Skip to main content

LG’s Skycharger Runs on Pure Contradiction

LG

Fear not, environmentalists. CES may be a sea of neon, flashing video displays running 24 hours a day, and taxis idling in bumper to bumper traffic, but LG is doing it’s part to go green by… charging a couple cell phones with renewable energy.

Yes my friends, the grid is safe, for now, from an additional 1.8 kW of electricity being drained because LG has set up it’s very own Skycharger, an outdoor kiosk that uses wind and solar energy to charge 104 mobile phones at a time. Hand your phone to an attendant, who will lock it up in a locker with the right cable, and come back in an hour to a fully charged phone. I can imagine getting the warm fuzzies from this already.

Call me jaded, but the scale of energy saved, when surrounded by such ridiculously over the top consumption, just tends to highlight what a silly PR stunt this really is. The image of someone trying to bail a sinking ship out with a drinking straw comes to mind.

That said, it looks like my phone’s going to need a boost by the end of the day. Maybe I’ll let Mother Nature top it off later on?

Editors' Recommendations

Nick Mokey
As Digital Trends’ Managing Editor, Nick Mokey oversees an editorial team delivering definitive reviews, enlightening…
AI is making a long-running scam even more effective
An elderly person holding a phone.

You’ve no doubt heard of the scam where the perpetrator calls up an elderly person and pretends to be their grandchild or some other close relative. The usual routine is to act in a distressed state, pretend they’re in a sticky situation, and ask for an urgent cash transfer to resolve the situation. While many grandparents will realize the voice isn’t that of their grandchild and hang up, others won’t notice and, only too keen to help their anxious relative, go ahead and send money to the caller’s account.

A Washington Post report on Sunday reveals that some scammers have taken the con to a whole new level by deploying AI technology capable of cloning voices, making it even more likely that the target will fall for the ruse.

Read more
LG shows off optical zoom lens module that banishes the bump
The power key on the side of the iPhone 14 Plus.

Today’s high-end smartphone cameras still rely heavily on computational imaging for some telephoto shots, but LG subsidiary LG Innotek looks set to change that with its new optical zoom camera technology.

Set to be officially unveiled at CES 2023 in early January but teased by the Korean company this week, the technology paves the way for improved image quality for zoom captures. The module’s compact design will also free up more space inside the phone -- perhaps for a bigger battery or even a larger image sensor -- and allow phone makers to banish the ugly camera bump found on many of today’s top handsets.

Read more
How to connect an iPhone to an LG smart TV
LG G2 OLED TV.

If you have an LG TV and have explored its smart platform, you will have noticed that LG’s webOS can do a lot — give you quick access to apps like Netflix, browse your favorite channels, stream music, and plenty more. But if you’re an iPhone fan, you may have also picked up on a particular limitation: LG TVs don’t support innate connections to iOS or iPadOS.

Read more