Solar-charge your iPhone

Oh goodie, something else for me to spend money on! I haven't had occasion to travel much with my iPhone up until the past few months, when I've really tested the limits of its battery life. And, like most iPhone users, I don't really have good things to say about it.

That's why I'll be taking a serious look at the new Surge solar iPhone case, from Novothink.

Priced at about $80, the Surge case doubles as a solar charger. The integrated solar panels output about 5.5 volts in full sunlight. That means about 2 hours of full-sun exposure will top off your iPhone enough to buy you an extra 30 minutes to talk time on a 3G network or 60 minutes on a 2G network. The charger contains some power management features that keep it from overcharging. It also has introduced a solar-planning app you can use to figure out your charging and usage patterns.

If it's cloudy, you can still charge up the case by using a USB cable. (Those of you who use some of the other battery boost cases will appreciate the fact that you won't have to take the iPhone out of the case to do this.)