Portable wireless mice have a problem: most of them rely upon disposable batteries, which often wind up in landfills as e-waste. Adele Peters’ Corky mouse aims to change all that — it’s a kinetic energy-harvesting mouse that is powered with a flick of the wrist. One of 18 finalists in this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition, it’s also made from 100% recycled plastic components and recycled and biodegradable cork.
As greener gadget geeks, we’re pretty enthralled with the assortment of energy and earth-conscious gizmos that emerged last year, and we’re even more excited about what this year holds in store. Check out our short list of the most promising new greener gadgets and don’t forget to vote for your favorite freshly unveiled designs from this year’s greener gadgets competition here!
Want to catch a glimpse into the future of green technology? Then check out the freshly unveiled finalists in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition! These 18 designs offer smart green solutions that range from creating energy-efficient households to supercharging our freeways with renewable power to rocking our way to clean energy. Don’t miss your chance to vote for your favorite – it could very well be the answer to unlocking a greener future!
The winners will receive $5000 dollars in prizes, so cast your vote today and don’t miss out on the exciting live judging which will take place at the Greener Gadgets Conference in New York on February 25th!
Imagine: a solar-powered screen that could quickly charge up your new iPad. Solar chargers are certainly nothing new, but this circuit is embedded right in the touchscreen, so you don’t have to set the device on its back to catch light. It’s not a reality yet, but it might be soon, courtesy of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania.
Computing on-the-go couldn’t be easier with the bevvy of smart phones, laptops and netbooks on the market. But printing documents while away from the home or office is a whole ‘nother story — until now. PlanOn’s Printstik PS905ME printer provides completely portable printing power. The lightweight, mobile printer utilizes rechargeable batteries and thermal printing technology so folks can print documents without needing outlets or wasteful ink cartridges.
Piezoelectric energy is nothing new, but researchers at Princeton University have developed a new type of electricity-harvesting rubber sheet that has the potential to change the way we power electronic devices. The flexible rubber sheets are imbued with piezoelectric ribbons and are durable, versatile, and open up exciting new applications for harvesting kinetic energy.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave the past few weeks, you probably know about Apple’s new iPad, which was just unveiled moments ago. We’re excited for the iPad’s release, but we still have to ask: how green is it?
Motorcycle enthusiasts have good reason to rev their engines. Ready to burn some serious rubber, Roehr Motorcycles are set to release two battery-powered motorbikes this spring. As the electric counterparts to the famed Roehr 1250sc, the new eSuperbike and eSupersport are impressive additions to the Roehr family that feature seamless functionality, flexibility and all-electric power!
Apple may soon be rolling out iPods and other Apple products with thin film solar cells integrated right into the body of the device! Apple recently filed a fresh patent for solar powered portable devices, including iPods, iPhones, Shuffles, MacBooks and even the hotly anticipated tablet computer. Exciting news keeps coming from the world of Apple and we like how green it’s getting.
Sure, it’s easy enough to find a quality portable solar charger, but powerful, portable wind turbines are a different story. Enter the Eolic, a portable turbine that can be mounted on its telescopic pole in just three steps.
Here’s an interesting thought: What if eating greener and more sustainably meant printing your meals? Marcelo Coelho and Amit Zoran, a couple ingenious minds at MIT, have come up with a way to do just that. Hailed as ‘The Cornucopia’, this 3-D printer concept is a personal food factory that fuses the digital world with the realm of cooking by storing, precisely mixing, depositing, and cooking layers of ingredients with no waste.
Reading the newspaper during your morning commute is about to get a lot more convenient. LG recently unveiled its flexible e-paper, a new type of e-reader designed to mimic the look and feel of a newspaper page. Once commercialized, the revolutionary technology will slim down bulky dailies and hopefully save tons of paper, wastewater and carbon emissions.
Put green power in the palm of your hand!
Having trouble keeping your gadgets charged on a daily basis? Ever had your cellphone run out of juice on you in the middle of an important day? You’re in luck – we’re giving away one incredibly handy HYMini charger so that you’ll have access to clean green energy anywhere you go! This handheld universal charger and adapter harnesses the power of the wind and sun to recharge almost any mp3 player, cell phone, or camera, and all you have to do to win is tell us what your favorite green gadget in the gallery below is!
TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY:
1. SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER HERE >
(We’ll be announcing the winner in our newsletter, so if you want to find out who the winner is, you’ll need to receive and read our newsletter)
2. COMMENT BELOW and tell us which Greener Gadget (see the gallery below) from the Greener Gadgets Design Competition is your favorite and why. The deadline for this fabulous giveaway is Monday, January 18th. We’ll pick the comment we like best and announce the winner in our newsletter, so make sure you’re signed up!
And don’t forget to stay tuned for the Greener Gadgets conference taking place in NYC on February 25th – it’s going to be packed with influential speakers from the green technology sphere and all the most innovative sustainable gadgets and gizmos.
Floating garbage has found its calling in these incredible sea creature robots hand-crafted by marine scientist and educator Masamichi Hayashi. Assembled using recycled items including plastic bottles, food containers, styrofoam, raincoats, and motors removed from windshield wipers, these realistic marine robo-dwellers are used in free shows to teach children about the movements and behavior of sea animals.
OLEDs may be the future of lighting technology, but LEDs are here to stay for the foreseeable future. To that end, a startup called Nanosys has created a nanomaterial coating that makes colors on LED backlit displays more vibrant, all while preserving the energy efficiency of normal LEDs.
If you’re going to dress your dog up in silly outfits, they may as well serve a purpose. That’s the tack behind this solar puppy sweater created by Erik Shiegg. According to him, the hi-tech canine couture is capable of charging an Android phone in no time, plus “the dog feels good and I’m feeling good and planet mud is turned a little bit more into planet earth”. Eco-conscious pooches rejoice!
If you’re like us, you’ve been salivating over all of the fresh greener gadgets presented at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It wasn’t easy, but we managed to narrow down the list to our five favorite gizmos unveiled at the show. From fun new approaches to portable power generation to ultra-efficient displays and sleek eco laptops, check out the full list after the jump!
Smartphones have gotten progressively smaller, sleeker and more powerful in the past few years, but most of them don’t address one annoying problem – you have to hold them. Oh bother. If you’re looking for something with a little more superhero panache, check out what Asus just unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show – the insanely futuristic Waveface Ultra. It’s a superthin, flexible OLED wristband cell phone that you can snap …
If you keep up with the latest gadget news, you’ve undoubtedly heard about some of the innovative products coming out of this week’s Consumer Electronics Show. One of our favorites is the Sony Vaio W series “Eco Edition”, an ultra-green mini laptop that even comes in a green-tinted plastic enclosure made from 23% recycled CDs.
The 2010 edition of CES is in full effect in Las Vegas and with it all of the latest gadgets, gizmos and technologies ranging from automotive to internet and wireless. Walking the floor it was clear that green tech is definitely making its way into the mainstream consumer companies more and more. There is an entire pavilion here at CES dedicated to sustainable technologies and products, but peppered throughout the wireless world and innovation areas of the show greener products and services were being demonstrated. Read on for some of the cool green tech that caught my eye on this first day of the show!
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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