A solar-powered iPod? Maybe!

I think it's a cool concept, but solar panels aren't particularly efficient.  You have to leave a solar charger out in the sun all day to get enough juice to recharge an iPod, so unless your solar iPod is sitting around in the sun all day, it doesn't seem like you would get much energy from the solar panels.

 

It sounds like a cool concept but not a terribly practical one.

Yeah, it sounds good, but like Dana I'm not seeing how it's a particularly efficient idea. Most of the solar iPod / cell chargers I've tried take about an hour of charging in bright sun in order for you to use your iPod for about an hour. These chargers are less efficient with cell phones in my experience. 

Also, being in Oregon doesn't help much. We don't often have bright sun - so it creates a solar issue. For example if you look at the official Apple iPod charger site calculator it notes that for a five day trip in overcast OR type weather (if you use your iphone about 4 hours a day) you'd need to expose your charger to 4.6 hours of sun per day to keep the device charged enough to not run out of battery juice and you'd have to keep it in the sun a full 11.5 hours a day to maintain a fully charged device. While it's just an estimate of course, that's a lot of time in the sun for very little power and the estimate fits my experience with solar chargers.

Part of me wonders if it won't waste more energy and materials to make solar charged portable devices that won't charge well and thus may end up in the trash then to energize your device the old fashioned way.

Welcome to the Huddle rocko22,

However İ agree Jennifer and Dana - Not terribly practical. İt is similar to but even less functional than solar panels on cars.

A solar panel needs to have direct exposure to the sun to generate much power. For a calculator this does not matter so much as the current draw from the device is so low.

This is no doubt the one place where the concern over the embodied energy and materials probably far outweigh the savings in power.  

I don't have an iPhone, but if they actually create this I will definetly get one. I even read a news article recently about an iPhone application allowing people to make phone calls without using their minutes. The only catch is you have to have Wifi connections I believe. Good post Lola