Out of all of the things we have been sent to review, this tea infuser certainly is one of the most original. You bob and duck it into your tea to infuse it. Every time is like a puppet show. It works well, is easy to use and puts a smile on the face every time.
Great design from Umbra and well made. This is a brilliant gadget. It is also BPA free too. Full marks all round. A great addition to any kitchen; Umbra Tea Infuser Tea Strainer
With all the shiny techno toys around, we’re all probably a bit geeky once in a while. But if you have the genuine article on your gift list – someone who’d camp out overnight to get the latest iPhone or who could expound at length on every minor character in the original TV Star Trek – then these snazzy gadgets could bring a teary smile to his – or her – face. Frost got the people from energyrethinking.org to give our readers some gift ideas.
Ten Top Eco Gadget Gifts For Geeks
1. Enviroplug This mobile phone energy saving adaptor fits between the charger and the powerpoint, notices when a phone is fully charged and turns off the useless “vampire drain” of power into the charger. It can save up to 90% of the energy wasted by the charger and about £50 a year.
2. Motion-Activated LED Outdoor Light Very cool, bright solar powered light only switches on when it senses someone about. So the solar charge it has built up all day lasts much longer. And what a surprise to a would be intruder. The five LED bulbs are rated for 30,000 hours.
3.Standby and Remote Starter Kit Leaving devices on standby wastes money, and contributes to carbon emissions. But sometimes, the on off switch at the wall socket is difficult to get to – hidden behind furniture or under beds. Plug in up to 3W worth of devices to this clever standby socket and then turn the power completely off or on by remote control.
4. Ecobutton You’re on the computer and you get an important phone call, or get up to make a cup of tea, or to accept a package for a neighbour. While you’re away from your desk, your computer is still eating up electricity and pumping CO2 into the environment. With this handy USB device, you can put your computer into sleep mode with the touch of a button. And when you wake it up, the Ecobutton software tells you how much money and CO2 you’ve saved, today and to date. Have a look to see how it works:
5. Solar Briefcase It’s called trickle charging. This solar charger looks like a briefcase, but open it up and it’s a generouse sized, two panel solar charger that can produce enough power to top up a car battery while you’re off on holiday, or provide winter maintenance power for a boat or caravan.
6. H2O long life Atomic Clock We love this water powered atomic alarm clock. It runs on water, with perhaps a dash of salt – something to do with electrolytic activity. It displays date, day and temperature, as well as time and is adjusted to the Atomic Radio Signal every day. It’s rated for a refill (a splash from the tap) every two weeks, but some users have reported it still runs perfectly at least a month after filling.
7. H2O Shower Radio The water rushing through your shower powers this H2O radio. And in case you get carried away and take a longer shower than you should, it has a shower timer that fits in line with the showerhead to remind you when enough is enough. And you can still keep singing along because it builds up a charge and continues to run for quite a while. If you want to wait until next year, they’re planning a model that will tell you exactly how much you are spending on your shower.
8. Ventus Spin EcoMedia Player Wind up technology just keeps getting better. Your favorite geeks can listed to all their favourite music, watch dazzling movie clips, tune in to popular FM radio stations, thumb through photo albums, and read text files for up to 45 minutes on the charge from one minute of winding. Plus it will charge a mobile phone. For a longer charge, plug it into a USB computer port for 55 hours of play time.
9. Solar Powered Digital Tyre Pressure Gauge The PowerPlus Pelican Solar Powered Digital Tyre Pressue Gauge helps you maintain correct tyre pressure – essential for safe and fuel efficient driving – even in the dark. It includes a tyre tread depth gauge and a back up battery for a brighter read out at night.
10. Stirling Engine Kit A Stirling engine uses low temperature heat differentials on a volume of gas in an enclosed space. That’s the science part; your Geek will get it. This Stirling Engine kit comes flat packed and it’s almost entirely made of cardboard, except for some laser-cut aluminium and a few PVC ball bearings. It’s fiddly to assemble but will run on a cup of tea or a glass full of melting snow. A really interesting example of engine power without internal combustion.
