As it does with most trends, Samsung is pursuing eco-friendly cell phones with vigor. It already gave us the Samsung Reclaim, and now we finally have a chance to review the Samsung Blue Earth. Like the Reclaim, the Blue Earth's shell is made from recycled materials--specifically, plastic water bottles--but it goes a giant step further with solar panels on its rear face. The solar panels actually work and can charge the phone in a pinch.

The Blue Earth is also free of harmful materials like polyvinyl chloride, and you can minimize battery use by adjusting the display settings. Outside of being green, the Blue Earth offers a functional feature set, but its small touch screen hampers its usability and there was static during calls. Check out our Blue Earth review for a more detailed look.

Samsung Blue Earth photos

(Credit: Design Boom)

A rocking chair with an integrated OLED lamp would in and of itself be cool enough to feature here on Crave, but the Murakami Chair is different. The power to run the light, you see, comes from your own rocking motion.

As you rock, nano-dynamos built into the chair's skids (I love a job where I get paid to type things like "nano-dynamos") convert the kinetic energy of the motion into power, which is stored in internal batteries during the day or sent straight to the light when dark.

The concept chair was developed by American designer Rochus Jacob, which means it even looks cool. It nabbed first place in designboom's green life competition.

The lighting is all made possible by advances in OLED technology, which make it a very efficient way to convert energy into light. If I had a more high-tech grandpa, I'd get him one of these if it hit the market. That way he could read a book as he sits on his front porch with his shotgun to make sure the kids keep off his lawn.

Really, though, we could see even more practical applications of this technology. Imagine adding nano-dynamos (again!) to the bottoms of your shoes. As you walk around they charge your cell phone or MP3 player or Virtual Boy. OK, maybe not your Virtual Boy. That would be dangerous. And stupid. On many levels.

Samsung Blue Earth

(Credit: Samsung)

The solar-powered Samsung Blue Earth handheld was finally released to the public today--in Sweden, at least. The touch-screen phone with the solar charger on the back is also set to launch in other countries soon; they are France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Portugal, just to name a few.

We first saw this eco-friendly phone at GSMA 2009 and then our colleagues over at CNET Asia finally got their hands on it at CommunicAsia 2009. We're actually getting a review unit of this phone for ourselves soon, so we'll let you know if it truly does live up to its green promise.

(Via Engadget Mobile)

Five cars enter, one car leaves. Well, actually all five cars get to leave, but only one with the title.

(Credit: CNET)

Every year, for the past four years, Green Car Journal picks its Green Car of the Year at the LA Auto Show. Well, the LA Show will be here before you know it, so it's time to start thinking about this year's contestants, which have been narrowed down to five finalists.

The finalists include the Audi A3 TDI, the Honda Insight, the Mercury Milan Hybrid, the Toyota Prius, and the Volkswagen Golf TDI. That's two VW turbodiesels and a trio of hybrids; or four small hatchbacks and a small sedan. No matter how you look at it, there's not too much variation this year. However, three of the vehicles have taken our Editors' Choice award at different times this year and two of them have already done battle in a CNET Prizefight, so it will be interesting to see which is chosen as the overall winner.

A panel of jurors (which includes notables such as Jay Leno, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Carroll Shelby, Matt Petersen of Global Green USA and the Sierra Club's Carl Pope) will have to pick one of these vehicles to be crowned the fifth annual Green Car of the Year--which, by the way, is a very different thing from Greenest Car of the Year. There's apparently a bit more that goes into the choosing than just raw fuel economy and emissions numbers.

Last year, it was the Volkswagen Jetta TDI that walked rolled off with the 2009 crown by winning over the judges with its real-world performance and relatively low price. The year before that, it was the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid which was a really big hybrid that didn't return really big mpgs, but still managed to improve fuel economy by a massive 25-percent over the conventional model. Looking way back to the 2007 and 2006 winners, we can see that the Toyota Camry Hybrid and the Mercury Mariner Hybrid have also seen time in the winners' circle.

Editor's note: Polling is closed, the judges have voted, and the results are in. The 2010 Green Car of the Year award has gone to...

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET)

In Japan, for one week a year the spotlight of this gadget-obsessed country is shifted from the urban neon oasis of Tokyo's Akihabara neighborhood and trained on an expansive convention hall an hour's commute outside of the city.

On Tuesday the purveyors of TVs thinner than a credit card, cell phones pressed with 3D screens, humanoid robots, and the latest in electric car technology descend, along with media, analysts, retail buyers, and industry executives for the opening of the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, known by the acronym Ceatec.

Photos: Early peek inside Ceatec show in Tokyo

It's the Japanese equivalent of Las Vegas' CES and Berlin's IFA, and like those two shows earlier this year, attendance is expected to be good, if slightly contracted as companies have cut back on expenses in light of the current economy.

At Ceatec 2008, 804 exhibitors and 196,630 attendees flooded the floor of the Makuhari Messe, a dip from the 895 exhibitors and 206,000 attendees in 2007. The tenor of this year's show should be a bit less gloomy than last year's--which took place the same week banks were failing right and left and Wall Street seemed on the brink of collapse. We'll keep our fingers crossed for less economic drama during this year's show.

