Published May 2, 2014 12:00AM
Solar Bikini Charges Smartphones
Men's version will keep beer cold
The Solar Bikini and matching solar jewelry (Photo: megananne/Flickr)
You compulsively check the new SnapChat at the beach—and your phone dies. Bummer, dudes, but for women looking to power their smartphones (and drop $500 to 1,500) without missing a watt of sunlight, a New York–based designer just released a solar-powered bikini that charges your device.
The Solar Bikini looks like a battle garment from Battlestar Galactica. Designer Andrew Schneider stitched together small, flexible PowerFilm solar strips with conductive thread and grounded the charge in a female USB port on the waistline of the two-piece (so you can go for a dip in it—just not while you’re charging).
Solar Bikini’s initial inspiration came from a joke mock-up for a bikini capable of soaking up the sun and chilling your beer while you kick back this summer, but there wasn’t enough surface area on the Solar Bikini to power a cooler.
No worries. The iDrink men’s solar shorts—currently in beta testing—promise enough coverage to keep your beer cold.