Motorola’s pedal-powered mobile charger

I wish I could have seen this one.

Seems Ed Zander, CEO of Motorola, rode into the Venetian Hotel on a bright yellow bike to the giant strains of Bicycle Race. The product was actually the bike, which you pedal to charge your mobile phone.

Motorola plans to release this product very soon, with an eye toward Third World countries and rural areas that have little easy access to electricity. We’re not sure of much else at this point, except that the phone will sit in a sort of dock on the handlebars of whatever bike you happen to own. A wire will connect that dock to the pedals, which you will turn to recharge the phone battery. It’s not clear how long you’ll have to pedal to recharge a fully dead battery or whether you can charge the phone faster by participating in your own Freddie Mercury-inspired bicycle race.