Oh! Gizmo

By Luke Anderson

I don’t know about the other guys out there, but I hate shaving. I have a goatee, but you’ll notice that I don’t generally keep the rest shaved smooth all the time. Usually I’ll wait until I need to go somewhere semi-important (or until my wife starts nagging about it) to shave. Even then I take the lazy route and use and electric shaver. Since I don’t want to deal with dead batteries, I have a corded shaver to make my life easier. If I were to decide to get one that didn’t have to be attached to the wall, I might think about getting this Wind ‘N Go Freedom Shaver.

This is your basic shaver, with nothing really fancy going for it. Well, except for the fact that is is hand-powered. Just crank this baby for 1 minute and you’ll get 2 minutes of shaving. Of course I’d recommend winding it for more than just one minute at a time. If you’re obsessed with keeping a smooth shave, you might get one of these to take with you on those long trips. Just $46 will net you one of these eco-friendly shavers.

[ AthenaBrands ] VIA [ GearLog ]

By Evan Ackerman

Trees are nice to look at, and I guess they’re good for shade, if you’re one of those people who goes outside… But when is the last time one of them actually came in handy in this digital world? The Helios Power Tree is one tree my gadgets and I would be happy to stretch out under, since it’s got a bunch of USB power ports in the roots. The “leaves” of the tree are made of little solar cells, all of which are wired into the branches, down the trunk, and into a big battery at the base. The battery lights up the tree with LEDs, and will charge whatever is plugged into it. The Helios is made out of sustainable materials, and is designed to be placed in urban parks as a useful piece of public art.

[ Helios Tree ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Evan Ackerman

Have a Nalgene bottle? No? What’s the matter, you’re not cool and hip and sporty? You should totally get one, if for no other reason than you’ll need it to get this solar powered LED lamp cap to do what it’s supposed to. The LightCap 200 weighs only 2.6 oz, and the four super bright white LEDs inside will shine down through your water bottle (it works on anything with a 2.25″ mouth) and turn it into a lantern. The LEDs are solar powered, and the waterproof cap has both a switch and an ambient light sensor. There’s no information on charge times, but it looks to be a pretty effective lamp.

It comes in either black or clear plastic and costs a reasonable $20.

[ LightCap 200 ] VIA [ Likecool ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I was never a fan of cutting the grass as a kid, but it was less about having to do work and more about our gas-powered lawnmower which was loud and reeked of fuel and oil. But back then, electric powered mowers were tethered to a power cable that I’m sure I would have accidentally run over at one point or another. Fast forward 15 years and battery technologies have finally reached the point where you can buy an electric mower that doesn’t need to be plugged in while you’re cutting the lawn. The Neuton CE 6.2 model features a removable rechargeable battery that’s ideal for lawns up to 1/3 of an acre or about 15,000 sq. ft. in size. (Or about 45 to 60 minutes of mow time per charge, depending on the grass type.)

Since the battery is removable, you can swap it out with a backup if it dies before your lawn is finished or if you want to use the optional trimmer/edger accessory. The batteries charge in about 8 hours and will supposedly last for about 5 years with proper care. And since the Neuton CE 6.2 is an obvious choice for those who aren’t thrilled with running a gas-powered mower, they’ll also be happy to know that the battery is 95% recyclable when it does reach the end of its life.

You can buy the Neuton CE 6.2 Mower directly from the Neuton website for $479, while spare batteries run $99.95 each.

[ Neuton CE 6.2 Battery-Powered Mower ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Evan Ackerman

Solar power is definitely the new sexy when it comes to renewable sources of energy. The Solio solar charger combines form and function and is designed to charge just about any gadget you own, and look good while doing it.

Read the full extra-special Earth Day review, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

It’s a pretty nice place, the Earth, and we don’t have another one yet. So, save the trees, plant a whale, and try and recycle your obsolete and/or ugly gadgets if you can. Happy Earth Day!

[ JAXA ]

By Luke Anderson

While I liked the idea of the Isolé IDP-3050 power strip automatically shutting off my unused gadgets when I’m not around, I’d rather have a little more control over when my I turn off my devices. I think I’d prefer this Energy Saver Bar which lets you turn off all of the outlets with a tap of your foot.

All six outlets are controlled by a foot switch which can be positioned up to 1.5 meters away. Sure, you could just reach down and turn off the little switch located on any power strip, but that takes too much effort. This cool device will set you back around $30, and likely pay for itself in a matter of months.

[ Proidee ] VIA [ Red Ferret ]

By Evan Ackerman

Also at CPX yesterday I got to take a closer look at the BMW Hydrogen 7 and the Tesla Roadster. We saw them last year at the LA Auto Show, but CPX was casual and laid back and I got to talk with some of the actual engineers instead of PR drones (yay!).

