Joy of Gadgets

There’s a lot of water in the air, waiting to be claimed. For places that have water issues, bringing that water out of their air and into your body would certainly be nice.

That’s exactly what the WaterMill claims to: convert between 10% and 40% of that water vapor into clear, clean, drinkable water. To the tune of 12 liters a day. And it should do real well in places that need it, too.

I will have to admit, I’m having a hard time buying the claims of Element Four. The part that concerns me is that extracting upwards of 40% from the air worldwide likely will have some impact, whether or not the folks from Element Four think so or not. I also wonder how much electricity issded by the WaterMill as well. Not so much for me, of course, but certainly the intended recipients will care.

The product is now available as of yet. The store link for the side gives a message saying they will open Summer 2008. Hate to break it to you, but we’re half way through fall. Where’s the store? What’s it cost?

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I have to give GreenEcoMobility, a Chrysler company, some credit for coming up with a plug-in hybrid called the Peapod. It’s a start, but barely.

The car comes in 2, 4, and 6 person models. Takes 6 hours to charge on a standard 110v plug. The range is about 30 miles with a top speed of 25 mph. Around here, I’d be getting my ass run over if I drove that slow!

Theoretically, it will be in production in 2009, but is this the right car? Need about thrice the speed and range. Then we’re talking something I might buy.

Via TechEBlog, DVICE, Dezeen

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Can’t afford the Tesla Roadster, one of the few plug-in automobiles in existance? How about instead of an over $100,000 plug-in car, an $8,000 motorcycle that plugs in.

Yup, that’s what the folks at Electric Motorsport are selling in their Electric GPR-S. While I was occasionally on the back of my dad’s motorcycle as a kid, I don’t know much about them myself. However, I do know that this particular motorcycle can go up to 70 mph and get somewhere between 35 and 60 miles on a single charge, depending on how hard you drive it. The recharge time is 4 hours, or it can be brought down to 1.5 hours if you spend extra on the speed charger.

I suppose this is for the more adventurous green types among us. Me? I can’t see myself in one of these, considering how wet things can be up in my neck of the woods. Maybe in a climate that is more dry than the Puget Sound.

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A while ago, when I was writing for Gadgets Weblog, I reviewed the Solio H1000 Universal Hybrid Charger. At $79.95, it seemed a bit pricey. Especially since I could never get the solar part of the charging to work very well.

Meanwhile, Mark Guim over at The Nokia Blog got a Solar Cell Charger by Daylight Savings. Unlike the Solio H1000, which required special cables, this appears to use standard USB cables both for charging–in case you live someplace where the sun never shines–and for the compatible charging tips for phones.

The battery in this bad boy is 1200mAh, which is enough to fully charge the Nokia N95 8GB that I typically carry. However, I will likely have to heed Mark’s warning about the included charging cables being too short and use the Nokia CA-100 cables I already keep handy.

I ordered one of these guys because the price was fantastic–$24.99 including shipping. We’ll see how the solar panels fare up here in the Pacific Northwest.

Lotus Engineering is developing a car that is kind of an omnivore! It will be powered by conventional gasoline, less conventional but mainstream ethanol, or the relatively new and unheard of methanol. It will, in Lotus tradition, perform quite well with a 0-60 speed of 3.88 seconds!

Theoretically, methanol (CH₃OH) can be produced using CO₂ from our atmosphere and Hydrogen. In reality, it will take a while to figure out how to do it on an industrial scale. Given how long it will take to establish an alternative fuel network anywhere near as extensive as our current gas stations–not to mention coming up with a fuel that can be produced inexpensively on an industrial scale–flex fuel cars like this offer the ability to take advantage of the best of both worlds.

Via gizmag