Summer is on its way. That means fun and frolic at the beach. But these days we store our entire lives on devices with limited battery life. Where we have the ability to charge these devices is slowly growing, and now thanks to the PowerShade beach umbrella, the beach is included in that list.
The Powershade is a standard beach umbrella outfitted with solar panels on the top to soak up all of that gorgeous sun. It then converts the solar energy into electricity to power your gadgets. It has two USB ports and a standard socket for laptops or a crockpot or whatever you want.
The real beauty of the PowerShade and what sets it apart from other similar products is that it was actually designed with the issues of beach use in mind. It uses lightweight and flexible solar panels so that the umbrella is basically no different from an ordinary beach umbrella. They even claim to have designed for durability, stating that the umbrella is up to the task of everyday use.
PowerShade just launched a kickstarter that is off to a decent start. Something very interesting about their kickstarter is that they already have the product ready to roll out. Unlike most crowdfunding projects that are looking for more start up investments, they are just trying to get money to mass produce the product they are already ready to produce. They say that they will have PowerShade manufacturing up and shipping within a matter of weeks of getting successfully funded.
If you want to get in on this product, now is the best time. They are offering early bird specials for backers. The umbrella is planned to retail at $299 but backers can get it for between $150 and $219 with the lower values being offered in limited supply.
We are slowly moving towards a future where anything and everything we could ever want to achieve is aided by little rectangles we keep in our pockets. The only thing limiting these objects is the fact that they rely on electricity. Thanks to the PowerShade we are closer to the dream of always being charged up.
