And if Obama gets his way there will be one million electric vehicles to get used by 2015. With cars like the Nissan Leaf electronic travel is fast becoming a reality. But like all new technology there’s problems. The obvious issue is the lack of electric pumps at garages, and something you may not have considered, the noise of an electric car, or rather, the lack of noise.

We all know to look left and right, but as well as our eyes it’s also our ears that keep is in one piece when crossing roads. The University of California have found that an internal combustion engine (i.e. a standard car engine) can be heard 36 feet away, but the electric car is only audible 11 feet away. If you’re view is obscured you can imagine the problem a silent car could pose.

In order to combat the issue plans are being considered to put the type of warning beeps used by large trucks and vans. You know the noise, then one that nasty people use to bully the fat friends.

Warning Beeps Will be Installed In Electronic Cars is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

BMW is striving to create the zero emissions vehicles of tomorrow and to help it in this task it has handed over forty electric MINI E cars to their test drivers, who are all members of the public. This field trial will evaluate the psychological, social and technical aspects of living with an electric car. The findings will be used to help guide power providers, policy makers and component manufacturers in their decision making about the cars of the future.

The front wheel drive, two-seater MINI E uses a single-stage helical gearbox which powers the MINI E seamlessly to 62 mph in 8.5 seconds and on to an electronically limited top speed of 95 mph. Although based on the familiar MINI Hatch the MINI E is a two-seater because the space normally used by rear passengers is reserved for the lithium-ion battery.

This state-of-the-art rechargeable battery unit combines high output with ample storage capacity and a remarkable power output. A full recharge draws a maximum of 28 kilowatt hours of electricity from the grid. Each kilowatt hour translates into 5.4 miles giving the MINI E a theoretical range of over 150 miles.

What do you think? Are electric cars really the future? Are the days of the petrol station numbered?

BMW Starts Trialling Electric MINI is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

The charger uses a micro-USB port to connect to the phone, this type of plug is already used on some phones and on many digital cameras. It will mean that any phone, which uses this standard, can be recharged on your computer, from a wall socket or in your car using a single universal cable and accessories.

The only sad thing is that it is not compulsory for manufacturers to adopt the new chargers but the ITU says that some (like Sony Ericsson) have already signed up to it.

Waste
It is estimated that 51,000 tonnes of redundant chargers are generated each year as people tend to throw away their old charger when they upgrade to a new phone. What would be great is if mobile phone companies and networks gave discounts to people who don’t take a new charger with their phone but continue to use their existing universal charger. Of course it will take a few years for this to happen as no one has the universal chargers yet!

Another good thing is that these chargers are energy-efficient (they have a 4-star or higher efficiency rating making them up to three times more energy-efficient than unrated chargers) and it is estimated that they will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 13.6m tonnes.

“Information and communication technologies are an essential element of an effective Copenhagen climate agreement,” says Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré.

[See also BBC]

At Last a Universal Phone Charger And It’s an International Standard is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

The Comet scheme, which is similar in idea to the government car scrappage scheme, gives shoppers a 20% discount of up to £200 on over 340 discounted new appliances. Customers will be able to get their old model collected and recycled free of charge.

But you have to be quick, the program which is run in partnership with BSH Home Appliances Ltd, is available for a limited time only, from Thursday 10 September until Monday 14 September. But there are rumours that it may be extended.

This scheme comes after the British Retail Consortium (BRC) recently called for an appliance scrappage scheme similar to the car industry style scrappage scheme for appliances. The BRC also called for the removal of VAT on energy efficient products.

Comet Encourages Consumers To Switch To More Energy Efficient Appliances With Scrappage Scheme is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

These walkie talkies have the added bonus of being charged not by electricity (bad for the environment), nor by the sun (we are in the UK after all), nor by a set of AAs (no one ever has spares).

Instead, all you need to do to get these guys going is wind them up, like you would a member of an opposing football team.

The wind handle simply flicks out from the back of each walkie talkie and you’re set for a mini-workout.

Cranking away for just a minute will give you 10 minutes of standby or 2 minutes of talk time. If you’ve gotten into the groove,  a full charge will give you 8 hours of standby or 1 1/2 hours of gasbagging.

These walkie talkies don’t just come with access to radio waves. You also get an LCD display screen, a range of 3Km and 8 channels to chose from.

Back to the original question of actually using these eco gadgets. With global roaming rates hardly falling in price, these walkie talkies can save you a mint when trying to find your mates in a nightclub in Spain.

If you’re out and about on the festival scene, you can also use these gadgets to keep track of which tent has the best bands going and see who in your possy is checking them out.

If push comes to shove and you think winding something up is so 1920s, there is also a mains adaptor which you can use to charge up your secret agent devices.

On sale for £53.99, these walkie talkies are an investment that could come in handy year after year.

Source: iWoot (via Gadgets For Men)

Wind Up Walkie Talkies: MI5 Goes Green is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

To celebrate the two big occasions, money4urmobile.com is offering an extra £10 when you recycle your old iPhone and an extra £5 when you recycle any other phone, if you send in your old model before Wednesday July 8.

This means that if you’ve been thinking about uprgading your iPhone to pocket the latest version, you can make a cool £222 for recycling your ye olde second generation.

It does still need to be working to earn this amount, but even if your iPhone has had its day, you can still pocket up to 90 per cent of its full value.

