Samsung's solar powered phone

Maybe there's something about the end of February? This week has already seen a jump in the number of solar-powered gadgets on the market. Perhaps we're witnessing solar power edging one step closer to being the standard energy source for our most-wanted gizmos?

First off, we have Samsung's Blue Earth, a solar-powered phone constructed from recycled plastic and castor bean extract. It comes with an array of green functions, including a meter called "Eco Walk" that informs you of the number of trees you've spared from walking. Samsung plans the Blue Earth to be one in a line of phones and accessories that will push the boundaries of "green communication." There's no release date for the Blue Earth yet, but the dutiful greenies here at Super Eco will certainly keep you posted.

Not to be outdone, China-based ZTE is releasing their own solar-powered phone, the Coral-200. The big difference? The Coral will only cost $40. True, it'll only get you about 15 minutes of talking time for every hour of sunlight, but ZTE hopes to bring solar-powered mobile communication beyond the wealthy suburbs and to the masses. The phone will be released in June, but it may take a while after that before the Coral-200 reaches their goal of 2 billion users.

Moving on from phones, scientists at the University of Central Florida have redesigned a Zenn car to run on 100% solar power. It looks intuitive enough. Grab a car, stick three solar panels on top of it, you got yourself a solar-powered car. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but I wouldn't mind having a flat, obtrusive roof over my car if it ran completely on solar power.

Sick of all this practical stuff? Don't worry, I got you covered. Gizmo City offers a solar-powered lighted house number. We've all been driving around and found it impossible to find the address we're looking for. That problem could be a thing of the past if we all had one of these babies. Sure, it works much better in Arizona than Kamchatka, but the numbers are big, easy-to-read, and would make Google Street View that much more awesome. Think about it.