Nokia has developed a phone that recharges itself via the radio, TV and phone radio waves that surround us.
'The power harvested is small but it is almost enough to power a mobile in standby mode indefinitely without ever needing to plug it into the mains,' Markku Rouvala, a Nokia researcher at the Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, told the Guardian. He added that the prototype is 'able to scavenge relatively large amounts of power from signals coming from miles away. Individually the energy available in each of these signals is miniscule. But by harvesting radio waves across a wide range of frequencies it all adds up.'
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics last month launched its first solar powered mobile phone, the Crest Solar, in India, Europe, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia and Latin America. The phone has the capacity to provide 5-10 minutes of talk time with one hour of solar charging.
A press release says the Crest Solar handset will have the usual 'necessary' features such as FM radio, games, flashlight and regional features such as alerts for prayer times for different religions.