Guess who’s on Gilt today? Yes, we’re making our mark on Gilt with limited edition messengers and travel products. Check it out! Fair warning – if you’re not already a member of Gilt Groupe, you’ll have to join to view the blog and the sale.
Be happy you ride your bike. Last night San Francisco’s 78 year-old Bay Bridge snapped a (massive!) cable during the peak commute hour. People tweeted as it was happening and some caught it on camera. Learn more here and ride your bike!
Twitpic Commentary from larfo – “Wtf is happening to the Bay Bridge? Looks like part of it fell off and hit some cars. Blocking 2 lanes wowow.”
We love your travel pics and letters! Thank you Joseph for sharing your pics and story:
Hey guys and girls,
I had the urge to write you all sooner, but unfortunately, school, work, and and a lost SD card kind of got in the way. This past summer, my buddy, his wife, and I chaperoned a trip through out greater Europe. Having never been overseas prior to this, Devon told me that I needed a something smaller than my large TB2 bag (which I received as a gift the previous year from him) to carry journals, cameras, books, maps, food, and all other daily rations. Following his lead, I built a medium messenger using your bag builder, and believe you me, this bag never left my side. From London to Paris, from the top of Mt Pilatus in Switzerland to the canals of Venice, my custom messenger took a licking and kept on ticking. Oftentimes it doubled as my pillow when relaxing in parks or on the occasional long bus or train ride. Talk about a multi purpose tool. Hitting 8 cities (London, Paris, Bern, Lucerne, Verona, Assisi, Florence, Venice, and Rome), 4 countries, and a couple of thousand miles, my bag is now as well traveled as I am. I’ve included a few pics of me and my bag abroad, 3 at the top of Mt Pilatus (7,000ft high!) and 1 waiting at the Paris Metro. Thanks again for the great bag and the incredible memories!
We developed the FLAP bag in conjunction with PopTech this year. But for PopTech’s conference, we developed a FLAP bag without the solar panel or LED light. This bag was given to the 700 PopTech conference attendees this week in Camden, Maine. The bag’s liner is printed with information about the (solar) FLAP project and since the flap is attached to the bag with velcro, it can be swapped out for the 4 watt solar flap.
Happy PopTechers, Mirran Raphaely and Geoff Rice, with the Timbuk2 PopTech conference bag
Linda from Plan International researches technology applications for low income people and businesses in Africa. She has learned that in Senegal, people pay taxi drivers to drive their mobile phones to charging stations because they don’t have power sources at their homes. What if they had FLAP Bags?
Hint: Enable the captions when caption this video!
Senegalese women speak about the challenge of re-charging their mobile phones.
We’re having great discussions with folks here at PopTech about how and where the FLAP can be used. We started this thread to facilitate the conversation, so let us know what you think! The more feedback we get and the more interest we drum up, the more we can improve the product and the better chance we’ll have to bring it to market (i.e. you!).
This particular woman thinks she’d use the FLAP as a hat. . .
Charles works for The Portable Light Project, Timbuk2’s partner on the FLAP Bag. In the images below, Charles is showing off how the FLAP bag’s LED can be worn on-strap to light the way, rather than just illuminating a space. Bike Messengers may be into this.
Don’t need a light? The FLAP bag is rigged with a USB port which enables you to charge USB-compatible devices like cameras and cell phones. If you don’t want or need to charge a device, the solar panels will hold the charge for later use or to power the bag’s attached LED light. See the FLAP in action below.
The FLAP’s LED light used on-strap. May be a hit for bike messengers.
The FLAP’s LED light is incredibly bright. You can reflect it off the FLAP itself for diffuse light or use it as a direct light.
We sold more than 50 4 watt solar panels at PopTech this morning in less than 15 minutes. And they’re lining up again. . . we only have 10 left. Great progress! The interest in the FLAP bag is encouraging; we need this demand and interest to be able to bring the FLAP bag to large-scale production. Even Erik Hersman, founder of AfriGadget, stopped by to buy a FLAP. Exciting! Want to buy a FLAP bag? Fill out this inquiry form and return it to flap@poptech.org.
Daraja Academy is an all girls secondary school in Kenya. Daraja uses generators to power their school and due to high costs, they turn the generators off at night. While the savings are necessary for the school, the darkness makes it difficult for the girls to study at night. So Timbuk2 sent two FLAP bags to the Daraja Academy to see if the bags would be useful for Daraja’s students. The Daraja team was put together the video below to show the FLAP bags were indeed useful on campus. Daraja’s feedback is incredibly helpful in making the FLAP bag a more useful and efficient source of portable light.
The FLAP bags have arrived in Camden, Maine for the annual PopTech Conference. This morning we tested and assembled the FLAP bags and they work! They look pretty slick too. Learn more about the FLAP bags here or share your FLAP thoughts here.
FLAP bag testing. The solar panels and LED lights work!
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