This Solar Bikini Charges Your iPod on the Beach

This is kind of great. Just in time for beach weather, New York designer Andrew Schneider has invented a solar-powered swimsuit that can charge any gadget with a USB connector. No more begging the Verizon guy to charge your phone for a few minutes. (This happens to me a lot.) No more dead iPod just as your favorite song comes on.

Clearly this bikini wouldn't do much for reducing our carbon footprint, even if every woman in America wore this suit, and the fact that you can't go in the water is a major bummer. But it's a nice reminder that there are lots of creative ways of harnessing free power.