Earlier this week, Regen wowed us with their sleek, modular iPhone charger. Now the electronics company is back again with another impressive Apple-related product: the Reverb, an eye-catching 3-foot tall iPod dock that blasts out the equivalent of 60 watts of sound from a conventional speaker. And best of all, it’s solar-powered.
If you’re like the rest of us, you’ve got a pile of chargers left over from retired cell phones. You can’t use them with your new phone, but finding an innovative way of recycling the tangled up mass of wires can be difficult — quite the ecophile’s conundrum. Luckily, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) aims to revolutionize the cell phone industry. The UN group recently unveiled its Universal Charging Solution, a charger that can be used in all future cell phone makes and models — as long as cell phone companies comply.
Harvard scientists believe in the power of the good earth — literally. A team at the Boston-based college have created microbial fuel cell (MFC) batteries that derive energy from naturally occurring bacteria in soil. If the product takes off, the eco-friendly batteries could provide power for some of the 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to electricity.
If we were stuck on a desert island with only one book, this recently unveiled solar e-book would be at the top of our list! Designed by LG Display, the sleek reader features a wafer-fin photovoltaic cell that provides it with a steady stream of solar energy. Whereas most e-books run the risk of losing juice mid-sentence through your next novel, this solar reader’s omnipresent energy source makes it a winning design in our book.
We’ve covered wooden gadgets before, but NTT Docomo’s TOUCH WOOD concept phone is possibly the first wood-encased smart phone ever. The phone, developed in conjunction with Sharp, Olympus, and a reforestation project called “more trees,” contains surplus wood from forest-thinning operations in the Kochi prefecture of Japan.
Wow those around you by transforming any old household object into a lamp with this “LED Pin” by Korean designer Sungho Lee. To create this subtle, yet awe-inspiring illuminating accent Lee stylized and whitewashed the form of a traditional clothespin. The refreshing take on a familiar design successfully turns the object’s dollar-store stigma into a museum store find, but it’s the techy twist that makes it even more notable.
For those of you with the latest iPod or iPhone Touch, in a months time you’ll be able to charge your Apple gadgets with a fancy schmancy new solar case. Novothink, a manufacturer of alternative electronic devices, has just released their Solar Surge for the iPod and iPhone Touch. Your igadget slides easily into the hard case solar charger and can get fully juiced up from the sun! With something this handy and easy, you’ll never have to worry about a dead battery. It’s brilliant really. Can they please make one for Blackberrys too?
New projects on display at Copenhagen’s ShowHow promise innovations in everything from zero-carbon building practices to sustainable manufacturing
Researchers are developing ways to mass-produce tiny robots the size of a fly that operate like swarms of insects to collect data to aid in surveillance, micromanufacturing, medicine, and more. Measuring in at under 4 mm square, the microbots have all the equipment necessary to move, communicate, and collect data, plus they generate all of their own power via solar panels.
From time to time we come across some ideas that are so brilliant that it’s a no-brainer for them to be out there in the marketplace. This last year in particular we’ve seen a number of green gadgets that are so ingenious that we’re left scratching our heads and wondering why they haven’t been produced yet — especially because they are all powered by renewable energy sources. With this in mind, we present to you our top five green gadgets that we wish existed!
The hot hand-held gadget of choice may not be the iPhone for much longer – if this wearable and solar powered wrist phone comes to market, everyone on the streets may soon be sporting it. Inspired by photosynthesis, the Leaf is a wearable phone concept created by Seungkyn Woo and Junyi Heo. The flexible device incorporates solar cells into the front and is capable of rolling up into the form of a wristwatch so that users can wear it and keep it charged while they’re on the move.
The Reclaim – Samsung and service partner Sprint’s newest green phone – has innovative features that go beyond the bare bones that similar products like Motorola’s W233 Renew phone offers. This eco-conscious smart-phone is 80 percent recyclable and made mostly of corn-based bio-plastics, but that’s not all this compact phone has up its green sleeves.
