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Here’s something that could come to your rescue when your PDA or iPod runs out of juice, especially if you’re lucky enough to be living somewhere sunny. The Solio Hybrid 1000 is a solar-powered charger for mobile devices.

First, the downsides. It takes eight to ten hours to power up your Solio, which means you could be waiting two days in the winter. It’s also limited to small mobile devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or iPods: laptops are too power hungry for it to handle.

The obvious advantages are that solar power is free and green. On cloudier days, Solio will also accept power from the USB port of your computer.

It isn’t compatible with every mobile device, but it will work with a wide range of mobile phones and PDAs, as well as most MP3 players, the Nintendo Game Boy, Garmin GPS products and many digital cameras.

Included in the price (US$79.95) are a number of connectors that allow you to plug Solio into many of these devices. More unusual connectors may have to be purchased separately.