Nothing gets kids up in the morning like the thought of going to school – not! If your youngsters are anything like others around the world, they need something interesting to get them out of bed, and this living Bamboo Soil Clock is fascinating enough to fit the bill. It’s a great way to teach your children about alternative sources of energy because it’s powered by something kids love – DIRT!
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!
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) recently announced a breakthrough in OLED technology that shatters all prior efficiency standards, reducing the ultra-thin lights’ energy consumption by 75%! That’s no small number – the development stands to raise the bar for energy efficient lighting by leaps and bounds. Literally (and figuratively) a cool technology, we are already enamored by the skinny profile of organic light emitting diodes, and we can’t wait to see their further integration into our everyday appliances.
Music becomes a sustainable experience with Shepeleff Stephen’s solar-powered, bluetooth-connected Q-Sound (quantum sound) headphones. The Romanian engineering student’s sleek design combines flexible, hexagonal solar panels, wireless technology, and rotating earpieces for a futuristic yet practical product that powers itself on the go.
Imagine you’re lost in the woods, having wandered off the hiking trail. It’s looking like you may have to bed down on some pine needles with what’s left of the granola bars, when your friend whips out a little device that looks like a small fan. What’s that? It’s the K3 Charger – a compact hybrid wind-and-solar power generator about the size of a flashlight. The handy green gadget allows consumers to recharge an iPod, cell phone, PDA, or other electronic device using renewable energy!
Here’s a brilliant invention that makes us wonder why all city sidewalks aren’t covered in piezoelectric tiles. POWERleap is a floor tiling system that converts wasted energy from human foot traffic into electricity. The magic behind that awesomeness is piezoelectric technology and advanced circuitry design, which converts pitter-patter into power. First showcased in 2007 …
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.
Amid the flurry of high-tech wonders on display at this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition, Rob Podell’s Indoor Drying Rack boldly proved that green gadgets needn’t rely upon circuit boards and batteries to accomplish their function. One of the stars of the show and this year’s third place winner, the clothes drying rack contains no heavy metals, is constructed entirely out of recycled materials and bamboo, and requires no energy to use.
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!
LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER FOR GREENER GADGETS!
Calling all Green Gadget Geeks!
This is it – today is your last chance to pick up a ticket for this week’s Greener Gadgets Conference! Taking place on Friday, February 27th in NYC, this year’s event is pulling out the stops with presentations by acclaimed electronics designers Saul Griffith and Gadi Amit, a cutting-edge lineup of exhibitors, and the exciting live judging of this …
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?
Kids have a ton of energy, so wouldn’t it be great if we could bottle up some of that excess energy and use it in lieu of batteries in battery-operated toys? That’s precisely the idea behind Fastronauts – an ingenious entry into the 2009 Greener Gadgets Design Competition. Fastronauts is a cute collection of kinetically-powered superhero toys who teach young …
Computers are hard on the environment – from their materials and manufacture to their energy use and ultimate disposal. There are definitely some more energy efficient and eco-friendly models out there, but in order to make computers more sustainable, we need to completely rethink them. For this year’s Greener Gadget Design Competition, Brenden Macaluso decided to redesign the computer to make it’s whole lifecycle more sustainable. Featuring a slick cardboard case, his Recompute focuses on sustainability throughout the computer’s manufacturing, use and disposal, offering a fully functioning PC with off-the-shelf components.
Green Gadget fans have been waiting for the holy green grail of gadgets for awhile now: the solar-powered mobile phone. And now it seems that Samsung has finally delivered on this promise with their brand new Blue Earth phone. Blue Earth is a gorgeous green touch phone that has a full solar panel on its back which can generate enough power to charge the phone. And yes – the gadget is still small enough to fit in your pocket!
Who wants a free ticket to Greener Gadgets 2009?The Greener Gadgets Conference is just 2 weeks away now and we are getting excited! So excited, in fact, that we are running a contest today to give away a FREE TICKET (worth $350) to one lucky Inhabitat reader. All you have to do to enter to win this free ticket is:
1. Register with our newsletter >
2. Leave a comment below telling us your favorite Greener Gadget that we’ve covered on Inhabitat.
DEADLINE FOR THIS CONTEST IS FRIDAY, FEB 13th, at 2pm EST
Calling all Gadget Geeks! The Greener Gadgets Conference is only two weeks away now and tickets are selling fast! So fast, in fact, that we are going to close online ticket sales on February 20th, 2009. That’s NEXT FRIDAY! So if you want to attend the groundbreaking conference this year, GET YOUR TICKET NOW >
Looking for a fun way to teach energy conservation to your kids? Check out the Power Hog, an adorably pig-shaped power monitor that introduces kids to energy efficiency (and general thriftiness) by piggybacking upon the familiar format of the piggy bank. You need to plop a coin in the Power-Piggy to activate electricity flow, so kids can use …
Even if your local skyline isn’t hazy with smog, there are a number of environmental factors that impact your daily life but fly under the radar of your senses. Seeking to increase awareness and familiarity with environmental phenomena, Hernando Barragan has conceived of an Environmental Traffic Light that monitors and visualizes CO2 levels, air pressure, humidity and a host of other measurements. One of fifty top entries in this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition, these open-source eco outposts are sure to spark increased interest in the environmental factors that affect us all.
