Crisp Green » Gadgets

Green Gadget Update: BioLite Camp Stove

Karen MacKay — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:42:13 +0000

After two years of development, the BioLite stove is in production, with a more compact and easy-to-use design.

We first we told you about the BioLite stove in July 2011, but just in time for the 2012 camping season, BioLite is making headlines again.

After extensive user testing and field research, the BioLite team has redesigned the camp stove unit to be smaller, easier to light and more durable. The BioLite stove burns wood or other small combustible materials. Using energy captured from the fire, the stove can power or charge small gadgets and cell phones. Currently in production, the BioLite camp stove will be available in the coming months but is ready for pre-purchase now.

In addition the BioLite camp stove, BioLite also developed a home stove for use in developing countries, to address the hazardous health issue of smoke inhalation. The BioLite home stove removes 90 percent of the dangerous smoke found in wood-burning stoves, providing clean and efficient cooking. In 2012, BioLite will be starting a large scale pilot program with the home stoves in Ghana, Uganda, India and Kenya.

To learn more about BioLite visit their website or to purchase click here.

Source: BioLite

Project Noah: A Mobile App That Documents Local Wildlife

Krystal Persaud — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:24:33 +0000

Project Noah harnesses the power of smart phones to collect ecological data and help preserve global biodiversity one photo at a time.

How does it work? You can download the Project Noah app for free on any iPhone or Android phone. Then, all you have to do is create an account and start snapping photos of local wildlife.

If you're a city dweller like me, I know what you're thinking -- "Who wants to see a bunch of photos of squirrels and caterpillars?" I downloaded the app to give it a test run and was pleasantly surprised at the wide variety of animals documented. You could spend hours exploring the map and scrolling through photo submissions. Check out the map below – people from all over the world are using Project Noah!

Project Noah was developed in NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). The project began as an experiment to build a fun, location-based mobile app that encouraged people to reconnect with nature. The name “Noah” was cleverly inspired by Noah’s Ark. The over-arching goal is to create a powerful database that can be used as an educational tool for wildlife awareness and preservation.

The app has certainly garnered a lot of attention since its official launch back in February 2010. It earned a spot in the first Startl Mobile Design Boost and won a $50,000 prize from the “Breakthrough in Mobile Learning” competition by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. Project Noah even boasts National Geographic as an investor.

The founding members of Project Noah are Yasser Ansari, Martin Ceperley, Peter Horvath, and Bruno Kruse. Collectively, their backgrounds cover a wide range of subjects including molecular biology, photography, software development, and software hacking.

The next time you go on a walk or hike in your neighborhood, use Project Noah to share the creatures you encounter!

Source: Project Noah

Belkin Conserve Insight: Understand Your Energy Consumption

Karen MacKay — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:10:08 +0000

The Conserve Insight lets users learn about the economic and environmental cost of their home appliances.

Similar to many new devices on the market such as the Nest Thermostat or EnergyHub , the Belkin Conserve Insight helps users to understand more about their energy consumption choices. Whether you want to know more about what you are spending on monthly bills for your TV or how much CO2 is produced to power your computer, this device gives you a variety of information for any product you can plug into a conventional outlet.

The Conserve Insight lets you enter your local electricity rates and carbon dioxide emission rates for your region to give you a more accurate reading. Belkin also offers a family of energy saving products, from outlet timers to USB charging stations.

Green Gadget Review: Changers.com Solar Charger

Beth Buczynski — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:43:07 +0000

A few weeks ago, we posted a profile on a cool new technology-social media hybrid company, Changers.com. The Berlin-based company recently introduced a portable solar charging system as well as an online community through which you can track and share your energy production rates.

At the end of that post we hinted that Changers.com was sending us their solar charging starter kit to review...and this is that review!! (You can exhale now). Enjoy!

Light & Sweet

The first thing that surprised me about the Changers Starter Kit, which includes the Kalhuohfummi solar battery and the Maroshi solar panel, was the incredible lightness of the box. There was almost no excessive packaging, just a cardboard box to protect the flexible solar panel and small battery/data pack, a little bag of charging adapters, and a single sheet, 100% recycled paper quick start guide/poster.

Getting Started

The quick start guide included lots of easy to follow pictures, and honestly, I attached the solar panel's suction cups and connected it to the battery pack without even looking at the instructions. Understanding how I would track my solar energy production and how to get that energy from the battery pack to my phone required a quick read through of the guide. The most time intensive part of the process was downloading the Changers software and installing it on my computer. It only took a couple of minutes, but the words on all the installation screens were written in German, so I just had to hope I was pushing the right buttons!

Tapping The Sun

The day that I first hooked up the solar panel and battery was quite bright because of a fresh snowfall, but also overcast. I was worried that the panel wouldn't be strong enough to charge the batter without direct sunlight, but I was wrong! After about 10 minutes I saw the first tiny green blip of light on the battery's power bar. However, if you're in a time sensitive situation, you'll definitely want to place the panel in direct sunlight. All told, it took about 5 total hours of direct sunlight me to gather enough energy to charge my phone.

All Gadgets Welcome

Getting ready to juice up my phone with solar energy provided another pleasant surprise: the Changers kit included a USB type A cable to charge and 8 adapters, enabling the kit to charge over 1,000 devices! Before plugging up my phone, I used the same USB cord to connect the battery to my computer. I logged into my profile on Changers.com, and transferred the data from the battery to my account so that I could see how much carbon I had saved with just this first attempt.

CrispGreen Approved!

