We already use rechargeable batteries, but isn’t there a greener and more environmentally friendly way to charge batteries? Well SolarCat believes they have the answer with a new battery that can be recharged using only the power of the sun. Though it is only in prototype form, the rechargeable batteries are wrapped in solar-cell strips that constantly provide a low-power, trickle charge. 

This is an excellent idea, but I believe it needs to be endorsed by one of the major battery companies such as Duracell or Energizer before it actually takes off. If the batteries are actually able to charge efficiently and stand up to everyday use, then SolarCat’s self-charging solar battery is another piece in the puzzle to create a greener society.

Bah! You kids today! With your cell-a-ma-phones and i-ma-pods and hand held Nintendies! In my day, if we had something that ran on batteries, they were either double AAs or those weird watch batteries. When your device went dead, you’d bug your mom for new batteries. End of discussion. If you wanted one of them newfangled rechargeable batteries, you’d put it in the charger overnight and hope for the best.

Then sometime ’round double aught, all these rechargeable battery packs started popping up. They weren’t interchangeable, and they didn’t play nice with their neighbors. If you wanted to recharge them, you had to plug your whole device into the wall. And dabgummit if they didn’t all have different pluggy things, so you couldn’t share adaptors. Came the time when your average desk or entry way table looked like big ol’ plate of spagetti, what with the wires and the tangles and the cables and the hoo-ha!

Sorry, just talkin’ ’bout it gets my angry up. Lucky for us, those whippersnappers over at Callpod have a solution. It’s called the Chargepod and it looks like a cross between a hockey puck and an old fashioned donut. You plug one end into the wall (or car if you want to get fancy pants, charging things in your car like some kind of big britches) to get the juice flowing. Then you have six other ports. Simply buy the proper adaptor for your products and you can charge six things at once. They have adaptors for dang near everything that needs power, and you can order them special adapties from their website.

Of course, you might be asking yourself “Is this better than a surge protector and just plugging in the adaptors that already came with the product?” It’s a heck of a lot more portable, making it ideal for a frequent traveler. It’s small and streamlined, making it more organized than just having a heck of a bunch of wires all strung out willy-nilly, with no rhyme or reason. But it is a dang sight more expensive than a surge protector, and you can’t use it to charge a laptop or anything of similar power drain. I’m not the boss of how you spend your money. If you have a lot of things to charge and don’t want a big old powerstrip everywhere, it’s the thing for you.

Now get off my lawn!

To get your own Callpod Chargepod:Power OctopusClick Here