As a “maker” n00b, I can’t express how awesome it is to build a homemade solar-powered iPhone charger. The little 2W solar panel currently sits in the window of my west-facing home office (more on that later). Now, every afternoon, as the sun starts blazing onto my desk, I soak up a little power. I know probably hundreds (or maybe thousands) of people have built similar chargers before. After all, 20,000 people attended the first San Francisco Maker Faire in 2006, and it’s only grown since. Nationwide, there are tens or hundreds of thousands of makers out there. Read the full story at ARS Technica.