Solio H100 Solar Charger

As mentioned previously, one of the perks of having a reasonably well-known eco blog is that we’re occasionally offered the opportunity to test out ‘green’ products.

Back towards the end of September someone approached us to see if we were interested in testing out a new Solio solar gadget charger. I jumped at the opportunity since…well…it just looks like a cool toy! In our defence, it DID take a long time to arrive, although certainly not so long as to warrant a mid-December review!

Anyway…

Now that we are up and rolling once again, I figured I might as well test this puppy out. We only have a limited trial period (unless we feel like buying it), and Steve and I agreed to each spend some time with it and share our thoughts here on the blog.

The unit looks very slick, there is no doubt about it, but alas it does not seem to be quite as “truly universal” as it claims on the box. I’ll admit that I’m not as much of a gadget hound as some, but I tried to use it with four different cell phones and a blackberry, yet still had no luck finding one I could actually charge (two of the cell phones and the blackberry are somewhat older models, likely explaining the issues with them). I am hopeful that Steve, being the hip dude that he is, will save the day and actually find something we can test this out with, since it DOES indeed look like really nice system.

According to the box it works with “most common mobile phones, MP3 players, and GPS units”. I was hoping I could use it to charge my laptop, but I now realize that would be a bit of a stretch given its small size. Interestingly enough, you can however charge it with your laptop - so if you are out and about and there isn’t any sunlight available, you can simply plug it in to your laptop via a USB connector and charge it up so it can then be used to charge your other gadgets.

Anyway, I’ll definitely pass it along to Steve when I see him next (planning for next week) and hopefully we’ll be able to provide everyone with a semi-useful review!

Technorati Tags: solio, h100, solar power, solar panels, solar energy, battery charger

Written by Bentley on December 12th, 2007 with no comments.
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Brand New Garden Girl Site

Back in August I wrote a post announcing that Patti ‘Garden Girl’ Moreno was once again back on the green gardening scene (she seemed to be MIA for a number of months), and was partnering with Farmers Almanac for future editions of her Urban Sustainable Living video series.

At the time, her website was looking a wee bit rough around the edges, but she was in the process of planning out a completely new design (which looked very promising).

Long story short, her new website has now officially launched - and I must say it looks AWESOME! Way to go, Patti! I highly recommend that you pop by and check it out: http://www.gardengirltv.com. There is a link down at the bottom that will take you to a preview of her upcoming series on the Farmer’s Almanac site - definitely should be interesting! I also highly recommend signing up for her newsletter - aside from providing updates on her progress, Patti always includes interesting blurbs about her urban mini-farm and what she is up to in general.

Technorati Tags: garden girl, sustainable living, urban agriculture, city farming, farmers almanac, gardening, gardens

Written by Bentley on December 12th, 2007 with no comments.
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