It’s hard enough being tied to your cell phone without having to worry about getting the “Low Battery Icon of Death” right in the middle of an important task – and charging up via wall outlets takes forever. Eesha Khare of Saratoga, California has invented a device that could wipe away battery bothers with a supercapacitor that can charge your phone in 20 seconds. Her research won her a $50,000 prize in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Read the rest of Eighteen-Year-Old Invents Device That Can Charge Your Cell Phone in 20 Seconds

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Arizona, battery, California, cell phone, charger, eesha khare, intel international science and engineering fair, led light, phoenix, saratoga, supercapacitor, tesla, young scientist award

In an emergency situation, the last thing you need to worry about is whether or not your cell phone has enough charge to make a call. The SpareOne Emergency Phone is a mobile phone that operates on a single AA battery, and it can hold its charge for up to 15 years without replacement. The phone has 10 hours of talk time, and it works wherever there is a GSM cell tower. SpareOne can also function in more extreme temperatures than the average smartphone with a range of -22F-140F, and the phone doubles as a flashlight that can shine for 24 hours of continuous light.

Read the rest of SpareOne Emergency Phone Squeezes 15 Years of Battery Life and 10 Hours of Talk Time From a Single AA

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: AA battery, cell phone, flashlight, gsm tower, Hurricane Sandy, rebuilding together, sim card, spareone, spareone emergency phone

While some teens are twiddling their thumbs away on their phone, checking out Facebook, other teens like 17-year old Catherine Wong are using cell phones to build life-saving devices for developing nations. Wong, a New Jersey native, visited her local retailer and purchased some off-the-shelf electronics which she used to build an inexpensive electrocardiogram machine to track heart activity. But it doesn’t end there – the enterprising teen fashioned the device to wirelessly send the data collected to a Java-enabled cell phone app and then on to a diagnosing physician — all in real time.

Read the rest of 17-Year Old Builds a Heart Monitor from a Simple Cell Phone

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Catherine Wong, cell phone, cell phone heart monitor, cell phone heart monitor app, Design for Health, heart monitor

Putting your hand up to your ear with thumb and pinky extended is a universal sign for talking on the phone, but what if we told you that you could actually talk on the phone by talking into your hand? Inventor Bryan Cera has come up with Glove One, a 3D-printed gauntlet that doubles as a working cellphone. The prototype features touch keys on the underside of each finger, plus a speaker and mic on the thumb and pinky. Glove One, explains Cera, is a “cellphone which, in order to use, one must sacrifice their hand.” Head over to Ecouterre to view a video of this amazing new gizmo.

READ MORE >

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: 3D printed glove, Bryan Cera, cell phone, Glove One, green tech, hand phone, mobile phone, wearable technology

OK, early adopters: You want to spring for the latest phone or tablet, but your old one is still in great condition. What to do? Instead of holding onto those old electronics, or trying to pawn them off on friends or family, you can sell them back to an electronics wholesaler for cold, hard cash. With Instant Sale, eBay’s electronics buy-back site, you can unload your unwanted gadgets for fast money, and your old electronics will be resold or recycled. Even really old gadgets that can’t be resold (because they are so old) can be recycled at Ebay’s Instant Sale site, so you know they’re going to a good place (at least a better place than that cardboard box in your closet).

Read the rest of Get Fast Cash by Recycling Your Used Gadgets with eBay’s Instant Sale Site

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: apple, Apple Computers, cell phone, ebay, Ebay Instant Sale, electronics recycling, electronics swap, gadget recycling, instant sale, iPad, ipad wifi 64gb, iPhone, iphone 3g, iphone 4, mac, macbook pro, magic mouse, mobile device, mobile phone, recycling your gadgets, sell your used electronics, smartphones, trade up your electronics, trade your gadgets

At one point we’ve all done it – spilt a drink over a laptop, gotten our tablets soaked in the rain, or even dropped our phone in the toilet. Water has always been the bane of electronics, however American company Liquipel just announced that they have developed a way to completely waterproof our devices against the elements. Using a revolutionary process, Liquipel applies a hydrophobic nanocoating to your devices that completely waterproofs it and protects it against accidental exposure to liquids.

