Green gadgets can serve as creative and imaginative gifts – if unconventional ones.  How about foldable portable cardboard speakers, or a hurricane lamp that runs on hand-crank power?  If you’re looking for something innovative and environmentally friendly for this Christmas, these videos should serve to give you at least a few good ideas.

This article was first published on Green Gadget Blog. To continue reading, please view the original post at Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas.

The Christmas Season has officially begun and it’s time for us to start thinking about eco-friendly holiday options.  ”Stor-Em” Christmas lights provide an eco-friendly way to store and lay out your Christmas lights – the video explains why.  But not only that, these gadgets make it a lot easier and more fun to string your Christmas lights, while helping you to reduce on wear and tear at the same time.

This article was first published on Green Gadget Blog. To continue reading, please view the original post at Earth Friendly Christmas Light Organization and Storage.

The new Katadyn Exstream Personal Water Bottle Purifier is a self-contained filtration system in a handy bottle. Drinking plenty of water is important, but to buy bottled water every day is to throw your money and harmful plastic into a landfill. We reported recently on paper water bottles as a way to cut down on the dangerous level of plastic being tossed into seas and landfills, but remember that reusing is always better than replacing.  Paper bottles are reusable to a point, but the whole biodegradable design is based on the assumption that you are going to throw it away, right?

Having a filtration system at home is great.  You can get clean, crisp drinking water any time you want for minimal cost.  The average cost of a bottle of water when using an at-home purifier is about five cents (USD).  However, if you like to have clean, filtered water at work or on the road and don’t have access to your home filter for refills, what are you to do?  In the past you could either suck it up and force down tap water, which isn’t so bad if you live near a Rocky Mountain stream but can be utterly foul if you live in a large city.  Or you could buy bottled water.  At least you don’t have to carry around all that heavy money, right?  Fret no more, for the dilemma has been solved by the Katadyn water bottle purifier.

The Katadyn Exstream Personal Water Bottle Purifier website boasts that it is the only EPA registered purification bottle that is able to remove all organisms from your drinking water, including viruses. Keep in mind that being registered by the Environmental Protection Agency does not automatically guarantee that a product’s claims are true, but does give us very strong reason to believe so.

The Exstream has a capacity of 26 oz, which is about 40 percent of the water you need per day according to the Mayo Clinic, depending on size and lifestyle of course.  So, it should be fully capable of supplying your water needs until you can find a tap to fill it up again. For longer excursions, Katadyn offers a variety of camping and survival oriented filtration systems.

The Exstream’s filter can process about 26 gallons before needing to be replaced, which corresponds to 128 full refills.  The filter utilizes the pressure created by gravity to push water through and requires no pumping or special effort. Unfortunately, there is no indication as to whether the bottle comes with a gauge to let you know when it is time for replacement.

The bottle itself is listed for 40 Euro on the Katadyn website, but can be easily found elsewhere for $40 USD.  Replacement filters run $17 for a pack of two.  That means the cost of your first 128 bottles of water will be about 32 cents (USD) per bottle and 11 cents for every bottle after that.  Compared to buying a bottled water every day, this product would pay for itself after two months.  It would then save you about $25 per month thereafter.  This is all not to mention the mountain of plastic.

This article was first published on Green Gadget Blog. To continue reading, please view the original post at Stop Buying Bottled Water With a Water Bottle Purifier.

Solar chargers for your green gadgets are the best way to maximize their eco friendliness by staying off of the grid.  And although reducing your consumption of gadgetry and products in general is the best way to stay above-board in the environmental circles, buying a green alternative can be a good way of reducing your carbon footprint while still feeding your hunger for shiny, pretty things.

When it comes to acquiring the latest shiny accessories, iPhone users are catalog experts. So, it will come as no great shock that a sleek solar charging sleeve has been developed just for the chic iPhone 3G. The Powcell charger is sure to grab the eager attention of many Apple fan-boys and -girls as it is not only a useful accessory, but designed to faithfully match the contours and feel of the iPhone despite not coming from Apple.

