I can see it a little addicting twirling this phone around your finger. There is a model that spins around your finger pictured here. Another model is of the crank variety.
Well now you will have no excuse to have a dead cell phone battery. I wonder how quickly it charges?
Designed by Mikhail Stawsky. Found at YankoDesign.
I could use this solar headphone radio when walking the dog. No more needing to worry if I have batteries or have batteries charged.
It recharges even while listening. One hour of sunlight provides 1-3 hours of listening. and fully charge the headset will run up to 20 hours.
Its 25 British Pounds. Available at Ecotopia.co.uk
Why not make something functional out of your old PC components?! This clock is made out of an old hard drive. It measures 4″w x 5″h. It comes with a battery too.
This is a cool conversation piece too or give it as a gift to your favorite geek buddy.
Only $35 and hand made in the USA. From Etsy.
These cool lanterns are more than just cute. These Eco Twinkle lights are actual pencil sharpeners. Well you don’t have to sharpen a pencil. You can just crank it!
Apparently, pencil sharpeners and human powered generators have the same mechanical twist structures. The designer has combined the two inventions to make a dual function.
There is not telling how long the light lasts. But for a lot of tasks in the dark yard, attic, or basement you only need the light for a few minutes.
Via YankoDesign.
Prepare yourself for the next emergency or pesky power outage with one of these Radio’s from Eton Corp.
The FR360 Solarlink can be charged with solar power. It includes AM/FM/NOAA Radio for listening to news and weather . It has a cell phone charger and flashlight as well.
The FR300 can also cranked up by hand for power. It has a red strobe light and siren to be located. For all their radios you can use batteries or an AC adapter for power.
Get 10% off any of these radios with a coupon from Eton Corp. Plus Eton Corporation will donate .65 cents of the sales price to support the American Red Cross.
This little invention is not out yet, but its a good idea. It will charge your gadgets outdoors while you are at the picnic, beach, campsite or outdoor concert. The solar stake goes into the soft ground or sand. It will be very handy. How many times have you gone somewhere and forgotten too charge up?
I wonder it will be effiecient and grabbing solar energy and feeding your gadgets. I know batteries are getting better and gadgets are using less energy but I don’t think it might work.
Designers: Jun-Se Kim, Min-Goo Kim & Dong-Eon Kim
Source: Yanko Design
Charge up your laptop anywhere on the go with the SolarGorilla. It will cost you $440 though! But if you need the power on your safari vacation this gadget will do the trick. You can use it to charge the rest of your gadgets like mobile phones, iPods and more.
The SolarGorilla is tough, water resistant and can be used suspended on a car or tent for outdoor use. It comes with a USB socket for your laptop recharges.
The Solar Gorilla has already been used in the field by aid agencies, emergency services, the military and adventurers. It has been used in the rugged outbacks of Africa, Australia, and Afghanistan.
Its available through a British Reseller - PowerTraveller.
Via Retrevo
Found via, the Alternative Consumer, this device called the Tricklesaver plugs into your computer peripheral power strip and your computer. It will then sense when your computer is in shutdown or standby mode, and then power down the power strip accordingly! Excellent as most of your peripherals use power when your computer is in hibernate or shutdown mode. Power adapters for peripherals waste a lot of energy and have no off switches.
It has been estimated that while there is a small amount of waste energy per household in the U.S., it does add up to 10% of household consumption. Estimates say that there is enough wasted energy in the U.S. from standby power to power the countries of Vietnam, Peru, and Greece!
For now there is still no price, but it will go on sale in January. There will be a model for other electronics such as your living room home theater too or other appliances. Check Tricklestar.
Treehugger had a good article on whether bamboo laptops are beneficial to the environment. Besides the eco friendly looks that wood gives there are benefits to using bamboo.
Bamboo is more biodegradable than plastic, and bamboo can be harvested in a sustainable way since it grows very fast like a weed. Plastic uses too much chemicals and is difficult to biodegrade. You can recycle plastic, but we must develop computer components in a way that they can be taken apart for recycling. Until then we are just going to see these hazardous electronic parts back in the landfill.
Anyways there are more options for bamboo computers such as the:
Asus Eco book is $2000 but only includes 1 GB of ram.
Dell has the Studio Hybrid which has a bamboo sleeve option. Ultra sleek design with power efficiency. Its get just about the same features as a regular pc except its 80% smaller and uses 70% power. These cool laptops are portable and affordable. Go Dell!!
The Fujitsu laptop is actually made with cedar wood. Even the plastics are made of bio-based plastics! It’s only a prototype, but it could be the future for us. In 2002, Fujitsu became the first computer manufacturer to develop corn-based plastic and adopt the environmentally friendly material for PC parts. Original bio-based plastic has been used for a limited number of smaller parts and gradual improvements to its properties to satisfy various manufacturing requirements and increase the percentage used in its notebook PCs. The newly developed bio-based plastic accounts for about 30% of the plastic material in the housings of 2 of their prototype laptops.
Made from sustainable hardwood and very classy looking as well. Should fit in your stylish bedroom or living room. It fills a small space, but delivers big sound with 15 watt speakers. It comes with 8 iPod adapters and you can hook up with mp3 players too.
Find it at Vivavi.com
Via Furniture Home Design.com
