Fully Recyclable USB Flash Drive

In today’s computer world, many people carry USB flash drives.  These tiny little drives, some of which are so small that they can fit on key chains, can hold a huge amount of data—sometimes 32 gigabytes or more.  These little drives have replaced CDs and even DVDs as the media of choice for transporting data, although DVDs may still be needed for very large files.  However, for the most part, by not wasting CDs, USB flash drives have helped make the computer world greener.

But now you can go even greener with this fully recyclable USB flash drive.  It’s a 2 GB 2.0 flash drive that is made out of 100% recycled polylactic acid plastic.  It also features a special type of shield around the actual memory that keeps this little drive water-proof, dust-proof, and shock-proof.  This means you can put it through just about any type of abuse you can think of and it will come out working just fine.  It also features a password protection system that will keep all of your files secure.  In addition to being better for the environment than wasting CDs, every purchase of a recycled USB flash drive results in a donation made to help replant forests.

These great recyclable USB flash drives will make a good gift for the holidays, birthdays, or for those who are starting a new office job.  In addition to buying a gift that you know will be usable, you’ll also be contributing to a reforestation project and helping eliminate the waste of CDs.  What more could you want?

UrbanMover Electric Scooter

Lately, electric scooters have become very popular.  You may have seen people zipping up and down the streets on these cool little devices.  Most of them are completely street legal in much of the world, and they can get you wherever you want to go.  Of course, they can’t carry much in the way of cargo, and you might get wet if it rains, but you never have to stop at the gas pump and fill up one of these scooters.  They’re great for cities that seem to be lacking in public transportation or for those who simply want the freedom to go where they want while using a green method of transportation.

The UrbanMover Electric Scooter is just one in a large range of different emission-free scooters that many use to get around in large cities.  It features a 48v rechargeable battery that provides more than enough power to get you up and down any hills you might come across while still getting you across town to the gym or that important meeting.  It fully charges within five to eight hours, and it’s compliant with DOT and EU.  This means the UrbanMover is completely green, giving you the satisfaction of going gas-free and keeping the environment clean.

You may be shocked at the price of these electric scooters at first.  Yes, they are expensive.  However, if you sit down and do the math on how much gas you’ll save or figure out how much bus fare you won’t be paying, you’ll see that they actually pay for themselves rather quickly.  You won’t see a huge increase in your electricity bill—it certainly won’t equal the amount of money you’d spend in gas to power a car.

Kill-A-Watt Review

Have you ever wondered just how much energy that lamp was using?  Maybe you’d like to see how much power your computer pulls even when it’s in sleep mode.  If you’re curious or if you want to start charting your power consumption patterns in an attempt to cut down your electric bill, you may want to invest in a few of the Kill-A-Watt products.  These handy little monitors make it possible for you to see exactly where all of that energy is going.

To use the Kill-A-Watt, all you have to do is plug it in to an outlet.  The device has another plug on the front that you plug your actual device (lamp, computer, etc.) in to.  Once you’ve done that, use the device as you normally would.  Kill-A-Watt will monitor how much power your appliance draws.  Knowing this information is the first step towards assessing how energy efficient your appliances and devices are.

So what can you do with the information Kill-A-Watt provides?  A lot.  You can see just how much energy something draws even when it’s not turned on, which can tell you what appliances you need to unplug when they’re not in use.  You can also see which of your appliances aren’t as energy efficient as they should be, so you know what to replace first.  Finally, you can get an idea of how to save power.  Maybe it’s worth running your laptop off its battery more often than you’ve been doing.  Perhaps there’s a better lamp out there that provides more light but uses less power.  You never know until you see exactly how much energy your appliances actually burn.

Solar Gorilla Review

Don’t you hate it when you’re on a trip or out of the office and suddenly your cell phone goes dead?  Or you’re working on a very important presentation on your laptop when it suddenly runs out of power and you don’t have any place to plug it in?  This happens to everyone, but it doesn’t have to.  If you have the Solar Gorilla and Power Gorilla Solar Charger Kit, you can power up any of your devices just by placing the charger kit in the sun for a few hours.

The Solar Gorilla combines two other Gorilla products: the Solar Gorilla Laptop Charger and the Power Gorilla Battery Pack.  These two items combine to create and store hours of solar energy.  You can then use the variety of ports on the device to charge up your many different electronic devices.  A great feature of the combo unit is that it doesn’t just charge up your devices like some do; it will also store power so you can use it to supply power to your phone or laptop later or after the sun goes down.  You can even plug in the Power Gorilla and let it charge up from an outlet, then use it as a battery later.

The Solar Gorilla is compatible with many different cell phones, mp3 players, laptops, and other devices.  It’s even compatible with Apple notebooks if you have a specific adaptor.  The devices are very lightweight and compact, easily fitting inside a standard laptop bag or even a purse.

If there’s any downside to this device, it’s the price.  The Solar Gorilla will cost you $500 or more.  However, if you constantly need to power a device on the go, it can be an invaluable tool.  It can also be great if you want to stop using electricity to power your cell phone or mp3 player.