Eco Christmas Presents for Him http://www.energyrethinking.org/lifestyle-leisure/10-eco-gift-ideas-for-him/ and Her http://www.energyrethinking.org/lifestyle-leisure/10-holiday-eco-gifts-for-her/
Sony has confirmed the worst kept secret in tech, the PlayStation licensed smart phone. The Xperia PLAY will be the latest model in Sony Ericsson’s Xperia range of Android based smart phones.
Said to deliver the smartphone functionality that the most serious power users could need, teamed with the immersive gaming experience that any gamer would want. The features will also include a 5 megapixel camera, a 4” multi-touch screen and social networking features, so it rivals most existing smart phones in the usual areas.
Slide out the gaming control and users enter a new world of immersive mobile gaming. The slide out game pad reveals a digital D pad, two analogue touch pads, two shoulder buttons and the four PlayStation icons: circle, cross, square and triangle. Qualcomm’s optimized Snapdragon processor with a 1Ghz CPU and embedded Adreno GPU graphics processor deliver 60fps play-back 3D mobile gaming and Web browsing with minimal power consumption so Xperia PLAY users can enjoy long hours of battery life and game time. How long? Up to 5hrs 35mins of game play time.
Xperia PLAY will run on Gingerbread (version 2.3) and as the first PlayStation Certified device it will have access to PlayStation game content provided through the PlayStation Suite initiative, currently under development by Sony Computer Entertainment and due to launch later this calendar year. There’s only a hint as to the games to be available so far but they include The Sims 3, FIFA 10, Guitar Hero, Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY will be available globally in selected markets from March 2011.
Here’s some specifications (and by ‘some’ I mean lots):
Xperia™ PLAY at a glance:
Sony Ericsson Xperia™ PLAY
Camera
Music
Internet
Communication
Messaging
Design
Entertainment
Organiser
Connectivity
* The service is not available in all markets.
** Requires Facebook™ application installed on the device.
Google™ services*
* These services may not be available in every market Android Market™ Client
Screen
In-Box:
Facts
Talk time and networks Networks
Networks
Colour
London’s new media and tech savvy were out in force and in the real world last week to witness Street Magician Dynamo (aka Steven Frayne) perform magic tricks in Chelsea’s JuJu bar. Bloggers and Journalists were joined by names such as Karen Millen as they looked on in disbelief, amazement and cynicism.
Dynamo’s been taking the Panasonic TA1 handheld camera on his recent journeys filming with the likes of Tinchy Stryder, the Sugababes and Keith Lemon. Billed as the new, slightly cheerier David Blaine, Dynamo first learnt magic from his grandfather
Take a look at Dynamo’s TV channel on YouTube
Back in September, RIM announced it was venturing into the tablet market with BlackBerry PlayBook. Matthew from RIM has made a short video demonstrating Blackberry Playbook vs the iPad when it comes to browsing the web.
On the video, Matthew quickly runs through a series of comparison tests with a PlayBook and iPad (running iOS 3.2.2), which demonstrate three things: the speed of the PlayBook Browser, its support for rich Flash content, and the performance of open web standards like HTML 5 on the PlayBook.
Taiwan-based technology company Shohero has introduced a power strip that protects more than just electronics. Wet Circuits resists water so that even if you get caught in a short-term flood, your appliances stay on and no one gets electrocuted. The design boasts child safety measures,as well as overheating protection, spark prevention and a lifespan four times longer than standard competitors.
Perfect for electronics in the kitchen, outdoors or anywhere else they might get splashed, the power strips sell for $70 from the Wet Circuits site.
BlackBerry makers RIM have unveiled their latest toy ‘The BlackBerry PlayBook’ and are pointing it squarely at the “let’s pretend it’s work but shh it’s actually fun” generation.
The professional-grade tablet boasts unmatched power and web performance. Perfect for either large organizations or an “army of one”, the BlackBerry PlayBook is designed to give users what they want, including uncompromised web browsing, true multitasking and high performance multimedia, while also providing advanced security features, out-of-the-box enterprise support and a breakthrough development platform for IT departments and developers.
“RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry with cutting-edge hardware features and one of the world’s most robust and flexible operating systems,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The BlackBerry PlayBook solidly hits the mark with industry leading power, true multitasking, uncompromised web browsing and high performance multimedia.”
Measuring less than half an inch thick and weighing less than a pound, the BlackBerry PlayBook, with its 7″ high resolution display is ultra portable. One of it’s main selling points is multi-tasking. Its performance is jointly fueled by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS which supports true symmetric multiprocessing.
Another of PlayBook’s big selling points is its “Uncompromised Web Browsing” with support for Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1, Adobe® Mobile AIR® and HTML-5, the BlackBerry PlayBook provides users with an uncompromised, high-fidelity web experience and offers them the ability to enjoy all of the sites, games and media on the web. For more than a decade, the mobile industry has worked to bridge the gap between the “real web” and mobile devices through various apps and technologies and, in fact, a significant number of mobile apps today still simply serve as a proxy for web content that already exists on the web. RIM are also encouraging developers and content publishers to work with them to develop applications and content.
The BlackBerry PlayBook features dual HD cameras for video capture and video conferencing that can both record HD video at the same time…possibly to capture the scene you’re looking at and the look of amazement on your face at the same time…and an HDMI-out port for presenting creations on external displays. The BlackBerry PlayBook also offers rich stereo sound.
For those BlackBerry PlayBook users who carry a BlackBerry smartphone, it will also be possible to pair the tablet and smartphone using Bluetooth. This means they can opt to use the larger tablet display to seamlessly and securely view any of the email, BBM™, calendar, tasks, documents and other content that resides on (or is accessible through) their smartphone. They can also use their tablet and smartphone interchangeably without worrying about syncing or duplicating data.
The BlackBerry Tablet OS is built upon the yummiest sounding operating system – the QNX® Neutrino® microkernel architecture. It’s been used in everything from planes, trains and automobiles to medical equipment and the largest core routers that run the Internet.
The Specifications and Key features of the BlackBerry PlayBook include:
It’s due to reach the UK for Apr 2011 [BlackBerry PlayBook]
So you bought an iPad…then the shop assistant tried to upsell to you a boring ‘executive’ case that’s so uninspiring the only thing you could think of to say was “errrm”.
Well we’ve scoured the internet to find the best-est (-sic) cases around at the moment so that you can dress your new friend.
For the eco-friendly iPad owner, LaCie’s Vegetal Sleeve is made from plant materials sourced from Europe. They feature a soya–based memory foam cushion to protect your gadget from everyday bumps, a linen exterior, and bamboo jersey lining. Comes in different sizes for laptops.
Chic 100% Felted Wool sleeve with a simple leather fastening. This high quality felt is a sustainable and renewable material and offers strength while remaining soft to the touch.
Simple, low fuss and ooh it also comes in ‘graphite’.
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Pretend your iPad is a Moleskine sketchbook if you like. The Trip opens like a book and fastens with elastic. Made from canvas with a leather trim and comes in a variety of colours.
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Pro-Tec Bamboo iPad Case, £24.95
Covers the back and edges of the case so you’re still going to need to find a way to protect the screen if you’re going out and about. If you’re using it only in the comfort of your own home then this slick eco case is ideal.
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Cool Bananas Envelope Case, £24.95
It’s in the shape of an envelope! OK, it’s not fooling anyone but at least it looks good. White leather with a soft velour lining and magnetic clasp.
Prefer it in a different colour? they’ve got it in black leather as well.
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If these don’t tickle your fancy then there are bucket loads of amazing cases on Etsy.com. Here’s just a few that will sell out really quickly…
Great Wave off Kanawaga Sleeve, £46.28
Print onto leather, lined with wool blend felt from Tinderbloom
FARRAGO Leather iPad Case with Strap, £55.54
Don’t be put off by the berry pink, it also comes in manly and neutral colours. No magnetic fastenings so you don’t need to worry about your screen going funny.
Really testing the definition of handmade, this one is so unique it comes in ‘Blown’.
