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Hardware

First Wind-up Phone Charger Review 222

Posted by Hemos from the wind-me-up-baby dept.
Jonathan Bennett writes "Here's the first actual review (as opposed to speculation) of Motorola's FreeCharge hand-operated mobile phone charger. Only works with Motorola phones for now, but other devices on the way. "
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First Wind-up Phone Charger Review More

First Wind-up Phone Charger Review

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  • Not too bad... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DJayC ( 595440 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:30PM (#3947013)
    "Motorola claims that 45 seconds' winding will produce 4-6 minutes of talk time and 'several hours' of standby time."

    That's actually not bad at all. The only problem is that if you wind it to get standby back, if someone calls you are likely to only have a minute or so of talking. This seems like an excellent idea for emergencies though.
    • The only problem is that if you wind it to get standby back, if someone calls you are likely to only have a minute or so of talking.

      Simple. Turn off the phone while charging it. Turn it back on when you're done.
      • Turning off the phone while charging it may or may not help. Imagine this scenario:

        You are waiting for an important call at the beach (don't ask =] ). Your cell phone dies. You wind it up to keep the phone on standby so you can still get the call. Depending on when the call actually occurs, you may only have a couple minutes of talk time. Of course that would be enough to let the caller know the deal, and then call from a pay phone, but hey *shrugs* :)
    • The only problem is that if you wind it to get standby back, if someone calls you are likely to only have a minute or so of talking.

      Who told you to stop winding after 45 seconds? D-oh!
    • Unless you are in a real emergency. 45 seconds could mean the difference between life and death. Something quicker, like a pump or maybe the use of gears to make the charging quicker would be great.

      It is understood the more work you want out of a system, the more work you have to put in. (Energy can't be created etc...)

    • The only problem is that if you wind it to get standby back, if someone calls you are likely to only have a minute or so of talking.

      Could be a potential problem when I call up those automated voice mail hell^Hp trees that force me to navigate <wind>through the <wind>duration of every inappropriate <wind>branch and <wind>twig until I get to a nice operator <wind>leaf that puts me into a queue to talk to a real person.

      "Thank you for calling $CORP. <wind>Your call is important to us. All of our operators are busy assisting other customers. Please <wind> continue to stay on the line...<music> ... <wind> <product_advertisement> ....<wind> ..."

      (I can see carpal tunnel setting in from winding...)

    • So wind while you're talking.
  • This is nothing more than a dynamo flashlight or disaster radio without the bulb or radio.

    I'm not impressed!

    AWG

    • Re:Big Deal, (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonvmous Coward ( 589068 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:45PM (#3947126)
      "This is nothing more than a dynamo flashlight or disaster radio without the bulb or radio."

      What kind of long distance rates are you getting with your dynamo flashlight?

      • Re:Big Deal, (Score:3, Funny)

        by freeweed ( 309734 )
        What kind of long distance rates are you getting with your dynamo flashlight?

        Free, if you know Morse Code.

  • All that excercize finally pays off... (Score:5, Funny)

    by colmore ( 56499 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:30PM (#3947020) Journal
    For years, I've been excercizing for this product, once, twice, or sometimes even three times a day. At last all that hard work and repetitive motion will pay off.

    And if I can get one of those phones that can view color photos, I might be able to continue excercizing after I've charged it.

  • Another box to lug around (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:31PM (#3947023) Homepage
    Unfortunately, it's not integrated into the phone. There are uses for an "emergency phone" with a built-in crank generator. But this is an external unit you carry around.

    A "squeeze the handle a few times and you can make a call" unit might be more useful.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:34PM (#3947046)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Inerita Chargers (Score:3, Insightful)

      by colmore ( 56499 )
      Watches are at a pretty high torque point, on your wrist, and will get a lot more energy than something clipped to your belt.

      Also watches require much less power to operate.