Read the rest of Liquipel’s Hydrophobic Nanocoating Makes Gadgets Completely Waterproof!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: cell phone, iPhone, liquipel, liquipel waterproof, mobile phone, mobile phone samsung, nanocoating gadgets, waterproof cell phone, waterproof nanocoat, waterproofing gadgets

The ever-evolving transition from cell phones to smart phones has most of us itching for the latest model. But what to do when we want an upgrade that goes lighter on the earth? Sprint may have the answer with their new smartphone – touted as the first eco-friendly Android device. A combination of recycled materials, solar charging and the Android 2.2 Froyo platform makes the Samsung Replenish is the eco-answer for today’s smart device.

Read the rest of Sprint Introduces Replenish, the First Eco-Friendly Android Smartphone

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: cell phone, eco design, green design, Recycled Materials, smart device, solar battery, solar charger, Sprint Replenish, sustainable design

NTT Docomo‘s new advertisement for the TOUCH WOOD smart phone features a delightful wooden xylophone in the forest and is an uplifting departure from other images coming out of Japan. TOUCH WOOD cell phones, which we’ve written about before,  are made from scrap wood, so it makes sense that this ad should use a tree-filled backdrop. Check out the giant xylophone in action in the video above.


Read the rest of Docomo Builds Gigantic Wooden Rube Goldberg Xylophone in the Forest

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: cell phone, cleantech, Docomo, green gadgets, green technology, Japan, Recycled Materials, recycled wood, scrap wood, sustainable design, three-dimension compression technology, xylophone

Even if you don’t consider yourself a full-fledged greenie, solar power is worth looking into when it comes to gadgetry. Solar powered gadgets are super-convenient – allowing you access to a renewable electricity source on the go, and they are battery-saving, time-saving and oftentimes life-saving when you’re in a bind! If you’ve ever experienced the agony and frustration of having your cell-phone or camera battery die right when you need it most, we’ve got some suggestions for you. There are a whole slew of sun-powered chargers and other useful solar gizmos that will kick the dead-battery problem to the curb once and for all. Check out our list of the top 7 solar-powered gadgets here!

READ MORE >

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "solar energy", cell phone, iPhone, ipod, LED, nokero, samsung guru, solar, solar camera strap, Solar Power, solar surge

If you’re always losing your cell and want a centralized place to tuck it away, or if you hate having to put your phone on the floor while you charge it, why not make a neat little charging station for it out of an old lotion bottle? You’ve probably seen similar cradles selling on the internet for upwards of $10, but fashioning your own is a simple DIY way to reuse something you already have while saving on shipping costs and packaging. Plus you can say you did it with your own two hands!

Read the rest of DIY: Make a Cell Phone Charging Station from an Old Bottle

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: cell phone, cell phone charging station, cell phone cradle, DIY, do it yourself, eco design, green design, mobile phone, Recycled Materials, recycling, sustainable design

The moment that smartphone geeks have been waiting for is finally here: Apple has just unveiled the fourth generation iPhone at today’s WWDC conference in San Francisco. At a diminutive 9.3 mm thick, the svelte new device is 25% thinner than the 3GS, significantly lighter, and it boasts a long-lasting battery that boosts call time up to 7 hours — but is it green?

Read the rest of Apple’s New iPhone 4 is Ultra Thin, Light – But is it Green?

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: apple, cell phone, green design, Greener Gadgets, iPhone, iphone 4, smartphone, sustainable design, sustainable electronics, wwdc

Nokia has released a pedal powered cell phone charger kit slated for developing nations where the power supply is limited, unreliable or expensive. The kit includes a bottle-dynamo, like the ones used to power a bike light, plus a cell phone holder that attaches to the handlebars. Nokia hopes to begin selling the kits by the end of 2010 for around 15 euros in countries that have a large bicycling population. These dynamos are great sources of renewable and human power and make it that much easier for people to want to choose biking as their main mode of transportation.

Read the rest of Nokia Unveils Bike-Powered Cell Phone Chargers

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: bike charger, bike-powered cell phone charger, cell phone, dynamo, eco design, Eco Travle, green design, green gadget, Greener Gadgets, human power, Nokia, pedal power, sustainable design

Have you ever wished that your car windshield or cell phone camera could pierce through the night and turn darkness into day? Then get ready: researchers at the University of Florida have figured out a way to create ultra lightweight, thin, and inexpensive night vision devices that use minimal amounts of electricity. The research, described in a recent edition of Advanced Materials, uses the same technology found in flat screen TVs to generate a thin film that turns visible light into infrared light.

