Earth Friendly - SlashGear

‘earth friendly’ Stories

AT&T ZERO Charger promises to kill “vampire draw”

Chris Davies, Mar 17th 2010 Discuss [0]

While most people probably don't have several review cellphones lying around on their desk at any one time, the trickle of juice soaked up by even just one cellphone charger left unplugged is enough to add an unpleasant bump into your power bill. AT&T have decided to do something about that - at least in part - and so they've announced the AT&T ZERO Charger, a PSU that apparently has no standby draw whatsoever. That means you can unplug your cellphone when it has finished charging but leave the ZERO Charger itself plugged into the mains, without worrying about how much current it might still be drawing. So far the AT&T Zero isn't available for sale, but you can sign up for more information and the carrier will get in touch when they're in stock. Read The Full Story

Lexus CT 200h compact sports-hybrid evolves from LF-Ch Concept

Chris Davies, Mar 4th 2010 Discuss [0]

Remember the frankly storming Lexus LF-Ch hybrid concept from September 2009? At the time the company promised a production version, and they've finally delivered on that with the Lexus CT 200h; unfortunately, some of the more lairy styling details of the LF-Ch have been lost in the process. Read The Full Story

Scosche solBAT II solar-powered cellphone battery

Chris Davies, Feb 3rd 2010 Discuss [2]

There's money to be made from earth-friendly gadgets, and there's an iPhone-owning audience out there crying out for extra juice in their smartphones, so trust Scosche to put the two together. The Scosche solBAT II is, daft punctuation aside, a reasonably sensible solar-powered external battery, which comes with both a windshield mount and a universal carabineer for easy positioning. Read The Full Story

Recompute cardboard computer now in production

Chris Davies, Jan 13th 2010 Discuss [2]

PC manufacturers often treat environmental friendliness as something that begins and ends with using recycled materials for the packaging, but what about the average desktop PC casing itself? Recompute's "sustainable computer" concept has been making the rounds since last year, but the company have just announced that the first of the cardboard-chassis PCs are now going into production. Read The Full Story

Sea Shepherd’s Ady Gil trimaran sinks after whaling ship collision [Video]

Chris Davies, Jan 12th 2010 Discuss [11]

Back in November we told you about Earthrace - the distinctive trimaran powerboat - joining the Sea Shepherd organisation as a so-called "stealthed support vessel" named the Ady Gil. Unfortunately we've some bad news: the $2.5m carbon-fibre and Kevlar boat was seemingly involved in a collision with a Japanese whaling vessel and subsequently sunk, as efforts to tow the Ady Gil to harbour were scuppered as the damaged craft took on water and snapped its lines. Videos of the collision after the cut Read The Full Story

Featured

ASUS Eee PC Karim Rashid Collection & U-Series Bamboo notebooks live

Chris Davies, Jan 6th 2010 Discuss [0]

Looking for a bright pink or bamboo notebook? ASUS have got your back either way, unveiling both a netbook collaboration with designer Karim Rashid and a U-Series notebook with real bamboo in the casing. The ASUS Eee PC 1008P Seashell Karim Rashid Collection is the more eye-catching of the pair, thanks to a diamond-textured (and vivid pink) shell that’s supposed to create the illusion of moving light, while the ASUS U Series Bamboo uses a plastic-injected bamboo material cladding Intel 32nm Arrandale CPUs and USB 3.0 connectivity.

Read The Full Story

Aston Martin Cygnet city-car makes official appearance

Chris Davies, Dec 16th 2009 Discuss [1]

Remember the Aston Martin Cygnet? The company's first city-car broke cover back in June, as a sub-£20k (sub-$33k) sop to urban dwellers and environmentalists. Now the company have released the first official shots of the Cygnet, and it's certainly distinctive. Read The Full Story

Aptera 2e EV car production pushed back to 2010

Chris Davies, Nov 18th 2009 Discuss [1]

Does it look like an egg, a blade-free helicopter or a sperm on wheels? No matter: the one thing we do know is that the Aptera 2e won't be looking good on your driveway any time soon. The all-electric car - which we first wrote about back in September 2007 - was meant to go into production this year, but Aptera have announced that will actually now take place in 2010. Somewhat ominously, the two co-founders are either stepping aside or taking a "leave of absence" until Aptera can scrape together some more cash. Read The Full Story

OLED and solar-panel lights promise Earth-friendly simplicity

Chris Davies, Nov 17th 2009 Discuss [0]

We all love a sandwich, but how often does your sandwich light up from power it has collected itself? If you're chowing down on a prototype from the Florida Energy Systems Consortium then it might just do that (though probably not tasting particularly good in the process): they're working on the idea of layered OLED and solar-cell panels, which would capture sunlight during the day and recharge a back battery plane, before lighting up at night. Read The Full Story

Earthrace super-trimaran gets stealth paint job

Chris Davies, Nov 7th 2009 Discuss [1]

Remember Earthrace, the awesome carbon-fibre and Kevlar trimaran that was designed to take on powerboat speed-trials for round-the-world sailing? In the few years since it debuted the $2.5m bio-diesel boat has been whipping around cracking world records; now it's going into its next job, acting as a stealthed support vessel for the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling organisation. Read The Full Story

Factory Five electric ’33 Hot Rod likely to confuse earth-huggers

Chris Davies, Oct 29th 2009 Discuss [0]

What's bright red, has an almost comically-long chin and bug-eyes? No, not my ex-wife (yes, Marion, your damned check is in the mail) but the latest incarnation of the Factory Five '33 Hot Rod, perhaps the best alternative to a pious Prius we've seen so far. Factory Five took the regular planet-destroying engine out and replaced it with a custom 300+ horsepower electric drive that musters over 660ft/lbs of torque and pegs 0-60mph times of four seconds. Read The Full Story

Media Xtreme fuel-cell charger on sale at T-Mobile

Chris Davies, Oct 21st 2009 Discuss [0]

T-Mobile are offering a fuel-cell portable power pack as an accessory for their cellphone range, one of the first mainstream fuel-cell applications targeted at everyday consumers. The Medis 24/7 Xtreme Portable Power Solution runs on sealed cartridges of sodium borohydride, and can offer 20 Watt-hours from a single cartridge. Each cell lasts up to 18 months unused, and is activated merely by squeezing it and slotting it into the charger device. Once activated, the cell should last for up to 3 months, though Medis recommend using it within six weeks. Read The Full Story