ONE OF THE most innovative things on view at CES today was the NRG Dock solar gizmo rechargers. There are three models, two solar and one simple battery.

The most interesting one is the Dock1 pictured above, it has a solar panel that trickle charges the battery in the white base. You plug your phone/PDA/gameboy/laptop in to it, the device charges up, and the next day while you are at work, it will refill itself off the grid.

The base has attachments for a bunch of devices and in addition has an 'always ready' flashlight bundled with it. Supposedly it will charge many little devices or cycle a laptop once, but will most likely not provide enough juice to run the laptop all by itself.

The Dock2 is a slightly smaller version, the panel is about half the size and the battery a bit smaller. This one will not provide the juice to power a laptop. The Dock3 is not solar at all, just the battery part. It will charge off the grid and then charge devices while not plugged in. It might be useful for camping or travel, but we can't see it as very useful in the real world.

The Dock1 sounds like a really good idea. It will probably never save you enough money to pay for itself, but in emergencies, or just for those who want to appear eco-friendly, having one around would be a good idea. µ