Following in the footsteps of its bigger brother, the AIRPod is a zero-emissions vehicle capable of reaching 50mph and requiring only air and your dignity for its fuel. Makers MDI are set to begin production by the end of the year, while Air France and KLM have already signed up to use the quirky-looking cars for airport shuttle duty. Nick Kurczewski of Inside Line got to test out a prototype and came away with mixed feelings, liking the 90 mile cruising range and "penny per mile" running costs, but finding the ride a bit bumpy. For his full impressions, as well as likely pricing and availability, hit the read link below.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

Since Google can't be the only multibillion-dollar technology company having all the home energy monitoring fun, Microsoft's jumping in with "Hohm" -- like a portmanteau of "Home" and "Ohm," get it? We're not entirely sure just how it works yet, but according to the company, using both user input / feedback and analytics licensed from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the US Department of Energy, the program provides suggestions for energy conservation. However, it's the future uses we're more excited about -- eventually, you'll be able to upload energy usage data into the system automatically, provided you're getting voltage from one of the partner companies. First West Coast utilities to join up include Puget Sound Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light, and Xcel Energy, and nope, none of those overlap with PowerMeter's first enlistees. The sign-up page for the beta is now live, so hit up the read link if you want a chance to participate.

[Via Yahoo! Tech]

At last, we have the first partners in Google's quest to make your personal power consumption visible on your home computer. As the thinking goes, if you can't measure it, you can't improve it. So Google wants to give consumers near real-time visibility to their consumption and usage patterns via Google's PowerMeter software and utility-supplied "smart meters." The hope here, is that those aware of their energy consumption habits will change them to save money, and in turn, the planet. The initial list of partner utilities represent millions of homes spread across cities and country-sides in the US, Canada, and India:

• San Diego Gas & Electric® (California)
  
• TXU Energy (Texas)
  
• JEA (Florida)
  
• Reliance Energy (India)
  
• Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (Wisconsin)
  
• White River Valley Electric Cooperative (Missouri)
  
• Toronto Hydro–Electric System Limited (Canada)
  
• Glasgow EPB (Kentucky)

Google has also partnered with Itron to embed its PowerMeter software into Itron smart meters. While we applaud the effort, seeing energy consumption for the entire house, only, is far too macro (though a good first step). What we're waiting for is the marriage of this with home automation and monitoring solutions based on Z-Wave and ZigbBee, for example, so we can gain visibility and control down to the device level. Imagine a single software view that lets you drill all the way down to see how much energy your computer, lights, or home theater projector is consuming and then shut 'em down when not in use or to avoid vampire drain. Hey Nokia, you're working on a Home Control Center... you reading this? Google's looking for partners.

If you're in a state within the States that's instituted bottle and can redemption programs, you've probably seen automated recycling machines that accept the discarded shells of your formerly refreshing beverages and dispense real money in return. Australia is getting on-board with a similar machine that bribes folks to recycle, but in a somewhat more high-tech way -- and without the up-front redemption fee. The Envirobank accepts both cans and bottles, scanning the bar code to identify the product and also checking the material to make sure it's recyclable. Accepted containers are crushed and kept, while the kind-hearted recycler gets a coupon or credit of some sort for their efforts (details TBD). Interestingly, the machine sports a mysterious yellow button that will connect troubled kids to "somebody who will listen" -- a nice idea, but we're not entirely sure how many youths will be interested in pouring their hearts out to a big box in the mall food court.

[Via The Red Ferret Journal]

You asked for it, now here comes the change... $2.4 billion dollars of it stuffed into giant sacks for those hoping to produce electric vehicles in the US. The plan unveiled by president Obama Thursday allocates $1.5B to US manufacturers to produce batteries, $400M to evaluate plug-in hybrids and to implement the infrastructure (e.g., charging stations, technician training, etc) required to support them, and another $500M for related components. As for you, the plan (now law under the $787 billion stimulus package) allocates a $7,500 tax credit to people who buy plug-in hybrid vehicles. The goal is to help the US catch up to foreign competition with regards to electric vehicle technology and to put a million "environmentally friendly" vehicles onto US roads by 2015. As Obama puts it, "The nation that leads on energy will be the nation that leads the world in the 21st century." That's why we're investing all our dough in a sure thing like Steorn.

[Original Image courtesy of Cammeraydave]

Honda's new 5-passenger "Insight" hybrid just went on sale in Japan. The ¥1,890,000 (about $20,750) hatchback's 1.3l i-VTEC engine with Integrated Motor Assist features Honda's new Ecological Assist system that helps correct your wasteful driving habits. Eco Assist features an ECON mode (via dashboard button) that adjusts the engine output to conserve energy and increases regenerative recharging during deceleration. It also features Guidance and Scoring modes that adjust the background color of the speedometer and presents more (or less) leaves on the dashboard multi-information display to reflect your current level of fuel efficiency. The idea is simple: as your driving "improves" both your bank account and the environment will benefit. The Insight is expected to make its way to your local amber waves of grain or purple mountain majesty dealership in April, Europe in March. Skip ahead to 1:40 in the video posted after the break for the full Eco Assist rundown.

