YoGen ripcord charger available for the fidgety and eco-friendly
By Joanna Stern 
posted December 14th 2009 2:21PM
posted December 14th 2009 2:21PM
posted December 14th 2009 2:21PM
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I hate it when they say things like "The charger for life".
In 45 minutes, my palm pre went from 100% to 76% battery, while doing nothing more than listening to music via A2DP. Why do I doubt that this thing can catch up.
@yankees368
pleased to hear (read) that my iPhone 3G is not the only phone that has A2DP issues.
@ the videos: hilarious.
@yankees368
really?
that's surprisingly bad. :(
A2DP on my 3GS doesn't even take much battery at all.
@jellotime91 It's not so much the A2DP that eats the battery, it's simply playing back music on the pre. It really eats the battery when playing music.
acting of the year award right there
@piezeppelin
It even outperforms Keanu Reeves' acting.
@smartmouth Not to mention Daniel Radcliffe and Megan Fox :P
@piezeppelin
Ok..
Rewatch the first one.
This time submit the words "I'm late" with "She's Late"
and the words "Oh Great! I brought my Yogen" to "Oh Great! I used a Trojan"
Anywhere the the word Yogen is said.. change it to Trojan.
Makes the advert more interesting.
WoW.
" Yogen?! sweet, now i can charge a phone! Wait, i don't have one.."
who needs this when you can just slap an Orbo on anything and have free energy forever!!!
@willowtwf
god, what a laugh.
did that dude just call wilson?
anyone else got that?
also, terrible acting.
@BrianH Oh I got it and then pictured the charger as a volleyball.
@BrianH He called Wilson cus he was hallucinating that this thing actually helped...
What if the string snaps inside the device? I'll stick with my water-proof walkie-talkie powered by two AA batteries that have a range of a few miles which probably cost half as much as this thing.
wowwww... someone sue this company for their ads... waste of time and life
@shayjd
I actually had a good laugh
If it had a larger and heavier flywheel you wouldn't have to constantly pull the cord. Give it a good yank let the flywheel spin for a while then give another jerk.
@(Unverified)
yeah, but it should all come out even in the end
it would still require the same amount of total energy, each pull would just be more difficult
@Alaric
True you can't defeat physics but you can make it easier for the operator. It would be easier to give a few really strong pulls then it would be to gives dozens of light pulls.
In a generator of this size most any human can generate in one pull more energy then it can convert to electrical power in one pull but a lot of people would not be able to sustain the long term production that constantly pulling would require.
@(Unverified)
ah, true true...
maybe it just comes down to personal preference then i suppose
they should just make it a 21-speed, hah
@(Unverified)
umm... most of us here are geeks... sustained light pulling is not really an issue.
@Zhurrie
+1
@Zhurrie
Well technically that's a stroke and not a pull and unless you hold the generator in a very odd manner it's a different muscle set.
...why would the mail man not save a stranded person? and who's sending yogen's to stranded ppl?!
@SergioAM
Didn't you see Castaway?
;-)
Meh.
Put one in a Duncan YoYo and we can talk business.
@glamajamma
Didn't you see Castaway?
;-)
@CMoebius
Replied to wrong post. :-(
those ads fall into the sad realm of not bad enough to be funny, and not remotely good enough to be acceptable...poor yogen
but thats not an iphone :O
I'd like to see some solid reviews on this. How long from dead to usable?
@dds1043
Not solid but a review
"I can tell you that after about three minutes of tugging, my T-Mobile G1 phone went from 29% battery to 30% battery – so plan accordingly."
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/12/04/stocking-stuffer-yogen-mobile-charger/
How did that Priority box make it across the ocean without being sealed?
And why is the dog burying the fish?
And why is he fishing from the shore? Since when do flounder come up to the shore?
@egloskerry The ads leave more questions than answers, troubling but likely due to them spending all their money on developing this (useless) device and having none left to spend on marketing. Too bad because the only way you can sell turds is to market the crap out of it so people want one despite its uselessness.
Appears to only work on beach???
Too bad iPhones on AT&T have such lousy service, won't be able to get singal and die on beach (Can you here me now?)
40 bucks??? really???
You'll get a real idea of how this thing probably works in real life if you play the second video backwards. The guy stranded guy falls over from a heart attack from having to pull that thing a million times to get a 30 second charge.
Fidgety, Check. Eco-friendly, Check. Wanting this thing, Maybe Not.
How about one with a solar case so we get the best of both worlds?
or even better, a plugin option to go along with the solar and ripcord options!
Great ads, so blatantly bad acting, its funny.
I want 5 of them now, and a can of Cuke.
Also, it is great if you want to off an annoying eco geek. Just hope that string is made out of nondegradable piano cord.
I have my phone, i bought a yogen, now i just need ripcord coverage!
So why don't mobile phone developers just integrate this technology into their phones natively? It would be cool to never have to plug in my Droid, just start pulling on its chain when the battery gets low...
That plastic packaging is usually equivalent to having a can but no can opener on a desert island....
I could see Tiger Woods doing ads for this!