Remember the panic that gripped many parts of the world last year when oil hit record high prices of nearly $150 a barrel? Taking your car out for a spin then was a much slower affair from the days where fuel prices were dirt cheap (or at least, more affordable), as you realized that your foot is not made out of lead after all and there is no need to floor the accelerator each time the traffic lights turn green. Well, many people have even resorted to taking the public transport at that time as well, while others decided to go green with a bicycle instead. Human-powered transport seems to be the way to go forward, but with lower fuel prices right now as things go back to normal, will the Pumgo Scooter be able to stand a chance? It will be introduced at the New York International Toy Fair on February 15 -18, 2009, so if you’re interested to take a first hand look at it, head on to the Javits Convention Center during those dates.

Read the rest of this entry »

It appears that not only is coffee good to the last drop, but the dregs are now good for printing a document. Yes, someone has actually invented a printer that uses old coffee grounds as ink, and to make it even more interesting, the printer does not even require electricity.

This coffee and manually powered printer was not entirely the product of pure inspiration, but it is an entry in the Greener Gadgets competition. The RITI printer is designed by Joen Hwan Ju, and it has generated a lot of buzz on the gadget blogosphere. In fact, I’m surprised that someone on this blog hasn’t covered this already.

In case you haven’t heard how the RITI printer works, you have to place the remnants of your wet and dirty coffee filter inside an ink cartridge with some water. Then you manually move the cartridge back and forth and it will mark up the paper. The cartridge can be easily emptied by throwing the twice-used grounds into a compost bin.

Read the rest of this entry »

Guess you can’t really have enough storage space in this world, eh? I remember when I was at my cousin’s house back in the 1980s, he has an XT computer running on an Intel 8086 processor with a 2MB hard drive (!), and boy did I have plenty of fun dishing out punishment on zombies in Dungeons & Dragons’ Champions of Krynn RPG in full CGA glory. Those were the good old days all right – fast forward a couple of decades or so and you have Western Digital offering the first 2TB hard drive in the world. That is an improvement of 1,000,000 times, which is impressive, to say the least. This new 3.5″ 2TB hard drive is part of the environmentally friendly WD Caviar Green hard drive family and is based on WD’s 500 GB/platter technology (with 400 Gb/in2 areal density) with 32 MB cache.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always told my wife that the ratio of energy between children and adults is completely disproportionate. It’s like parents need twice as much energy than they already have to deal with half the energy their children already possess. That might sound confusing to some readers, but if you have children, you probably have noticed how easily they can wear you out.

Fortunately, there are ways to channel the energy of children into something that can help their future. This is what the Playpump is designed to do. This merry-go-round is connected to pumps, and when children spin it, they are able to tap into the fresh water below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s another set of solar gear for the rugged outdoorsy types.  Well really, the SL-1 version of the light would be great for anyone.  The SL-1 is really just a great solar flashlight that hooks to your backpack and features a hard ABS plastic exterior.  Which means that it’s highly water and shock resistant.  The hook can also be hung up high to illuminate a wide area, instead of just being used to hang it on your backpack.  If you are looking to illuminate a lot, you might instead consider picking up the SL-2 flashlight.

Read the rest of this entry »

We know that CES is just over, but that doesn’t mean your consumer electronics company has no way to promote itself, right? Think out of the box and you get Printed Seeds from Engraved Stones Direct. This is an eco-friendly way to promote your company and its products without impacting the environment negatively – Engraved Stones Direct use natural seeds from a plant in the legume family that grow in Africa and South America. They’re pretty small, ranging from about 1 ½” to 4″ in diameter, and feel almost like leather in the hand. The company is able to print company logos, custom images, slogans or most anything else on these natural seeds, and the printing is scratch-resistant to leave a real impact on your future clients. Talk about going nuts over advertising!

Press Release

If you like having a clock around that you know you can rely on, this one will stay powered even after the power has been out for a month.  The clock has no fancy extras, it doesn’t do any interesting tricks, it doesn’t even double as an alarm clock.  It just displays the time, which isn’t that exciting, but the way that it keeps powered is the interesting part.  We’ve shown eco-friendly clocks before, a couple that have been powered by water.  This one can be powered by water, but it has other ways to be powered as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

I believe it was Al Gore in his book Earth in the Balance who said that an ordinary car is one of the greatest threats to the environment. Clearly, all automotive companies need to be thinking about Mother Earth the next time they roll their next model off the assembly line.

I suppose this is why Ford has come up with a new dashboard that literally shows you how earth-safe your driving is. Part of it has to do with measuring your fuel efficiency, which is not gauged by a meter or a number, but a picture of a vine.

Apparently, if your driving is fuel-efficient, the vine will start budding and blooming until it is healthy. However, if you are wasting gas, you will be forced to watch that vine shrivel up and die. Yes, it is odd to have a visual cue instead of an exact scientific reading, but I guess we consumers have been trained to react to pictures instead of raw data.

Read the rest of this entry »