The Powcell sleeve was designed from a meticulous process of 3D imaging of the iPhone itself, according to the manufacturer, Motion Touch. The outcome results is sporty styling that seamlessly integrates itself into the overall look and feel of the iPhone. Its contours flow from plane to plane while the coloring matches the saturation and luminosity near perfectly and (most importantly)  seemingly effortlessly. Powcell allows access to all ports while attached to the iPhone, making it ideal for charging in use.

The large solar panel utilizes all available space while not adding any unsightly bulk or much inconvenient weight. The solar voltaic cell itself is able to capitalize on ambient lighting conditions, according to the product page, making charging in the office or school a convenient option while staying greenly off-grid. Powcell continues to charge your iPhone without available light via its internal battery even when removed from the phone.  Though, it should be noted that a storage battery is available on all solar chargers nowadays, or at least should be (talking to you, designers).

Motion Touch claims a great retailer and phone manufacturer interest in this gadget.  According to them, various phone manufacturers have approached Motion Touch about providing solar sleeves for other brands.  No list of future compatibility is yet available.

Henry Powell, Client Director of MotionTouch says “Dispensing with the need for plug-in chargers makes Powcell a ground-breaking eco-product.”  “Groundbreaking” may be a bit of a stretch as we have reported green chargers here, here, and here, which are already suitable for not only an iPhone but any USB ready device.  That last one is even powered by wind!

But hey, it’s marketing, right?  The fact is, again, that you will most likely spend the first several years of the gadget’s life just making up for the amount of energy it took to deliver the product to you.  However, if you are going to buy a backup charger anyway, then a solar charger is a green way to provide off-grid power, and the Powcell may be the best way to stay chic and rid yourself of the wires and bulk of conventional wall plugs. And a backup charger is not a bad idea, regardless.  In the world of instant, wireless communication there is no reason that an uncharged battery should prevent you from reaching help in an emergency.

The Powcell currently is compatible with the iPhone 2G and 3Gs.  There is no word on its 4G integration, but one can bet against it. Available for purchase at Powcell.com for ₤59.99 (around $100 USD).

This article was first published on Green Gadget Blog. To continue reading, please view the original post at iPhone Solar Sleeve.

When green gadget lovers and designers dream up ways to power electronic devices, we often get caught up in the glamor of solar and wind advancements while neglecting the oldest and most reliable source of power mankind knows: elbow grease.  Handheld solar and wind powered chargers can be extremely convenient and a great way to stay off the grid.  However, sometimes we just don’t have proper access to the weather conditions required for those devices. When it comes to handheld charging in an urgent situation, your own muscle power may be the only truly reliable source of green power.

Electric generators simply work on the premise of moving cooper and magnets around each other very quickly to produce electricity.  It’s a super interesting phenomenon that you can spend a lifetime exploring, but really is a very simple device.  It doesn’t matter whether the turbine is moving via wind, water or simply by hand.  While moving generators via muscle power is not terribly effective for large-scale consumption, it really only takes a small amount of effort to charge a handheld gadget such as a cell phone.

Luckily, the good people at Easy Energy have developed a nifty solution. The YoGen is a  pocket-sized, hand powered electric charger that efficiently produces a current strong and reliable enough to charge most or all of your handheld devices.  The user charges the device by pulling a cord in an manner that, according to the YoGen website, resembles a yo-yo.  Hence the name (those clever dogs).

When the user pulls on the T-handle of the self-returning cord, the YoGen’s internal alternator spins, generating the power needed for recharging the batteries of your cell phone or any other handheld 5 volt device.  You can check your devices’ included wall adapter to see whether it is a 5 volt input (it will say “output” on your adapter, because the specs are referring to the charger itself).   The YoGen has a 5 watt maximum power, which is plenty for modern cell phones and mp3 players. The YoGen also includes a built-in 650 mAh lithium-ion back-up battery  to ensure a consistently steady output. An available upgrade comes with a secondary battery pack. The YoGen connects via a mini USB and a variety of adapter tips are included.

The charger is ergonomically designed to reduce strain on the user and is compact enough to carry in a purse or even trouser pocket.   Unfortunately, there is no available information on how much pulling it actually takes to charge a device, which seems a tad suspicious.  According to a Blackberry report, previous hand powered chargers could take up to 15 minutes, which is a bit more straining than most users will accept.  Solar and wind may still make more sense for convenience.  However, YoGen does claim to have broken through efficiency barriers, so this device most likely requires much less effort.  But we cannot be sure until some independent testing is done.  In any case, a human-powered energy source could certainly be an all-in-one solution for green and convenient charging.   It could even be a lifesaver in an emergency.

