The New Eco-Friendly Gadgets and Devices of 2010

Everybody in the world is now worried about the Global Warming. All of us talk a lot. But at the end of the day we all forget it, do the same mistakes. Gadgets and electronic devices are of great importance for our everyday uses. But are they eco-friendly? Looking to get your gadget fix without causing your power bill to shoot through the roof when you plug it in, or inadvertently depositing a brick of heavy metals in a landfill when you throw it away? Clean up your act with the convenient and inexpensive Earth-friendly gadgets arriving in 2010.

Welcome to the era of green gadgets, where saving money goes hand in hand with saving the environment. While power plants, transmission cables and electrical outlets are not in danger of becoming extinct, products such as low-power printers, solar battery chargers, handheld wind generators and wind-up MP3 players can lower anyone’s electricity bill and carbon footprint.

In CES 2010, plenty of solutions been exposed for the Earth-conscious tech lover, from new and more energy efficient gadgets, to ways to make the ones you already own a little more Earth-friendly. From solar powered electric bikes and backpacks to electric cars, solar powered charges, eco-friendly gadgets were basically the super-stars of the show. Here are some glimpse of them.

Bamboo Gadgets


Bamboo Gadgets:
These eco-friendly computer peripherals made out of bamboo are said slightly lessen the environmental impact of these devices, and may even help people “care more about the product” and “keep it longer,” Treehugger, the manufacturer says.

Solar Charging Dock: Regen introduced a sleek, eco-friendly way to charge an iPhone or an iPod. Regen ReNu is modular solar charger and docking station for iPhone or iPod with futuristic and unusual design. The key parts are a big solar panel with internal battery and elegant iPhone dock station. You can easy remove solar panel from the dock and put to comforable place under sunshine. Docking station has a lot of features:

* charges your mobile phone or iPod
* supports synchronization between your device and computer via USB interface
* shows the amount of power remained in the ReNu solar panel and how much solar energy was collected on integrated LCD display
* can operate in hybrid mode (charging from solar panel or wall socket supported)

Regen ReNu iPhone solar charger and dock
Regen ReNu iPhone solar charger and dock

Integrated solar panel battery charging time is 7 hours in direct outdoors sunlight and 14 in direct indoors sunlight. 50% of it’s capacity is enough to fully charge an Apple iPhone. Full mobile phone charging takes approximately 1.5 hours.

ReNu iPhone solar charger technical specifications

* Solar panel module size and weight
o Height: 8.85 inches (22.5 centimeters)
o Width: 8.85 inches (22.5 centimeters)
o Thickness: 0.784 inch (1.9 centimeters)
o Weight: 1.1 pounds (498 grams)
* ReNu iPod dock station dimensions and weight
o Width: 3.15 inches (8 centimeters)
o Length: 4.75 inches (12 centimeters)
o Thickness: 1.97 inch (5 centimeters)
o Weight: 0.08 pounds (363 grams)
* Solar panel module display size (width x height): 1.06 inches x 1.06 inches (27 millimeters x 27 millimeters)
* Docking station display size (width x height): 0.75 inches x 2.28 inches (19 millimeters x 58 millimeters)
* USB Micro B allows from the wall or computer, also allows synchronization with iTunes when plugged into computer
* 3.2V 4Ah Lithium Ion battery capable of two iPhone charges

YoGen mobile Charger

YoGen Charger: Every company out there has tried slapping a solar panel at the end of a USB cable and calling it a “green charger,” but who has 10 hours to leave their cell phone in direct sunshine? Enough with that impractical garbage. The YoGen portable dynamo will charge your devices in about the same time they would take on a wall outlet – and you only need a few minutes of tugging on a string (like the kind on your old See ‘n Say) to get it going.

It coverts your energy into power for your gadgets. When you pull the string, it turns a mini flywheel that produces a steady stream of power – up to five watts – for small, portable devices. One minute of pulling is enough to charge a mobile phone, according to the company. Better yet, the company sells it for $40, and it’s available immediately.

Miniwiz Battery Charger

Miniwiz Battery Charger: The charger takes advantage of two different ‘green’ sources of energy to power gadgets: the wind and the sun. The portable charger can recharge two AA batteries They can also be plugged in if the elements aren’t in your favor.

The compact portable charger has a solar panel and a fan to recharge two AA-sized batteries, which can further be used to power various electronic devices that support USB charging. It can also be used as a regular battery charger when you don’t have natural elements favoring you. Available online for US$50 only.

Toshiba LED light bulbs at CES 2010

Toshiba E Core LED Light Bulbs: Thought compact fluorescent bulbs saved a lot of juice? Not compared to these guys. An E Core lamp that throws off the equivalent of a 40-watt incandescent bulb consumes just 4.3 watts – and that’s still about half the 10 to 13 watts needed for an equivalent CFL bulb. Also unlike those ubiquitous curly cues, they contain zero mercury.

Toshiba announces that its E-CORE LED lightbulbs will soon be available in the US market. An E-CORE bulb has a life expectancy of 40,000 hours, which is 40 times longer than traditional incandescent lightbulbs and at the same time it reduces CO2 emissions by 85 percent in comparison.

They have previously only been available in Japan, and the move to expand the lightbulbs into the US market is part of the “Vision 2050” initiative, Toshiba’s long term environmental sustainability plan which includes packaging all laptops in recyclable materials and aims to increase eco-efficiency tenfold by the year 2050.

