Turn Off Your Gadgets Easily

Having moved to the US I am still surprised by the lack of power switches on wall sockets. When the wall sockets have power strips attached, the strips usually have a power switch, but often they’re located on the floor or behind a set of drawers.

This Energy Saver Bar has a handy foot switch for turning off the power strip without that awkward bending down or hunting around. For around $30 (€19.95) it’s available from Proidee.

[Via: OhGizmo]

Green Link Love - Other Great Green Sites 2

After my first Green Link Love post I received a few emails, two of which stood out. One asking “What is link love?” - it’s simply linking out to other sites that might be of interest to your readers. The “love” part is because it helps the other website as you provide a link and, if done correctly, can help them in their search engine rankings. This isn’t the reason for doing it of course, but it can help.

The second interesting email was asking whether it was a good idea to link out to competing websites. The way I see it is other green sites are not competition for us. If one person can make a difference by recycling or making an effort to be environmentally responsible and sustainable then they are part of a wider community that are helping make the world a better place. A website is the same, no matter how large or small, that site can make a difference and is part of a community. One that we’re proud to be part of. That said, let’s move on….

As before, for more fun green things on the web, see Adam’s increasingly popular Fun Green Roundups.

First up is the wonderfully named WEEE Man that is a depiction of a human made up of the average amount of electronic waste a UK citizen would use in their lifetime. The WEEE refers to European legislation called the Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment directive. Full of tips, it’s worth taking a look at.

The ever expanding Green Options has turned one year old. To celebrate, the excellent Sustainablog will be featuring one of our posts every week from now on.

David runs The Good Human, a site that encourages people to be better humans, whether through working to clean up the environment, being active in political issues that mean a lot to you or just being more aware of your life and surroundings. Some great stuff on there, such as 30 uses for a dead tree, and I like the 10% discount on Simple Shoes he currently has at the moment until March 31st.

The National Geographic Intelligent Travel blog is always good value, like the world’s first solar city. Actually Marilyn sent me a link to a stunning article about how your electronic trash is sometimes shipped out to places like Ghana where adults and children melt them down to sell the often toxic metals inside. Fascinating and frightening.

There are a few websites for “green” jobs, though the market is still relatively new and there is yet a definition of what a green job actually is. If you want a job that matters, one place to look is Jobs That Matter. If you’ve tried them, let me know.

G2bgreen has a green to-do list. The tips are pretty unorganized and it is a long list, but there is some gold in there. And while on the subject, they have a list of places to go for green jobs.

Fancy some eco art? Eco Artware creates gifts from recycled , reused and natural materials. If coasters made from re-used metal traffic signs, or a bottle opener made from an old bike chain sound good to you, then take a look. Life Goggles will be reviewing some of their products over the next few months (i.e. when I buy something from there for my wife’s birthday!).

Cool Green Gadgets does exactly what it says on the tin, looks at cool green gadgets.

Finally a question for you - http://www.localcooling.com/ - Has anyone tried it or heard of it?

Well that’s it for this time. Any comments, please post them below - was this too long, too short? Needs more pictures? Would be better as an audio or video post? Just let me know!

If you want to be featured here, drop me a line and we’ll take a look.

Composting In Your Kitchen

The problem I found when having a small kitchen is that it’s almost impossible to compost due to space. It’s also a smelly job, though a company believes they’ve come up with a compact, non-smelly kitchen composter that doesn’t include worms or attract flies.

NatureMill, from San Francisco have come up with an indoor composter that is small enough to fit in regular kitchen cabinets, can process up to 120 lbs (55 kg) of organic waste per month, and uses just 10 watts of energy. Composting takes place inside a sealed inner chamber. Air is drawn into the chamber by a small fan, and a mixbar and heater keep the process moving along at the correct temperature. A red light indicates when the cure tray needs to be emptied - about once every two weeks - and the end-product is rich compost fertilizer. You can see a diagram of exactly how it works.

The units sell for $299–399. An outdoor version ($399) takes care of pet droppings, too: “for up to 2 large dogs, or 4 cats, rabbits, hamsters, snakes or other small animals.” NatureMills ships worldwide, but international shipping is expensive at the moment.

If you have a composter, please let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment or drop us a line.

[Via: Springwise]

Greener Gadgets Conference 2008

Whilst we couldn’t make it to the Greener Gadgets conference on Friday 1st February, obviously a lot of people could. So from them, some links and a very quick round up of what went on.

The aim of the conference was “to discuss the business case for the greening of the consumer electronics industry”, with three main themes of Materials and Life-Cycle, Energy, and Social Sustainability. The keynote speaker was from the One Laptop Per Child project, and there were many panels on the furture of mobile energy and e-waste.

Cool gadgets included the Solio solar charger, and a wind powered charger from MINWIZ, which you can see in the embedded video below:

You can read much more on Inhabitat, Sustainablog and EcoGeek who were there.