This article was first published on Green Gadget Blog. To continue reading, please view the original post at Charging by Elbow Grease: The YoGen Manual Charger.

This laptop is solar powered.  It weighs 1.5 pounds.  It’s only $220.  Somehow, the Spanish company iUnika has developed possibly the coolest and most profoundly useable solar gadget to date, while simultaneously making it one of the cheapest laptops under the sun.  Meet the all new solar GYY.

The newest trend in laptops is the net-book.  Net-books are so named because surfing the internet is the most complicated thing they are designed to do.  The GYY comes equipped with the minimums: 128MB of RAM, a 64GB SSD drive and the CPU is 400MHz.  The screen is a micro-small 8-inch WVGA with an 800 x 480 resolution.   A big part of these limitations is the youth of the product.  These notebooks, if good sellers, will make leaps and bounds in performance to be sure.  Remember though, all you want to do is surf the net a bit and get some writing done anyway.

What makes a net-book like the GYY desirable is that giving up processing power results in super small, ultra light, and amazingly affordable laptops.  The compact size allows you to take it anyway without hinderance and even without using the solar capabilities, battery life is generally about twice that of larger laptops. And let’s face it, what more do most people even use their laptops for?  If you are, let’s say a professional writer, and your main use for a laptop is writing documents and using the internet for research and correspondence then affordability and mobility are desired above all else.

If you are a green freak, then maybe an environmentally responsible computing experience is what you hold above all else.  GYY still has you covered.

The GYY models were first showcased in Madrid at the LibreMeeting, an international conference sponsored by the Free Knowledge Foundation and focused on free software. The green friendly GYY netbooks from iUnika run a Linux operating system, which allows them access to more than 5,000 free apps.  That’s also what makes them so inexpensive.

This article was first published on Green Gadget Blog. To continue reading, please view the original post at The Green Dream Machine.

We have all seen the myriad solar chargers available like the Solio Mono reviewed here, and they are great eco instruments. But some of you may live in a stormy area with long periods of darkness like Canada or Scandinavia. Or maybe you just want something a bit different. Then consider the wind powered HYmini hand held charger. This green gadget can transfer 1000mAh of stored power to other 5V devices. And the ratio of acquisition to utilization time is about equal to a hand held solar charger. 20 minutes of wind equals about 30 minutes of mp3 player use.

The HYmini comes packaged with a USB 2.0 transfer cable, 5 adapter tips and a DC wall adapter to ensure maximum charging versatility. You can use the included USB cable or the original manufacturer’s to charge your devices. If you need to charge a variety of devices at once or are on a long trip where you can’t rely on the weather, then the HYmini can also be used as a standard wall plug adapter. Connect HYmini’s included outlet adapter to the DC jack and you can then use the USB transfer cable to connect your mobile devices with HYmini’s USB 2.0 outlet. This way, rather than bringing a separate charger for each of your devices, the HYmini can take care of all your other green gadgets even when a traditional outlet is your only option.

The HYmini can also be outfitted with an adapter for “active wind generation.” When cruising on your bike or moped or even skiing down the slopes, the adapter will allow you to capture all that wind energy rushing past you and turn it into talk time or your favorite tunes. A safety feature only allows the HYmini to capture wind under 40 mph, so you won’t be able to hang it out the window on a highway, but placing it on the dash with a couple windows open should do the trick.

However, keep in mind that even the greenest of gadgets are not always the most eco friendly option. If you buy this gadget simply for the sake of having it, then it will take you the entire life of the HYmini just to offset the energy it took only to deliver it to you (even after UPS implements their new electric trucks). Devices like this only help the environment when purchased as an alternative to another product. If you are purchasing a wall adapter that can charge all of your electronics anyway, then this is a great buy both for its utility and its environmental friendliness.

$49.99 and available in black, white or green. Bike and armband holder as well as a variety of special adapters also sold at the HYmini online store.

