I know you’ve all been sitting around today, wondering just when your smartphone might be able to use solar energy to remain charged. Well, wonder no more! That sun-powered technology is finally here. Sort of.
Wysips unveiled their solar powered cell phone charger at CTIA Wireless 2011 a couple of days ago. The solar panel is made out of a thin photovoltaic film. You place the clear charger on top of smartphone’s screen, and ta-da, you’re good to go. Don’t worry, because the transparent solar panel is less than 0.1 millimeters thick, it won’t interfere with any of your touchscreen functions, or dim the LCD, or even muddle up glasses-free 3D screens.
The best part about the see-through solar panel? It can use any type of light to charge your phone, and it only requires six hours of sunlight for your phone to be fully charged. Wysips claims that their next generation panels will provide 30 minutes of talk time for every hour of full sunlight.
The company is talking to Corning, the manufacturers of the Gorilla Glass used on the iPhone 4, and hopes to embed solar-charging film into the smartphone’s glass in the near future. They’re also working on adapting their environmentally friendly solar chargers for different types of phones, tablets and eBook readers. We should see a retail product for the smartphone within the next 12 months.