Craziest Gadgets » Green Gadgets

Kick this Mushroom to Charge Your Cell Phone

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:41:30 +0000

Finally a marriage of green technology and violence! Bracketron has just announced the Mushroom Green Zero charger. Appropriately named, it looks a bit like the fun fungi. By there’s no fungus among us, as this is green technology. These GreenZero chargers automatically detect when your device is charged or not plugged in and shuts itself off, avoiding vampire electricity trickle- no power consumption when on standby. The cool part about the Mushroom charger is that you slap it or kick it to start the charging:

You probably don’t want to practice any MMA moves on that thing but it’s always fun to have things you allowed to give a good whack to. The compact Mushroom GreenZero has an integrated cable reel that makes it good for traveling and it comes in three different models- USB, microUSB and Apple 30 pin. You can preview it at CES next week and it will be available for purchase in March.

Kick this Mushroom to Charge Your Cell Phone

Case-On’s Turn CD Cases Into Artwork

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:42:00 +0000

Here’s an interesting product that turns your old CD cases into works of art. Case-On’s are essentially small clips that are specifically designed to fit CD jewel cases and clip them together. You probably have tons of CD cases stashed away somewhere after you made the transition to MP3 full time (I know I do). What if you turned each one into a little picture frame? Case-On’s does that.

You could combine them together to form one giant frame like poster frame above. You can use the cases as three dimensional building blocks to make any shape you want (well, maybe not a circle, but you get the idea), turning them into photo-cubes, or little boxes, or uniquely shaped wall frames or whatever you can imagine. A great reuse of something that’s just lying around your home. They cost $10 for a set of 40 clips.

Case-On’s Turn CD Cases Into Artwork

Wood Necktie Great for Working Stiffs

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:58:39 +0000

Got wood? Wear some around your neck with the Wooden Necktie the toughest tie around. It’s a flexible, lightweight, eco-friendly tie made from recycled barn wood. Each one is handmade in the US of A and due to varying grain patterns and such, each one totally unique. The tie is segmented so it hangs naturally (and won’t stab you in the thigh when you sit). An elastic band fits any size neck:

Talk about on-trend for the current fashion season! (no I have no idea what that means either exactly but they say it a lot on Project Runway…make it work people, thank you Mood). So you can’t wipe your face with it in a restaurant like you do with your regular ties…ok technically you could but you wouldn’t want to, but it still looks great and for someone looking for a non-traditional tie, you got it. Just $31.99.

Wood Necktie Great for Working Stiffs

Cardboard Radio Review

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:54:02 +0000

We got a Cardboard Radio to review and our first thought (and probably yours) was “cardboard?” Yes. Sort of. The mechanical and electrical parts of the radio are made of metal and plastic like a normal radio but the outside is made of eco-friendly recyclable cardboard. Besides the uniqueness factor and clean simple design what makes that cool is that you can draw on or decorate it in any way you want- grab a sharpie, pen, or some stickers and go crazy! But it’s not just a radio…

Despite the name “radio”, this AA battery (included) powered device also works as a speaker for your iPod with the included cord you plug in to the side. It can also be plugged in to an outlet (cord not included). So how does it sound?

To quote my toddler “that’s loud” and “daddy, cows eat grass”. You really can’t argue with either of those points. This thing puts out some decent soundwaves for it’s size (and cows do in fact eat grass) and is relatively clear sounding for it’s size/price. At the end of it’s lifecycle, you can recycle the cardboard.

What I liked about this: the sound levels, portability, iPod connectivity and full customizability of the casing. Didn’t like: no numbers on the radio dial (although you could write them in yourself if you wanted). The Cardboard Radio would make an ideal portable radio for emergency use, teenagers and artistic people who like to customize all their stuff as well as a good gift from a group of people since everyone can write their own message on it. Just $28.95 from Convenient Gadgets.

Be sure to use our exclusive promo code “craziestgadgets10” to save 10% on ANYTHING in their store.

