It isn’t the only solar charging case on the market, but Novothink’s Solar Surge is the first to receive an official thumbs up from Apple, and thus noteworthy indeed.

The case features an integrated solar panel that should yield 30 minutes of talk time on a 3G network or 60 minutes on EDGE after 2 hours of sun exposure. Plus, the battery is a rechargeable 1500 mAh 3.7 V lithium-ion that offers 120% capacity of the iPhone 3G. The Solar Surge for the 2G iPod Touch will be available later this month for $70, while the iPhone 3G/3GS version will come in sometime in the 4Q of 2009 for the same price.

If you are into this sort of thing, the Solar Surge is probably the most compact and practical solar iPhone charger on the market—and the price point seems to be in line with many standard charging cases, making it an even better deal, and fits in with any “green” consumers ideals quite well too.

how many people complain of their iPhone’s short battery life without actually trying to do something about it!

Without further ado, the tips:

1. Turn down screen brightness
2. Adjust email to check for email less often
3. Turn off WiFi
4. Turn on auto-lock for the screen
5. Turn off the equalizer
6. Get an external battery
7. Get a mobile charger
8. Turn off vibration alerts
9. Turn off Bluetooth
10. Update the phone often

So far, I’ve turned down my phone’s brightness (in conjunction with auto brightness,) turned off WiFi notifications, turned off the equalizer, turned on auto lock, and updated as frequently as possible. Generally I can go for about a day and a half of moderate iPhone use without having to charge the device.

Keep in mind that the more you use the device, the more calibrated your iphone ’s battery will become, and in turn the more juice you’ll be able to squeeze out of it.