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| Urbanista produces solar powered headphones |
Urbanista Los Angeles' new wireless noise canceling headphones have a solar panel on the headband that allows them to use the energy of indoor and outdoor lighting.
While the built-in 750 mAh battery can be charged as normal via the USB-C port and provides a battery life of 50 hours, the real advantage of these headphones is that they can be charged with solar energy.
The plan is to charge £ 169 (around $ 232) by early summer.
While Urbanista promises to provide endless runtime through headphones, the exact amount of power these headphones can generate varies when charged with solar energy.
The company said an hour you spend in the sun should produce enough power for a speaker for three hours, but it can be reduced to just two hours on a cloudy day.
In the worst-case scenario on a long-haul aircraft, you would need to be exposed to light for about 8 hours to get an hour of listening.
In addition to the solar function, Urbanista's Los Angeles headphones are very similar to the current Miami series.
The headset has a built-in microphone and can be used with voice assistants such as Siri or Google Assistant. After wearing it on the ear, it detects runtime and ambient noise mode and connects wirelessly via Bluetooth 5.0.
In December 2019, JBL launched Eternal Reflection, which is also a solar powered headset, and subsequently received funding through the IndieGoGo platform. However, Reflect Eternal has not yet launched.
In December 2020, the company published an update on the project page stating: Due to the outbreak, the Reflect Eternal helmet is facing major delays and will compensate the supporters.
JBL and Urbanista helmets are based on Powerfoyle solar charging technology developed by Exeger.
Exeger CEO (Giovanni Velli) said: “JBL is a little unlucky for Coronavirus, so Urbanista is lucky to be in the same city.