PSP to get solar powered battery

by Justin McElroy { Jan 4th 2008 at 11:35AM }

Most blogs aren't willing to make the bold stances, to call out the fat cats, but not your friends at Joystiq. So we're just going to come right out and say it: We've had just about enough of the sun. Yeah, it warms the earth and makes plants grow but what has the big gas ball done for us lately? Sure, it made Boktai work, but that was years ago.

Luckily for the sun, it's finally being put to some good use with a new third-party solar battery for the PSP. It's $30, which is pretty reasonable, though we have no idea how well it will work. But the sun had better hope its like gangbusters, or else we're putting that mass of incandescent gas on notice.

[Via PSPF]

Tags: batteries, psp, solar-power

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shagittarius @ Jan 4th 2008 11:51AM

Cool, so it will be powered in direct sunlight but you wont be able to see the screen.

Next up: Sony introduces the solar powered flashlight.

jcd @ Jan 4th 2008 11:51AM

will only work if the cell is a big ass backpack. If not, maybe you can leave it lying in the sun for 12 hours and then play for 30 mins.

also, First?

jcd @ Jan 4th 2008 11:53AM

damn you, you took my FIRST! haha

also, nice trolling. If you hit the read link you might notice it is not made by sony

Fernando Rocker @ Jan 4th 2008 12:16PM

You? Bashing Sony?

Weird.

Fernando Rocker @ Jan 4th 2008 12:16PM

You? Bashing Sony?

That's weird.

required @ Jan 4th 2008 1:35PM

Solar powered flashlights do in fact work/already exist. They charge when the sun is up and shine when the sun is down.

http://www.google.com/search?q=solar+flashlight

Now about Sony, have you seen their odo line?

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/use-your-hands/sonys-eco+friendly-odo-line-no-plugs-required-266244.php

required @ Jan 4th 2008 1:36PM

Oreo @ Jan 4th 2008 2:17PM

There are solar powered flash flights, and have been for at least 10 years. There is this older invention called a battery which stores the solar power!

JakubK666 @ Jan 4th 2008 11:53AM

Nope , thought same thing :( That's why you should always write a short comment such as "w00t" :)

jcd @ Jan 4th 2008 11:54AM

and so I fail at internets. above post was in reply to shaggy

JakubK666 @ Jan 4th 2008 11:51AM

Doesn't that mean you'll have to leave it on sun for 72 hours so you can actually turn it on? As far as I thought Sun doesn't generate particularly much energy from one charger (then again it generates massive amounts with generator-clusters)

chispito @ Jan 4th 2008 2:24PM

I imagine so. You'd need a panel, based on my own SWAG, about the size of a DVD box to provide the output to play continuously. Of course, then you have the horrible glare to deal with.

I'm guessing this device charges the batteries for you (at a rate, no doubt, of about 12 hours of charge for 1.5 hours of play).

Savok @ Jan 4th 2008 11:55AM

Isn't it a bad idea to put electronics in direct sunlight for too long?

Certainly a bad idea here in Australia.

Soulio @ Jan 4th 2008 11:58AM

Haha brilliant article.
Justin, you are definitely getting better at writing :)

Booxatron @ Jan 4th 2008 2:32PM

To Justin:

I must say, my good man, you crank out the lolz for me pretty damn consistently. I earnestly enjoy your work, keep it up.

Robert @ Jan 4th 2008 11:58AM

If you follow the link and click on the photograph with the instructions... well, let's just say they didn't really spend much time editing the English translation.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Jan 4th 2008 12:01PM

Its not for playing PSP in the sun, its for charging an EXTRA battery... in the sun.

yeah, thats just about as useless.

LiK @ Jan 4th 2008 12:04PM

i hope it doesn't explode.

J.Goodwin @ Jan 4th 2008 1:51PM

Well, it is a gigantic nuclear furnace where hydrogen turns into helium at temperatures of millions of degrees.

It's bound to blow up sooner or later.

Probably later.

WhatIsThatThing @ Jan 4th 2008 4:55PM

I wanted to be the first to quote that song further. Damn you!

MikeStan28 @ Jan 4th 2008 12:06PM

I've actually got a variant of this (not specifically for the PSP) and it works well within reason.

