cell phone charger

We've all got the drawer. It has an indiscriminate collection of electronic connections, cords, and chargers for devices we haven't used in a decade and couldn't give away on eBay for free. But we guard that drawer with Obamian hope that the next purchase might actually require a serial port connection or that dot-matrix printers might hold the key to cold fusion. We wait for just one occasion to justify our persistence and silence throughout decades of shrieks from our significant others. It's likely that within that drawer are somewhere between six and ten cell phone chargers, one perhaps still connected through its one-of-a-kind connection to that swanky new flip phone you bought in 1999. We understand. We too have such a drawer, or cabinet or garage. But together, today, it's time to let go, just a little bit.

Want to impress all of your tree-hugging friends who are chiding you that your iPhone can kill you? Now a chunky little media player from the inventor who brought you the windup radio, Trevor Baylis, delivers a music player, video player, FM radio, LED light, image viewer, sound recorder, data storage, and cell phone charger all-in-one windup—the Eco Media Player. One minutes worth of winding and you can listen to around 40 minutes of music. If youre in for the longer haul, an onboard USB charging port will enable you to use your, gasp, computer for instilling a full-capacity charge for 20 hours of music-listening. Sadly the Eco is currently available only in the UK at around 155 British pounds. With the ghastly exchange rate applied, that's roughly $326 US dollars. Here's hoping for a U.S. release. —Dave Prochnow

(Image: Trevor Baylis Brands PLC)