You can check out the Solar Gorilla's by clicking here

Wet Cell Battery Storage

Batteries come in all shapes and sizes, but it seems no matter what shape or size, we eventually throw them away.  Sure, rechargeable batteries are great, but few people use them.  Plus, there are very few large sized rechargeable batteries.  So what can you do?  Well, one thing you can do is purchase large capacity batteries, especially if you need a huge battery for a large electrical system or for an upgrade to one of those systems. Read more

GreenHeart Phones

Everyone is jumping on the green cell phones bandwagon these days, and Sony Ericsson is no exception.  They’ve recently announced new versions of both of their GreenHeart cell phones.  However, while many applaud their work on going green, these new versions really don’t have much in the way of huge improvements.  The GreenHeart line certainly isn’t up to the standards set by Samsung’s Blue Earth, for example.

Sony Ericsson has released two different versions of the GreenHeart, but neither have really lived up to the hype, even before these new lackluster improvements were announced.  One of the biggest green benefits these phones have is that they don’t include printed manuals.  Instead, the manuals are installed as software on the phones.  This, in turn, allows the phones to be packaged in smaller boxes.  These packages also use recycled materials, and the phones themselves incorporate as much recycled plastics and other parts as possible.  The chargers are low-energy, but the phones themselves don’t do much to save power.  They use just as much energy as non-green phones.

In fact, the GreenHeart phones don’t really do much more to save the environment than new phones that aren’t advertised as green products do.  Online manuals and smaller packing are becoming the norm, so Sony Ericsson really needs to step up if they want to become a leader in the green phone industry.  While they’ve certainly moved in the right direction, they need to do a bit more to really become a true outstanding green cell phone manufacturer.

Low Power Computer Memory

Researchers at the University of Cornell are working on creating low power memory for computers.  This memory would have a number of different benefits.  For one, it would make it so that computers didn’t really require any boot up time at all, allowing nearly instantaneous access to memory.  This memory would use only a fraction of the power that current RAM uses, making it very energy-efficient as well as work-efficient.

According to Cornell, researchers have created a thin ferroelectric film that may help in the creation of an instant-on transistor, something researches have been working on for decades.  If this research pans out, it could allow manufacturers to build a solid state computer that does not require any boot time and would save power.  This would lead to yet another computer revolution, cutting out something (boot time) that has long been an issue with computer users around the world.

Over the years, manufacturers have greatly reduced the amount of energy a personal computer uses, but as more and more people purchase computers, their energy use continues to be an issue.  With many people now owning a desktop and a laptop and every member of the family needing their own computer, these devices draw a lot of energy.  However, if the Cornell research leads to a low-power yet highly efficient form of memory, we may find our electric bills dropping a bit.

Solar Powered Cell Phones

Previously, we discussed the innovations at Kyocera and the fact that they were working on a motion-powered cell phone.  Well, they aren’t the only cell manufacturer who is working on creating a green cell phone.  Sharp and AU have added a solar panel to one of their newest phones.  They aren’t the first company to add solar power to a cell phone—Ericsson and Motorola both have models on the market or coming out soon.  However, solar powered cell phones are still quite limited, even if they are becoming more popular.

Sharp’s newest solar powered phone will be debuting in Japan in June of this year.  The device features a solar panel embedded on the phone’s lid, making it easy for users to simply set the phone near a window or other sunny location.  Leaving it in the sunlight for around ten minutes charges the battery enough for it to last for about a minute of call time or around two hours of standby time.  That’s not a huge amount of power, so it’s obviously not a way of continuously charging your phone.

While the amount of power this solar powered cell phone generates isn’t really that much, the fact that it generates any power at all is impressive and a step in the right direction.  Someday, it may be completely possible to power your cell phone via solar energy.  If everyone invested in one of these solar powered cells, it would save a lot of energy every day.  Seeing how many phone manufacturers are already jumping on the idea is certainly a very hopeful sign.

New Kyocera Cell Phone Could Be Charged by Kinetic Energy

You may not think that charging your cell phone uses up that much energy, but think about how often you charge it.  If you have a smart phone or other PDA, you may need to charge your phone every day.  This can add up over the days.  Your cell phone actually uses way more power than you think it does.

But what if there were some way to charge your cell phone without using traditional power?  That’s what Kyocera, one of the larger cell phone manufacturers, has asked themselves.  Kyocera designer Susan McKinney then took this idea and has created a conceptual device she calls the Eos.  Her cell phone folds in thirds, is very flexible, and contains tiny piezoelectric generators.  What do these generators do?  Basically, as you walk and move, these nano-scale generators convert the kinetic energy of your body into power.  While the device will most likely include a traditional charger, the power generated from your body may be enough to power the phone.

In addition to the nano-scale piezoelectric generators, the device has several other very innovative features.  It uses shape memory that brings keys up from the surface of the device when it is in use and fade down when it’s not.  The screen is also very flexible.  It is about the size of a wallet when used for standard phone calls, but it can actually be unfolded to make a larger screen when you need to see more.

While we won’t be seeing this amazing device in stores just yet, Kyocera plans on making use of its many new features in the next few years, so expect to see flexible screens, shape memory, and even a few amazing kinetic energy-powered phones in the future.

World’s First Biodegradable Computer - Actually Grows New Trees

MicroPro Computers is a Dublin based computer manafacturing company with 17 engineers that has produced the world's first biodegradable computer. The name of the computer is the iameco and it is built from biodegradable wood panels comprised of waste products from the lumber and pulp industry. Read more

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