It goes without saying that there have been some truly impressive and useful innovations in world of eco-friendly products, but with everyone racing to develop the next big thing there are bound to be a few flops. Here at Inhabitat we applaud every effort to help us reduce our carbon footprint and live greener cleaner lives, but we can’t help but notice that some attempts have missed the mark. This list is comprised of our favorite silly eco inventions, products and ideas. Really, what fun would it be if we only covered the good stuff?
Solar power doesn’t have to be limited to Earth-based gadgets — at least, not if Carnegie Mellon roboticist Dr. William Whittaker has anything to say about it. Whitaker and Astrobiotic Technology have teamed up to develop a solar rover prototype that will explore the Apollo moon landing site and find out how materials used in the mission have fared over all these years.
It’s black, it’s white, but it won’t be tough for you to get by with this ingenious light-sensitive OLED clock that automatically shifts colors so that it is readable by day or night. The perfect antidote to boring digital wall clocks, the Black & White Clock can be stuck to any surface and displays the time using energy-efficient Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLED). Depending on whether it is light or dark out, the clock will shift colors so it can be viewed at any time of day.
Solar Ivy (or SMIT Grow) is a spectacular system of thin, fluttering solar panels that generate energy by sparkling in the sunlight. The wind and solar power generating photovoltaic leaves can be easily integrated on the side of a building to produce energy. The concept, designed by Brooklyn based SMIT (Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology), consists of a layer of thin-film material on top of polyethylene with a piezoelectric generator attached to each leaf. When the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, energy is being generated via Solar Ivy.
Tired of trying to find an outlet to charge your cell phone, iPod, and computer while on the go? Then what you need is a solar powered bag to charge all your devices and free yourself from the grid. Our friends over at Planet Green are giving away 2 Voltaic Solar backpacks each week this summer, and all you have to …
This re-covered iPod is almost like hugging a tree, except it fits in the palm of your hand. So perhaps it’s more like giving a tree a handshake and hearing your favorite tunes at the same time. Josh D, from Australia, took his Apple iPod Mini apart and built a brand new case from red cedar to update the otherwise outdated gadget into a stylish, natural, and woodsy example of heirloom design.
File this under, “Technology I Never Knew Existed,” but Nokia says that in a few years time, they will be able to charge cell phones by using ambient radio waves. This intriguing and exciting technology could lead to huge reductions in energy demand if every cell phone could pull a charge of juice out of thin air.
There were whispers all week that Sony Ericsson would be releasing a line of eco-friendly cellphones today – and it turns out that the rumors were true. The telecom giant debuted 2 new green handsets, the Naite and the C901 cybershot phone in a live webcast that took place at 1PM GMT in London today. The sleek new phones are tangible manifestations of the GreenHeart concept phone, which Sony Ericsson came up with way back in 2008 as its way of letting consumers know that it, too, was on the green bandwagon. Those who doubted that the GreenHeart concept would ever come to fruition need not wonder any longer as Sony Ericsson is just about ready to bring their new eco-friendly phones to the market.
What if keeping your laptop charged was as simple as setting it out in the sun? That’s the promise behind a brand new netbook that may just break the biggest barrier to ultra-portable computing: battery life. It won’t run graphics-heavy computer games, but iUnika’s new $180, 1.5 pound solar-powered Gyy netbook is ideal for anyone looking for an inexpensive on-the-go computing solution.
Ink toner cartridges are expensive, wasteful, and energy-intensive. That’s why Xerox’s new ColorQube 9200 printers are so innovative. Instead of using traditional cartridges, the printers use solid blocks of ink that melt when heated. Xerox claims that its $23,500 machine–meant squarely for corporate customers–can cut printing costs by 60% and eliminate 90% of all waste. And because solid ink sticks don’t have shells, there aren’t empty cartridges to deal with when the ink runs out.
Next time you head to the park, consider bringing a Suntrica wearable solar charger. The Suntrica SolarBadge and SolarStrap are pocket-sized, durable, lightweight chargers covered in flexible thin film solar panels.
Most of our modern-day gadgets are swathed in plastic or other high-tech materials, and why wouldn’t they be? Plastic is both cheap and easy to produce. But English Russia’s display of wooden gadgets shows that sometimes the most elegant items are the simplest.
