Greener Gadgets Design Competition 2009

Core77 has launched the Greener Gadgets Design Competition 2009 in collaboration with CEA to generate outstanding design innovations for greener electronics. The Greener Gadgets Conference’s event was introduced in January 2008 and was a tremendous success, drawing over 1000 entries from all around the world. The Winner who took away $3000 was Tweet-a-Watt, a twittering power meter. The eco gadget is a Kill-a-Watt with a capacitor and transmitter added that would Tweet your current power usage using a nearby computer or wireless Arduino mini PC. A large capacitor that charges, transmits, and then discharges over time is then used to power the transmitter, after which an XBee module come into action to transmit the information read by the Kill-a-Watt, giving you an up-to-the-minute reading of your energy usage.

The Global Green Challenge

The Global Green Challenge, an evolution of the acclaimed World Solar Challenge introduced by the South Australian Tourism Commission completed ten years of its existence this year. This solar car event is the world’s leading, cross-continental showcase of the latest advances in hybrid, electric, solar, low emission, and alternative energy vehicles. The Tokai University team was declared the winners after defeating 30 competitors from 13 countries. Driven by Dakar rally champion Kenjiro Shinozuka, the one-passenger solar car equipped with Sharp compound solar cells covered 3,000-kilometer race from Darwin in northern Australia to Adelaide in South Australia at an average speed of about 100 kilometers per hour. The six square meters of solar panels covering the streamlined car made it possible to win the race by moving at an average speed of 100.54 km per hour.

Green life competition

A competition to encourage green design and lifestyle was conducted by designboom in partnership with Incheon metropolitan city, Korea recently. Dubbed as the Green Life competition, the contest saw nearly 3709 participants from 96 countries. Among the 200 shortlisted projects, Thermodynamic cooler and Murakami chair design by Rochus Jacob from USA took away the prize. The thermodynamic cooler consists of two pots, one placed inside the other and the space between the two pots is filled with wet glass-foam, a waste product of the glass recycling process. Food gets preserved by the cooling effect of evaporating water in the glass-foam between the two pots.

The Murakami chair uses the advanced nano-dynamo technology, which is built in to the skids of the chair. An OLED fitted reading lamp consumes the electricity produced by the rocking motion of the chair. During daylight, the energy gets stored in a battery pack that can be used to power the lamp.

Solar Decathlon

The Solar Decathlon, an international collegiate contest designed to spur students to pursue careers in science and engineering, encourage the development of green technologies and raise public awareness of energy efficiency issues, this year had 20 teams giving tough competition to each other. Run by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Solar Decathlon 2009 took place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Winner of the prize in 2007, Team Germany has yet again proved its talent this year by winning the competition for the second time. This year the team started with a focus on the façade, creating a house that is essentially a two-story cube. The surface of the structure is completely covered by solar panels that are completely covered by solar panels. It also features automated louver-covered windows and a boiler integrated into the heat pump system that allows the system to provide domestic hot water as well as heating and cooling. The 24-member team consisting of many Technische Universitat Darmstadt architecture students has put in $650,000 to $850,000 for the construction.

Best of best from last year’s best green competitions

It’s the best time to take a look back at the best of the best things that happened this year. A number of green competitions were held this year and a number of entries managed to make an impression. Designers and companies from around the world came up with some really innovative and eco-friendly ideas, concepts and products. Here we, T4 team will bring to you the winners from the best green competitions held in 2009. stay tuned~

Eco Gadgets: Design Hara’s green computer features non-toxic materials

Eco Factor: Energy-saving computer made from sustainable materials.
Industrial designers have envisioned computers that generate renewable energy for power and are made using green materials. However, most of these green computers remain only on paper due to the lack of adequate technology. Hailing from Korea, Design Hara has come up with a custom and hand-built computer that looks like a modern space heater and boasts some green credentials as well.

The energy-efficient computer is claimed to use only 60Wh of electricity and is made using sustainable materials like Canadian rosewood or Italian cypress that are treated with non-toxic finishes. The computer boats an Intel Core2Duo processor, 4GB of RAM that can be upgraded to 8GBs and a solid state 1TB hard drive.

How to choose a good laptop that suit you?

Laptop is a everyday social tool used by everyone. There are hundred and thousand type of laptop scatted all over the world. Since there are so many people asking for my opinion on which laptop should they choose? So, here am I, gonna tell ya on how to choose a right laptop for yourself.

Need
There are hundred type of laptop exist with their own purpose. Some are gaming laptop, some are for multitasking, some just multimedia type laptop. So, it is important to know what your career needy and how you want your new laptop to behave. A multitasking laptop? A gaming laptop? Or just some simple everyday e-mailing and paperwork purpose?

Performance
A serious buyer would consider their performance of their new laptop. How power their processor? How much RAM the laptop have? Does the graphic card sufficient to their need? A 500GB of hard disk space enough for their data storage? This all need to be take into consideration when purchasing a new laptop.

Durability and warranty
The durability of a laptop also is taking into consideration when making a mind onto a laptop. Some laptop is protected with anti-shaking technology, some even use a solid state hard disk drive for better durability. You definitely don't want your laptop to stop function after a drop or short-circuit after dropping a cup of coffee onto it. Beside that, every laptop comes with 1 year local warranty, it is advisable to upgrade to 3 year local warranty because each laptop is designed to last till at least 1 year and there might be some slightly problem after using it for a long time. You won't want to spend hell lot of your penny on fixing it aren't you?

Style
Many people took this in their consideration when choosing a laptop. Each laptop have their own unique style that represent the identity of users who use them. A laptop that it's style suit you definitely make you feel good when using it.