Category Archives: Gadgets and Tech
Maybe the Garden of Eden never saw an apple tree as green as this during creation, though Greendix sure have thought of it now, with a lovely tree that soaks in the sun, not to keep itself healthy, but to give the life back to your drained out gadgets. Using leaf0shaped solar panels, this tree stores the sun’s energy in an apple shaped battery. What’s more is that these apples, unlike the one Steve Jobs came up with and the ones we usually eat, ripen up as they charge, meaning that they turn from green to juicy red with charge. To juice up your device, simply pick out a charged apple, connect it to your mp3 player or phone and it charges!
Continue reading 
Steve Jobs is out to fall out of his apple flavored chair reading this. India is hell bent upon bringing in technology to the lives of the not-so-fortunate and the needy sections of society, where knowledge and education is a must, for the country to develop and have a brighter future. Well, one such initiative the country has taken is a seriously-low-priced touch screen tablet computer, powered by solar energy. Aimed to work best with students, this one costs just $35. Jaw-dropped already? The computer is to use Linux operating system, and will be one of the world’s cheapest innovations. The government is currently looking for a manufacturer to join hands with for this project.
Continue reading
Now skating hasn’t amounted to much besides being a great sport and the best way to break an arm, until now. Skating sure has inspired Argentine designer Soledad Martin, who after spending a few hours on his set of wheels came up with this innovative way to charge up your cell phone, taking into consideration the conversion of movement into energy. Using a nanogenerator system, this charger attaches to your shoe and while you walk, skate, run, jump or jog charges up your phone. No longer do you need to moan over lost mobile phone charges. Just flip open the lid, connect the USB and juice up your phone! And if you’re fashion conscious, this one has interchangeable straps in different colors.
Continue reading
Cutting grass and shaping up your lawn is a day-time activity. No-one really bothers much with their lawns at night, and never during stormy or snowy weathers. So, it’s a sunshine activity. Well, the sun shining brightly on the back of your neck could be used innovatively too! And the FlowCut solar powered lawn mover does just that. It’s juiced up by the rays of the sun, which means no unnecessary burning of fossil fuels to trim your lawn. Leave the FlowCut out on your lawn sunbathing, and its photovoltaic panels soak in the energy from the sun. This is used to power up its engine and rotary blade. That’s not all.
Continue reading
Who needs those silly old AA and AAA batteries when you can now have vibration-powered generators? Well, Brother Industries Ltd has developed these small energy generators, known as the “Vibration-powered Generating Battery”. Stick them up in your TV remote; give it a shake, and “presto!” your remote functions fine! So no longer do you need to fling out the batteries from your remote, watches and all those battery powered toys your kid spends time with. Just use these in each of those devices and give them a shake every time they drain out of power. The generator is available in AA and AAA sizes, with the average output of an AA sized one ranging from 10 to 180mW.
Continue reading
Solar powered wings have had their share of test runs before, with the Solar Impulse proving to the world just how useful those rays from the ever-shining and energy spouting sun are. Anyways, it’s an un-manned aircraft that has had its test run, powered by solar energy. The Zephyr, QinetiQ’s solar-powered baby is a high-altitude long-endurance (HALE), Unmanned Air System (UAS), setting a landmark unmanned flight duration record previously set at 30 hours 24 minutes in 2001 by Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4A Global Hawk. The Zephyr is much ahead, with an unofficial flying record of 82 hours. The plane with a wingspan of 22.5m will now have FIA officials with their clipboards scrutinizing its flight as it officially breaks the record.
Continue reading
This new development is all set to take the use of renewable energy to power up our day to day lives, to a whole new level. Just like those little stickers we’d stick on to our lunch boxes, these solar panels need to have their sticky ends peeled, so that they can stick on to the area intended to be powered up. And these stickers have found their place on the first house in southern U.S. to receive a Passive House certification, which is designed to use 90% less energy than a conventional home. Manufactured by Whirlwind Solar, a division of Whirlwind Steel Buildings Inc., these little stick-them-on solar energy soaking surfaces are a laminate system consisting of panels that fit between the ridges of conventional metal roofing systems.
Continue reading
Adding technology, a whole load of it that too, to conservation programs can sure help out a lot. Well, when it comes to water conservation the Big Apple has invested an astounding $252 million for a citywide upgrade of the water-meter system. The recent heat wave has left tongues around parched and craving for water, and a shortage of the life giving liquid could mean disaster. So, New York City’s Bronx residents can now keep a tab on just how much water they use, and also track their bills. Wireless meters have been installed, and using them provides more accurate readings.
Continue reading
Pythagoras is here with something more than a confusing theorem that has left many a geometry student baffled in the past. We aren’t talking about the good old mathematician anyways. We’re talking about the firm Pythagoras Solar, founded by philosophy M.A. Gonen Fink, which has recently developed a nearly transparent solar glass, using patent-pending products. In short, this awesome development works as a skylight and a solar energy sucking energy generator too. Now a skylight sure has loads of energy-saving features that turn your required space energy-efficient. Skylights let in daylight, for natural lighting and also help reduce building heating and cooling costs. This one does a lot more. It produces electricity!
Continue reading
Supercomputers usually need a lot of power to run, considering the massive applications they run, so it’s really great if a Supercomputer goes green. Taking the title of the world’s Greenest Supercomputer is the Grape-DR, a supercomputer located at the Department of Information Science at the University of Tokyo. This machine spots 64 Intel Core i7-920 processors and an accelerator chip to draw 200 gigaflops with only 50 Watts of power, improving the efficiency five times over.
Continue reading
