Review: Novothink Surge Solar Charger for iPhone 3G & 3GS

April 21st, 2010 | View Comments

Simply put: the iPhone’s battery sucks. My 3G is approaching it’s second birthday and I can’t get through a day without a couple of charges. So when I heard about Novothink’s Surge iPhone solar charger, I thought, maybe, just maybe, this will be the solution to my problem. Is it? Sort of! Read on for my quick and dirty review.

It comes in a box:

Open the box, you get some stuff:

So how does it work? Essentially it’s a case for the iPhone that slips onto the back and plugs into the dock connector. Here’s the Surge next to the iPhone:

Here’s a look of the dock connector inside the Surge:

And here’s the iPhone cradled inside the Surge:

The promise of solar energy for mobile devices is huge. Just think of any calculator from the past 20 years — no batteries required, no plugging it in to charge it, nothing. It just works. I like to think that one day we’ll experience the same ease of use with our cellphones (and laptops, netbooks, etc). The Surge is really the beginning of the mobile device solar power revolution.

Here’s my bullet point review.

Pros

• Fits the iPhone like a glove
• Constantly charging the phone is great, and frankly, necessary
• Works with direct sunlight or artificial light sources
• LEDs indicate light strength (and speed of charging)
• LEDs also indicate how full the Surge battery is
• You can charge the Surge without your iPhone plugged in
• Cool factor is off the charts
• Integrated USB is great so you don’t have to pull the phone out of the Surge to sync with your computer
• Rugged design feels very sturdy
• Is the only solar charger accessory approved by Apple
• Free App estimates charge times

Cons

• Weight — at 79 grams, it adds nearly 50% more weight to the iPhone
• Size — more than doubles thickness of the phone (see pics above)
• Charge time — don’t expect this to replace traditional charging — it takes 10 hours for a full charge in overcast lighting conditions (see charge times below)

Overall, I’m very happy with the Surge. I find it’s a bit too heavy and thick to carry around in my pocket all day, but it’s definitely something I will bring to the office, to class, and keep in my school bag. What’s great is that the Surge has its own internal battery (probably the source of most of its weight) so you can actually charge it up without your iPhone plugged in at all.

I will probably keep it fully charged and in my bag at all times, so when my iPhone battery dies during the day, I can slip the Surge on and continue talking, texting, surfing, and listening to music without missing a beat. That’s the real value here. It’s more of a backup battery than a permanent solar panel for your phone. (Which makes me wish Apple simply included removable batteries on their phones.)

I would love to see a solar panel integrated into future smartphones — not as an accessory, but as a core element of the product — but until that day comes, I applaud Novothink for filling an important niche. Great stuff.

Retails for $79.95 and you can pick one up directly from Novothink. They also make an iPod Touch version.

---

Innovating in the Stack

April 16th, 2010 | View Comments

I’ve been thinking about stacks recently, ever since I read a piece by Chris Dixon on Google’s stack. From Dixon:

Google makes 99% of their revenue selling text ads for things like airplane tickets, dvd players, and malpractice lawyers. A project is strategic for Google if it affects what sits between the person clicking on an ad and the company paying for the ad. Here is my rough breakdown of the “layers in the stack” between humans and the money:

Human - device – OS – browser – bandwidth –  websites - ads – ad tech – relationship to advertiser – $$$

That seems pretty obvious when you read it, but I needed Chris to point it out for me. Since that eureka moment I’ve been thinking stacks nonstop! I’m a stackaholic.

I recently got into Last.Fm again and I’ve been thinking about the music stack. How do, say, bands, make money? Pre-Internet, there were two main music stacks, one for radio, one for retail:

The Radio Stack: Human – radio – radio station – relationship with record label – relationship with agent – contract with band – band ($)

The Music Retail Stack (Pre-Internet): Human – transportation to retailer – retailer – physical media – manufacturer – record label – relationship with agent – contract with band – band ($)

So those were the two “stacks” that put money into the pockets of bands. And each layer in the stack arguably added value for the consumer of that music, but took a piece of the action from the band.

Now let’s consider the stack Napster created:

The Napster Stack: Human – computer – Napster – music

What’s missing here? How about the band! How about all the middle men! Napster added incredible value for the end user — download right away to your computer! for free! – but obviously completely screwed everyone else. Yes, the music still had to get made, recorded, etc, but that was done in a different stack. The Napster stack just siphoned off the content and gave it to the masses!

Last.Fm and dozens of others are innovating in the music stack now. For example, I pay Last.Fm three bucks a month! In a world where Napster spun the music industry on its head, how am I actually dishing out money for music? Here’s the Last.Fm stack in reference to me:

The Last.Fm Stack: Jeff – laptop – web – music recommendation engine that uses my listening history and personal ratings to inform it – Last.Fm – relationship with bands (either through a record label or directly with the bands themselves) – bands ($)

That recommendation engine adds so much value that I’m willing to pay for it on an ongoing basis. Consider that I have 43 gb of music in my iTunes library, access to thousands of free online radio stations, and of course a handful of local stations too.

Innovating in the stack can be worth your while. Just ask Google.

---