This article was first published on Green Gadget Blog. To continue reading, please view the original post at Wound by Wind.

Even in our Green technology driven society portable solar power units are still rare, while devices that can also handle the charging power needed to keep a laptop running are even harder to come by. That’s where the GoBe solar charger kit comes into play.

The GoBe offers a simple briefcase adapter that opens up to offer support for the units solar panels, along with a seperate “solar hub” that’s used to store the incoming energy from the briefcase and ultimately power the devices your using.

The portable unit is also rated at a respectable 10.5 watts, while offering support for DC, AC and USB outlet charging connections.

Using the included solar power hub users can charge their DVD player for up to 14 hours, power a 60 watt fluorescent light bulb for nearly 10 hours and even add an extra 3-6 hours of use to their laptops.

The GoBe solar charger can also charge itself in the sun in just 10 hours, while users can also give the unit an extra push, charging the hub via mains power in just 1 hour. The power pack weighs in at under 10 lbs with nearly 12 pounds added by the briefcases solar charging kit.

The GoBe powerpack is available for $299 plus $45 shipping directly from the GoBe website.

This article was first published on Green Gadget Blog. To continue reading, please view the original post at Green Power On The Go: GoBe Solar Briefcase & Power Hub.

Although the greenness of Amazon’s wireless e-book reader is surrounded by some controversy, there is no denying the mountains of paper and energy electronic reading medium can potentially save.  This great gadget is as thin as a magazine and as light as a paperback book, but can download and store thousands of books, newspapers and magazines over its free 3G wireless service. From a train, a car or moments before the stewardess announces takeoff, you can access an wealth of printed media.

If you’re like me, you enjoy reading articles online but cannot imagine reading from a screen for hours at a time.  However, the Kindle is unlike any computer screen.  It uses a revolutionary technology which mimics the look and luminosity of ink on paper.  Your eyes will strain no more than with any other book or newspaper. The screen is about the size of a quality paperback book and has a slick, intuitive interface.

Over the 3G network, Amazon claims, any book may be downloaded in less than 60 seconds.  You can program it to deliver your morning paper and weekly magazines.  Over 300,000 books and periodicals are currently available and the database grows every day.

The Amazon Kindle is a great gift to any avid reader who finds transporting all that content to be a challenge.  The Kindle 2 is also capable of downloading audio books and is fitted with a new text-to-speech option for the visually impaired.

The controversy over Amazon’s Kindle comes in a variety of forms.  Mostly, they deal with the Kindle’s inability to sync with any other device, rendering the user only able to purchase from Amazon.  However, when it comes to environmentalists, the opinions are split down the middle.  Some feel this product is an amazing way to consume media within a paperless environment.  This camp might also say that the enormous energy costs of transporting books alone is greatly offset by the Kindle.  While others disagree, citing that there is more to consider than paper alone.

This camp would argue that the Kindle 2 requires a constant supply of energy in order to function.  While this is true, the Kindle works with a different type of display technology than the one you are using to read these words.  The technology is both green and is what makes the reading experience so much more like paper: electronic ink.  Tiny spheres of ink are moved about via an electronic pulse.  Think of Wooly Willy, but with electricity rather than magnets. The ink only needs energy to move, not to be continually displayed like the pixels on this page do.  This makes for a gadget that is green not only because of what it replaces, but also because the gadget itself is energy efficient.

I know it may be tough at first to give up that great feeling and smell of paper.  So, I propose that you use the Kindle for everyday stuff and reading books for the first time and then purchasing used copies to build your physical library of only the stuff you love.

This article was first published on Green Gadget Blog. To continue reading, please view the original post at Kindle 2: The Super Paper Saver.

The most exciting aspect of modern gadgetry is versatility; our phones surf the web, our computers do… well, everything, and now a single source of mobile power can charge all of it.  SolarRolls from Brunton are the original flexible consumer end solar panels and still lead the pack in reliability and functionality.

The waterproof solar panel has been used for photographing remote kayaking expeditions and charging satellite phones in the most dangerous of expeditions. However, most people keep it on hand to make their laptops truly mobile and even to recharge a car battery in an emergency.

This article was first published on Green Gadget Blog. To continue reading, please view the original post at Flexible Power with Brunton SolarRolls.