Green Daily

Whether it doubles as an MP3 player, or it's the no frills model that comes free with your plan, we all have a special little place in our heart for our cell phone. It connects us with the outside world, checks our email, runs out of batteries in the middle of important conversations, and necessitates a charger in any place you plan to be in for more than 15 minutes. Oh yeah, and the batteries contain heavy metals that end up in our landfills. That's why it's really cool to see a company that's offering an alternative technology that can eliminate traditional batteries and chargers -- a major energy vampire.

M2E, an up and coming electronics company, has developed a microgenerator+battery system that will store kinetic energy from your everyday movement, just like kinetic watches. Only, the system created by M2E amplifies this energy to power larger application like cell phones, PDAs, and digital cameras. The device can actually be inserted into a standard-sized battery, improving battery-life while eliminating 40% of the toxic heavy metals.

Their first big test comes in 2008, when M2E's devices are tested by the US military -- helping to solve the energy problems created by mobile combat devices. Hopefully, it will get to consumers by the time I have to get a new phone.