? (You know, the one that was nearly identical to the one Dan had already posted...) Seems to be missing. How embarrassing to have Slog cleaned up to hide your incompetence. You credulous hack.

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me on June 10, 2009 at 4:23 PM