Imagine, if you will, a world where we all carried around our own power sources. One company which obviously has this ideal is Freeplay but there are others moving in the same direction. I’ve been testing out the Aladdin Power hand generator for a while now, and while it’s far from being the 21st century solution we’re all looking for, it shows us how things could go in the future. You basically press the lever with your hand rapidly around 20 times to generate enough charge to refresh a dying mobile phone.

I tried to be a little ambitious and get my Psion 5 working and actually managed to get it to power on with the logo for a split second. But it was hard work. The company has been promising a Step Charger which you work with the heel of the foot which looks more promising, but it’s been ‘coming’ for a long while now, which doesn’t bode well. Still roll on some more cool alternative power tools I say.