Solar Powered Phones — here to stay

Although there’s miles to go before it is perfected, solar powered phones are here to stay. Where electricity is scarce, more and more people in the provinces are relying on mobile phones to do more than just call and SMS. RIght now, Nokia has led the pack in terms of offering two good things: phones that have built in flashlights and phones that have built in “Life Tools” services for farmers. Add email to the picture and you get more than just an Internet cafe on your hands. Solar charged phones complete the circle, allowing folks to do more while they leave their phones idle.

About an hour of solar charging offers around 5-10 minutes of talk time. Selling at around US$60 (NZ$81), Samsung Solar Guru features FM radio, MP3 ring tones, embedded games, and a torch light. [source]

[image via textually.org]