Brando – a company with a history of producing solar-powered chargers for the green gadget geek – has launched a new backpack which aims to keep your devices juiced up while you’re on the go. The freshly-unveiled Brando Multi-Purpose Solar Charger Backpack does pretty much exactly as the name suggests: combining a powerful 10,000mAh lithium-ion battery with a set of solar panels and placing the whole lot into the rear of a backpack, it offers the ability to harness the sun’s energy while you’re carting your gadgets from point A to point B and then using it to charge them when you’re at your destination. Designed – as the “ Multi-Purpose ” part of its name suggests – to power a wide range of gadgets, the removable battery pack is capable of outputting 5V, 9V, 13V, 16.8V, or 19V, meaning that everything from your USB-powered smartphone right the way through to your notebook, netbook, or even iPad should be covered, with a selection of interchangeable tips included. Although primarily designed to be charged via the solar panels – which are located on the rear of the backpack and can gather light to convert to electricity while you’re out and about – the battery pack can also be hooked up to mains power for when you need a quick boost. Brando claims that the device represents an “ environmentally-friendly, lightweight, durable, and versatile ” way of ensuring that your precious gadgets don’t run out of steam when you’re on long journeys or out in the wilderness. Speaking of wilderness, this backpack has one last trick up its sleeve: the battery pack can be used to power an included ultra-sonic mosquito repellent device, which the company claims will keep nasty biting insects away from your when you’re out walking.  There’s even a built-in LED torch – although you’ll have to remove the battery pack from the backpack in order to make use of it. Sadly, the one important factor – the amount of time it takes for the battery to fully charge in direct sunlight – is something that Brando isn’t publicizing.  With the battery pack able to store 10,000mAh of juice, that’s likely to be a bad sign – at least, for anyone in a hurry and away from mains power for long periods of time. Negatives aside, it’s a neat idea.  The Brando Multi-Purpose Solar Charger Backpack is available now for $189, with the battery pack and interchangeable tips included. Copyright

iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 2 slipped into the iPhone Dev Center earlier, but unless you’re a developer and really need to test apps, it’s best to skip this extra buggy beta and just keep playing around with the first. More

Meet Rana Sobhany. She puts together some great beats using only two iPads and some apps. No laptop or synth needed—this gal’s an iPad DJ . More

The latest item in Google’s shopping spree is Agnilux, a small and somewhat mysterious startup full of former Apple, TiVo, and P.A. Semi employees. Few details are available about the acquisition, but it looks like a good deal for Google. More

(TrendHunter.com) The technology rumor mill has been set ablaze by the reports that the newest version of the Apple iPhone has been leaked. There are images and a video showing what looks like it could be the real deal,…

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iPhone 2.0 Leaks – The Gizmodo 4G iPhone Features a Metallic Case and Front Facing Camera (VIDEO)

Looking to game Google’s copyright enforcement bot? That’s the system that was used to hunt down rogue Hitler videos that remixed the bunker scene from Downfall , and it’s pretty thick: Mark Smitelli has poked around at the system, uploading copies of the copyrighted song “I Know What Boys Like,” sonically altered in various ways: compressing or expanding the time, lowering or raising the pitch, adding noise, etc. Mark runs the complete results, but to roughly summarize: Altering parameters more than 5% often seems to fool the Identifier, and using less than 30 seconds also seems to let the clip slip through the rule-bound robot’s shiny little nets. Playing clips in reverse confused the Identifier, but stripping out everything except the vocals did not. Using a clip for as satire or political commentary undoubtedly wouldn’t keep it from the Identifier’s snares, although such use is likely protected and non-infringing. The Identifier, unsurprisingly, seems to be a poor reader of human intention. [Thanks to David Abrams for the tip.] YouTube’s automated copyright filter

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HOWTO sneak Hitler onto YouTube

Even armed with a Wiimote, the BotJunkie junkies couldn’t shake the 300-cycle-per-second Adept Quattro, the world’s fastest pick and place robot. Watch this video and imagine how quickly it could fill one of those state quarter maps. [ BotJunkie via PopSci ] More

“The 1947 Radarange was a whopping six feet tall, weighed nearly 750 pounds, and required its own 220 volt electrical line and a dedicated water line for the cooling tube. It sold for $2000, or nearly $22,000 today.” Eat Me Daily looks at the natural history of microwave ovens, from radar technology, to recipes for gourmet steamed pudding, to Joan Collins in her Dynasty finest. (Via Nicola Twilley .)

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Microwave ovens: The early years