Product review: Solio Hybrid solar charger

by Leif Pettersen on

How green is the Solio® Hybrid 1000?

The Solio is so green you could toss it in with some lettuce, croutons and parmesan cheese, drizzle Caesar dressing over everything and eat it raw (right before a big helping of ‘tofurkey’, obviously).

This beautifully crafted bundle of eco-feel-good bliss makes the necessary evil of killing batteries a little less disagreeable. Using the glorious power of the sun, it recharges a multitude of devices such as mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets, PDAs, MP3 players, handheld gaming systems, digital cameras, GPS units and more.

Slim and compact (it’s 198 x 68 x 18mm or 7.7 x 2.7 x 0.7 inches and weighs about 0.5 kilos or 1.1 lbs.), the Solio is surprisingly rugged, complete with an integrated carabiner clip so you can affix it to just about anything.

Showers forecasted for the next week on the Appalachian Trail? Give your Solio a base charge before you leave by plugging it into your laptop. Not as eco-friendly, but hey, your mobile phone won’t judge you when its batteries are dead.

Genius idea, brilliant design, but does it really work? People, it works like a charm – though not quite up to the extents alluded to on the box.

Here’s the lowdown: the Solio is not a concurrent charging solution. It’s a two step process. First the Solio’s own internal storage battery needs to be charged up (“cue the sun”), then you can plug in your device which charges itself off the Solio’s battery. This is actually a good thing, because once the Solio is charged, you can charge your device day or night, rain or shine. Furthermore, once charged, the Solio will hold its charge for up to one year.

Now for the downside: while the Solio’s Quick Start Guide gives the impression that you can just clip the Solio to your backpack and it’ll quietly do its thing while you hike the day away, this is not necessarily true. Lengthy testing on my Solio revealed that not only does the Solio need to be pointing more or less directly at the sun to charge (a given, really), but it must be under clear sunlight (i.e. even slight overcast conditions means no charging occurs). So, even if you leave it stationary on a log all day, it needs a little babysitting. As the sun moves, you will need to adjust the Solio. Unfortunately, this means if wanna do that chic clip-it-to-your-backpack arrangement, unless you walk with your back to the sun all day, the Solio will only charge itself in fits and starts.

Which brings us to charging time… The Solio’s alleged charging time is a little ambiguous. The guide states that it will charge from zero to full in 10-12 hours under direct sunlight and 12-48 hours under cloudy conditions. My testing usually required about 16-20 hours to charge under direct sunlight and I was never able to get the Solio to charge under cloudy/overcast conditions. To be fair, I must confess that most of my testing occurred in downtown Minneapolis, in the dwindling sunlight months of October and November. Perhaps under ideal conditions the Solio will perform better.

The Quick Start Guide (printed on recycled paper!), consisting mostly of wordless diagrams, is clever in theory. I loved that they saved reams of paper by not printing full directions in five languages, but equally I spent much longer than I would have liked puzzling over the somewhat non-intuitive drawings.

That said, once you decipher the directions, the Solio is easy to use. The Solio simply has one button and two LED lights, maximizing its juice to power your device. The short learning curve needed to memorize the array of solid and flashing light indicators is a small price to pay for its durability and minimum wasted energy.

It’s important to note that the Solio isn’t compatible with all handheld items. It comes with three output attachments, that plug straight into many devices/manufacturers (Blackberry, Motorola, Nokia, iPod, iPhone), but its compatibility starts to get fuzzy when you get into PDAs, digital cameras, etc. Before you get your heart set on the magic of a Solio, check that your desired device is compatible.

A final minor disappointment is the Solio’s water resistance, in that it isn’t. Admittedly, most devices you’d be charging with your Solio aren’t going to be water resistant either, but the outdoorsy allure drops exponentially when you have to start worrying about keeping your Solio clear of lake/river splash and rain.

Performance and limitations aside, again, this thing is awesome. As a rule, what with its somewhat lengthy charge time, it’s best to only rely on the Solio for one, or maybe two oft used devices. It simply doesn’t have the capacity to keep more things running.