    • Re:Inerita Chargers (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Because watches need fractions of a milliwatt to operate, while a phone typically needs a watt. That's over 1000 times more, in case you're SI-challenged.
    • Because a watch is not only on your hand where it is flailing around all the time, but they require _very_ little power.
  • OK you better be away from a power source for a LONG time before you need one of these. Granted if you were realy desperate and bothered to cary this small brick around with you. The battery side that takes 36 minutes of winding to charge is 1000ma assuming you would spend an hour a day winding this thing up (or just plug it into a socket and recharge it) and that it weighs in at two thirds of a pound you would be better off getting a few extra cell phone batteries (yes some people do actualy remove there battery and replace it every now and again)
    • The point isn't to charge it to capacity, the point is to get your phone running long enough to place a call if your battery goes low.

      I don't get many calls on my cell phone, so I get lazy about charging it. If I could wind it up a few times and get 10-15 minutes of talk time (which sounds reasonable based on the article), then it saves my booty if I get stranded or something.

      You're operating on impractical assumptions there. Heh.
  • Uh, not to repeat myself but... Almost usless news connected to products yet again
  • Now your wrist can get tired on all of your phone calls, not just the ones you hope your significant other doesn't see on the bill.

  • As well as the mobile charger modules, you're given a torch module for the FreeCharge. Unfortunately it's a bit disappointing, considering that FreePlay has produced wind-up torches before.

    This sounds like some cool James Bond device. Battery charger for emergency phone calls AND bad guy incinerator!

    (Yes, it's a joke.)

  • There is more info on the product page [freeplay.net] at Freecharge. But I think it would be cool if there were a little more information. The "45 seconds of winding" for what sounds like full charge seems pretty cool. This would be excellent for camping trips and such.

    The nerd in me wants to know if you are winding a sping or direct charging....

    • If you read the article, it tells you that for a full charge, you need 35 minutes of charging. 45 seconds will get you the minumum "useful" amount of charge (enough for a short call). However, the best use of this seems to be to start with it fully charged (you can plug it in to charge it up), and then whenever you make a call, or if it's been idle for a day or two, you wind it to top off the battery. That way, when you need to make your 30 minute call, you can do it immediately and pay for it later, rather than having to wind it for 20 minutes before being able to perform that emergency heart surgery...

  • excellent (Score:4, Funny)

    by tps12 ( 105590 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:36PM (#3947063) Homepage Journal
    I hadn't heard of this product before, but I'm excited. Imagine what it'll be like when these devices become commonplace...you'll get up in the morning and grind and brew coffee by hand. Wind up your radio to hear the news as you crank up the microwave for some oatmeal. Then crank your car and drive to work, where you spend all day in front of a computer, pedalling a stationary bike.

    We will all be quite muscular!

  • A possible problem... (Score:5, Funny)

    by MWoody ( 222806 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:36PM (#3947064)
    Her: Hello?

    Me: *pant* *pant* *pant*

    Her: Ew! Pervert! *click*

    Me: *pant* Wait! *pant* Damnit!

    Maybe this isn't a good thing...
  • This hand powered webserver [uclinux.com] was featured on slashdot [slashdot.org] awhile ago. Personally I find this cooler, even if it is less usefull.
  • Hmm.. I just imagine the rage when people get telemarketing calls with that phone...

    "You made me crank my phone for this crap?! You better tell me something interesting and fast, or I'm going to let you wind down!"
  • Damnit the phone's dead. Oh wait...wind wind wind wind wind wind wind

    Yeah 911? There's an axewielding maniac freak after me, send help. Thanks.
  • Motorola sales guy: For sixty dollars you can now own a simple hand held motor that charges your cell phone!

    Everyone else: For sixty bucks yeah..

    Us: $60?! Are you F*CKING CRAZY?!

  • not very efficient (Score:3, Interesting)

    by drwho ( 4190 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:38PM (#3947085) Homepage Journal
    The amount of rigorous cranking it takes to get a charge makes this generator seem inefficient. Maybe efficiency was sacrificed for portability.

    Human legs are much more powerful than arms. some sort of foot-operated device would be more tolerable in terms of effort, but probably not as portable. Piezoelectrics that sit in the soles of shoes are not very intrusive, and could provide power over a long time. I believe this is what the MIT wearables group is using.

