Shiro intros a new green MP3 player

Shiro recently announced the availability of a more green MP3 player, which uses solar cells on the back to recharge its internal battery. A pretty cool idea, but the question remains, is it practical? Before I get into the specifics of the player, I want to mention how the solar cells work in terms of battery life.

The SQ-S Solar Media player, uses both solar cells and conventional USB to charge its internal battery, so it hasn’t fully gone solar. It takes 6 hours to become fully charged under direct sunlight, but only 4 hours when using normal USB charging. Now, if it were to go fully green, solar charging would have to occur a lot faster, and since the sun isn’t always shining, there has to be some back-up way to get charged.