Dell VP of Communities and Conversations Bob Pearson is ragging on Apple for its MacBook "Greenest Family of Notebooks" ads. In a post titled "The Real Meaning of Being Green," Pearson accuses Apple of not discussing environmental issues, making inaccurate claims and stating no goals, while touting Dell's energy efficient Latitude E-series and use of PVC / BFR-free components. Of course, the PC maker has had its fair share of eco-unfriendly practices over the years, including accusations from the ever-fickle Greenpeace last month that the company has withdrawn from its commitment to stop using PVC / BFR in its computers by the end of 2009 -- but why let little details get in the way of a good schoolyard fight?

Any self-respecting gadget hound knows that China is responsible for packing millions of shipping containers with the consumer electronics we crave. What you may not know is what we ship in return: our waste for recycling. Of growing concern is e-waste, resulting from the deluge of PCs, cellphones, televisions and crapgadgets we churn through at an accelerating clip each year. While domestic recycling programs are good-intentioned, often the most toxic of our e-waste is shipped illegally back to China and boiled down for its precious metals under some of the most crude conditions you can imagine. When faced with the choice of familial poverty or the slow accumulation of poison in their bloodstream (for $8 per day), it's not hard to imagine what many rural Chinese people will choose. So while we give Greenpeace's self-congratulatory promotions and oft-subjective "Guide to Greener Electronics" company ratings the occasional hard time, their attempts to raise e-waste awareness are commendable. Now go ahead, check the video from 60 Minutes' intrepid reporters after the break and let the guilt wash over you.

Update: As noted by reader Jason, a more thorough (and disturbing) exploration of these e-waste dumps can be found in a Current TV video shot last year in the same region.

Come on folks, say it in unison with us: "Finally!" At long last, a company with a little clout has stood up and questioned the necessity of those ridiculous hard plastic containers that hold minuscule flash cards and the like (along with plastic twist-ties), and better still, it's already doing something about it. Beginning today, consumers who are tired of borrowing the fire department's Jaws of Life to rescue their new USB drive can opt for products in Amazon's "Frustration-Free Packaging," which utilizes streamlined packaging that often includes recyclable cardboard. 19 products from the likes of Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and Transcend are currently available in the new containers, and the firm's CEO has a vision of offering its "entire catalog of products in Frustration-Free Packaging" within a few years. Hey, everyone else in the gadget world -- care to hop on a meaningful bandwagon for once?

Read - Frustration-Free Packaging initiative
Read - Frustration-Free Packaging storefront

With oil prices in free-fall and the world's economies in the toilet, short-sighted governments and C02-denying GM execs will undoubtedly defer priority given to clean energies in the next round of fiscal budgets. Too bad, because Korea's S&P Energy Research Institute has just issued a press release about a new discovery it claims puts the era of clean energy within reach. Dr. Sen Kim claims to have achieved the separation of Hydrogen using just 0.1kwh of energy compared to the traditional 4 - 4.5kwh required using the ol' electrolytic method. Dr. Kim postulates that "manufacturing the H2 by our method will lower the cost of H2 as much as 20 - 30 times" compared to electrolytic H2. That makes SPERI's method suitable for H2 fuel production from say, an in-home hydrogen fueling station. So is this the solution to all of our clean energy concerns? Perhaps, but we've heard these economical hydrogen-generation claims before. Let's wait for the claim to be more thoroughly vetted by bigger brains than our own before getting too hopeful.

Thanks, MIT. Why don't you just make the rest of the world feel a little more useless. Every week or so, we're forced to stare at yet another amazing invention coming from your doors; to be frank, it's just downright unfair. All childish angst aside, the latest idea to come from the institution is one that could certainly be put to good use: a self-sustaining sensor network that taps into trees for power in order to continuously monitor forests for threats of fire. Moreover, the concept could be applied in other scenarios as well -- to detect potential threats such as smuggled contraband along a nation's borders, perhaps. Testing of the wireless sensor network (developed by the appropriately named Voltree Power) is scheduled to begin next spring, and we're hearing that pot-sniffing turtles may even be brought in to create a completely natural self-policing environment.

[Via Inhabitat]

Perhaps a nod to Samsung's corny candybars and Nokia's wild Earth-friendly hardware, Sony Ericsson has unveiled its GreenHeart concept, a never-destined-for-production handset that incorporates a bunch of green technologies that it'd like to bring to market over the coming years. Most of the GreenHeart's ideas are totally logical and could be executed today -- online user manuals, bioplastic and recycled plastic materials, and a charger that draws just 3.5mW in trickle mode, just to name a few -- but the company is shopping around the whole lot of it to customers and "selected partners" to determine which eco-concepts should be implemented for production and in what order. Unfortunately, Sony Ericsson isn't seeing fit to show any pictures of the GreenHeart right now, which we take to mean it looks like a tree.

[Via Unwired View]