    Hand power, foot power, wind power, and water power require different gearing ratios in order to operate efficiently. An impressive design would allow this type of switch through some type of transmission (CVT? Pneumatic?), and have linkage adapters to hands, feet, windmill blades, waterwheels, etc. The problem is accomplishing this while maintaining a light weight.
    • Well then you'd need some sort of cord attaching your shoe to the phone. Or, they could embed the phone in the sole of your shoe. Or -- here we go -- your phone could snap onto the sole of your shoe.
  • What about strapping the thing you your belt and harness the kinetic energy from your movements. There are some things like watches that do this. Of course cell phones use more power than that but, if I get off my fat ass and run the 4 miles home from work, I might build up enough to be able to call and order a pizza. :-)
  • I'll bet they would have liked to have one of these on "Survivor," "Six Days, Seven Nights," or "Gilligan's Island."

    Now if they just would come up with a portable cell tower...

    Seriously, on the chance that in an emergency I would be near enough to civiliazation to use a cell phone, I'd put one of these in the survival kit in my plane. I have a long-shelf-life disposable battery for my Nokia in there now.
    • Now if they just would come up with a portable cell tower...

      They have, it's called a COW (Cell On Wheels). Wireless companies mostly wheel them out for special golf tournaments etc. so that the area has additional coverage.

  • Please! (Score:4, Funny)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi AT yahoo DOT com> on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:39PM (#3947092) Journal
    Make sure you take it out of your pants pocket before charging!

    "Son, we need to have a little talk. Has your mother told you anything about the Birds and the Bees?..."

  • Crank Call (Score:4, Funny)

    by Static242 ( 124804 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:40PM (#3947103)
    This little devices gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Crank Call"

    • Damn that was bad.....I was thinking you could strap this to your hand while you "flog the bishop" and call it the world's cheapest phone sex.

  • Why not clockwork? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bonker ( 243350 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:41PM (#3947104)
    According to the article, there is no clockwork involved in the charger. The handle turns the generator directly. The box is already larger than a cellphone, so why not include clockwork? Instead of using hand power to turn a generator, why not use handpower to compress a spring (at a significant mechanical advantage, of course) that turns a flywheel that turns the generator.

    Of course it would be much harder to turn the crank, but you wouldn't have to keep up an exhausting pace of over 100rpm. At least in my mind, I'd rather turn a very hard-to-turn crank 10 times than an easy to turn crank 1000 times.

    Does this model work? I've seen it work in some of the various other 'squeeze and go' utilities out there. I had a flashlight/FM radio combo a little while back that used something similar (handle, spring, and flywheel arrangement). It was relatively hard to crank, but one or two cranks got you 30 seconds of flashlight or 5 minutes of radio at top volume.

  • Next step (Score:4, Funny)

    by delphin42 ( 556929 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:41PM (#3947107) Homepage
    Now all they have to do is offer an electronic device that does the winding for you...
    • Now all they have to do is offer an electronic device that does the winding for you...

      Or a hampster and a its wheel.

    • Re:Next step (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by guttentag ( 313541 )
      Now all they have to do is offer an electronic device that does the winding for you...
      Forget it, I think Forgent already owns the patent for this.

  • Cellphone Hack ver 1.0 (Score:3, Funny)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi AT yahoo DOT com> on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:44PM (#3947123) Journal
    This cranking is tiring! Now if I hooked up a motor to the crank, powered by a small battery, I could save a lot of work!
  • Wow..
    Yet another way for us to get RSI. I cant wait.. Think about it. Sitting around the campfire with your friends tipping back some brew.. And then you friend passes you..no not a joint.. but the hand cranker. The hours just fly by.

  • First they get the ear plug/mic connection for their cell phone and they walk around the airport/mall/street having these conversations and everybody tries to figure out if this is some wacko or somebody talking on a cell phone, sometimes it is hard too tell.

    Now we'll all know that the in-duh-vidual having the wild converstaion is on a hands free cell phone call because they are crancking for their life.... and looking like they are having a conversation with their "inner" self.

    NOTE: Your not that important, and nobody want to hear it.

