GadgetReview

Even though winter isn’t generally known for sun, a beefy array of Christmas lights will always run up your electricity bill.  These solar powered lights might be a great alternative for those on a budget but not willing to cut out the holiday cheer.  However, the cost of this expensive item may really  outweigh the potential savings on your electric bill.  On sale now for $65 per 102 light strand. …Continue reading: Solar Powered Christmas Lights

In the past we’ve seen piezoelectric technology applied to flooring in train stations and mats to take advantage of people’s stepping power.  Now the technology is being applied to a home theater remote control developed by NEC and Soundpower.

How does it work you ask?  Instead of being powered by batteries, the remote harvests the kintentic energy of a pushed button and uses that to power itself, hence piezoelectric technology.  It’s not too often that my remote dies, but it would be great to have at least one self sustainable device.

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Have you ever left the house or the apartment, and been struck by the sudden horror that you didn’t turn off your stove or your toaster or your television or whatever?  Yeah, I’ve been there too once or twice.  And I know some people who’ve made an entire psychological disorder out of something like that.

Well, there’s a new gadget, currently in the prototype stage, called the PowerZoa.  The PowerZoa can be used to remotely cut power to any gadget plugged into an outlet.  Everything from your stove to your toaster can be suddenly, remotely, disabled.  The PowerZoa transmits details on power use to a secure website, which you can log into to remotely disable your gadgets.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that such a gadget could be used against you, but even so, what happens?  You unplug the PowerZoa and replug your appliance back into the wall.  For people who worry about leaving things on, this is a great device.

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In a day and age where more and more people have more and more gadgets that need constant power, there needs to be more ways to offset all of this energy use.  A new concept has made its way to the blogs in the form of Power Saving Outlets.

Simple enough, this design only requires you to rotate the outlet using the plug as you would turn a key in order to turn on the power.  While the idea is good enough, I can’t see this being all that safe for children, and most of the time your powerstrip is plugged into an outlet that isn’t all that easy to get to, making using this concept not so convenient.

What do you think?

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Still trying to figure out how to make your iPhone a tad greener and all the while not cluttering up your desktop?  The Regen’s Renu solar panel is a modular system that charges on its own and when the time comes, can be placed in one of their two docks to charge up the iPhone.  That means you don’t have to expose your iPhone to direct sunlight, potentially harming the phone’s fragile components.

Renu currently offers an iPod dock, which just does the usual or you can opt for the more expensive but heavier featured Sound Dock, which includes a set of speakers and a slot for Regen’s Renu solar panel, providing up to 8 hours of sound or power to your iProduct of choice. The Renu solar panel takes about 3.7 hours to charge in direct sunlight outside and 7.3 hours of ‘direct sunlight indoors’. …Continue reading: Regen’s Renu iPod Dock Is My Favorite Solar Panel Gadget To Date

Perfect for your alpine lodge getaway, the Magno Wooden Radio will keep you and your bearskin rug company on those cold nights alone.  Handcrafted using untreated Indonesian ebony, mahogany, and pine, this little guy is quite the stunning beauty.

Besides boasting superior FM/AM quality, this wooden radio also has an input for your MP3 player and runs off of 4 AA batteries or an AC adapter.  Weighing only 2lbs, this retro modern marvel will cost you $200.

[via TechFresh]

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If there was ever an Xbox 360 Motorcycle here it is.  On show at Japan’s Tokyo Motor Show, the Yamaha EC-f is an electric motorcycle/scooter that sports a lightweight aluminum frame, a lithium-ion battery and a 0.6 kWh electric motor.  Best of all the EC-f uses a standard plug that works with any AC outlet.  …Continue reading: Yamaha’s EC-f All Electric Scooter Looks So Xbox 360

The folks out at Dell have given us a pretty sweet gadget to check out.  Now, chances are, you’ve heard about a LOT of solar powered whatnot, especially right here.  And some of it is pretty strange.  Solar powered jackets, solar powered cars…well, now Dell’s going to bring you what may be the strangest solar powered device of all.

The solar powered parking lot.

I kid you not, ladies and gentlemen–Dell has put together a series of solar panel-laden paviliions in its parking lot designed to provide not only shade to the cars beneath in the hot sun, but also to take that sun and convert it into electrical energy by which employees can charge, at no cost to them, their plug-in hybrids and full-on electric vehicles.

The equivalent of free gas is a pretty nifty perk, and the crew out at Dell has to be feeling some love off of this one.

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I’m stunned to be able to even discuss this, but apparently, Toshiba’s Dynario actually represents the first ever fuel-cell gadget charger.

If you take a fuel cell filled with methanol and ambient oxygen, and inject it into a charger package about the size of your palm, the combination of methanol and oxygen interacts with a lithium-ion battery inside the charger to power the battery and discharge sufficient juice to power TWO cell phones.  This means that most of your typical portable gadgets can now, thanks to Toshiba’s Dynario, be powered by a mix of air and chemicals.

Toshiba claims it takes the battery fully twenty seconds to charge after injecting the gas mix into the charger, and the costs on this beauty aren’t too steep for what you get.  The charger itself runs roughly $325, while the fuel cells themselves go for about $35 for a pack of five.  Oh, sure, it’s not exactly Rayovac Renewal battery affordable, but for a fast and easy charge that runs on thin air?  It’s not a terrible price.

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If you’ve ever found yourself out hiking in the back end of beyond and come up against an emergency–a broken leg, a lost map, a witch chasing you and your friends, a family of inbred mountain people who think your girlfriend looks tastier than a twelve-course buffet, you know what I’m getting at–without a charged cell phone, then you’re going to love what I’ve got here.

It’s called the Solio Emergency Charger, and for $60, it’ll give you a little extra punch of power that fits in a backpack.  It’s a slightly downsized for travel version of the Solio charger, and though it takes twenty hours in direct sunlight to achieve maximum charge, it still offers that little extra spark of juice when you need it most.  It comes with USB adapter, charging cable, 12v adapter and universal tip cable to make sure all your gadgets get their bump.

It’s a pretty smart idea, even if twenty hours is a pretty long time and represents almost two full days you’d have to spend in the woods waiting for it to get full charge.  By then, the inbred mountain people will have already finished your girlfriend and have started wondering if you served with mint would make a better dessert or appetizer.

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