Walking 20km To Charge Your Mobile Phone?
Leo Blanco over at The Mobile Technology Weblog writes about a village in India where about 40 people have to walk 20km just to get some place with electricity in order to charge their phones!
For these people, their mobile phone truly is their lifeline. Without electricity or much other infrastructure in this village, the mobile phone connects them with the outside world. You can be that long battery life is at the top of these villagers wish list for mobile phones!
I wonder if my colleagues at Nokia are working on something to address this need. Maybe something solar-powered for the summer months or something that can use your breathing to charge something. Who knows.
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Comment by Muhammad Ahsun Ali
This is amazing to know how mobile technology enhances in recent years, people are not getting electricity but they have cell phones. Nokia couldn’t do any thing about this issue.
Comment by Aswath
I remember seeing crank chargers. Also many cycles in India used to have a dynamo unit attached to the wheel to power a light. Can’t that be adapted to charge the battery?
Comment by PhoneBoy
As a kid, I had a light for the back of my bike that was “lit” by my
riding. I’m sure you could something similar. I wonder how much the
guys in Finland are thinking about these issues.
Comment by Rico
Maybe a more efficient version of this hand-powered charger?
Comment by PhoneBoy
Looks like something similar to what I wrote about on Gadgets Weblog:
http://www.gadgets-weblog.com/50226711/handcranked_cell_phone_charger_not_worth_it.php
Comment by Nabil
I have tried this one: Electrilite Emergency Flashlight http://www.electrilite.com/electrilite-emergency.html
Could get some power to charge older Nokia.
Comment by PhoneBoy
That is at least a multifunction device, but the same idea as the device I have: continuous cranking to charge your battery. Could be an interesting cottage industry in this small village.
Comment by Solar Lover
I had that same generator light that was “lit” by my pedaling, and can’t believe that there’s not something by now that they can use efficiently. Probably the same reason our auto industry isn’t better…