Around the world in 65 days on green sea-monster

by Abha Malpani on

“Holy crap!” was my first reaction when I saw this sensational picture of Earthrace, the world’s first 100% bio-diesel power boat that will circumnavigate the world early next year.

Built at a cost of $3 million by New-Zealand skipper Pete Bethune, if it manages this undertaking in under 75 days (the previous record held by a British boat called Cable and Wireless in 1998), it will be the first time this has been done using 100% renewable fuel. Their target is to complete the route in 65 days.

Earthrace’s environmental objective is to spread the vision of a world that uses sustainable resources (e.g. bio-fuels) by demonstrating the power, reliability and safety of bio-diesel so as to prove it as a viable alternative to petroleum diesel.

With it’s special design and engineering, the boat is one of the fastest and greenest boats on the planet that will be covering a distance of 24,000 nautical miles, making the feat the world’s longest race.

The boat is low emission, non-toxic, antifoul and as an efficient hull design. The graphics on the boat are done by a Maori tattoo artist and the symbols represent the environment and the positive/negative influence of human interaction with the environment.

Earthrace is currently on a promotional tour in Europe where you can get up-close-and-personal with the boat and attend environmental education lectures in schools. The boat will begin it’s adventure from Valencia on March 1, 2008.

[Via Telegraph: Earthrace — the green machine]

Non ski resorts: Gearing up for a future without snow

by Neil Woodburn on

This is slightly scary but not entirely unexpected.

According to a New York Times report, ski resorts in Europe are making the necessary adjustments to continue attracting people to the resorts after global warming has all but eliminated the possibility to ski.

Resorts are already investing in more snow making machines, but this alone won’t solve the problem. Instead, in places like the Swiss Alps, ski resorts are beefing up their “off-slope attractions” and adding spas, shopping, sun decks, pools, and funky architecture to attract non-skiers to snowless ski resorts.

It’s a scary world out there folks. Better get your skiing in before Dubai becomes the only place on this planet where you can do it.

Out of Christmas ideas? Try rhino poop.

by Grant Martin on

About ten years back, my parents officially had everything they needed, so when it came to Christmas time I had to start working super hard to find something unique that they had never heard of or only partially needed. These days, I’ve started moving towards consumables like plane tickets, wine and special olive oil; something they can enjoy for a little while but that will eventually go away. I’m even starting to consider philanthropic gifts, as in giving to a charity or NPR in their name.

But I never thought of rhino poop.

The International Rhino Foundation recently posted the auction of some of their most endangered species’ excrement, in what has to be one of the strangest fund raising tactics that I’ve ever seen. It’s actually an interesting idea and I really like the fact that they have found unique ways to raise money for a great cause — I’m not sure how well a piece of rhino poo (albeit in a nice glass case) would fit on my mantle.

As of November 29th, four specimens, those of the White, Black, Indian and Sumatran Rhinoceros became available on Ebay, with staggered starting prices based on the rarity of the animal. You can check out the auctions by searching for “rhino poop” or following the links through endangeredfeces.org. Right now the White Rhino poop is the best deal at 125$, but bid early! Someone might snipe your rhino poop out from you at the last second and you’ll be up shit-creek for a holiday gift.

Adopt a Tasmanian Devil and help save a species

by Brett Atkinson on

If anyone was to give out gongs for the world’s coolest animal, I reckon the Tasmanian Devil would be near the top of the list. Not only does it have a Looney Tunes character named after it, if you see one in real life they’re like little, furry rocket ships, charging about with an anarchic gleam in their eyes.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that a facial cancer is rapidly accelerating the Tassie Devil towards extinction in the wild, and some estimates give the species only another 5 years. Since Devil Facial Tumour Disease was discovered in 1996, the population has dropped from 140,000 to around 80,000 and it’s estimated the existing population decreases by 50% each year.

Up to now funding research and running captive breeding programmes has been the domain of private organisations, and through the Devils in Danger Foundation you can Adopt a Devil for $50.

Now the new Australian government has pledged $10 Million to fund research into the disease that’s threatening to wipe out one of the world’s most iconic animals.