Overall, I love this device. Aside from a little lag time while setting up your account and downloading the software (in German!), it's ready to used right out of the minimal packaging. Both gadgets are compact, meaning they'll be super easy to take with my on my upcoming trip to California. Can't wait to see how much power I can generate in all that sun!

Buy your own Chargers.com Starter Kit here.

Disclaimer: While Changers.com did provide us with a complimentary solar charging kit to test and review, CrispGreen was in no way compensated for this review.

All images © Beth Buczynski

Green Gadget Highlights From CES 2012

Karen MacKay — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:02:15 +0000

Coming to a close today, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 in Las Vegas, NV showcases the newest technologies hitting the market this year. From Android apps to a solar powered boom-box, CES is the place to go for the latest in gadgets, green or not. We at Crisp Green have selected some of the greenest new tech products to share with our readers.

Rukus Solar-Powered Speakers

The Rukus Solar, is a solar-powered speaker system that streams music wirelessly via bluetooth devices. Portable and sporting an e-ink display for easy reading in sunlight, the device can also be powered via wall outlets if the sun has gone out of sight.

Maker Bot Replicator

MakerBot introduced it's newest product, the MakerBot Replicator to CES this week. The MakerBot is a 3D printer that makes mass customization and on-demand production possible for just about anyone. Also, this new version of the MakerBot is the first of it's king to print objects with two different colors.

Grano.la Energy Conservation Softwear

Grano.la software, developed by MiserWare, helps PC users to lower their energy consumption. Working in the background, the software lowers the power usage without affecting performance. MiseWare offers a free consumer version for Windows and Linux as well as a more expansive package for paying customers (businesses and data centers). Originally developed for super computers, one of the greatest benefits of Granola is extended battery life for PCs.

One Laptop Per Child - XO-3 tablet

This week the XO-3 tablet, created by the One Laptop Per Child program was revealed at CES. Designed for use in remote areas without access to conventional wall outlets, the XO-3 tablet has special circuitry that allows for a variety of power sources, including hand cranks, bicycle-driven generators and solar panels. The solar charging panels are actually built into the removable, rubberized cover for the tablet.

Nest: The Thermostat That Teaches You

Featured on Crisp Green earlier this week, the Nest thermostat was among the 21 products honored at CES 2012 under the "Best of Innovations" awards. Nest is designed to be used like conventional thermostats but has the ability to learn your energy consumption habits and help you conserve.

Solar-Powered Amazon Kindle

SolarFocus Technology Company introduced the SolarKindle in Las Vegas this week at CES 2012. The SolarKindle is the first solar powered e-reader cover. SolarFocus guarantees up to three-months of unplugged use with their high performance solar panels. The cover also includes a built-in LED reading lamp that can be powered up to 50 hours without pulling power from the Kindle's main battery.

Did you see or hear about any cool green gadgets at CES? Tell us what we missed!

Nest: The Thermostat That Helps You Conserve Energy

Karen MacKay — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:15:29 +0000

Nest Founder and CEO Tony Fadell is changing the face of home energy conservation.

Tony Fadell isn't new to creating innovative and game-changing devices. His previous work includes leading the team that created the first 18 generations of the iPod and building the Mobile Computing Group at Philips Electronics. Nest is another great achievement that not only has a simple and easy to use interface, it's helping homeowners to reduce their bills and impact on the environment.

As Nest states on their website, "Technology should be about more than newest, loudest, prettiest. It should make a difference". That's exactly what Nest does by saving users money and conserving home energy.

Nest is designed to be used like conventional thermostats, but within one week is capable of learning your habits and schedule. Nest also keeps a history of your usage and lets you know when you saving energy with a green leaf icon.

Nest takes the worry out of forgetting to change the thermostat before you leave home, Nest can be connected to your Wi-fi network, giving users the power to control their home environment from almost anywhere via a computer, Android or Iphone.

Nest is fairly simple to install but installation services are offered if you need a little help. To learn more about purchasing a Nest Learning Thermostat go here.

DIY Kit Allows Plants To Tweet When They’re Thirsty

Krystal Persaud — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:05:55 +0000

That’s right, everyone is joining Twitter – even your plants.

Botanicalls forges a new channel of communication between humans and their plants and strives to improve inter-species understanding. When your plant needs water, it will post an update to Twitter letting you know that it is thirsty. It will even tweet a thank you message after you water it. Check out some tweets by a Botanicalls enabled plant @Pothos.

Botanicalls comes in a DIY kit that contains approximately 30 pieces and requires some soldering skills. Don’t stress if you aren’t a tech nerd, there is a step by step assembly guide available online. The ATmega328 microcontroller comes pre-programmed, but you can customize it with your own messages. The only things you need to provide are a plant, a network connection through an ethernet cable, and a power outlet.

After you are done building, the kit will manifest itself into a leaf-shaped electronic chip with two metal prongs. Place the prongs into the soil of a plant and let his voice be heard.

Everyone has a friend (maybe it’s you) who is a certified plant killer. I think you know the type; whenever you visit their apartment, there is always a row of brown, ailing plants on the windowsill. Botanicalls is the perfect product for people who are unsure of how to properly care for a plant. You don’t need to research appropriate watering schedules for your botanic baby, you can just follow its tweets.

Botanicalls is a collaborative project created by Kate Hartman, Kati London, and Rob Faludi. It was originally developed while the three were studying at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Are you tech savvy and want to try it out? The Botanicalls Kit is available for purchase on SparkFun for $99.95.

Source: Spark Fun & Botanicalls