CES Day 2: You now have the power to charge your phone
Filed under: business, customers, gadgets and gizmos, innovation, lifestyle
CES Update – Day 2
Until you get lost in Las Vegas, you haven’t really been lost! Being me, and having an impeccable sense of direction – I took a wrong turn from my hotel this morning on the way to the coffee shop, and ended up walking for almost an hour through several shopping arcades and casinos before I was able to finally get to CES. Next time its room service for me!
I arrived just in time to sit in on Easy Energy’s press conference. Easy Energy developed and markets the YoGen, an innovative handheld charger.
According to Easy Energy, YoGen came about as a result of a series of flat cell phone batteries. Picture this – you’re in the car, your phone goes flat, and your charger is sitting on your desk several kilometres away. You feel hopeless and kick yourself for not checking your bag before leaving (I think this equally applies to leaving your umbrella in your car when its raining). Here’s where the YoGen comes to the rescue.
Pocket sized and durable, this hand powered electric charger produces a previously unmatched level of charging power when driven by repeated pulls on a cord – a similar action to a yoyo or starting an outboard engine. The only energy used to charge your phone is provided by you. No AC outlet required.
Think of the opportunities outside of the standard recharge scenario. Great for camping trips, a family outing to the beach, emergency use after bushfire or flood when power is scarce if available at all.
Currently available online from www.yogenstore.com, this is probably one of the most talked about products at CES. I saw several news items referencing it today.
The YoGen has been built to perform in a wide variety of conditions. The typical pull time – to – talk ratio is 1:10 (High) and 1:4 (Low). Remember, the YoGen’s charge/time ratio is similar to a standard AC wall charger, meaning if it takes an hour to fully charge your phone, it will take an hour of pulling the YoGen cord to fully charge your phone.
More updates to come – thanks for reading and now back to the show!.
It sure would come in handy. What about wireless charging?
Yogen looks quite handy. Specially when you are travelling.
Wow thats a good idea. Just so simple but im sure that could become a mandatory car/camping accessory!
More interested in seeing what kind of new and pointless USB accessories were supplied this year =P
In reference to your comment “Picture this – you’re in the car, your phone goes flat, and your charger is sitting on your desk several kilometres away” – you’d still have to remember to bring your YoGen, otherwise same result. Or you could use the car charger, unless it’s on the desk with the other charger (and the YoGen)….
Bob, i see the YoGen being the device you keep in your glovebox
we need a mobile phone that incorporates self charging mechanisms…so unless you forget your mobile phone, you can always charge it.
Lost in Vegas…….a big place to get lost……
If you haven’t been there, you cannot comprehend the size of ‘the Strip’. On talking to people who live there, they said that the one thing most people underestimate is the time it takes to get from one venue to another – doesn’t look far on the map….’oh, it is just the hotel 2 away from ours’……yeah right…make that a 45 minute walk…..
Take a wrong turn and you can be walking for ages.
Love all this tech stuff. Really nice of you to share it with us.
Yogen seems like a product that will fulfil the requirement for a small niche market. If it requires an hour to charge a typical phone, most ppl may not spend an hour pulling a cord. It may appear to be “Great for camping trips, a family outing to the beach, emergency use after bushfire or flood when power is scarce if available at all” but wouldn’t a car charger be more useful as it can be used day to day and more widely available? Of course it would be handy when you are away for an extended amount of time from any electrical source such as camping but I would imagine most ppl trekking for days in the bush are not using their mobile phone much if at all. Emergency situations are the only case where this product appears to be most useful but even then the situation would have be quite specific to neccesitate this product above others.
VC, I agree the YoGen is not for regular use – but then again it is not intended to replace your traditional charger. I do see there is a growing trend to change the way we as an industry address the issue of charging devices. One positive step forward is the move to a standard cell phone power charger – all using micro USB connection. Some players are already on board. The increasing availability of solar panels should also help.
Thanks Michael
Would be good to see the consortium developing the universal charger (see “Green Manifesto“) take this innovation into consideration – maybe the technology here could be piggy-backed onto AC/DC options as well….
Turlough