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What do you do when your out in the middle of nowhere without an electrical hookup in sight? Well, if you’re lucky enough to have some decent sunlight, and a solar-powered charger, then the answer is obvious. But, if solar-powered juice-packs aren’t your style, M2E could have just the thing to fit your needs.

M2E announced their motion-powered battery charger last year. With magnets and coils in tow, M2E says that their motion-powered battery charger generates enough juice over 6 hours of cumulative human-motion to add 30 to 60 minutes of extra talk time on a mobile phone. And, a standard wall-plug allows you to use an electrical hookup to juice-up your portable device - you know, for those times when 6 hours of cumulative motion just sounds like too much for your lazy behind to deal with.

The company has plans to integrate its motion-powered technology in hybrid and electric vehicles - converting the jarring bumps on the road in to extended drive-time. For now, M2E is aiming to have their portable charger on market next year. We can’t wait.

[Via: SmartPlanet]

When you’re rocking 2400mAh worth of extra juice to power your iPhone 3G or original iPhone, you’ll probably have no qualms about plugging your iPhone handset in to your stereo and listening to your tunes for hours on end. And, with Brando’s latest iPhone and iPhone 3G external battery pack, you can crank up the volume and listen to your music through the battery pack’s built-in speaker.

Brando is offering it’s iPower external iPhone battery pack with integrated speaker for $44. The battery pack can be fully recharged in about 3 hours and carries enough charge to triple your iPhone and iPhone 3G’s uptime.

The iPower uses an LED light to indicate power status, and automatically shuts down after a period of inactivity. Your $44 gives you a choice of Black or White iPower to match your iPhone 3G accordingly.

Brando

CIO.coms Al Sacco has a great slideshow compilation of what he thinks are the 14 silliest smartphone accessories. I don’t want to spoil what’s in there by listing any of them out, save for the taster image below - however, it’s well worth a look, as there are some gigglesome accessories lurking in the list! You can check it out here.

[Via: CIO.com / Image credit: Etsy.com]

Lucky Nokia N96 Limited Edition buyers waited longer than it was need for their handset. In order to make things clear and keep the good faith among its customers, Nokia has shipped a free Nokia BH-503 Bluetooth headset to impatient buyers. Here’s what the official “thank you” email says:

Dear customer,

We sincerely apologise for the fact that we cannot at this moment state the exact delivery date for your limited edition Nokia N96. As soon as we have shipped your Nokia N96 you will receive an email through which you can track your parcel and the date of its delivery.

In the meantime, in appreciation of your continued patience, we’ll be arranging a delivery of a free Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-503 in silver colour which you’ll be able to use with your Nokia N96 multimedia computer.

Our customer care is the best contact point for you to help with any questions you have. You can find your local customer care contact details at http://www.nokia.com/support.

Once again, we hope you accept our apologies. We assure you that we are doing everything we can to have your device shipped to you as soon as possible.

Respectfully,
Nokia

Now if that’s not a good example of taking care of your customers I don’t know what it is. Way to go Nokia!

[Via: TheNokiaBlog]

Having had the 8800 Arte for a few weeks now, one major concern of mine is trying to make sure it’s beautiful little case doesn’t get scratched - it has a very shiny finish, so anything that happens to it drop-wise, could potentially ruin it.

In that respect, I invested in a couple of cases, to try and figure out what the best solution is here - a combination of looks, protection, practicality, and cost were the criteria for assessment….

Nokia’s own 8800 Arte case (left in pic) - well, you do get a case from Nokia. It’s “free” in the pack, and is nicely constructed. But to my mind, it sucks a bit. First of all, it’s VERY tight on the device, which is never good for casings or buttons. Second, the method of getting the device out of the pouch is via an internal drawstring - which obviously rubs the case as it contacts it, to pull it out. Overall, I wasn’t that impressed

PDair leather case (middle in pic, from Mobilefun.co.uk) - It’s strange to think that of the many cases available for the 8800, only a few (that I could find) are made specifically for it - with a case that doesn’t fit, you are going to get rattling of the device inside, plus potential damage. So PDair’s £20 custom-made case is more of what I wanted. The belt loop is made from a leather hook (rather than a clip-on catch), which is easier to fit, but also easier to come off. The case does look really professional, and doesn’t impede you sitting down. Only downside I could see is that the top of the case exposes the phone, so if this were to come off and land upside down, you could still have a scratched phone. A minor point really, and a great solution overall!

