This neat little gadget is making the rounds again, and let's try to stir up some interest so a company will actually produce it! Back in 2005 Joe Hynek from Iowa State University designed a rather stylish purse with an exterior of solar panels. The PowerPurse packs an interior USB cable which connects with cellphones and other sundry gadget style devices to turn wonderful liberating sunshine into electrical juice for powering tunes and talk time. Other sites have been talking about a partnership between Mr. Hynek and a company named SolarJo, but I think that it's safe to say that he will be producing these purses himself in small quantities or licensing the design to a much larger company. The target price point is $300, and I have to say that he did a good job of building a great looking purse since Joe is a mechanical engineer and not a designer.

Unlike other solar powered bags these look very stylish, and are a much more approachable version of the advances we saw in Hussein Chalayan's spring collection. Early adopters are happy to have geek clothes that prove new ideas as technopossible, but the next advance comes from wrapping fashion plates in styles that incorporate the technological innovations. No matter how cool the technology it takes a great designer to make it marketable.

Gizmodo, Crave, and MobileWhack tipped me off with recent blog posts, but USA Today ran a piece on it back in 2005. However, the Iowa State Daily has the best story on the subject so far.