Filed under: Transportation

While we imagine that the vast majority of you would be perfectly content with an all-electric MINI Cooper (or a Porsche, if nothing else), some debutantes and Chuck Bass wannabes just won’t have anything but the best. For those out there who can actually consider putting a Rolls-Royce in the garage, you’ll be thrilled to know that CEO Tom Purves is spending some serious time thinking about a battery-powered Phantom. Reportedly, the bigwig stated that “many of its customers do small mileages exclusively in the city,” and for these customers, “an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal.” He wouldn’t hand over any prospective time lines or anything, but we did get the impression that he reckoned the engineering wouldn’t be too terribly taxing. And the best part? He suggested that most buyers would opt for an electric Rolls for “urban use” while sporting a gasoline-powered version for longer journeys. Yeah, that’s something we can totally relate to.

[Via Autoblog]

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Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals

We thought the AirMail was our most favorite niche case of all time, but the homegrown Ply Laptop Case is really making a case (ahem) for top honors. After hours upon hours of masterful plywood bending, sanding and carving, the wooden case you see above was created. Internally, the case is lined with cork to “provide additional heat resistance and protection,” and best of all, those with the requisite skills can make one to hold any size machine you can dream of. Now, if only there was a TSA-approved version…

[Via MAKE]

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Filed under: Household, Networking

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

In these green times, companies are looking everywhere to make a buck — er, save the planet. Philips Simplicity didn’t go much further than the sidewalk to find inspiration for its latest eco-friendly innovation, the Light Blossom, a self-sustainable street lamp that has triple-duty petals. They’re peppered with energy-efficient LEDs to illuminate the street, naturally, but also have solar panels on top and can spin around in a stiff breeze to recharge. At night they’ll emit a soft glow, intended to cut down on light pollution, but will grow brighter whenever a pedestrian comes by. It all sounds wonderfully efficient, but with lights popping on and off as you go, it could make that late-night walk of shame a little more conspicuous than you might like.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

You probably don’t want to be seen at the beach with most solar-powered PMPs, but Shiro’s SQ-S is superior in functionality if not in appearance. It can store 16GB of APE, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, or WMA files, receive and record FM radio broadcasts and play video on its itty-bitty screen. Unfortunately only its backside is adorned with solar panels — four hours of tanning on a beach towel will get you up to 35 hours of music and 7 hours of video, but you won’t be operating it while it’s lying on its face. No word yet about price, availability, or a flesh-and-blood photo, but let’s hope it looks as good in real life as it does in this render.

[Via PMP Today]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Oh sure, LG has teased us with a faux wood cellphone, and Hulger has actually produced one that four people in existence can afford, but this… this is something else. According to the captions in textlad’s Flickr pool, Nokia’s own eco-team designed and created the object of desire that you see above: an 8-megapixel “handset” that appears to function just fine. We can already tell you this thing isn’t coming to market, but we would absolutely love to be proven wrong.

[Via TreeHugger, thanks shellshock]

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Filed under: Transportation

While outfits like Lightning and Tesla are attempting to make eco-friendly cars sexy, MDI is taking things in a completely different direction. The recently-made-official Airpod looks practically nothing like anything seen on American roadways today, which is probably why it’s apt to hit the streets of France and New Zealand first. The oddly shaped automobile will reportedly reach a top speed of 70kmh (44mph) and cruise 100-kilometers (62 miles) on just $2. The secret? A minuscule compressed air-powered engine on each of the rear wheels, both of which get instructed by the car’s joystick (Atari fans, rejoice!). We’re told that reloading the engine with hot air takes less than two minutes, and if all goes well, the first of the urban vehicles will hit the cobblestones in the spring of 2009. Is that the sound of Tata’s NANO feeling threatened, or what?

[Via EcoGeek]

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Filed under: Transportation

Look out Tesla / Lightning — a new competitor just rolled out, and it’s sitting pretty. Ruf Automobile has gone public with its stunning electric eRUF concept car, which is obviously based on a Porsche 911. The automobile packs a three-phase electric motor that puts out around 200-horsepower and 480 lb.-ft. of torque, and it can reportedly go from nothing to sixty in under seven ticks. The juice is provided by a Li-ion phosphate battery pack that produces 317-volts / 480-amps and is constructed from 96 individual cells, and combined with the power garnered by the regenerative braking system, it can cruise up to 180 miles before needing a ten-hour recharge. Production, pretty please?

