Following a completely washed-out Download 2012, Vodafone has announced a somewhat optimistic new festival accessory that’ll not only provide music lovers with a bit of shade should the sun show but also give your mobile a valuable charge whilst far from luxuries of civilisation. The Vodafone Booster Brolly sounds slightly absurd coming from a serious mobile network, but apparently this thing is the real deal!
Believed to be a give-away to few lucky revellers, the “Voda-brella” as it was almost called, was created by Dr Kenneth Tong of University College London and is made from flexible solar supping panels which gather energy that can then be passed as a much needed boost to smartphones, tablets and any other device that uses a USB cable outlet to charge. That’s pretty amazing, right? But wait. That’s not all it does..
The gadget also collects radio waves from an on-site Vodafone turret at some of this summer’s top festivals and uses the waves to boost your mobile signal as it charges! Designer Dr. Tong says “Electro-magnetic waves are always analogue. They cover everything, but they’re not easy to control. If you can manipulate them and control them – then you really have something.”
For an encore the Vodafone Booster Brolly can even be used as a torch so you can find your tent when the headline band is just an echo!
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