eco-friendly

The aesthetics of the modern keyboard reminds me of the U.S. car industry several years ago: uninspired.

Enter the Orée wooden keyboard, nearly made in full out of Mother Nature's greatest asset. French entrepreneur Julien Salanave came up with Orée and works in collaboration with a small design team in southern France to produce the wooden Bluetooth 3.0 wireless keyboard. … Read more

So, how difficult is it to make a low-power-consumption monitor? Well, if this list is any indication, not very. However, among the lowest of low-power-consumption monitors, there's usually one common factor: Twisted Nematic (TN) panels.

Any company can make a low-power-consumption TN-based monitor, though, so a list consisting of only TN monitors would be pretty boring. What would be slightly less boring is a list consisting of In-Plane Switching (IPS) monitors that draw relatively small amounts of power to function. That is a list to get somewhat more excited about. So, I've decided to make that list.

To be clear, the difference you'd pay per year running these things -- using our formula -- is small in the grand scheme of things.

Still, I thought it would be interesting to see just how low IPS monitors can go.… Read more

It's earning eco cred with its lower-impact packaging and build, but tree huggers aren't the only ones who will eye the Samsung Replenish for Boost Mobile.

Budget-followers will also gravitate toward Boost's first smartphone priced at about a hundred bucks, a rock-bottom cost for a market where prepaid smartphones typically cost between $200 and $300.

The Android 2.3 Gingerbread device has a candy bar shape that supports a full QWERTY keyboard. It also has a 2.8-inch touch screen and a 2-megapixel camera with video capture, among the other Android goodies like access to Google's apps and services.

The Replenish, which was initially released last spring for Sprint, also hosts Mobile ID, the offshoot of Sprint ID that offers packs of thematic apps, wallpaper, and so on to install on your phone in one fell swoop.

The Replenish becomes available for Boost on January 16, for $99.99.… Read more

Ford's spin on "reduce, reuse, and recycle" includes your old blue jeans.

The auto maker today announced that the 2012 Focus, on sale early next year in North America and Europe, will use cotton from recycled clothing for carpet backing and sound-absorption materials inside the car. These materials will supposedly provide a much quieter cabin.

"Ford is continually looking for greener alternatives," said Carrie Majeske, product sustainability manager. "Recycled content is a way to divert waste from landfills and reduce the impact of mining virgin material."… Read more

Yes, Earth Day is this week, and I know a lot of you tree-huggers out there--those of you who own computers--are probably collectively rolling your eyes at all the eco/green/energy-conscious coverage on the Internets this week.

Speaking for myself, your poser-sensing skills would be right on the money. While I'm no Dr. Blight or anything, I'm not as earth-conscious as I could be in my everyday life.

As a nominal method of atonement, I'll attempt to steer you toward some monitors that should make a positive difference in your overall carbon footprint and definitely save … Read more

I had a few ideas about how to end this week's look at the Toyota Prius. I could have continued presenting videos on the many neat features that Toyota is pioneering with the Prius. Usually on Fridays, I like to bring something a little more entertaining to the table, so I decided against that approach and came up with a video that I didn't know existed.

Most media reports praise the Prius and tend to proclaim Toyota's hybrid car flag-bearer as the most eco-friendly and economical car that money can buy. But Jeremy Clarkson, star of the … Read more

I assume most people who are reading this watched the big game on Sunday, right? Then you probably saw the cute commercial during the second half that depicted "The Green Police" cracking down on people for using environmentally unsound products. But apparently the eco-cops approve of the 2010 Audi A3 TDI Diesel--after all, it was named Green Car of the Year by Green Car Journal. Earlier this week we got a chance to get the low down on what the A3 TDI clean diesel hybrid is all about. But we've yet to see what it's like … Read more

A 60 second commercial during the big game on Sunday made a name for what has been called the "2010 Green Car of the Year," the Audi A3 TDI, which is a "clean diesel" hybrid car that plans to take on the Stateside market as well as the European market. Yesterday, the editor of Green Car Journal gave us his reasons as to why the A3 TDI was worthy of its eco-friendly car champion status, I'm sure that many of you would like to know a little more about this hot topic car, and therefore … Read more

Six months ago, I had an exclusive First Look at Marvell's prototype plug-in computer, the SheevaPlug. Ever since, dozens of companies have contacted me about their applications. Most recently, CNET reviewed the Pogoplug from Cloud Engines.

That said, it didn't surprise me when Marvell announced Tuesday that 10,000 SheevaPlug units featuring Marvell CPU technology have shipped.

To celebrate this milestone, Marvell also announced Tuesday the launch of its worldwide Plug Computer developer competition, called "Free Your Imagination," to award the most innovative Plug Computing concept submitted.

You can participate or find out more about this … Read more