Category Archives: Gadgets and Tech
Solar power has finally caught on to keyboards too. Taiwan-based AU Optronics recently unveiled a solar keyboard, basically a solar sheet measuring 2.1 millimeters thick boasting touch sensitivity. Now you’d wonder what a solar keyboard could do. Get a hold of this. Using a laptop with a solar keyboard out in the open could help power up with solar juice! This keyboard in particular has a smooth surface with a bit of reflectivity, not unlike a solar panel, and measures 14”. Also, it will be built into manufacturer’s laptop sets in future. Also, this one absorbs natural as well as artificial light.
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AT&T has gone green, picking up a green, Evergreen to be precise, phone from Samsung. The Evergreen by Samsung is indeed a handset environment lovers would drool all over. Samsung has done its bit to recycling using 70% recycled post-consumer plastics. For packaging, 80% recycled post-consumer paper is used for this one. The phone features all those perks you’d look for in a handset. With a 2.4-inch display, the Evergreen also boasts a slide-out QWERTY keypad besides its standard numeric keypad. The phone also packs a 2.0-megapixel camera to keep the shutterbugs happy with video recording capabilities. Featuring 3G connectivity, the phone also meets RoHS standards, keeping away from toxics like PVC, BFR and Beryllium.
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Most people enjoy get rid of wires for their computer peripherals and electronics, but the cost of batteries that these peripherals need to run on at times is far more than you were willing to shell out. And to fix up that void, Logitech has taken a logical step ahead to come out with a solar-powered keyboard. The Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 features laptop style keys and is as slim as 1/3-inch on the profile. The keyboard also comes with ambient light solar panels fit on either side of the face of the keyboard so that you never need to plug it into a socket for recharging.
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It’s been five years since Sanyo unveiled the ever-green Eneloop sub-brand. And to celebrate, the Sanyo Eneloop batteries might just roll out in a host of glittering colors. Known as the Eneloop Tones Glitter battery pack, these AA and AAA-size nickel-metal hydride rechargeable batteries are available in eight different glittering colors. More like a set of color crayons to the eye at first, the batteries come in colors like purple, pink, orange, yellow, light green, light blue, silver and black. Sanyo is pretty happy with the whole set of batteries and is fussing about it like a child with a new toy. The battery is showing up at design stores everywhere. To hit the stores in November in Japan for around $28 for the AA batteries, $31 for the AAA pack.
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We’ve heard of Emily Cummins, lovingly and honorably known as the Fridge Lady in Namibia. We’ve also heard of the portable solar powered refrigerator concept she came up with some time ago. Here’s the good news. For all her engineering skills, brain-scratching and pencil-chewing hard work she has done designing this fridge for the underprivileged third world countries, Emily has now been crowned one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World winners by Junior Chamber International. The amazing refrigerator uses the concept of the human body for cooling. Using evaporation, this one can keep the meat fresh and the milk white for a good few days. Using two cylinders, one inside the other, with the inner one made from metal and the outer one made from wood or plastic, the fridge is now common in Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
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The world of technology is turning over; throwing out those silly old devices we used in the past, to make way for some sweet, faster and better ones. Mobile devices particularly are having a technology upgrade with new mobile phones, laptops and the like hitting the market. Obviously, we human beings are never satisfied. We chuck our old mobile phone in the corner and eagerly rip through the packaging of the brand new shiny one loaded with technology instead. Well, instead of chucking your old devices away, eBay will now help you put them to rest with the eBay Instant Sale.
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An angel in disguise for those stricken by disasters and disaster-hit areas, The Essential Element came up with this awesome device that helps clean up water and make it potable, and generate electricity to power up communication devices too! Known as the Hydra, the contraption sports a 2.88 kilowatt solar panel array that can power up a 900-watt pump that uses the water for the device’s self cleaning filtration. It also packs a bunch of lead-acid gel batteries that can store around 900 ampere-hours of energy. Besides this, the panels also power up an electrolyser that helps fill up the 0.37 cubic-meter propane tank with hydrogen, pressurized to 140000 kilograms per square meter.
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Sleeping in bed late hasn’t really been too productive for any of use before. Well, sleeping and lazing around on the Ecotypic Bed could do a lot more! This one, designed by Arthur Xin, is indeed a marvel of technology. Packing a battery below, instead of those silly monsters we’ve been afraid of since we were kids, this bed generates electricity from the activities carried out on the bed. Basically, everything you do in bed and around the bed is turned into energy! This electricity generated is then use to power up the LED reading lamps, the speakers that play some soothing music to wake you up, and also LED lights that help the plants on this one grow. The bed has hooked on a bunch of straps and pulleys for you to exercise with, that helps generate electricity too!
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Not too often, there are times when we choose to get rid of our old time keeping devices that eventually end up in our dustbins and then landfills. These turn into scrap pieces of plastic, metal and leather and stay in the landfill for a good few years, taken that they aren’t made of biodegradable materials. So, Altanus, a Geneva-based watchmaker came up with the Patch. Besides just making sure you are kept informed of the time, the Patch watches are also bio-degradable, probably the first wrist watches to show up on earth, made of paper! The watches are available in 10 neon colors and a multitude of seasonal prints costing around $33.50 each! Taken that they are really cheap, you could just buy a bunch of these to match your clothes everyday!
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If you thing that cost effective lighting options end at CFLs, GE is all set to open new options up for you. They plan to come out with a ‘hybrid’ bulb that has a bit of halogen and CFL elements, which give you instant light; not even the two-second CLF wait. What this basically means is that if you look closely at the CFL coils you will notice a tiny halogen bulb. These bulbs promise eight times more longevity as compared to the incandescent bulbs.
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