VAIO W® Series 212X Eco Edition

VAIO W® Series 212X Eco Edition: VAIO W® Series eco-friendly mini notebook features a reprocessed plastic chassis comprised of approximately 23 percent recycled CDs. It also comes in a stylish reusable carrying-case made from recycled PET bottles—no wasted cardboard packaging. Committed to the environment, Sony also features trade-in and recycling programs. For more on Sony’s proactive approach to creating products that grow out of greener thinking please visit: www.sony.com/green.

Check out the all-new VAIO® W Series 212AX Eco Edition with the following features:

* 20% of the PC/ABS resin used in the cover, palm rest and incidental parts is comprised of reprocessed plastic from DVD and CD waste
* Electronic user manual in place of the standard 76-page printed manual to save paper
* Packaged in a reusable carrying case that utilizes 100% recycled PET material (material from plastic bottles)

Visit SonyStyle

Oregon Scientific Wireless Appliance Manager

Oregon Scientific Advanced Wireless Appliance manager: Want to break down your home electricity use on an outlet-by-outlet basis to pinpoint energy hogs? Oregon Scientific’s new Advanced Wireless Appliance manager can track energy use for up to eight different outlets (each with their own transmitter) from a single display. It will cost $80 later this year, while the single-appliance version will go for a mere $60.

The Oregon Scientific Wireless Appliance Manager consists of two devices: a wireless transmitter that sits between an appliances plug and an outlet, and a display unit that then tells you just how much juice it’s using.

The simple device comes in two flavors: the basic Wireless Appliance Manager, which handles one appliance, and the Advanced Wireless Appliance Manager, for the truly obsessive, which can handle up to 8 transmitters at once.

Tenrehte PICOwatt Smart Plug

Tenrehte PICOwatt Smart Plug: Ever wish you could turn devices on an off just by clicking on them from your phone, rather than walking over and flipping a switch? Congratulations, you’re terminally lazy. But we understand the dream, and Picowatt can fulfill it. Later this year, the company will launch what are essentially the first Wi-Fi-connected power outlets, allowing you to turn items in your house on and off from any Internet-connected PC, or you’re your iPhone via a custom app. Unfortunately, they’ll cost $80 a pop when they launch on April 22, so you’ll probably want to save them for a handful of devices until they come down in price.

A few strategically placed smart plugs, called a Picowatt, will provide many of the benefits promised to consumers by the smart grid, including a real-time read-out of electricity usage and the ability to control appliances from a central point. By having data on electricity usage and the ability to take advantage of off-peak rates, people can make a significant reduction to consumption, studies have shown.

Sanyo’s New Electric Bike

Sanyo’s New Electric Bike: Sanyo’s new electric bike, the Eneloop, may be a good alternative for drivers to swap cars for bikes by easing the transition from automobile to bicycle. The electric Eneloop helps riders out with the peddling. A Sanyo spokesperson said, “it feels like you’re riding a regular bike, except you’re not doing the work.”

“SANYO is demonstrating a real commitment to finding innovative solutions for sustainable transportation alternatives with the ‘eneloop bike’ because it provides riders an opportunity to ride longer distances without the rider having to increase his or her endurance,” said Irene Stillings, executive director of the California Center for Sustainable Energy. “We’re thrilled to have the bike at Street Smart San Diego where all types of alternative transportation that reduce fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions are on display.”

Test drivers of the ‘eneloop bike’ electric hybrid bicycle will experience the new “loop charge function” which both generates electricity and charges the battery while in use. This function controls the level of necessary power or braking, depending on the incline of the road. Featuring a two-wheel drive system in which the rear wheel is driven by human pedaling power and the front tire is powered by motorized power, the electric hybrid bicycle is designed to offer the rider a safer, more stable ride.

Chevy-Volt

Chevy Volt: It is an all-electric impressive accessory for the car. It comes with an app for smartphones that will help users remember to charge the car, schedule chargings, and plan ahead so they charge when electricity is cheapest.

GM calls the Volt an “extended-range electric vehicle” (or E-REV.) This underlines its crucial point of separation from other hybrids: It operates entirely as an electric car for its first 40 miles after a full charge. It burns no gasoline during those miles, drawing energy from a 400-pound lithium ion battery pack containing 16 kilowatt-hours (kWh). Current from that pack powers a 150-hp electric motor that drives the Volt’s front wheels.

That’s for today. I’ll come up with some for Green Gadgets tomorrow. And in the meantime, you decide, which one you will buy this year.

Sources: DigitalTrends.com, Despardes.com, ComputerWorld.com, Sanyo.com, Gizmodo.com, SonyStyle.com, Gizmag.com, CnetTv.Cnet.com

Aguntuk

Piash Das is Senior Editor for TheTechJournal. He is also one of the founding members of TheTechJournal. He loves to write about latest technology. He is interested in Renewable Energy & Linux. He is working as a Telecom Optimizer in RF Field and loves Football very much. You can reach him on Twitter And Google+.

This Post Has 9 Comments

  1. MarkJackson

    Thanks so much for the great post. I’ve been searching for blogs like this now for 30 minutes and i finall found one
    that’s worthwhile. I’m really into video games, do you have any information on the new Call of Duty? I know this
    is off topic, but I thought I’d ask. Thanks…oh also, I have some video game writings if you want to check them
    out. Here are a few of them

    WoW Warlock
    Arms Warrior Build

  2. Maxie Coale

    This is a great article especially since we’ve all got our Christmas shopping lists! As I’ve mentioned in my blog, the descriptions are very helpful and well written so its extremely fun to read.

  3. Pingback: Private Servers

  4. pp

    The YoGen charger is a scam. Their website is offline. Their mother company website is also offline. They do not answer the emails. And the patent is pending so they can not be track down. For more complaints check the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/yogencharger

Leave a Reply