August 24, 2005 Wind-up energy has always made sense – it just took most of us an extra 50 years to realise it. Not everyone can pop down to the store and buy another set of batteries for the torch or radio so having a wind-up device that does both makes infinite sense, particularly if you’re planning on covering all the bases for a power grid failure or some other disaster/emergency situation relating to the entire community. The Dynamo offers emergency lighting and an emergency radio receiver at US$26 (AUD$34.95) which makes it almost a no-brainer – having no running costs is even better. The idea is that you wind it for 90 seconds and it works for 20 minutes. For the lazybones among us, you can also plug it into the mains power or use three AAA batteries. oh, and it’s splash proof and hence ideal for the great outdoors.

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The Dynamo’s dimensions are tiny at 66 (W) x 140 (L) x 60(H) mm, the radio covers both AM and FM bands and the torch is an LED, so the occasional rough treatment won’t render the torch inoperative. Throw in the fact that it’s spashproof and you can see why we think it’s a top notch Gizmo.