TechBloggin.com

Filed under: Transportation

While we imagine that the vast majority of you would be perfectly content with an all-electric MINI Cooper (or a Porsche, if nothing else), some debutantes and Chuck Bass wannabes just won’t have anything but the best. For those out there who can actually consider putting a Rolls-Royce in the garage, you’ll be thrilled to know that CEO Tom Purves is spending some serious time thinking about a battery-powered Phantom. Reportedly, the bigwig stated that “many of its customers do small mileages exclusively in the city,” and for these customers, “an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal.” He wouldn’t hand over any prospective time lines or anything, but we did get the impression that he reckoned the engineering wouldn’t be too terribly taxing. And the best part? He suggested that most buyers would opt for an electric Rolls for “urban use” while sporting a gasoline-powered version for longer journeys. Yeah, that’s something we can totally relate to.

[Via Autoblog]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Household, Networking

As the global economy curls up into the fetal position in the face of rising energy costs, we’re as determined as anyone to be as energy efficient as possible — as long as it’s completely convenient, of course. Mi Casa Verde hopes to help with that with Vera, a Z-Wave / 802.11 hub with an exceptionally robust web interface for monitoring the energy usage of devices in your home as well as turning them off, setting up scenes, events and timers, and operating locks and security cameras. Since it’s a low impact little device running a stripped down version of Linux, it operates on less power than desktop-based solutions — a benefit that Mi Casa Verde claims makes it one of the few systems that save more power than they use. Its retail price will be competitive, with the box at $299 and a secure remote access gateway at $8 per month, but Mi Casa Verde is trying to entice would-be testers with a pre-street sale price of $149 and one year of free remote access service — that option will be available through October 31st, with the final product available to conscientious tree-huggers (tech savvy and otherwise, the company hopes) everywhere on November 15th.

[Thanks, Dmitry]

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Source: Samuel Axon

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

In these green times, companies are looking everywhere to make a buck — er, save the planet. Philips Simplicity didn’t go much further than the sidewalk to find inspiration for its latest eco-friendly innovation, the Light Blossom, a self-sustainable street lamp that has triple-duty petals. They’re peppered with energy-efficient LEDs to illuminate the street, naturally, but also have solar panels on top and can spin around in a stiff breeze to recharge. At night they’ll emit a soft glow, intended to cut down on light pollution, but will grow brighter whenever a pedestrian comes by. It all sounds wonderfully efficient, but with lights popping on and off as you go, it could make that late-night walk of shame a little more conspicuous than you might like.

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Source: Tim Stevens

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Filed under: Transportation

Look out Tesla / Lightning — a new competitor just rolled out, and it’s sitting pretty. Ruf Automobile has gone public with its stunning electric eRUF concept car, which is obviously based on a Porsche 911. The automobile packs a three-phase electric motor that puts out around 200-horsepower and 480 lb.-ft. of torque, and it can reportedly go from nothing to sixty in under seven ticks. The juice is provided by a Li-ion phosphate battery pack that produces 317-volts / 480-amps and is constructed from 96 individual cells, and combined with the power garnered by the regenerative braking system, it can cruise up to 180 miles before needing a ten-hour recharge. Production, pretty please?

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We all know the internet is not a big truck, and the rolling blackouts in California not that long ago showed our power grid isn’t either. Part of the solution could be a series of tubes, a new type of solar generator from a company called Solyndra that replaces the usual square solar roof panels with something that would make Senator Stevens proud. The company’s photovoltaic rods are able to catch rays from any direction, meaning they don’t need to be tilted to point at the sun. Also, since they’re not shaped like a silicon kite, they don’t need the same big, beefy installation brackets. This cuts installation costs in half and has helped to drive $1.2 billion in orders from eager would-be customers of this three-year-old startup. Want to see ‘em for yourself? Head on down to the Solar Power International Expo next week in sunny San Diego.

[Via Make]

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Source: Tim Stevens

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Filed under: Transportation

With an electric MINI Cooper just around the bend, a Twin Drive hybrid Volkswagen landing in 2010 and Chevrolet’s Volt rolling into showrooms in a matter of months, Audi’s ten-year plan is looking a little awkward. Though we’ve yet to hear that it’s actually speeding things up, Peter Schwarzenbauer, who sits on the management board at Ingolstadt, recently confirmed that the company would be offering “a pure electric car” sometime in the future. Additionally, rumors of it being based on the A1 were dashed, opening the door for speculation that it will instead be built around the VW Up! (Lupo) concept. Here’s hoping we find our prior to 2018.

[Via Autoblog]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Desktops

PC World has branched out its Advent brand, offering the Eco PC through its UK online store, aiming to best the average desktop power consumption by 78 percent. The system is priced at just under what you might expect to pay for a slightly dusty super computer — £599.99 (or about $1100) — but the specs don’t quite match up: 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo T5250 CPU, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, 802.11b/g, and Vista Home Premium onboard. The environmentally-friendly PC is made from recycled materials, so don’t be surprised if it starts to reek of old banana peels after a while.

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Source: Stephanie Patterson

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Hopefully by now you know that the gadget in your pocket or notebook on your lap is full of toxic ooze seeping into your fingers with every tap. This has retailers and manufacturers scrambling to help you recycle those wares, the latest being Samsung with its new Recycling Direct plan. It expands on the company’s trio of limited recycling programs that cover only mobile phones, toner, and office equipment. The new program will accept any obsolete or broken product free of charge — assuming it has a “Samsung” label somewhere on it. (You can recycle other stuff too for a fee.) Partnerships are currently being negotiated with “respected” facilities in all 50 states, meaning you’ll be able can lay your old celly or washing machine to rest in person starting next month.

[Via Crave]

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Source: Tim Stevens

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