Category: Energy systems
Lights went out on Google Israel yesterday
If you missed it Google Israel went all black yesterday in honour of Earth Hour (something to do with raising awareness of energy conservation). Offline, Israelis were invited to turn off their lights from 8pm – 9pm, which is utterly ridiculous. Why not ask people to make sure they leave lights off during the day, rather then ask them to sit in darkness for an hour in the middle of the night?
Meet the British version of the Tesla Roadster: the Lightning GT sports car
We’ve been raving on about the Tesla Roadster in recent months, all the while unaware the Lightning GT was bobbing around on the surface as well.
British made, the luxury sports car is actually packing a whole heap of electric-powered goodness under the hood, including NanoSafe technology, which enables the batteries to hold 85% life after…
Mucking about with the revolving door creates free electricity
Continuing today’s impromptu self-powering theme we have this from Fluxxlab. It’s a method of generating power for your home – or someone else’s office – by fitting a little charger to a revolving door.
So as you and your gerbil-like friends and employees turn the door, a flood of free electricity charges up all your batteries and keeps your stuff switched on for free…
Mini solar panel phone charm keeps your mobile charged whilst you gossip
This is a brilliant idea, and so much simpler than carting about a portable solar-charger. Sadly it’s only available in Japan though, meaning the rest of the world will have to continue guzzling electricity when charging our mobiles. What’s up Strap-Ya? Help out the rest of the world, won’t you?
Just charging the mini solar panel…
PC World/3 Mobile broadband offer now includes MacBook Air
Good news for anyone contemplating buying a MacBook Air, who is also looking for a decent mobile broadband package. PC World and 3 have announced that they’re extending their discounted PC offer to now include the slinky new MacBook Air.
Anyone signing up for the £35 per month mobile broadband service can now opt to get £250 off the new MacBook Air. That’s £100 less of a discount than other deals, but it’s still a saving worth having if you want the machine and were planning to make the most of the service as well.
As Stuart mentioned in the first announcement, it will otherwise end up costing you a lot more. Still, it’s not a bad way of getting hold of one of the most hotly talked about notebooks at a reduced price.
Greenpeace compliments Apple on their 'green' MacBook Air, still hates the iPhone
As my deliberately-crummy Paint effort shows, not only did I spend under two minutes creating a vile green MacBook Air to make fanboys feel queasy, but the hugely-hyped laptop has been commended for its eco-friendliness. By Greenpeace, of all people.
Yes, that’s the same group of people who attacked Apple recently for being one of the least ethical technology manufacturers (admittedly they improved on last year’s efforts, but still fared badly) around.
Their latest laptop however, which launches…
CES 2008: NoPoPo are AA batteries powered by water, beer or your own pee
Sadly, Tech Digest’s battery correspondent isn’t at CES this year, so it’s fallen to me to ferret out the latest in AA energy technology. It’s called NoPoPo, which stands for Non Pollution Power. Japanese firm Aqua Power System is behind it.
CES 2008: Energizer launches Energi To Go portable iPod charger
Batteries aren’t sexy. Well, unless you’re some kind of filthy AAA electrode fetishist. But Energizer doesn’t just make batteries. It also makes products that use batteries to do other stuff. That’s a bit sexier. Witness the Energi To Go Portable Power for iPod, which was announced yesterday at CES.
CES 2008: NRG solar charging docks
I was accosted by a well-meaning PR gentleman this afternoon, vying for my attention in the hordes of other journalists. With a quick glance at his products, I tried to fob him off, then had a proper look and realised they were actually pretty neat. Not only that, but they’re helping save the environment with their eco-friendliness, and to ignore them would be a sin.
The company has a couple of different docking stations available, built for either the home or apartment, plus a…
CES 2008: HydroPak turns water into power for your gadgets (kind of)
Okay, so I have oversimplified that as only an unscientific idjut could. Basically, HydroPak is a ‘portable power generator’ that uses a combination of fuel cells and water-activated cartridges. It’s the work of two companies: Millennium Cell and Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies.
