Is this useful?

[drwex]

I am neither an outdoorsy hiking type, nor an inveterate gadget-carrier, so I turn to you. Is this kind of thing really useful, or just wacky and expensive?

http://www.eclipsesolargear.com/ - "solar charging carrying cases"
similarly, http://rewarestore.com/ (with a discount for Zipcar members!)

Comments

[entrochan.livejournal.com]

"Power pockets" look useful. The main problem with all the rest of them is if you're going to be off the grid for long enough to be needing solar power, you're not going to be carrying the dinky little backpack/bag the chargers are built into.

[(Anonymous)]

i claim useful for the following reasons:
- portable
- not using standard electricity to recharge devices
- makes it trivial to keep your stuff recharged

i suspect the value goes up as you have more devices and are more dependent on them just staying charged without overt effort from you.

[catness.livejournal.com]

If it *works* reliably in the real world, absolutely it's useful. It would be great to take the load off the motorbike's charging system, for example, on a cross country trip.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on what you're doing. My husband goes geocaching (http://www.geocaching.com/, if you haven't heard about it -- it might be a great thing to do with your kids), and most of that takes place in wooded areas, where solar power isn't exactly plentiful.