Nokia Introduces Bicycle Charger Kit | Hacker News Reader

Nokia Introduces Bicycle Charger Kit

newsider.com

15 pointstechvibe11 comments

Not sure what nice safe European city this was designed in but it would be stolen in about 5 minutes after I locked my bike somewhere here.

Just give me a mini-USB compatible charge port instead, the industry should have standardized on that by now. All my emergency Nokia cellphones use a different sized charger hole!

ps. the end of that plug in the picture does look like mini-USB at least - maybe Deal Extreme can make a $5 clone of this so when it gets stolen I won't feel so bad.

I was under the impression that Nokia (and basically everyone else) had standardised on the micro-USB standard going forward but they specifically state it's the 2mm Nokia connector. You can apparently get adaptors designed for those with both old and new Nokia phones, perhaps they'll include one with it.

> Just give me a mini-USB compatible charge port instead, the industry should have standardized on that by now.

They have, in Europe anyway: http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2009/49.html

As has China, for that matter: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200612/19/eng20061219_3340...

Sounds cool. It'd be nice if it could run off an existing dynamo. I wonder if it uses the standard voltage for these things (6V/3W)?

Indeed. I suspect the existing base of dynamo-using cyclists would scoop this up if it was compatible.

An usb connector would be also nice.

Exactly, I'm thinking of Schmidt at the very least: http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/schmidt.asp

Those are insanely good hubs and output a nice consistent amount of power. If the chargers were compatible with these hubs it would be extremely easy to use them on a wide range of bikes immediately.

They already have them:

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/ewerk.asp

You can get electric wind-up torches with a mobile phone power socket. You just wind and the phone charges (in minutes?)

My bicycle charger kit is a good night's sleep, followed by a nutritious breakfast. :)

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