The Freeplay FreeCharge 12V ($32.00 direct) device charger comes from the same company that created the Weza, a foot-pedal 12-volt power source for car camping or boat use. The FreeCharge is the handheld version of the same concept. Using the universal 12-volt standard and a cigarette-lighter type port, the device has a hand crank to transfer power directly to your mobile device. It's a pretty ingenious combo of old- and new-school technology, and because it has no internal battery to store power—which can be a downer—so the longer you crank, the more the device's battery will charge. The upside is that because it uses the 12-volt standard, you can use it to charge just about anything. The bad news is that you need to have an adapter and in practice, the only call you would make after cranking out a full charge would be to arrange a physical therapy appointment.

The device is small enough to fit in a glove compartment or backpack at 5.3 by 2 by 2.4 inches (HWD). There is some resistance to the crank, but not so much that cranking is overly uncomfortable. For our rundown test, we used two Kensington adapters (one that let us plug in a USB device and one with a standard wall outlet plug). We ran the battery all the way down on our test MotoRazr² V9 and found that it took about 3 minutes of cranking at 50 to 60 rpm to supply enough juice for a quick call. The same was true for the Blackberry Pearl 8120, though we could not get the Blackberry charged after the battery went dead.

Although the FreeCharge is obviously more labor-intensive and has lower output than other alternative-energy chargers, it does not depend on any external forces of nature to make it work. Although not very practical for everyday use, it is probably more depend-able if you need to make a quick phone call in a pinch.

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