Dear Readers, We, or more accurately I, made a mistake. When I wrote about Lenovo's solar and mechanical energy powered Keeb and mouse combo, I assumed that these devices must be recharging mechanical energy through the force of typing and the movement of daily use. No one, least of all me, could have predicted that these prototype peripherals would be using essentially an integrated fidget spinner to collect energy.

No, I'm not kidding; PCMag UK actually used it at CES and found that Lenovo's new proof-of-concept peripheral charges with the power of your neural energy. Seeing the dial in the upper left corner of the keys, we all assumed it was either a volume wheel or a media control. In fact, this is the way Lenovo's engineers envisioned it: spinning it around with your finger to increase the device's charge.

It gets even better, or rather worse; apparently, five minutes of spinning equals just 30 minutes of charging. Read that again. Five minutes of non-stop spinning is enough to strain your fingers for just 30 minutes of keyboard use. I can only assume that kinetic energy harvesting is a lossy process and requires a lot of continuous input to recharge a meaningful amount.

But spinning the little wheel like a confused hamster for a full five minutes may not even amount to typing a single thoughtful email. Surely the mouse must derive energy from its movement. Perhaps it uses a mechanical ball system, like an old-fashioned squeaker, to convert the wasted energy into something useful, like an electrical charge.

Wrong again! This mouse instead requires an embedded ring to be taken out from underneath and wound around it to collect the electric charge. Because, according to the specifications, winding the mouse tightly for a minute should give it a 30-minute charge, as if it were a spring-operated children's toy, a wind-up flashlight, or a mantelpiece clock. Then you're good to go.

I normally avoid such clichés, dear reader, but my mind is a mess. I never expected this to happen during a month of endless Sundays.

I failed to deduce that, rather than harvesting the mechanical energy already put into the device by actually using it, Lenovo would instead suggest manually whirling the thing around to collect what amounts to an absolutely miniscule amount of charge

What is the point of this?

In any case, I am very sorry. I am truly sorry. But don't let anyone tell you that I will not admit my mistakes and punish myself appropriately. If anyone has any toys to pass the time, please let me know.

_____________________________________ PC Gamer's CES 2024 coverage is courtesy of Asus Republic of Gamers.