Building a better cell phone

Recently, there's been a lot of buzz about the amount of germs found on cell phones. I'm not sure why this is suddenly such big news. Cell phones have been around for years, and this isn't the first time we've seen studies and news reports before about this topic. I think it's a heck of coincidence that this buzz is happening now that companies, such as Motorola, are offering products that address the whole germ concern.

I know, I should stop being so cynical; it's bad for my health.

Let's say for the sake of argument that the amount of germs on cell phones does actually pose a health threat. While we are at it, let's throw another "problem with cell phones" on the pile as well, namely that cell phone chargers continue to draw current even if they aren't actually connected to and recharging a phone. Again, amazing how this issue suddenly got play in the media when Nokia announced plans to make a cell phone alert to notify people to unplug their charger once the phone had been fully recharged.

How about we switch to cell phones that are solar powered and/or use use chargers that are solar powered? That way we can use the sun's ultraviolet radiation to kill off the germs on our cell phones AND use the sun's energy to recharge our batteries at the same time.