Eco Media Player lets you wind it up for a free charge

Wind-up devices have seen a boom in the last decade and this new example, the Baylis Eco Media Player revolution, builds on the success of its predecessor the EP-MX71 with a sleeker design and larger screen size backed by the same human-powered windup power system.

Trevor Baylis is the original pioneer of wind-up energy. He made systems smaller and took the long overdue step of bringing the technology to portable devices, creating the first windup radio using a transistor radio, the electric motor from a toy car and the parts from a music box. If you haven’t noticed the torches, radios and chargers, you would have seen the technology of turning kinetic energy into electrical energy elsewhere before - in wind turbines.

With the revolution, one minute of hand cranking is expected to give you 40 to 45 minutes of music play. Fully charging the lithium-ion battery, the device plays music for 48 hours and video for seven hours. If at times the thought of all that work seems a tad too much, there is a USB charger included. If the effort is there, however, this little device is energy efficient.

Occasionally when new devices likes these come out, we get the feeling that all the focus is on the fancy innovation or the eco factor and the features get left behind. Not so with the revolution. Compared to the previous Eco Media Player the revolution is sleeker, the playing time from a full charge has doubled and the size of the screen has increased from 1.8” to 2”, using LCD instead of a color 19.2k pixel display.

• Audio – mp3, AAC, WMA, WAV, OGG, Audible – played with 24bit high fidelity processing and hi-fi recording
• Video – AVI, mp4, WMV on a 2” color LCD display
• .txt view with bookmarking
• Photo view – BMP, JPEG, GIF
• 4GB flash or 8GB internal memory, accepts SD card memory up to 4GB
• Integrates with Windows Media Player 10 or later and supports auto syncing or drag and drop
• Works with Windows XP, Vista, Mac OSX, Linux and iTunes Plus
• Built-in torch – Super Bright LED
• Emergency phone charger – approximately 3 minutes of talk time for one minute of cranking
• All packaged in recyclable materials

For campers or the eco-friendlies seeking to reduce their carbon footprint, or anyone who wants to have a self-sustaining energy source for their portable media players, this may be an innovation all music and media lovers will embrace.

If the feedback from customers are anything to go by, people want this kind of innovation to succeed, and why not. Truly renewable energy and your favorite tunes. What’s not to like?

Eco Media Player revolution costs £129.99.

Jamilah Le