  • Ad free link (Score:2, Informative)

    by cow_licker ( 172474 )
    Or we could post directly to the ad free version, right here [zdnet.co.uk]

  • I think it is pretty cool for emergency use. They should have done this a long time ago.
  • You could carry this as backup. Emphasis on could. I won't. Emergencies are the only situations that I could ever picture using this for. In any other situations, this unit is good for nothing. Outlets are everywhere! Plug-in chargers are tiny and convenient! This is no better than hamsters running on wheels to power it.
  • now if i ever get stranded on the side of a mountian i won't have to fling my batteries into the snow so that they can be magically recharged, i do emphasis magical, because frozen batteries don't work
  • I am reminded of a far side cartoon by Gary Larsen where a bunch of geeks with one big strong arm are standing around making fun of a guy who doesnt have one big strong arm.

    cant remember exact context though.
  • Laudable as the environmental benefits of using person-power to charge a mobile phone are...
    Are there really environmental benefits to this? I mean, the human energy required to turn the crank doesn't come from nowhere.
  • So I'm using 2 hands to crank this thing, holding my cell phone against my ear with my shoulder as I talk, steering through rush hour with my left knee SCRrreeeeee!!CRASH!!

  • Doh. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by glh ( 14273 )
    It's bad enough when Susie in her corvette is driving in front of me with her ear glued to the cell phone. Just imagine when her phone starts going out and she's in the middle of a lane change getting ready to wind... (shudder)
  • It would be cool to have a phone that has *only* a crank and you would throw it in the trunk - or camper or whatever. When you were hiking, or camping or stranded somewhere - you crank it up for a bit - enought to make a 10 minute phone call - and when you connect you just get charged for that one call....

    prolly a long way from that type of service, but I am sure we will have these some day.
  • Wow, if you had a really bad conversation, you can just rewind it!
  • I think this is a great idea.

    I wouldn't want to use it to reguarily charge my phone, but it could come in handy in an emergency situation.

  • Oh, no. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Dthoma ( 593797 )
    I know exactly how this is going to be used.

    Picture a crowded intercity train. With an inconsiderate commuter phoning home.

    Then:
    "HELLO? HELLO? I SAID I'M GOING TO BE LATE! HELLO? @#$% battery!"

    Now:
    "HELLO? HELLO? I SAID I'M GOING TO BE LATE, DARLING! Damn."
    (insert loud cranking sound)
    "AAH, THAT'S BETTER! NOW, ANYWAY, I SAID I'M GOING TO BE LATE BACK! HOW LONG? UH, ABOUT HALF AN HOUR TO AN HOUR LATE! YES? CAN YOU PUT MY DINNER IN THE OVEN? WHAT? HANG ON!"
    (insert loud cranking sound)
    "YES, DINNER! IN OVEN! OH, CAN YOU GET THE WASHING MACHINE READY FOR WHEN I COME IN? OK? WAIT, GOING THROUGH A TUNNEL! HANG ON! PUT THE WASHING MACHINE ON! WHAT DO YOU MEAN? MY SUIT! HELLO? HANG ON!"
    (insert loud cranking sound)

    To be repeated ad fucking nauseam.

  • foot pedal (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bob_jenkins ( 144606 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @04:59PM (#3947222) Homepage Journal
    What they need is a foot pedal. That way you could talk while charging it.
  • ... that I have been strengthening the muscles in my right arm. Now I can recharge my battery efficiently. Wonder what talk time I would get now :D
  • Everybody wears these things on their hips, why not a charger that that works like a pedometer? I heard the "average person" walks 10 miles just in a normal day. So lets see...3 feet per step=1760 steps per mile=17600 up and down jolts per day. (not counting the horizontal hip shuffles that I personally take my phone off for)

  • There are already solar powered battery chargers on the market.

    http://www.teleadaptusa.com/nme/order_solar_powe r. htm

    google cache on
    http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:72Iu9P5i5Xk C: www.teleadaptusa.com/nme/order_solar_power.htm+sol ar+power+mobile+phone+charger&hl=en&ie=UTF -8

  • It's a ZDnet site...'or else they'd need a windup chager for their webserver!

  • The article simply quotes drivel from Motorolla. "Motorolla" says this and "Motorolla" says that.

