Going Green: DIY-style

Here in true ‘green’ form is a collection of the latest home made hacks to getting the most out of your gadgets.

DIY Solar iPhone Charger

This one's not for the faint at heart when it comes to soldering but a DIY guide for a MightyMintyBoost has been posted by Instructables user Honus. Although the tutorial may tax your skills the result is a nifty solar charger forged from various technical components and one Altoids tin.

Guide via Source

Lifehacker’s Top 10 Battery Hacks

Everyone wants to get the most out of their batteries. Not only does it cut costs, but extending the life of your batteries helps the environment and can significantly decrease your frustration level. Here are a few interesting pointers from the list:

• Ditch the DVDs. Spinning a video on disk is about as wasteful as spinning your tires when you consider the energy savings of running the video straight off your hard drive or a USB drive. So next time you plane on watching Snakes on a Plane on a plane, consider ripping it first
• Keep gadgets away from your hot, power-sucking legs by clipping devices to your belt. The additional heat given off by your body can impact on the longevity of your cell phone’s lithium ion battery life (though you’re not leaching enough energy to launch bolts from your hands like Ernest, it’s worth thinking about a belt clip)

A Twittering Kill-a-Watt

 

For many consumers it’s difficult to truly gauge the impact some gadgets are having on your energy consumption except as the bottom line on your hydro bill. When you factor in HDTVs, PCs, consoles, maybe a heating unit in the winter time, A/C in the summer, it can become a veritable labyrinth in terms of trying to track down the culprit behind your latest whopper of a utilities bill. Enter the Kill-a-Watt. Plug it into a wall socket, jack-in a shady appliance, and watch the digits soar.

The Kill-a-Watt tracks energy usage by the kilowatt-hour and you can track your consumption by the day, week, month, or the entire year. This is an excellent way to put things into perspective, allowing users to track their own habits, perhaps turning heads by showing just how much it’s costing to leave the television or computer running when you’re not in the room. Furthermore you can maximize the unit by plugging in your standard power bar. Ever wonder what your entire PC rig is costing you on a daily basis? And at a cool $23 on Amazon it’s almost a sure bet that this little gizmo is money in the bank. Still not satisfied?

The DYMO, a Device You May Never Need.

As far as compact discs go, they are close to obsolete thanks to the widespread availability of smaller, more durable MP3 payers- at the forefront of which is the iPod. But even in the post-CD age some music lovers find the need for discs is still there, which may be one reason for the creation of the DYMO DiscPainter. 

Spykee Robot Perfect for Your Robot Army

The MechRC Expandable Robot, Ideal for Use Against the Robot Uprising

Every day it seems like more and more robots are popping up. Industrial robots, toy robots and more--a simple Google News search for "robots" will net you more reading than you have time for. One thing is for certain, it's just a matter of time before one of those little guys decides he needs the same rights as the rest of us and then... the robot uprising will begin!

How should you deal with the robot uprising? Plan ahead by picking up your own robot, now before the uprising comes. If you raise him to respect you and your authority, you can be (reasonably) certain that he will protect you from any other robot insurgents. A good candidate for your personal robot force, would be the
OK, what does that mean?

It means that he can really move.

12 Dollar Computer for the Third World

Odds are, you've probably heard of the so-called $100 laptop from OLPC, but a $12 computer? That's just not possible, is it?Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) non-profit, back in 2005, began an attempt to make a laptop that would cost them just $100 to make and Third World governments just $100 to buy. Sadly, after two years of amazing hardware and software development, OLPC was able to produce the XO Laptop which cost them just under $200 to construct. Since they're a non-profit, OLPC began selling their XO to NGOs and Third World governments for that same $200 a pop. After all, $200 is still a good price, right?Well, the idea behind OLPC was to put computers in the hands of kids in developing nations. However, many critics felt that even $100 would be too much to charge people in many Third World countries. Now, a group of designers attending MIT's International Development Design Summit are designing a computer that they hope will cost just $12 to build.Will these uber-inexpensive computers surf the web or play your favorite YouTube videos? Probably not. The theory is that some rudimentary Internet use will be possible, but so far it's not clear how much.

Bug Labs' Swiss Army Knife of Gadgets

If you've ever wished you could tweak that handheld gadget of yours just a bit, or even a lot, to make it better meet your needs, Bug Labs has a gadget you might want to check out. Well, it's less of a "gadget" and more a gestalt of gadget-like objects. OK, you may be wondering just what the heck that even means, but when you see how the Bug platform works, you'll understand.

See, the idea is that you have a base gadget--similar to a mini-motherboard. Like a mobo, you plug other components into it and then use software that makes those components do what you want. The Bug Base allows other modules to attach onto it. You then add your own (or other folks') Java apps to make those modules do what you need them to do. The Bug has been compared to Lego for gadgets and really does give a new meaning to the phrase "plug and play."

But what modules are available and what modules are on their way?

Dock Your Hard Drive

If you're like most computer-based gearheads, it's more than a little likely that you have an extra hard drive or two just laying around taking up space and collecting dust. You might even be contemplating building a low-end homemade rig just to serve as a new home for those still functioning but probably smaller-capacitied (not really a word) drives. Or, perhaps you recently upgraded from a tower PC to a laptop and have yet to transfer all that data off of your old machine. Which ever is your issue, computer accessory company, Brando, has the perfect device to add to your computer setup: it's a dock for your old SATA hard disk drives.
Think of the dock you stick your iPod in to charge its battery or transfer media. Essentially, the Brando HDD dock is exactly like that, only bigger, for obvious reasons. It can take your full-size 3.5 inch internal hard drive or even your laptop-size 2.5 inch drive and connect it to any computer with a USB port on it. Pick up one of these and you've just put all of your old SATA drives back to work.