Charge your phone on-the-go

Make haze while the sun shines? With the Indonesian fires still smoldering, it should inspire some of us to go eco-friendly with alternative sources of power, like the Scotty Solar Charger. Though at 5-7 hours of sunlight to fully charge (yielding 1 hour of talktime or 60 hours of standby), that's a lot of tan time. So best slap on some Banana Boat if you don't plan to fry. Otherwise, this is one of the smaller solar chargers we've seen that's portable enough to hook onto a belt or backpack. This Scotty distills the sun's energies into a pair of Ni-CD battery cells serving as a power reservoir, with the option to switch to two AA alkaline batts for more instant power transfers. A charging indicator at the back flashes more rapidly the fuller the batteries are charged. Just one gripe: From the images and specs, the adapters look ancient enough to charge that Palm V and Game Boy. So word to the wise: Do sound out Maplin on whether this Scotty's good enough to beam power into today's iPods and cellulars.

Click for what's in the box | rear of charger

Via Shiny Shiny

Price: 29.99 pounds (US$56.90)
Availability: At Maplin
Device: Portable solar charger
Basic specs: Includes 2x 600mAh Ni-CD rechargeable batteries, 20-year cell life, USB charger

Kaion-kun seat warmer

For those heading out to colder climes this coming December vacation, here's a godsend for Asians whose blood is too thin for those chilly winters. Japan's condom store Okamoto is offering Kaion-kun, a hot seat (of the good kind). From what we can understand of the Japanese site, this utilizes mineral ores to react with oxygen to generate heat, transferring it via infrared. No word on how long the pad lasts, though it's not likely to be reusable. If so, prepare to cough out about US$4 a piece. Butt seriously, this is a small price to pay for keeping your cheeks (and we don't mean those on your face) toasty on that ice-cold chair. This one time, we're betting nobody minds being in the hot seat.

Via Crisscross

Price: 550 yen (US$4.65)
Availability: Not out yet, look out for it here
Device: Heating pad
Basic specs: 21 x 27 cm

Lightsnake

If you're in love with 2-in-1s, SoundTech's Lightsnake is one neat solution that puts a sound card right on a cable. All that's required is to plug in the 3m-long cable (one end's a 6.3mm stereo plug, the other a USB) and, voila, audio gets transmitted via USB and recorded in CD quality on your computer. Sans sound cards, sans drivers. Why didn't anyone think sooner of putting a 16-bit analog-to-digital converter in a cable (this one samples at 48/44.1KHz)? Now for the geek factor. The ends light up in a glow that's almost as peachy as Yoda's green lightsaber. Too bad it doesn't hum like one.

See image A | image B

Via coolest-gadget.com

Price: US$69.99
Availability: More info at Lightsnake
Device: Sound cable
Basic specs: LightSnake ¼-inch to USB cable, ¼-inch to mini adapter, user guide, PC driver CD, Sony Media Software 30-day Demo DVD including Acid, Sound Forge, Vegas and other titles

PlugKing

Not all million-dollar ideas come to you when you're on the loo fantasizing about the next Post-It Note or Digg.com. For local boy Ng Yi Han, lying horizontal on his bed scanning his room for potential new products appeared to have provided the vital spark. The result, an idea meant for a school module project, led to PlugKing. So maybe it sounds more like an R(A) title, but it's a nifty idea borrowing from those distant childhood days of Lego set building. All this requires is to plug one desired multi-plug after another, as shown here, and voila, you get one highly versatile modular power socket. Ng sees a PlugKing that can dock your iPod, another acting as a USB charger... with the potential seemingly limitless. His brainwave is pending a patent now, but if you're quick, you can catch a demo of the modular power plug at this week's Global Entrepolis @ Singapore 2006 show. Electric.

See some uses here and here

Price: N.A.
Availability: CopperRED, Singapore
Device: Modular power socket
Basic specs: N.A.

Casio GPR-100 GPS wristwatch

GPS on a watch? Been there, done that. Just check out Timex and Suunto with their extensive stable of GPS watches. Casio used to have one, but this was apparently discontinued. However, like the enigmatic James Bond, the Japanese never say die. So back to the drawing board Casio went, and the result was the world's smallest GPS-enabled wristwatch. There is a price to be paid for such miniaturization, naturally. Don't expect this to display maps or offer latitude or longitude data on its tiny 49 × 72 full dot LCD screen. Instead, this timepiece was designed for the sporty sort with an, ah, unhealthy obsession for keeping check on the time, speed, mileage and pace of their run. Like joggers, this thing has stamina for just 2 hours (stretchable to 4.3 hours on low power). If you like your watch to keep watch on you, check out this decent-sized person locator.

See it worn

Via ubergizmo

Price: About US$460
Availability: Japan, end next month
Device: GPS timepiece
Basic specs: Screen: 49 × 72 full dot LCD, waterproof, world time for 141 cities + seven marine city +GMT time indication, stopwatch, GPS determination distance, timer, alarm, EL backlight, runs on Lithium-ion accumulator, about 4.3 hours, charge time about 3 hours , 63.1 × 49.5 × 17.1mm, about 64g

Crave is...

The name says it all. Crave is our blog about cool gadgets and other crushworthy stuff.

Drop us an email if you have tips or suggestions.

Crave for...

» Mobile Phones (2233)

» Digital Cameras (987)

» Notebooks (1235)

» PC & Peripherals (1312)

» Handhelds (585)

» Printers (83)

» Home AV (1147)

» Music & Play (894)

» Gadgets (1486)

» Future Tech (396)

» Green Tech (172)

» Lifestyle (157)

» Luxury (22)

» Home Appliances (58)

» Cars (99)

» Games and Gear (248)

» Software (96)

» Web (118)

Previously...

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

Hot Topics

Subscribe to
Crave

What's Hot

apple apple inc. apple iphone apple ipod asia battery camera game google inc. iphone microsoft corp. microsoft windows mobile phone photograph singapore smart phone software sony corp. video

Today on CNET |  Reviews |  Crave |  Blogs |  CNET TV |  Digital Living |  Downloads