Cardboard Radio Review

Retro Telephone Clocks

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:02:47 +0000

Jonas Merian of Jonas Design takes old Chinese rotary telephones and converts them into attractive desk clocks. They have the clean aesthetic you’d expect from a Swiss designer living in Shanghai. The clocks can be wall mounted too if you desire. Simple idea to reuse something that would otherwise be thrown out of left to rot in the garage but I like them.

Retro Telephone Clocks

iBamboo iPhone Speaker

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:09:18 +0000

The iBamboo Speaker is a natural speaker made out of a length of bamboo wood. The natural resonance of the bamboo amplifies the sound of the iPhone without the use of any electricity. It’s eco-friendly! The bamboo is machine cut, then the opening for the iPhone is laser cut and it’s finished by hand.

Each piece of bamboo is slightly different (damn you nature!) so each iBamboo is unique. They just completed a successful round of fundraising and the iBamboo should be in production soon. And PLEASE make sure to keep your pet panda away from it at all times.

iBamboo iPhone Speaker

Solar Bikini Charges Your iPod

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:59:11 +0000

I have a feeling if you wear this bikini, your iPod isn’t the only thing that’s gonna get all charged up. Andrew Schneider created the solar charging bikini a few years back but now he’s got them in production and ready for sale. Each bikini has a series of flexible photovoltaic strips woven with conductive thread and hooked to a USB connector. Just sit back and grab some sun while your iPod charges up.

That second model above needs some sun or spray tan. Believe it or not, Andrew says you can actually wear this into the water since it only puts out 5v of electricity and only charges when hooked up (like a poorly made diaper bag it has no juice storage). But you will have to dry off for it to work properly. You can order them from the creator directly for $1000 (but think about how much you’ll save in iPod charging costs!).

(via the award winning brooklyn paper, home of journalistic mega-star Gersh Kuntzman who probably has a Google Alert for himself set up. Just checking.)

Solar Bikini Charges Your iPod

Belkin Surge Protector with Remote Control

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:41:40 +0000

At first glance, having a remote for a surge protector seems a bit unnecessary. Most have a switch that’s easy to press if you wanted to turn it off to save energy. But on second thought the Belkin Conserve Switch Surge Protector actually makes total sense because we love to shove our surge protectors behind furniture and in other hard-to-reach places so a remote will help to conserve energy easily. This device has 2 “always-on” outlets and 6 outlets that you can turn on or off via the remote. The wall mountable wireless remote has a 60 foot range and doesn’t require line-of-sight to work. So this will save your electronics from power surges and save you money and energy by letting you turn them off completely when not in use. Win-win.

Belkin Surge Protector with Remote Control

Firewinder Wind Powered LED Light

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:24:27 +0000

The Firewinder is a completely wind-powered LED light. This outdoor light has a cool spiral shape with 14 LED lights surrounding it. When the wind blows, it spins and lights up, creating a really cool lighting effect:

The light can be held in your hang or hung from a post or wall. This eco-friendly lamp needs a 4mph wind to get going but once it does, it’s a 100% free source of power for the light. Cool. $59.99 from TG.

Firewinder Wind Powered LED Light

Solar Powered Papercraft Bobbleheads

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:26:44 +0000

Bobbleheads are awesome but they only bobble for a little while when you doink their heads. The solution is to hire a manservant to continually bonk your bobblehead collection so there is constant bobbling. Or you could get one of these DIY Solar Powered Bobbleheads. Each bobblehead is a papercraft figure that you easily put together yourself. Inside each one is a solar powered rocker that keeps your bobblehead bobbling:

Because they’re super lightweight, ambient indoor light from a room should be enough to keep them rocking continuously. Which means your butler can go back to making you drinks and shining up your batmobile instead of bobbling your bobbleheads. Each one sits on it’s own little pedestal and they come in your choice of skeleton, ninja, tiger face and vampire. It takes about 20 minutes to assemble each- no tools required. $15.95 each from Vat19.

Solar Powered Papercraft Bobbleheads