Oh gads. That's even worse. Or at least it is from what I've seen of MicroUSB. It needs to be something sturdy that can afford being bumped without worrying about killing the jack.

Huh? MicroUSB is designed to be several orders of magnitude more durable than MiniUSB and is headed towards being the future charging standard on mobile devices.

Right, but you still have a plug hanging out the side. The perfect charging plug I'm thinking of inserts itself safety into the device so that you can't bump it and possibly break it. I don't like things, be they charging cables or whatever, hanging off the side of my device. If it could be inserted into the device far enough so that even a fair amount of force against the plug wouldn't risk doing more than maybe pull the plug out, but not do anything to the device. But if it's hanging off the side, you risk breaking off the dongle and damaging the port.

I tend to agree with those who think that the MicroUSB is unsafe and prone to damage. This is a topic that I would like an answer. Since I travel and would like to be free from AC outlets. I think we need 5VDC (200ma) going to the power jack to charge the N810. This small amount of voltage is easily delivered by a small solar cell. I have one of those garden lights with 9 LEDs and solar cell with 2 AAA batteries that lights up my garden. The solar cell is an 6"x8" frame. I think this cell will work with rechargeable batteries and sitting on my car's dash. Let me know if this sounds feasible.

390mA barely manages. 200mA wont cut it.

in idle, screen off, no cpu load, wifi powersave on, gps off, etc, power consumption is probably at or below 50mA.. Provide more than that and it should be a net charge.

However, if the device thinks you unplugged charger when cloud comes, activating the screen, power use goes up and you'd end up using more power than you charge...

btw, the nokia charging specs (available at forum.nokia.com) seem to indicate that exactly 5V will be rejected by the device.

Right, but the charge circuits won't even activate until it hits 400ma. So unless you have one of those new carbon nanotube solar cells and a heck of a sunny day, you're not getting squat with a panel that small.

And as for the 5v question, USB is exactly 5v, so since the travel charger and the usb charger both operate at 5v, that's not true. In fact my portable battery charger operates at 4.8v and my nokia is still happy about it. The big deal with the voltage is, you can be as low as 4.5v, just so long as you have the minimum amperage, and the device will keep charging. Go below either 4.5v or 400ma and it stops. Now I wouldn't ever recommend going below 4.8v, as it might do squirrelly things to the charge circuits, but I can't see why it wouldn't accept the charge if the minimum amperage is meet, since it can always adjust the voltage and amperage to the right levels on its own like it already does.

I could see solar cells being useful on a bicycle mount or atop a rucksack, but in a vehicle with a dirty great generator already fitted?!

I use the car to charge up a portable battery pack, which I use to keep my tablet, phone, and GPS topped up when away from power. When in my car, or at my desk I keep them plugged in and on charge, usually via usb-power cables.

Wound up buying this and a replacement AC charger. Now I just got to get an FM transistor.

Thanks for the info about the car charger at overstock. I still plan to purchase a solar panel for charging when I'am out in the woods.