Eton FR500 Solarlink Solar Emergency Crank Radio & Gadget Charger

It’s in the early hours of Sunday morning and you are crossing the misty moors/desolate desert/rain lashed hills (delete as applicable) and your car breaks down. You try to make an emergency call on your cell phone but its charge is spent so you decide to listen to your DAP whilst waiting for a fellow motorist to pass by (who you’ll flag down) but, wouldn’t you know it, its battery’s depleted and then you remember that you have Eton’s FR500 Solarlink in the trunk/boot (again, delete as…) and a smile flickers across your face knowing that all is well with the world. You charge your phone, you listen to the radio (then decide the radio’s crap, but its ok, you’ve recharged your MP3 player now) and all because of the Eton FR500 Solarlink.

Notwithstanding the investigation that follows – it transpires your girlfriend had put water in your petrol tank in a bid to render you stranded in the misty moors/desolate desert/rain lashed hills (delete as applicable) as she’s decided that she really doesn’t love you any more/is psychotic that way (it was supposed to look like an accident, don’t you know) – you get to live another day because, cue handheld camera footage and news reporter’s microphone stuffed in your chiselled face, you had the foresight to put the Eton FR500 in your car after your aunt got it for you as a present and, well, it was taking up valuable space in your pad and you relay didn’t want it anyway (she got you a camouflaged pair of knitted gloves last year – boy you wish you’d kept those).

Flippancy aside, the Eton FR500 Solarlink Solar Emergency Crank Radio & Gadget Charger (our title, we think its better) also comes with a flashing LED emergency light so, not only could it save your life, but it could also serve as a low tech disco light should you wish to call an impromptu party but, alas, it doesn’t come with integral smoke machine. Damn.

Where’s this going. We have no idea. Its an emergency, solar powered radio with inbuilt gadget charging capabilities – what’s more to say?

Actually there is something more to say. It doesn’t come with either charging cables or adapter tips meaning that the above example actually ended in a completely different way. Yes you had the Eton FR500 Solarlink in your car but all you could do was listen to the radio as you slowly passed into unconsciousness due to hyperthermia as you couldn’t charge your cell phone and thus couldn’t make an emergency call.

Well, at least you had the flashing LED light to look at as you slipped away (one must count one’s blessings).

The Etón FR500 Solarlink retails for $80.

[via TechFresh]