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We all know the internet is not a big truck, and the rolling blackouts in California not that long ago showed our power grid isn’t either. Part of the solution could be a series of tubes, a new type of solar generator from a company called Solyndra that replaces the usual square solar roof panels with something that would make Senator Stevens proud. The company’s photovoltaic rods are able to catch rays from any direction, meaning they don’t need to be tilted to point at the sun. Also, since they’re not shaped like a silicon kite, they don’t need the same big, beefy installation brackets. This cuts installation costs in half and has helped to drive $1.2 billion in orders from eager would-be customers of this three-year-old startup. Want to see ‘em for yourself? Head on down to the Solar Power International Expo next week in sunny San Diego.

[Via Make]

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Filed under: Transportation

With an electric MINI Cooper just around the bend, a Twin Drive hybrid Volkswagen landing in 2010 and Chevrolet’s Volt rolling into showrooms in a matter of months, Audi’s ten-year plan is looking a little awkward. Though we’ve yet to hear that it’s actually speeding things up, Peter Schwarzenbauer, who sits on the management board at Ingolstadt, recently confirmed that the company would be offering “a pure electric car” sometime in the future. Additionally, rumors of it being based on the A1 were dashed, opening the door for speculation that it will instead be built around the VW Up! (Lupo) concept. Here’s hoping we find our prior to 2018.

[Via Autoblog]

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Filed under: Household

In-home power consumption monitors are trendy pieces of kit lately, with a new one popping up every few months. But, while they’re all happy to just kick back and tell you what a wasteful pig you’re being, a new service from UK security company AlertMe could actually make you more efficient. Subscribers to the company’s monitoring plans, which start at about $260 plus another $17.50/month, will be able to purchase Smart Plugs for $43 each that can communicate wirelessly to an AlertMe Heating Controller. From there subscribers can monitor their energy usage online via computer or phone. That’s all standard stuff, but the service also includes keyfobs that will automatically turn down the heat and deactivate devices when you leave, and allows users to manually control the plugs and the thermostat by text message, meaning you’d never be more than a few thumb-presses (and a 20 cent service charge) away from a warm and inviting home.

[Via SmartPlanet]

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Filed under: Transportation

An eco-friendly future might be right around the corner, and on Peugeot’s HYmotion3 Compressor concept scooter you can take that corner with just the right balance of safety and power. At 29bhp, this new prototype gets 118 MPG thanks to its hybrid powertrain, and is quite stable with two wheels in front and one behind. In the event that you do lose control, you’ll be protected by a BMW C1-esque roll cage. That’s three techs borrowed from predecessors, plus the added benefit of three-wheel drive. Most advanced hybrid scooter yet? Maybe, but it’s just a concept, so if you’re looking to stand out like a sore but oh-so-energy-efficient thumb on the road, you’re outta luck for the time being.

[Via Digg]

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Filed under: Storage

Western Digital didn’t have too many comrades on the green bandwagon back in July of last year, but now it’s just one amongst legions. Nevertheless, it’s keeping its eco-friendly membership badge up to date with the second-generation Caviar Green Drive. Said HDD features the firm’s own GreenPower technology to “significantly reduce power consumption” compared to those traditional energy-sucking alternatives. The freshened platform is based on WD’s 33 GB/platter technology with 32MB cache, with sizes ranging from 500GB to 1TB. According to the company, this one consumes up to 20-percent less power and offers a 10-percent uptick in performance over the previous Green Drive, and best of all, the 1TB edition (WD10EADS) can be ordered up right now for $219.

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Filed under: Desktops

We know how much you just love eco-friendly desktop computers, so rejoice dear readers: Samsung, on a green kick lately with its free gadget recycling program and edible cellphones, is announcing two new desktops that, individually, consume just 60W of power when on and 1W when in suspend mode. Both the MV100 Tower (the wider one) and MZ100 Slim Tower (the, uh, slimmer one) run Intel’s fairly fresh G43 chipset and come with your choice of GeForce 9500GS or 9600GT for graphics. Those are the only vital stats we have to pass on so far, though, and no word on when or if these two will be available outside of Korea.