Phone sock (right in pic, from Mobilefun.co.uk) - the sock came as part of a coloured 3-pack, costing £4.95 - bargain! The sock hugs the device nicely, and really is more of a protector from surfaces, and the insides of pockets, than a case. But it does it’s job very nicely, and can act as a neat “coaster” for your device when out on a table. Much more casual than the PDair, it’s a cheap and actually quite cheerful solution, which again I thought fitted a niche well!

Overall then, from a professional perspective, the PDair works well. The socks work nicely when you are out with friends, and a belt clip isn’t appropriate. I won’t be using the Nokia case, because of my concerns about the ejection mechanism strap fouling the device….

Ben

Even though we still wait to see Motorola releasing the S9-HD Bluetooth headset, that doesn’t stop the struggling American handset maker to paint it in a new color. Just yesterday, we’ve caught an image of the upcoming headphones in white with blue accents — as opposed to the original black model. As far as we can tell, the specs remain unchanged and the only difference is in the color.

Now that I’m thinking, I even like the original MOTO S9 model and honestly can’t wait to give the S9-HD a try. Black or white, it doesn’t matter as far as I’m concerned. Hopefully, MOTO will start selling these sooner rather than later…

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

Zeemote’s biz dev team is working round the clock for the summer. Following the announcement that they will partner with Sony Ericsson, the maker of the award-winning Zeemote JS1 Controller announced a deal with Nokia in Germany. Under the terms of the agreement, the Finnish giant will advertise the Zeemote JS1 Controller in its German on and offline media channels, and bundle the gaming controller with some of its phones. We’re not sure which phones are involved at this stage, but something tells me the JS1 Controller will perfectly sing along N-Gage enabled devices.

Finally before I let you go, if you happen to visit Germany in the coming days, you can see the Zeemote JS1 in action at Games Convention 2008 in Leipzig, from 20th to 24th August of this year…

[Via: SymbianFreak]

Don’t know about you, but lately I like Motorola’s accessories more than their phones. Now the struggling American handset maker is partnering with Jay-Z to release the branded Bluetooth headphones. We’re not sure how exactly the famous rapper helped Moto in making of this headset, but we know it looks kinda weird on FCC pages. These are A2DP stereo Bluetooth compatible headphones and we’re not sure when we’ll see them officially announced. We are sure, though, Motorola won’t be quiet once all the paperwork is done and the headset is ready for the prime time…

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

Need some special Bluetooth headset? How about something that looks cool weird yet promises to deliver excellent sound quality. Zivio Boom’s trick is in the extending boom which grows from a base of 53.5 mm to 137 mm, delivering the mic directly in front of your mouth. That should reportedly result in a much better audio pickup, i.e. you won’t have to yell to spread out the message.

Power wise, the 13 grams heavy headset’s battery should deliver up to 10 hours of talk and up to 300 hours of standby time. Sounds more than enough in my book. Too bad you’ll have to pour out $130 in order to own one…

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

Fans of the doomed-from-the-start Palm Foleo will be happy to hear that the Celio REDFLY Windows Mobile companion notebook is now available online. The Celio REDFLY works to extend the computing power of your Windows Mobile smartphone to a notebook form-factor with larger display and full-sized QWERTY keyboard.

With no OS, CPU or storage, the Celio REDFLY can power its 8-inch 800×480 display for up to 8 continuous hours of use. The REDFLY is designed to connect to your WinMo smartphone and take better advantage of the high-speed data connection and computing power that is normally limited by the small keyboard and likewise tiny display.

Of course, with sub-compact notebooks hitting the market with price-tags in line (or cheaper) with the Celio REDFLY’s $500 price-point, mobile warriors will be hard pressed to decide if they want a full-featured sub-compact notebook with decent battery life or a stripped-down Windows Mobile notebook with incredible battery life.

The choice is yours. Find the Celio REDFLY here.

[Via: WMExperts]