Hasta La Gadget!

Now here’s a smart marketing campaign. In an effort to raise awareness / interest in its 2010 Prius, Toyota planted five 18-foot tall “solar flowers” in Boston’s Prudential Plaza and provided free Wi-Fi and electricity that was “partially powered” by the solar panels attached to the petals and stem. The so-called “Harmony Between Man, Nature and Machine” just disappeared from Boston but will next germinate in New York, followed by Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. We’re not exactly in the market for a car right now, but we promise to think about it while we lovingly enjoy the free laptop charge and internet access.

[Via PhysOrg]

Read – Flickr set from Boston
Read – Schedule

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless

Toyota’s giant solar flowers popping up across US to bring good will, free WiFi, and charging stations originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Juxtaposing the manmade and the natural in artistic expression oftentimes leads to creepy results. It is no mean feat, then, that the Jerusalem night garden — built out of steel wires, laser-cut panels and 1W to 3W Power LEDs — feels like a warm and welcoming place to visit. Whether it is the clean energy source, producing 720W of electricity per hour, or the ethereal light and movement of the flowers, something about the exhibition awakens the wistful child we’ve got locked away in the Engadget dungeons. He cries out for more of this aesthetically pleasing eco-friendly design, which in this case even comes with a specially composed soundtrack. To see if you agree with such juvenile enthusiasm, check out the video after the break.

[Via inhabitat]

Continue reading Video: Solar-powered night garden fills Jerusalem with tranquility, world peace soon to follow

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Video: Solar-powered night garden fills Jerusalem with tranquility, world peace soon to follow originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You might have seen solar-powered planes before, but few of them come with as much world-changing ambition as the Solar Impulse. Launched in 2003, the project aims to demonstrate the viability of renewable energy sources by being the first to perform a manned flight around the globe using only solar power. The technology is nothing to scoff at, as the 200-foot wingspan features 12,000 photovoltaic solar cells bringing power to four electric motors. Captain Bertrand Piccard, one of the key men behind this project, is best known as one half of the first team to circumnavigate the world in a balloon in 1999. He hopes, together with partner André Borschberg, to repeat that achievement in Solar Impulse’s next iteration, the HB-SIB, in 2012. Make it so, guys.

[Via Gizmag]

Filed under: Transportation

Captain Piccard unveils Solar Impulse HB-SIA solar-powered plane originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been hearing about the Samsung Blue Earth — an eco-phone, if you will — since way back at MWC. Now CNET‘s finally gotten its hands on one at CommunicAsia in Singapore, and we have to say that we’re pretty intrigued with what we’re seeing. The back of the phone is covered with a solar panel, and Samsung says that one hour of sunning time for the mobile equals about 10 minutes of talk time. The handset also has a built-in pedometer to count steps for the Eco Walk carbon footprint app — certainly something prospective buyers of the Blue Earth might be interested in. We still don’t know full specs, pricing or availability for the phone, but we’ll let you know when we do. Hit the read link for a video.

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Blue Earth finally gets a hands-on treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Solar-powered LCDs? Oh, yeah — we’ve got those. Sadly, that’s not at all what Integrated Digital Technologies is aiming to improve upon next week at Computex, though we still find its approach to trimming LCD weight and manufacturing costs an interesting one. If we’re digesting this correctly, we’re hearing that the outfit plans to create interactive displays (or iScreens) that have embedded solar cells in the TFT array rather than extra film or glass with photo sensors. The result? A cost savings of up to 30 percent in manufacturing, not to mention a rather significant decrease in weight. Without any images to go by, it’s still a wee bit tough to really wrap our heads around this new take, but hopefully we’ll see more next week in Taiwan.

[Via TG Daily]

Filed under: Displays

IDT to swap solar cells into LCDs, but not for energy reasons originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 09:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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