Free Endangered Species Ringtones

The Center for Biological Diversity is celebrating the 100,000th free download from its endangered species ringtone site, www.rareearthtones.org.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a science-based nonprofit organization that works to protect endangered species and wild places throughout the world. The Center has more than 40,000 members and ten offices throughout the U.S., with headquarters in Tucson, Arizona. Their rareearthtones.org website allows users to listen to wildlife ringtones, send them directly to their phones with a simple click as well as download photos, cell phone wallpapers and facts for each of the featured wildlife species. The ringtones are free while the site’s new look and straightforward navigation make it easier to download the roars, trills, and squawks of some of the world’s most endangered species. Users can also take action to save imperiled species worldwide.

“Our endangered species ringtones have become a great way for people to personalize their cell phones and make a statement about the importance of protecting imperiled wildlife,” said Peter Galvin, conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The site features free ringtones of seventy rare and endangered animals from around the world, including the polar bear, blue-throated macaw, northern goshawk, California red-legged frog, and American pika with the killer whale and Mexican gray wolf as the two most popular tones to date. The ringtones have even gained worldwide appeal in 150 countries with the U.S. ranking number one in total ringtone downloads; Iran second; Italy third; Canada fourth; Great Britain fifth; India sixth; Brazil seventh; Australia eighth; and China ninth.

I haven’t yet done it myself (I haven’t got around to getting a mobile/cell phone since my move to the US) but let us know if you use Rare Earth Tones.

Solio Solar Charger Product Review

The Solio H1000 is a universal charger for electronic devices that stores power, either from an electrical socket or from solar energy - a “hybrid” charger. I was sent one on loan for a 3 month trial on behalf of the manufacturers, Better Energy Systems.

As you can see I was sent a lovely orange one, but other colours are available. The Solio is dubbed a “hybrid” device because it accepts power from either a standard wall socket or the sun. Unlike standard chargers it uses no energy when plugged into a wall socket and not attached to a device (once charged of course).

It can store this energy within its internal battery for up to one year, and can be used any time for on-the-go charging of most portable electronics devices. It comes with several plug attachments, one for Nokia phones, a mini USB connection, and a female USB connector (see the photo for more details). It also comes with a USB connector to charge the Solio if you have not charged it from the sun. There is no wall socket adaptor when you buy it, this can be purchased for additional cost (probably to encourage you to use the solar panel), as well as an iPod connector, 12V car charger adaptor, Gameboy, Motorola adaptor and so on.

 

My testing with the Solio didn’t get off to a perfect start, I was unable to charge it from the sun, I had to charge it through the USB connection to my PC. I don’t know why, but leaving it in the sun initially had no effect - it did of course later on.

Despite the device being simple and having only one button and two lights (one red and one green) it was at first a little confusing to wonder what all the light flashes meant. The instruction manual is in pictures rather than words which helps transcend the language barrier but doesn’t particularly help with other aspects of its operation. After the first use though it all became clear.

The device itself comes in several colours, and as you can see from the pictures it has a clip for attaching to backpacks etc, which came in handy once on a walk and in a coffee shop when my mp3 player battery died. It’s also a great conversation piece! Talking of mp3 players, I’ve tested it on two, an iRiver S10 and a Creative Zen:M.

The iRiver charged perfectly as you can see from the picture and the video above, I just used the female USB to connect this up. The Zen did not seem to charge up (via the mini USB), however it seemed to accept this as if it was a wall socket connection, and essentially powered the Zen during operation rather than charging the battery. In a way it achieved the same goal - using the device - however in this case I had to have to Solio connected if I wanted to use the device, rather than charging it for a while and using it separately. Maybe it was just me, I’m not sure if this is usual or deliberate, but it wasn’t a problem.

Overall I think it’s a useful product, it survived a trip to Europe and back, the auto show in Detroit and once again proved handy in airports and train stations where all the sockets were taken up by laptop users. Currently you can get 10% off a Solio by visiting the Life Goggles Reviews and Shop page.

If you’ve used the Solio, or a similar device, why not leave a comment below or drop us a line and let us know your thoughts?

The Story Of Stuff

This 20 minute video, called The Story Of Stuff guides us through the journey of creating those gadgets that we’re so fond of.

Presented by Annie Leonard, 20 minutes of her voice constantly gets a little irritating (variation would have been nice), but she does a hell of a job explaining the production system in a simple and informative way. Also it’s interesting to listen about planned obsolesence - how companies design their products not to last long, but long enough for the consumer to have faith in their brand so they buy another one…

It’s quite US-centric, but absolutely worth a watch, and there’s a blog too. You can download the video (or order it on DVD) and then burn it, share it, or give it away for non-profit educational uses as much as you want.

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