One of fifty top entries in this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition, Vincent Gerkens’ Blight offers a brilliant twist on staid venetian blinds. Rather than serving simply to block the sun’s rays, the design re-envisions blinds as sun-soaking solar panels that store energy during the day and illuminate your interiors at night.
This year’s Greener Gadgets Competition is loaded with brilliant ideas. One of our favories is the Tweet-a-watt, a fabulous open-source, power monitoring project from ladyada. One part off-the-shelf hardware, two-parts hackware and a dash of environmental consciousness and social networking, Tweet-a-watt monitors and “tweets ” (publish wirelessly) your home’s daily energy use to your Twitter account, all for less than fifty bucks!
One of our favorite entries from this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition is Francesco Biasci’s Cardboard Computer Case, which aims to ameliorate the perpetual problem of consumer e-waste. Built from the ground up with recycled cardboard, the case offers a simple, chic and customizable alternative to metal computer cases that must be disposed of every two to five years.
Attention Green Gadget Geeks!Want to see a sneak peek at the future of consumer electronics? After much deliberation we’re excited to announce this year’s crop of Greener Gadget Design Competition finalists! From illuminating solar blinds to hybrid wind and water chargers to a coffee ground printer, we were amazed with some of the innovative solutions that this year’s contestants conjured up. Now, in true democratic spirit, we’re asking YOU to help us choose the top ten finalists to duke it out LIVE ON STAGE at the Greener Gadgets Conference for grand prize of $3000.
Voting ends on February 20th, so check out this year’s top entries today at the Greener Gadgets site. CAST YOUR VOTE TODAY! >
For those of you who enjoy a cup of joe with your morning paper, the RITI Coffee printer offers an ingenious way to green your morning ritual: by turning your old coffee grounds into a sustainable source of ink for your printer! One of fifty top entries in this year’s Greener Gadgets Competition, the RITI printer takes the leftover grounds from your morning roast and plugs them into an ink cartridge to create an eco-friendly source of ink. Who would have ever guessed coffee stains could be be so useful!
Noon Solar’s chic energy generating bags have been a big hit with us ever since we first covered them in 2007. We’re so enamored with these beautifully crafted solar powered totes that they were some of the first items we featured in the Inhabitat Shop when it launched last November, and now we’re excited to announce that they’re on sale with a 25% discount!
GREENER GADGETS DEADLINE IS NOW SUNDAY!
Due to popular demand this year’s Greener Gadgets Design competition deadline has been extended until midnight on Sunday January 17th! That means you have an extra 4 days to submit your brilliant ideas for greener gadgets for a chance to win $3000. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to win fortune and fame all around the blogosphere – SUBMIT YOUR DESIGNS TODAY >
LAST CHANCE TO ENTER THE GREENER GADGETS DESIGN CONTEST!Have a brilliant idea for how to make a greener gadget? Want to share your idea with us for the chance to win $3000?. Enter the Greener Gadgets Design competition today while you still have time. There are only three days left to enter this groundbreaking product design competition, so if you have a good idea, SUBMIT IT TO US TODAY >
With the Consumer Electronics Show going on in Las Vegas this week, we’ve been dreaming of green electronics innovations that can satisfy our desire for cleaner, greener technology. We might have mentioned that our Greener Gadgets Conference joined forces with CEA this year to showcase a Greener Gadgets section and panel discussion at CES. So, how did people find the push towards Greener Gadgets at CES? Here’s the buzz around the blogosphere about Greener Gadgets and CES 2009…
Discover Magazine liveblogged the Greener Gadgets panel yesterday and said ‘the take-away from the session panel was that if you’re really interested in learning how to build low-power, long-life, non-toxic devices with a small ecological footprint, the kind of places you should visit are Africa and India.’
This year’s CES is showcasing some great green products, and we were particularly impressed by this new solar powered outdoor lamp by miniWIZ, who brought us the Hymini Portable Wind Charger. The Solarbulb is a brilliant solution that provides light while making use of old plastic bottles. Simply attach it to any ordinary bottle and the 0.18 W solar cells will provide up to 6 hours of continuous night lighting.
From tiny hydrogen powered vehicles to pint-size solar powered cars, we love seeing toys that put renewable energy into growing kids hands. Thus we were excited to see this 6-in-1 Solar Building Kit by OWIKits at this year’s CES. The kit consists of 21 parts that can be easily assembled into a number of solar-powered toys, from an airboat to a car to a walking puppy.
Energizer has worked hard to brand and market itself as the go-to battery for rechargeable reuse by offering many nifty little recharging gadgets to power up your AA and AAA batteries. At CES this week, Energizer debuted its latest green gadget, the Solar Battery Recharger. While we all love our Solios, if you wanted to charge batteries you still had to buy a battery charger that drains energy from the grid. This solar charger removes the step, allowing you to charge both AA and AAA batteries with renewable energy.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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