    Is this the state of pathetetic journalism?

    I wanted to see what someone said after they had one in their hands.

    My god! How much time does it really get?

    Heck, Sony claimed I could get three hours battery time off my VAIO laptop. Not once did I see it get two hours from regualar use.

  • Until this feature is intergrated into your phone. Try this elequent hack.

    1. Locate a quarter
    2. Purchase scotch tape
    3. Tape quarter to phone
    When you need to make a phone call, but it's dead. Just remove quarter.
    • When you need to make a phone call, but it's dead. Just remove quarter.

      You forgot a step...

      4. Bum another quarter off somebody because phone calls cost $.50
    • Until this feature is intergrated into your phone. Try this elequent hack.


      Locate a quarter
      Purchase scotch tape
      Tape quarter to phone

      When you need to make a phone call, but it's dead. Just remove quarter.
      Unfortunately, this solution won't work for everybody. If your mother were to keep this phone in her back pocket, she might accidentaly squeeze a booger out of George Washington's nose.
  • Totally grid-free telecom. Say goodbye to dependency on large central organizations for communications.

    No, I don't honestly think that the hand crank is good enough. But combine solar, human (on an exercise device, perhaps), and efficiency gains, and something like this might be possible.

    Of course, no gain will probably power Central Air Conditioning, which seems an awful lot like an essential of life at the moment.... : |

  • Is this really that useful? Anywhere I go where I would need to charge my cell phone, I can bring my much-smaller-and-easier version that plugs into a wall. If I ever go anywhere that doesn't have a wall plug or car cigarette lighter, chances are I don't get a signal anyway.
  • Dating myself here; I flashed on June Lockhart picking up the earpiece of the phone at the farmhouse, cranking feverishly on the wooden box, and shouting into that carbon microphone. (It was all a fake set piece by 1963 when they filmed the series, but still...)

    Lassie come home!
  • Call me crazy, but didn't they already have this 'technology' about 60 years ago? Every episode of M*A*S*H has either Radar or Klinger cranking up a radio before calling Sparky.

    And by 'they', I do specifically mean Motorola. Wasn't their start in making walkie-talkie's and other military communications equipment like this wind-up radio?

    Where's the news?

    • Call me crazy, but didn't they already have this 'technology' about 60 years ago? Every episode of M*A*S*H has either Radar or Klinger cranking up a radio before calling Sparky.

      That was probably a field phone, not a radio. The crank would've rung the phone at the other end of the line.

      And by 'they', I do specifically mean Motorola. Wasn't their start in making walkie-talkie's and other military communications equipment like this wind-up radio?

      http://www.motorola.com/content/1,1037,115-110,00. html [motorola.com]

      Their first product was a battery eliminator to enable a radio to run on AC instead of the three batteries (filament, plate, and bias) they previously needed. After that, they got into car radios, which is where they got their name.

  • Emergency use (Score:2, Interesting)

    by chiph ( 523845 )
    The FreeCharge should be in everyone's hurricane/earthquake/riot prepardness kit.

    There's a much better chance of the cell-phone tower working (they have generators) than the 3 miles of cable between you and the CO still being in one piece. You'll still have trouble getting dial-tone, but that's just a matter of retrying until you do.

    Chip H.

  • Third World Use (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Smurphy ( 26684 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @05:23PM (#3947403) Homepage
    One use they don't bring up that they should is being able to use cell phones where there isn't any electricity to charge them. In a lot of the poorer countries they are going straight to cell phones and skipping laying copper. The lack of electricity to charge the phones has been one of the stumbling blocks for getting phone service to some really remote areas.

