Get green with GearCrave’s latest find, the HyMini personal wind/solar power generator. We’ve seen this baby all over the web, but it was about time that we chimed in. If you haven’t seen this yet, the HyMini is a personal power generator that uses a wind turbine and attachable mini solar panels to generate and store electricity. As a generator, its applications are diverse– hold the HyMini in your hand on a windy day, set it down next to you in the park to soak up the sun, mount it on your bike handlebars, or attach it to the rear view mirror on your car. If there is wind or sun, the possibilities for the HyMini are boundless.

So we’ve generated some electric power and stored it in the HyMini’s internal battery. Now what? Just attach your PDA, iPod, cell phone, digital camera, DS or other mini electronic device and charge that puppy up. The HyMini comes with an array of connectivity, including ubiquitous USB. Continue reading for some real-world examples on what we can do with the power of the HyMini.

Let’s take a real-world example of how we can generate some power and exactly how much use we can get out of it from our favorite devices. Let’s attach the HyMini to the handlebars on our road bicycle. For a 20 minute ride, we’ll average 19mph. In that amount of time, how much electrical output can we generate? Enough to power:

• 30 minutes of listening on our iP0d.
• 40 minutes on our PDA.
• 20 high quality photos (with flash) on our digital camera.
• 4 minutes of talk time on our cell phone.

Okay, so 4 minutes of talk time isn’t exactly stunning. Especially if you’re itching for phone sex. But what self-respecting cyclist rides for just 20 minutes? Besides, you autophiles can always attach this to your car window for a 20 minute drive at an average 40mph– and your times are doubled.

The HyMini is one hell of a device. Price and release dates you ask? Good question. And while GearCrave is a buyer’s guide, we don’t exactly have the info on that just yet. But if any of you have heard otherwise, please post in the comments! We’d love to know…

UPDATE: the hymini is now shipping!