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A designer water flask to complement your accessories

It's a hot summer day, and you're out shopping. You've got your look together and your accessories are perfect. With the minor exception of the plastic water bottle in your hand.

In addition to the environmental faux pas, it just looks...cheap. Dress up your outfit instead with a stainless steel water flask from Eva Solo.

The flask, which costs $75, will keep your water cool and refreshing all day long. Yes, you can freeze your plastic water bottle for the same effect. But it'll sweat all over everything in your bag, and depending on just … Read more

An easy-to-clean garlic press

I love garlic. Mincing it, I'm not so much a fan of. But eating it? Yeah, I like that. I add minced garlic to nearly everything I cook. But you know what I hate even more than mincing garlic with a knife and a cutting board? Cleaning out the ridiculously tiny holes in a garlic press.

I know, they give you that little plastic tool to help, but it really doesn't. At least, mine doesn't. And there I am, hunched over the sink with a toothpick, going tiny square by tiny square, trying to get rid of … Read more

ioSafe's Solo Demo-lition: Fire!

I blogged about ioSafe's Solo external hard drive the other day, and Thursday at CES, I was invited to the company's demo.

The Solo is heavier and bigger than most external hard drives that are based on a single 3.5-inch internal hard drive. Nonetheless, it looks good. The most important thing, however, is the fact that the demo unit survived both water submersion and intense heat.

The demo was done by first copying a few photos (some of myself) onto the Solo. Then the drive was literally thrown into a pool and stay submersed for a few … Read more

Money shines on thin-film solar maker SoloPower

If you need more proof that thin-film solar cells is where the action is going, take a look at the money flow.

SoloPower is raising almost $200 million to ramp up manufacturing of its thin-film solar cells, according to a report in VentureWire picked up by other media outlets.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company makes cells from CIGS, a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide which a number of solar companies are betting can undercut traditional crystalline silicon.

Thin-film solar cells, from CIGS or other materials, are less efficient at converting sunlight to electricity but use far less … Read more

Charge the PC on the patio with a solar table

A fair amount of attention has been paid to the idea of solar-powered laptops as a perennial source of energy on the go, but there's no reason that the concept shouldn't be applied to desktops too as the greening of homes continues worldwide. Canada's Intelligent Forms Design addresses this need and--much to our liking--does so from the patio at the same time.

Its weatherproof "SOlo Lounge Table" (not a typo) not only charges the computer with built-in solar panels, according to Boing Boing, but it can also keep you updated on its status through Bluetooth … Read more

Han Solo in a carbonite desk

I've been a fan of Han Solo since the roguish spice smuggler first appeared in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. But even if you're a similarly hard-core follower of the Millennium Falcon's captain, you must step away from this desk. There's only one custom model of Solo frozen in carbonite (Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back), made by Tom Spina Designs for a client seeking a combination of art and furniture in this piece. That means look, but don't touch. So best to suck it up and settle instead for this … Read more

Solar-energy record-holder joins SoloPower

Rommel Noufi, one of the primary experts in copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells, is joining SoloPower as vice president of research.

Noufi has been a fixture in CIGS for several years as a scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He also holds the record for efficiency for CIGS cells: one of his cells can convert 19.9 percent of the sun's energy into electricity while another can convert 16.5 percent. When reporters or analysts have CIGS questions, the path in the past several years has often led to Noufi.

Efficiency has been a major headache … Read more

Arcam's DVD player, for a king's ransom

Good news for those hard-working city types who've just received their massive yearly bonuses. But they won't be able to waste it all on champagne and fast cars--they'll need to spend a few grand pimping out their trendy loft apartment living rooms. Enter the Arcam Solo Movie 2.1, a high-end upscaling DVD player and audio system for people with more than a few quid to spend.

It would be easy to mock the price (1,500 pounds, or about $2,960), because it's a shedload more than most people would spend on even a high-end … Read more

Personal sauna or MRI chamber?

As fond as we are of massage chairs--and even more of massage beds--we'd be somewhat reluctant to surrender our bodies to this personal sauna for fear that we'd be entering an MRI scan.

The "Solo System Sauna" uses infrared heat and electromagnetic waves that are concentrated on the parts of the body "where you need it most," according to its product literature. That sounds kind of frightening, especially when trapped in its "double dome" compartment that also resembles an iron lung.

On the other hand, maybe we're the ones … Read more