Wouldn’t it be great if we could charge up our handheld gadgets simply by moving around? The boffins call it kinetic energy – energy derived from movement – but we call it cheap or almost free power. Sure there’s lots of different types, but have you ever tried winding up one of those cheap flashlights? You get about 20 seconds of light from 3 years of winding. It hurts.

The nPower PEG has been featured on the Ferret before, but they’ve upgraded the design and specification with this new model in the intervening period. The device works by translating the movement from walking, running or cycling into stored energy in an internal battery pack. Clip the thing to your body in some way, and start walking.

Actually scratch that, charge the thing up via USB or the power socket first and then get walking. In other words, we’re suggesting that it’s more of a top up charger than anything else. Once you’ve got it full of power, every minute you move/walk/run will generate a bit of trickle top up charge, which is still useful if you need a phone charger out in the wilds.

Interestingly the blurb says that in an emergency, ‘vigorously shaking’ an empty PEG for 10 minutes will generate enough power for a short phone call on a dead handset. So, a return to pain again. Anyhoo, the thing contains a 2000mAh battery, weighs 14 oz and comes with enough iGo adapters to fit over 3000 gadgets. However be prepared to fork over $169.99 for the privilege. Makes the agony of those cheap wind-up chargers seem a bit more of a bargain now, eh?