    • Re:Third World Use (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Jynxeh ( 574343 )
      That's an excellent point- I heard that some of the other wind-up/solar stuff that's come out in the past few years (radios, flashlights, etc.) was actually developed with the Third World in mind. I wonder if that was the case with this, or it was simply developed for forgetful Western consumers like myself, who can't remember to charge their phones up. :-p
    • Sounds great. But you forget if there's no electricity, then there won't be any antennes from the phonecompany because those need electricity too. And they have only a small radius.
      • A good point, but the nice thing about many lightly populated areas of the world (I'm thinking much of africa, central australia) is that they're (a) flat and (b) have very few buildings. This increases the tower's range hugely. As an example, there is a cell tower on top of the cliffs near Dover (south east UK). If you get the ferry over the channel to france, you can still pick up a signal from it almost all the way over (about 25 miles), because there are no hills or buildings.
    • I remember a picture I saw once in a book, published in the 1960's, showing a Soviet radio, powered by a solid-state thermoelectric generator set over a kerosene lamp. Of course, the amout of power needed by a six-transistor short-wave radio is much less than that needed to power a cell-phone transmitter, even considering 1960's technology.

  • Human energy not free (Score:4, Funny)

    by WhaDaYaKnow ( 563683 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2002 @05:25PM (#3947412)
    let's say the extra energy lost requires you to eat an extra hamburger.

    Now this hamburger needs to be heated up. In a place where they need to have light. And toilets. And wireless headsets. And lighted billboards that can be electronically updated. But first of all a cow had to be created. And fed. In a place with electric fences. And a sewer system. And grass that had to be mowed by a tractor that had to be created somewhere in Pennsylvania. And then the cow had to be hollered over to the slaughterhouse in a big truck made in Detroit. And the truck would do about a mile to the gallon. And require new tires every 6 months. And the slaughterhouse would have to buy new Magnum 45s every year to shoot the lead bullets in the cow's brain. And all those people that where so busy making your hamburger now also lost energy and could use a hamburger themselves.

    And you call THIS good for the environment?!
    • No matter how loud I holler the cow won't go into the slaughterhouse. What am I doing wrong?
    • Let's see:
      let's say the extra energy lost requires you to eat an extra hamburger.

      Macdonalds Quarter Pounder with Cheese - 530 calories

      Big Mac - 560 calories

      30 minutes of pedalling exercise bike at gym this lunchtime - 250 calories.

      I don't know how much effort it would require to use this phone charger, but it's got to be a lot less than 30 minutes on an exercise bike. Most north americans are probably carrying around tens of thousands of calories worth of stored fat. You might as well use it for something.

      HH
      --

  • emergency (Score:2, Insightful)

    by doggo ( 34827 )
    I bought one of those Sony emergency radios, it's bright orange,AM/FM, has little light for the dial, water resistant,an audio beacon (sounds like a smoke detector), and it's crank/battery/ac adapter powered. It's pretty basic, but it sounds okay.

    I bought it to be my work radio, just to listen to talk radio while I'm working in my office. But I started using it in the kitchen while I'm cooking because it's small and durable.

    Anyway, I figured I'd never have to buy batteries for it. If you crank the thing for one minute, you get about 30 minutes of power. But the thing is, it's a pretty stiff crank (heh), and you have to crank it pretty fast. After about 3 minutes, you're pretty much sick of doing it. But that does give you a good hour or so of listening. It'd be good if you were stranded in the woods and you wanted to hear the ball game, or use the smoke detector noise scare away predators. Otherwise, it's just easier to use batteries, which seem to last forever.

    These crank-up electronic devices are really only useful in emergency situations, or by really committed environmentalists.

  • I did a google search and came up with a different review from ABCnews.com, that appeared to be a prerelease review. In one inexplicable quote, they say It's an ideal tool to have in the car....

    Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm in a car, I have a battery and if the car is running an alternator that can be used to charge the phone just fine.....

  • I loved the idea of this, since I sometimes go camping, and my battery ends up dying after a day or two... When I went to the motorola website, they only had the freecharge listed for their current crop of phones.

    Mine's a StarTAC, which they have lamentably stopped producing, and I wasn't sure if the charger would work with it, given that it wasn't one of the listed supported models... Anyone know if they're compatible?

  • 60 or 70 years after we quit using hand-cranked generators in phones, we get them back again.
  • First they were telling us that moving from hand-cranked coffee grinders to electric coffee grinders was progress. Now they're telling us that moving from electric cell phone chargers to hand-cranked cell phones chargers is progress.

    So are hand-cranks "old-fashioned" or are they "innovative"? Technology is so confusing these days.

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