The best plan is to charge the internal batteries using sunlight and then plug it into the DC plug when charged, I got a good couple of hours extra play out of it. (very usefull for holidays as mine had adapters for my crackbery, phone, PSP etc etc...)

I also tried sitting in the sun with the solar panel and my PSP.

That was a stupid idea from the get go. I ended up with my head & torso covered in a towel so I could see screen while sipping my beer through a straw that poked out of the towel. Not really the point of sun bathinig I suppose...

Christopher @ Jan 4th 2008 12:15PM

So you risk overheating the system...

by encasing it in all black and leaving it in direct sunlight...

smart move.

Jerk Face @ Jan 4th 2008 12:38PM

"Hell yeah, fuck the sun. I fuckin' hate it too. Long live the fuckin' beast!"

Jerk Face @ Jan 4th 2008 12:41PM

If no one gets that reference, I will be very sad.

Zoesch @ Jan 4th 2008 12:57PM

The fact that you listen to, and remember the lyrics to an Adam Sandler song makes all of us sad

djanespkp @ Jan 4th 2008 1:00PM

"--the night time is the right time! the night time is the right time!"

James @ Jan 4th 2008 12:50PM

It's even a strain trying to play the DS Lite in sunlight. What'd I'd like (and this may be it I just CBA reading the full post) is a solar charger for my PSPs battery as it is.
And give it a DS Lite adapter too. You can skip GBA/SP/Micro if you have to.

I'd buy that right now.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Jan 4th 2008 2:18PM

This is a charger JUST FOR THE BATTERY.

rita wolk @ Jan 4th 2008 2:11PM

i personally think it's a great idea. so what if the recharging time is a bit longer, what is that in comperison to global worming? huh?
;)

rita
http:\\www.sutree.com

WhatIsThatThing @ Jan 4th 2008 4:56PM

Ahh! Worms are rising up all over the globe! Someone save us from our possible future worm overlords!

Booxatron @ Jan 4th 2008 5:01PM

I for one....

LaughingTarget @ Jan 4th 2008 2:21PM

This is for hippies who think they make a difference by charging their handheld video game system with solar cells instead of power from the evil coal plant. Little do they know that solar cell production creates pollution, so did the PSP and they aren't saving emissions by not charging up at the socket. Plus, the PSP is ridiculously cheap to charge that the $30 adapter would take a lifetime to be cheaper than the AC adapter. No more 10 year cycle, Sony's power cell is an 80 year cycle.

Korova @ Jan 4th 2008 3:28PM

YEAAHH! Give a PSP charger powered by liquified baby seal eyes. Screw the sun and the earth, frikin hippies.

LaughingTarget @ Jan 4th 2008 5:24PM

The point I was making was this solar battery probably ruins the environment more than it saves it.

Sakimori @ Jan 5th 2008 3:55AM

... as does everything hippies think is good for the environment, including recycling. So what else is new?

B1gC72 @ Jan 4th 2008 3:32PM

lol why do these third party accessories always have to be shaped like the handheld they are intended for?

Tom @ Jan 4th 2008 3:39PM

The sun is a mass of incadescent gas; a gigantic nuclear furnace, where hydrogen is built into helium and a temperature of millions of degrees.

Sam @ Jan 4th 2008 3:56PM

Yo ho, its hot, the sun is not a place where we could live, but here on earth there'd be no life without the light it gives.

WhatIsThatThing @ Jan 4th 2008 4:59PM

The sun is so hot that everything on it is a gas: aluminum, copper, iron, and many others.

The sun is so large that over a million earths could fit inside. And yet, it is only a middle-sized star.

It's about 93 million miles away. And that's why it looks so small.

The sun is a huge atom-smashing machine. The heat and light from the sun come from the nuclear reactions between hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium.

Abscissa @ Jan 4th 2008 5:20PM

"but what has the big gas ball done for us lately?"

It keeps the gorram snow away.

fred @ Jan 4th 2008 7:29PM

i'm going to guess the carbon output required to replace the battery because of early failure from being baked will nullify any gains from solar charging.

the only place this is useful is if you are a globe trekking vacationer and going places where you are a bit off the grid. of course the transport to get you to your nice vacation destination will create so much carbon output nothings going to compensate for it, let alone charging your psp via solar.

so i guess its an anti guilt novelty for silly yuppies. probably a decently lucrative market.