Murata Girl shows off her unicycling talents at Ceatec 2008.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET)

Things we are hoping for: more cute robots! Ceatec is unlikely to disappoint in this respect. Last year's expo saw the debut of automatons that did everything from perform front-office reception tasks to helping the elderly. But based on the crowds she drew, the star was undoubtedly Murata Girl, a unicycle-riding robot. This year, we hear she'll be back with even more tricks up her sleeve.

Like those robots, there's also an amazing array of stuff shown at Ceatec we'll never see in stores on this side of the Pacific--see our gallery of cool concept cell phones. But while Ceatec offers a glimpse into the future of gadgetry, the convention hall is also packed to the skylights with practical products.

Last year was the first time Ceatec established a separate pavilion for green technology, and it's back this year. Nissan, which takes its electric cars very seriously, will be there, as will Toshiba. Though not thought of traditionally as a car company, it believes its Supercharge ion battery (SCiB) is perfectly suited for electric cars and scooters. Besides green car technology, we'll also see electronic parts that make ordinary gadgets like TVs and digital signs greener.

(Credit: Deepgreenrobot.org)

As much as possible, the Deep Green system was developed using standard off-the-shelf hardware components.

(Credit: Deepgreenrobot.org)

What IBM's Deep Blue computer is to chess, Deep Green may soon be to the felt table. The impressive system of cameras and robotic gantries from the computer and robot vision lab at Canada's Queen's University is already at a "better-than-amateur level." The goal of the project is to attain a level of proficiency required to challenge, and ultimately beat, the best human players (get more technical details on Deep Green in this research paper (PDF) by Queen's University scientists).

What's also cool is that the technology has spun off an augmented-reality projection. It basically lets you cheat and line up shots like you can playing a pool video game.

I'm betting it won't be long until we see that sort of thing show up in night spots where drunk folk can appreciate the eye candy. Oh, and unless you're a trance fan, you might want to turn down your speakers for the video.

This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.

These days, every little bit counts.

(Credit: Dan Ackerman)

Apple's OSX Snow Leopard update offers several noteworthy enhancements, and plenty of behind-the-scenes tweaks--but has anything in the operating system changed in regard to energy efficiency?

We took a 17-inch MacBook Pro and ran it though our standard energy use tests, first under OSX 10.5.6 (a.k.a. Leopard) and then after we installed Snow Leopard, which brought us up to OSX 10.6. Our test system, already Energy Star-compliant, had a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, and we had the discrete Nvidia GeForce 9600 graphics turned on.

The differences were minor, but we were able to estimate that running your MacBook with Snow Leopard installed would use about one dollar's worth less electricity than if you kept the older version of OSX.

As our tests are based on a hypothetical usage model, your mileage will vary depending on how much time your system spends off, idle, or doing actual work (and it's worth noting that Snow Leopard includes a newer version of QuickTime, which is used in the part of the testing process). But, when added to CNET's already very positive review of Snow Leopard, it's nice to know that energy efficiency not only didn't take a hit, but also squeaked out a tiny improvement.

So, what are you going to do with that extra 95 cents? You could pick up a single nonpremium MP3 track from your favorite online music retailer, but we're going to track down one more nickel, which will snag us four cans of Coke Zero from the official CNET vending machine.

The Samsung Reclaim is green in more ways than one

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Samsung rarely misses a trend, and you usually can count on the company to jump on a movement early. Just consider the concept of the green gadget. Though the Motorola Renew W233 remains the only eco-friendly phone with a major U.S. carrier, Samsung wants in on the green game, too.

Like the Renew, the new Samsung Reclaim SPH-M560 for Sprint also is made from recycled plastic and comes in a box that's made from recycled paper. Yet, the Reclaim goes a step further by offering more features than the Renew and a full QWERTY keyboard. On the whole, it's a decent phone even if we had a few performance quibbles. You can get it starting Thursday for $49.99 with a two-year contract. For the full story, check out our full Reclaim review and be sure to peruse our Reclaim photo gallery for a full gallery of shots.

(Credit: Prepara)

It's hard to ignore the incessant messages to buy local, plant a garden, check for organic labels, and lead a sustainable lifestyle, yet most of us dismiss these suggestions as practices that require too much money, time, and effort.

And it's true--they really do.

Last summer I went through a green phase, heading to the plant store to purchase soil, seeds, shovels, pots, and everything else that Martha Stewart suggests I buy. Well, $120 and two weeks later, I had forgotten I'd even planted a garden and deemed my project a failure.

Thankfully, there is hope for busy and forgetful people like me. The Prepara Power Plant doesn't require any soil, planting, or high maintenance. Herbs, small vegetables, fruits, and salad greens grow quickly, as the container provides the seeds with the right amount of nutrients and water.

It's not completely care-free, though--you must water the container and place it in sunlight (such as a window sill). But unlike outdoor gardens, the Power Plant Mini is always visible, so don't bother with excuses for neglecting your innocent plant.

Fresh food without bugs, dirt, digging, and worrying sounds like the perfect package. (Plus I can tell all my friends how green and sustainable I am.) Prepara lists the product for $39.99, but it can be purchased on Amazon for $29.99.