Charting the future of cell phone technology, Kyocera recently unveiled a kinetic energy-powered phone that is capable of folding up like a wallet. Designed by industrial designer Susan McKinney, the EOS phone consists of a soft, semi-rigid polymer skin surrounding a flexible low-energy OLED display. Shape memory allows the phone’s keys to pop up when in use and blend in with the surface during downtime.
Are your teenage daughters taking way too long in the shower?
Teenagers are known for their lavish morning rituals, and lengthy showers. When Australian Trevor Murphy saw his water bill skyrocketing on account of his daughter, he decided to create a device that would stop the shower after a certain amount of water had been used. His ingenious Aqualim requires no electrical parts and can be retrofitted to any existing showerhead.
Soon, the water in Gijon, a harbor in Northern Spain will be monitored by robotic, battery-powered fish. These mechanical, articulating sea creatures were designed and tested by the Robotics Department at the University of Essex. At a cost of $3.6 million, through a European Union grant, these fish will test the water for oxygen levels, detect oil slicks and other contaminants pumped into the water. This is the first monitoring program of it’s kind, and the retrieved data could be very important, with implications for global warming and the state of our water sources.
Not to be outdone by Samsung’s Blue Earth and ZTE’s Coral-200, LG recently unveiled its own solar-powered concept cell phone at the Wold Mobile Conference in Barcelona. The prototype, which features a solar-powered battery built right into the back cover, will be able to generate enough energy for 3 minutes worth of talk time for every 10 minutes of sun it soaks in. If left in natural light for longer periods of time, the battery will be able to power the phone for longer periods of time, eliminating or reducing the need for a conventional charger.
After an exciting round of live judging last week at the Greener Gadgets Conference, we’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2009 Greener Gadgets Design Competition! Drumroll please……
And the winner is….Tweet-a-watt
Congratulations to Powerhog for second place, the Indoor Drying Rack for third place, and the Laundry Pod for fourth, and read on for more highlights from the judging at the Greener Gadgets Conference.
Last week’s Greener Gadgets Conference was a smashing success, and if you missed it, you missed out. Inventor Saul Griffith gave a provocative and rousing keynote presentation, with a call-to-action to consumers to start measuring their energy use and designers to start changing the way they make things. The panel discussions were lively and interesting, and as always, the Greener Gadgets Design Competition live-judging was the hit of the conference with spirited debate between audience and judges, and hilarious commentary by Core77’s Allan Chochinov. But if you weren’t able to be in attendance at our fabulous conference – fear not – you can catch up on all the important highlights here on Inhabitat. We live-blogged the whole thing on Friday, and we’ll be posting videos soon. The live-blog is pretty detailed, so if you are looking for a short synposis of the event, read on for highlights >
The Greener Gadgets Conference made for an exciting end to the week yesterday, and as you know, Inhabitat live-blogged the whole thing HERE >. The conference was a chance for gadget geeks and electronic companies alike to think about the role of gadgets in our …
Attention gadget geeks!
The 2009 Greener Gadgets Conference kicked off today in NYC, and Inhabitat is on the scene, bringing you up-to-the-minute news from this groundbreaking event! We’ll be live-blogging the whole event – right here in this post — so stay tuned (and read below) for frequent updates!
Just last week we brought you news of the Blue-Earth, Samsung’s new solar powered touch phone. Well, it turns out that they are not the only company with solar dreams. Chinese mobile manufacturer ZTE recently revealed the Coral-200, a solar-powered handset with one very unique characteristic that sets it apart from its competitor: it will only cost 40 dollars!
ATTENTION GADGET GEEKS!
Due to popular demand, the registration deadline for Greener has been extended! We were going to close ticket sales yesterday, but we’re now going to give you until next Tuesday, February 24th to register for tickets.
The Greener Gadgets Conference takes place next week on Friday the 27th, and this weekend marks your last chance to pick up a ticket! We couldn’t be more excited about the upcoming conference, …
Apple recently rolled out its new family of Macbooks with a bold claim: The World’s Greenest Family of Notebooks. The new Macbooks are lighter, less toxic, and more energy efficient than previous generations, but are they really the greenest laptops in the world?
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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