Read the rest of Coming Soon: Cheap, Thin, Energy-Efficient Night Vision Glasses

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "energy efficiency", cell phone, infrared, night vision, night vision goggles, university of florida

We were excited last year when Sprint released the Reclaim, an 80% recyclable bio-plastic based cell phone. The Reclaim was so successful that now Sprint is back with a new, improved green cell phone – the Restore, an 84% recyclable phone with an outer casing that contains 27% post-consumer recycled plastic!

Read the rest of New Samsung Restore Cell Phone is 84% Recyclable!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: cell phone, eco design, green design, recycling, samsung restore, sprint, Sustainability

Telecom giant Nokia recently filed a patent for a cell phone powered by kinetic energy (one of our favorite kinds of energy here at Inhabitat!). The conceived phone would charge via built-in piezoelectric generators that will convert the user’s motions into power. Now, we’ve seen a ton of kinetic gadget concepts, but the fact that Nokia is taking interest and has gone so far as to file a patent is significant evidence that we may soon be seeing these types of electronics hit the market.

Read the rest of Nokia Files Patent for Kinetically Charged Cell Phone

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: cell phone, eco cell phone, green cellular, green design, Greener Gadgets, kinetic energy, kinetically powered cell phone, Nokia, sustainable design

As a general rule, cell phone batteries are costly, resource-intensive, and difficult to dispose of properly. So why not ditch them and run our cell phones on soda? That’s the thinking behind designer Daizi Zheng’s concept phone for Nokia. Instead of running on traditional batteries, the concept phone uses a bio battery that generates electricity from carbohydrates.

Read the rest of Nokia Concept Phone Runs on Coke

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: batteries, cell phone, Coca Cola, Coke, green design, Nokia, sustainable design

We’ve covered wooden gadgets before, but NTT Docomo‘s TOUCH WOOD concept phone is possibly the first wood-encased smart phone ever. The phone, developed in conjunction with Sharp, Olympus, and a reforestation project called “more trees,” contains surplus wood from forest-thinning operations in the Kochi prefecture of Japan.

Read the rest of NTT Docomo Reveals Scrap Wood Cell Phone Concept

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: cell phone, Japan, ntt docomo, touch wood, wooden phone

The hot hand-held gadget of choice may not be the iPhone for much longer – if this wearable and solar powered wrist phone comes to market, everyone on the streets may soon be sporting it. Inspired by photosynthesis, the Leaf is a wearable phone concept created by Seungkyn Woo and Junyi Heo. The flexible device incorporates solar cells into the front and is capable of rolling up into the form of a wristwatch so that users can wear it and keep it charged while they’re on the move.

Read the rest of Wearable Solar-Powered Leaf Phone Charges on the Go

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: bracelet, bracelet phone, cell phone, flexible cell phone, Solar Power, solar powered cell phone, solar-powered

There were whispers all week that Sony Ericsson would be releasing a line of eco-friendly cellphones today – and it turns out that the rumors were true. The telecom giant debuted 2 new green handsets, the Naite and the C901 cybershot phone in a live webcast that took place at 1PM GMT in London today. The sleek new phones are tangible manifestations of the GreenHeart concept phone, which Sony Ericsson came up with way back in 2008 as its way of letting consumers know that it, too, was on the green bandwagon. Those who doubted that the GreenHeart concept would ever come to fruition need not wonder any longer as Sony Ericsson is just about ready to bring their new eco-friendly phones to the market.

Read the rest of Sony Ericsson Debuts New Eco-Phones: C901 and Naite

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: c901, cell phone, eco-phone, green cell phone, greenheart, naite, sony ericsson

Most of our modern-day gadgets are swathed in plastic or other high-tech materials, and why wouldn’t they be? Plastic is both cheap and easy to produce. But English Russia‘s display of wooden gadgets shows that sometimes the most elegant items are the simplest.

Read the rest of Wood-Covered Gadgets Take It Old School

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: antique, cell phone, cell phones, clocks, gadgets, Greener Gadgets, russian english, Wood, wood-covered gadgets