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Filed under: Household

Given how large the green bandwagon has become, it’s no real shock to see an energy-saving concept from the 1930s being exhumed and investigated further. Scientists at Oxford University have begun to take a closer look at an early invention from the great Albert Einstein in order to hopefully create refrigerators (and appliances in general) that could be used completely without electricity. Back in the day, Sir Albert created a mechanism that had no moving parts and used only pressurized gases to keep things chilly. Once compressors became more efficient in the 50s, however, the idea was tossed aside. Now, the idea obviously has greater appeal, and if things keep humming along nicely, a completed prototype should be erected by the year’s end.

[Via Physorg]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Thanks, MIT. Why don’t you just make the rest of the world feel a little more useless. Every week or so, we’re forced to stare at yet another amazing invention coming from your doors; to be frank, it’s just downright unfair. All childish angst aside, the latest idea to come from the institution is one that could certainly be put to good use: a self-sustaining sensor network that taps into trees for power in order to continuously monitor forests for threats of fire. Moreover, the concept could be applied in other scenarios as well — to detect potential threats such as smuggled contraband along a nation’s borders, perhaps. Testing of the wireless sensor network (developed by the appropriately named Voltree Power) is scheduled to begin next spring, and we’re hearing that pot-sniffing turtles may even be brought in to create a completely natural self-policing environment.

[Via Inhabitat]

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Filed under: Transportation

Check it, Cooper fans — that electric MINI we’ve been sporadically hearing about is for real, and we’ve seen the spy shots that prove it. Car has hosted up a slew of non-blurry (gasp!) snaps of the eco-friendly whip cruising around Munich, and just in case the complete absence of an exhaust pipe wasn’t evidence enough, maybe the “Hybrid Test Vehicle” decals will make you a believer. Also of note, we’re now hearing that the car is on track for a 2008 Los Angeles motor show appearance, which jibes quite well with the purported summer 2009 US launch.

[Via RegHardware]

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Filed under: Desktops

Call it fate, or call it the beginning of an unsightly trend, but whatever the case, we’re seeing the second all-in-one green PC this week in the Akhter LoCO2PC. Designed to look like an atypically thick LCD 19-inch monitor, this energy-sipping desktop hums along at 3GHz while sucking down just 55-watts (or less) while in use; when it falls to sleep, it consumes just 3-watts. The 19-inch panel boasts an SXGA (1,280 x 1,024) resolution, HDMI output, 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g WiFi and your choice of a Celeron dual-core or Core 2 Duo processor. Prices range from £539 ($975) to £639 ($1,156) depending on options, but considering just how much energy you’ll be saving (or so they say), the price is totally justified.

[Via PC World]

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Filed under: Transportation

First things first — when we say “partially” propel, we mean partially. Nippon Yusen and energy distributor Nippon Oil are teaming up to spend around $1.37 million in order to equip a car-hauling cargo ship with 328 solar panels. Rather than just provide energy for the crew’s on board entertainment system, it will be the first solar installation to actually produce a smidgen of power for the boat’s engine. If successful, the panels would provide 0.2% of the ship’s energy consumption for propulsion, and they’re hoping to raise that to a whopping 1% by 2010. Gives a whole new meaning to “baby steps,” huh?

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Texas Instruments has a lot to do with the original microchip, if for no other reason than being the employer of inventor Jack Kilby. Now, however, TI is looking to produce chips and other related gizmos that require an infinitesimally small amount of energy to operate. The overriding theme guiding the engineers is “energy scavenging,” which alludes to grasping power from even the most unlikely of places — vibrations from a bridge as cars pass over, capturing wasted exhaust from a car or bottling up all that frustration your sibling shows when you own him / her again in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The possibilities are just about endless, with networked battery-free smoke alarms, solar-powered mobiles and gaming laptops that feed off of extraordinarily focused brain waves in the mix. Okay, so that last one is still eons from reality, but at least we’re headed in that direction.

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