GadgetReview

Nowadays, saving energy is quickly becoming common sense as opposed to forward thinking.  More and more tech consumers are aware of vampire power and and there are plenty of products out there to combat this unnecessary use of energy.

Having recently been introduced to the TrickleStar products, I have found them to be easy to use as well as being relatively easy on the wallet.  What I can say right away is that you are not going to see a noticeable difference in your electric bill.  Not unless you are using a ton of them.  You’d really have to have your whole residence outfitted in order to see your bill go down. …Continue reading: TrickleStar PC TrickleSaver And PC TrickleSwitch Review

EZ Grill, easy review.  So even though America is wholly embracing this green revolution for the most part, throwing stuff away is still a huge part of our culture.  To add to this national pastime comes the EZ Grill, a portable and disposable solution for those looking to grill on the go. …Continue reading: EZ Grill Review

Hey ladies–got a question specifically for you today.  How do you feel about the thought of a solar powered purse?

This isn’t some weird environmentalist joke–this is actually a purse that generates electricity from a layer of dye-sensitized solar cells.  Dye-sensitized solar cells are thin, cheap solar cells that can be built into most any article of clothing relatively inexpensively.

It’s not that they work really well, though–you’ll have to leave your handbag in the sun for four to five hours before you can generate juice sufficient to recharge your cell phone, but this is one of those cases where you can just sort of shrug and say, hey, free power.

The bags are a little on the pricey side, though.  They’re looking to bow in the $100-300 range, which is only slightly more expensive than your typical handbag. Plus it offers the whole solar-power option, which is awesome no matter how you slice it.

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Solar powered house, anyone?

Anyone looking for the house of the future should take note of the Solar Decathalon currently taking place at the National Mall in Washington DC.  This event brings together college students from around the world to build a house, no larger than eight hundred square feet, that runs entirely on solar power.  Everything from hot water heaters to power had to come from the sun, and the resulting houses are downright impressive.

Team Ontario, for instance, built what amounts to a giant glass cube that produces fully double its own power needs, allowing the homeowner to make a little extra cash selling the power back to the grid.  And frankly, they’ll need that little extra cash; these houses have an approximate street value of between $300,000 and $500,000.

If you’re out in the area, check it out.  The show runs through Saturday.

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Here’s a great piece for all you road warriors out there–the travel alarm clock is a great invention, especially when you don’t trust that cheap clock radio the hotel leaves by your bedside any farther than you can throw it.

But chances are you’ve run out of batteries for your travel alarm clock before.  And what do you do about that?  Hope you can find a store before you go to bed?  Try and recharge those batteries via any of a hundred methods?

How about just using a travel alarm clock that runs on water, like this one?  That’s right–water.  You fill up the reservoir with water, and an electrode inside converts the water into power for the alarm clock.  Best part?  This nearly completely self-powered clock runs a meager thirty dollars, if you’re interested in getting one.

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LG is coming out with an amazing new gadget that’ll quite possibly change the way you think about summer: the solar-powered e-reader.

This is actually a whole lot of amazing in one sentence, so I’ll try and break it down into more manageable chunklets for you.  One, an e-reader that runs entirely on solar power is an exciting development.  Reading a book outside in the spring–or in some cases, summer–sun has long been a popular activity, but now you can take a library outside with you and have your choice when you finally settle in under that tree and set out to read.

Two, this is one of the first e-readers to be powered by the sun, thus every other e-reader is now going to have a significant bit of competition on its hands.  None of the other e-readers are powered by free sunlight, you know.  And buying batteries over and over, or paying the power company to recharge batteries, will always lose out to free recharge.  Every time.

Three, a solar panel capable of powering a gadget by itself, and still be portable?  This might be the start of something new and different in the whole solar panel industry.  It might take an entire roof’s worth of solar panels to make a five thousand watt generator, but one panel running an e-reader?  That’s interesting.

The LG solar e-reader represents several significant strides forward, and hopefully, we can get our hands on them fairly soon.

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Gardening and horticulture are fastly becoming new hobbies for thousands of Americans embracing this powerful green movement and many of them may be very interested in what Olga Kalugina has created.

The FlowerPot Eye is a sort of X-Ray flowerpot that not only shows the roots of your plant but vital information such as:  Light levels, humidity, and the current soil conditions of the plant.

Very futuristic looking indeed and I’m sure these would sell great here in Portland.

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The last thing I associate with clean water is charcoal, but what do I know anyway.  Apparently not much.  This eco-friendly charcoal water pitcher must be the first of it’s kind to use Japanese Iouseki stones and Binchotan charcoal to purify and deodorize the water, making it mineral-rich and odor free.  Crazy!

The stones and charcoal should last up to 6 months under normal use and the pitcher itself is constructed from glass.  Looks like a stellar gift idea for the budding wellness freak no doubt.  The whole thing should cost around $94 with replacement stones and charcoal running at $21.  On sale now.

[via TheGreenHead]

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If you’re anything like me, you’ve got an old cell phone or two laying around the house and you’re about dying to get rid of it.  But you’ve got no idea where or how to dump it.  We all know there are loads of hazardous material laws to grapple with, and those collection drives expect you to pay to dump your hardware.

Enter the EcoATM, a device the size of an actual ATM that’ll let you dump your hardware quick, easy, and sometimes, profitably.  Simply drop your old phone or other device into the EcoATM’s slot, and the machine will determine if it has any value.  The machine will then make you an offer for the device, which it will pay off from a separate slot, usually in the form of a gift card.

What if your device is worthless, you say?  Not a problem–there’s no such thing as a worthless device to the EcoATM.  Even if it has no residual value, you’ll still be able to leave the device with the EcoATM, but you’ll also get a “freebie item”, plus EcoATM will arrange for a tree to be planted in your honor somewhere, which still beats having to pay off the collection people all hollow.

EcoATM is actually doing pretty well so far–its first day in operation netted 23 phones and passed out a full hundred bucks in gift cards.  Word is it got a BlackBerry Curve in prime condition.  So chances are, this prototype will likely be coming to an electronics store near you.

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Chances are, by now, in this age of “going green”, you’ve heard the old water control aphorism, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down”.  Now, most people don’t like the thought of letting “yellow” sit in their bowl for any much longer than it takes to flush in the first place, but now, we no longer need to “let it mellow” like insane hippie flower children.

Gadgets once again come to the rescue of decent people’s toilet hygiene, folks, with the Brondell Perfect Flush.  This device allows you to select a VARIABLE flush level, using a full flush for denser jobs and a “partial flush” for the lighter-weight material.

It’s entirely possible to reduce your water use between from thirty to fifty percent with the Brondell Perfect Flush, and the gadget itself only costs $99, so there’s a great chance this will pay for itself within a fairly short timespan.  It’s also promised to work with just about every toilet on the market, so there’s a good chance you can make these savings work for you right away.

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