The Lantern Really Is Going To Change The World

There are a lot of gadgets out there that made big promises about changing the world, and only a handful of them have followed through. Remember the Segway? Some of the top names in tech declared it the most revolutionary thing since the tablet computer, a device that was going to change the world. It didn’t happen, for a variety or reasons, not the least of which is that law enforcement didn’t know how to regulate it and pedestrians on sidewalks don’t like it when you zoom past them.

But one device has come across our radar, and it’s truly a game changer. Funded through an IndieGogo campaign, the Outernet Lantern works on solar power to provide information via satellite-powered internet connections literally anywhere in the world. Until Google gets its act together with its weather-balloon internet service, Lantern will be quietly powering information and education in unserved locations.

Take a look at the potential for this device, and they so-simple-its-complex way it works:

Disaster

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Even in locations that have widely available internet use, anything could happen to the network. A disaster or some kind--natural, man-made, or intentional--could take down a network and basically cripple a society.