Not bad if all you would otherwise do with your old handset is throw it out or attract serious eBay fees.

By recycling your handset, you further divert potentially toxic electronic waste away from landfill as is the usual case when phones are binned.

If you’ve been carrying around a brick of a phone and are tempted by the extra cash, it’s worth checking your phone out on money4urmobile.com first as you can only score an extra fiver if your phone value is over £6 in the first place.

It’s worth noting that this promo is only available in the UK and is on a per order basis, not per phone.

To cash in on this deal, simply log on to www.money4urmobile.com and enter one of the below promo codes:

iPhone code: iphone
All other phones insert M4M002

For more mobile phone recycling site options, check out our top deals list.

Earn an Extra £10 to Recycle Your Old Mobile: Voucher Code is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Much like a Malibu resident, the phone needs to hit the sun’s rays for a good 40 hours to fully charge its battery, which all sounds great in terms of saving the environment, but it may not be as straightforward as that.

According to SonyEricsson’s GreenHeart project:

As long as there is no breakthrough in manufacturing or efficiency it is not beneficial to put a solar cell on a phone from environmental point of view.

Big statement. Sony Ericsson say that current solar cells that can be fitted to a phone will not generate enough energy in their lifetime to compensate for the energy it took to produce them.

This is because solar cells are made out of silicon which uses a lot of energy to produce. Malibu residents take note again.

It’s an interesting point as while the solar cell on the Samsung E1107 is aimed at developing countries with more access to UV rays than electrical currents, it has also been seen as a step in the right direction environmentally which may not be the case after all.

To provide people with unreliable electricity supplies the chance to always carry a charged mobile phone, the E1107 will do a great job. To save the planet, it looks like all mobile phone developers still need to think outside the solar-charged box to go green.

More info:
Samsung
Sony Ericsson Greenheart

Solar Panels On Mobiles Not Environmentally Friendly is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Samsung has unveiled a new mobile phone, which is designed for emerging markets (meaning less wealthy countries), that can be charged by the power of the sun. The Samsung E1107 looks like a normal mobile phone but when you flip it on its back it has a solar panel.

The handset has a 800 mAh battery that can be charged with the AC adapter provided but it can also be charged with Solar power. About 1 hour of exposure to the sun gives between 5 and 10 minutes of talk time and 40 hours are need to fully charge the phone.

The phone which resembles the Samsung E1100 is quite simple and has a spartan feature list:

• Dual-band GSM connectivity (900/1800 MHz)
• 1.52 inch CSTN display with 128 x 128 pixels and 65K colors
• FM Radio
• MP3 ringtones
• Built-in flashlight
• Mobile Tracker

The mobile tracker feature automatically sends alerts whenever the SIM card is changed as well as sending SOS messages during an emergency.

Although the E1107 is mainly designed for rural areas of developing countries where the electricity supply can be unreliable, this can be a great mobile phone for those who enjoy the outdoors. Now you can go camping, hiking or even just spend time at the beach without having to worry about the mobile phone going flat. Also if you are like certain members of my family who seem to have a gift for forgetting to charge their phones, leaving the E1107 near a window while not in use could mean that the days of battery low warning beeps are gone!

The full name of the E1107 is the ‘Samsung E1107 Crest Solar’ and it will be available starting this month, in Southeast and Southwest Asia, Europe and Latin America. The only pricing available at the moment is that it will cost about USD $59 in India, which translates roughly to £37 for the UK.

Samsung Releases Low End Phone With Solar Panel For Recharging is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Nokia boffins have created a phone able to power itself from ambient radiowaves. This means that it can charge itself up from the weak TV, radio, wi-fi and mobile phone signals that constantly surround us.

Granted the power captured by this means is on the small side but it is almost enough to power a mobile in standby mode without ever having to plug it in for more juice.

Eventually, Nokia wants to use this technology to charge a phone completely from a dead battery. To do this, it will need to harvest 50 milliwatts of power.

Currently prototypes can harvest 3 to 5 milliwatts, so there’s still a bit of a way to go before you can rely on watching Emmerdale to keep your handset charged.

Nokia researcher Markku Rouvala said that the concept is based on the idea behind an RFID tag – converting electromagnetic waves into an electrical signal. It is also the same concept as London’s Oyster cards that power themselves from radiowaves emitted by the reader devices when they are swiped.

While Nokia say that this development is still in early stages, it believes that new wirelessly powered handsets could be in stores in as little as three years’ time.

Source: Guardian

Nokia Develops Phones That Charge Themselves is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

This finding comes as part of Sony Ericsson’s research into its new GreenHeart programme, which is designed to make the future SE handset range more environmentally friendly.

A green entry-level phone has a lifecycle of around 18kg  of CO2 emissions. A similarly green smartphone can only get down to 25/30kgs in its lifetime.

Because of a heavier reliance on glass, touchscreen handsets can’t make use of recycled plastics as handsets with smaller screens can.

Touchscreen phones also work on the popularity of all of the features and apps you get with your lack of buttons, which uses up more battery life than a phone that can call, text and… well call and text.

On the bright side, phone manufacturers including Nokia and Samsung, seem to be getting savvy with their eco-credentials and green is most definitely part of everyone’s 2009 agenda. Let’s see if the eco-race will push handsets to have less of an environmental impact whilst still preserving our style.

Touchscreen Phones Worse for the Environment is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com