The awesome thing about the BMW Hydrogen 7 is that it’s a production ready car that can use either hydrogen or gasoline. And when I say either, I mean that if you’re driving along using conventional gas and feel like saving the environment for a little while, you just push a button and the car transitions seamlessly into using hydrogen combustion. Unless you listen very, very carefully there is no way to tell that the car is using an entirely different fuel system. This means that you can get hydrogen when and where it’s available but not have to worry about being stranded due to lack of fuel.

Unlike most hydrogen powered vehicles, the Hydrogen 7 uses liquid (as opposed to gaseous) hydrogen, stored in a big tank in the trunk that’s been insulated and cooled down to -418 degrees F. The advantage of this technique is that you can store more hydrogen in a smaller space at a much lower and safer pressure (about 40 psi as opposed to 10,000 psi in cars that use hydrogen gas); the disadvantage is that if you let the car sit, the tank heats up, the liquid hydrogen starts to vaporize, and you gradually lose fuel.

Fuel is of course the big problem in the whole hydrogen car equation. Hydrogen gas comes from two primary sources: natural gas, and electrolysis. Natural gas is not particularly eco-friendly, but electrolysis creates hydrogen from water using nothing but electricity, which we can get from all sorts of renewable sources. It just has to, you know, happen. The current cost of a kilo of hydrogen (equivalent in energy to a gallon of gas) is something like $12. That’s sounds like a lot, but I’m paying $3.95 a gallon out here in California for regular unleaded which sucks for the environment and is backed by a huge production infrastructure that hydrogen doesn’t have yet.

There are currently 20 Hydrogen 7s on the road in the US (out of 100 worldwide), and an additional 2 hydrogen only models. These cars are totally ready to go in that they’ve passed all of the necessary crash tests and stuff; the only thing that has to happen now is that hydrogen has to get cheap enough (or gas has to get expensive enough) that there’s a market for them.

As for Tesla, they’re already producing the Roadster. There was some question a little while back as to what was going to happen with the transmission… The 2 speed transmissions originally designed for the car just couldn’t handle 150,000 miles worth of the massive amounts of torque output by the engine. Although the transmissions will have to be replaced, the first production cars are still shipping with the 2 speed transmission, while the final production cars will have a 1 speed transmission that is not yet off the drawing board. Believe it or not (and I didn’t at first), this won’t have a significant effect on the performance of the car. The engine will be retuned towards the low end, maintaining the sub 4 second 0-60 time, and since the top speed is electronically limited to 125, you won’t notice any difference there either. Interestingly, I was also told that the engine is physically capable of outputting something like double the power that it currently does. ‘Course, making that happen would certainly void the warranty and probably tear the car in half, but I’m confident that someone will figure out how to hack the Tesla Roadster and see just what it can do.

After the jump, I’m going to take a stab at making a gallery of pics of the Hydrogen 7 and Tesla roadster. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

If you want to reduce how much energy you use, but find you’re just too lazy to flip the switch on a power strip, the Isolé IDP-3050 will take care of that for you. The strip features 8 outlets, but 6 of them are actually controlled by a personal sensor. The sensor uses passive infrared technology to detect if someone’s around, and if no one’s found, it cuts power to those 6 outlets. It seems ideal for someone working at a PC, except that you’ll want to make sure you plug your workstation into one of the 2 non-controlled outlets. Unless you like the idea of it suddenly losing power whenever you get up to use the washroom.

The Isolé IDP-3050 has a user-adjustable time delay of 30 seconds to 30 minutes and is able to detect occupancy in an area up to 300 square feet. The power strip also features surge and noise suppression with a resettable circuit breaker, and it will not operate unless it’s plugged into a grounded, three prong outlet.

You can get it from Watt Stopper for $90. (Cue spit take.)

[ Isolé IDP-3050 Power Strip ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As much as I like the high-tech looks and design of the Dyson vacuums (not to mention their performance) they tend to be a bit overkill if you’re not chasing toddlers or shedding pets all day. So if the biggest mess in your bachelor apartment is a few Doritos crumbs, this miniature bagged vacuum from Morphy Richards should be more than adequate for getting the job done.

Even though it’s small (making it easy to store) it has a 2.5 liter capacity, 4 stage standard filtration, retractable power cord, a set of on-board tools and a hose that can be stored on the back of the vacuum when not in use. It even features an ‘Eco Switch’ which is an adjustable power dial that can be turned down when cleaning delicate fabrics and upholstery, or when you want to minimize your electricity bill.

It’s available from Morphy Richards for about $60.

[ Morphy Richards Mini Bagged 1600W Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner ] VIA [ Hippyshopper ]