Feast your eyes on this iPad sleeve, one made out of recycled movie theater billboards that otherwise would only either find their way into the caves of fanboys or sit in a trashbin for all eternity. Because of the nature of the project, each sleeve is unique. Because of the nature of the materials, each sleeve is flexible, durable, light, and water resistant. So how about it? You want Christian Bale’s face protecting your everloving tablet?

Each one of these sleeves can be purchased via http://aireb.ag/ where you’ll also be able to check out their massive line of unique pouches and purses. And they’re relatively cheap, too! Sounds like a holiday present to me. — Thanks for the tip, Isaac!

When it comes to green cars, a few names jump right to mind like Toyota with its Prius and GM with the Volt. One name that most of us don’t associate with green cars is Porsche. I tend to think of Porsche as a performance brand, and it is. The company is famous for its fleet of exotic and high-end performance vehicles like the 911 and others.

Porsche also makes a SUV that is popular around the world called the Cayenne and the latest version of the Cayenne dubbed the S Hybrid has around for a while. The SUV may be a hybrid, but anything with the Porsche crest has to perform, and the Cayenne S does. The big SUV can hit 60mph in 6.1 seconds and has a top speed of 150 mph. The vehicle is rated for 20mpg in the city and 24 mpg on the highway by the EPA.

Those fuel efficiency figures might not sound that great when compared to other hybrids, but when you consider this is a performance vehicle it’s pretty impressive. The Cayenne S Hybrid has a combined power output of 380hp from a supercharged V6 combined with an electric motor. Porsche has announced that the Cayenne S Hybrid has qualified for a one-time federal tax credit of $1,800. The vehicle stickers for $67,700 before that credit is taken off the price. I’m not sure the sort of folks that can afford to spend nearly $70,000 on a SUV really need a tax credit.

I think that most of us only think about green practices like power saving computers and LED lighting as ways to make the environment better and don’t stop to consider that by going green you can also save on your electric bills as well. The massive department store chain Macy’s is migrating 86 of its stores from traditional incandescent lights to green LED lights and will save millions over the decade lifespan of the bulbs.

MSi is one of the companies that Macy’s will be getting the LED lighting from and according to MSi Macy’s is replacing 117,000 traditional light bulbs that it uses inside stores for accent lighting and general lighting. The bulbs will be replaced in 86 different store locations around the country.

The new bulbs will use 73% less energy than the bulbs they are replacing and have a life span of ten years compared the traditional bulbs life expectancy of about six months. In total Macy’s will save 16,200 megawatts of power per hour every year according to MSi. That is the same as planting 65,500 trees says the green lighting firm. The total savings for Macy’s according to MSi when accounting for all factors like less maintenance, lower cooling bills, and other factors will save the company millions over the life span of the LED bulbs.

When it comes time to decorate for Christmas, most of us go all out with the decoration on the home. The lights can be blinding in some neighborhoods and the number of light some folks use is crazy. The extra power used to run these lights has to be significant.

If you are a green geek that wants to decorate with lights outside your house, but you want to save energy too GE has some high-tech green lights just for you. GE will be offering new icicle lights in multiple colors that consume 20% less power than standard lights.

GE is also offering G-35 light strings with 14-color changing patterns with lengths of 29-40 feet with 36 or 50 lights per strand. The real cool part about these lights using less juice is that you can string more of them together before that stupid fuse blows and you have to search for a replacement. Green can be good at the holiday’s Mr. Grinch.

So you’ve got a Ford Focus and there’s JUST something missing, yes? Perhaps you’re waiting for the electric version? You’re in LUCK! You’ve only got another year to wait! Ford today announced the cities that will be getting the car first. Those cities include: Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Tucson, Portland, Raleigh Durham, Richmond, Seattle, and Washington.

Late next year you’ll be driving a big bad zapper smoothly. The cities above were selected based on a collection of criteria including the following: the current EV infrastructure and the population’s history of buying hybrid and electric vehicles, plus more, I’m sure. Mark Fields of Ford said thus: “This is the first step in rolling out the Focus Electric… As the country continues to build up its electric vehicle infrastructure and demand for the Focus Electric grows, Ford will continue to evaluate additional markets and consider making this vehicle available in more cities across the country.”

I find it strange that Minneapolis and/or Saint Paul isn’t on the list, given we’ve got green electric busses and a quite successful bike sharing program going strong. Come onnn.

[Via Gearlog]

Do you know how much of that bottle of spray cleaner is actually just water? Basically 95% of it. You know who’s taking care of this situation? Replenish, a new multi-surface cleaner who’s main goal (other than saving the world and earning some profits along the way) is to ask you to “rethink the bottle. They offer basically a cartridge system where you buy an empty bottle, (or maybe that part’ll end up being free,) then purchase the chemicals that turn the water into a cleaner in a tinier bottle.

The tinier bottle attaches neatly to the bottom of your empty bottle, and all you’ve gotta do it add water. Each of these small chemical pods can be mixed to create four full bottles of cleaner. Currently you can buy these things and get them shipped to you for free: the empty bottle runs $8 and replacement pods costs $4 each. Reasonable? Make it work, people.

[Via Good Clean Tech]

Electric vehicles are one of the big technology pushes that Obama and his administration are trying to get Americans to look at. The problems with EVs today are many. The biggest problem is that the driving range is short compared to a normal vehicle and the recharge time is long compared to just filling up with gas.

Another problem that many might not think of is having to plug in each time you go home. We have all forgot to get gas the night before work and ended up late after having to stop and fill up. Imagine if you forgot to plug in your EV and it needed eight hours to charge up. One solution to the issue of forgetting to plug in comes in the form of wireless charging.

A company called IPT is showing off a new wireless inductive power transfer system for EVs that can shoot power over gaps of up to 400mm allowing the driver to just pull into the garage over a charging pad and their car will get charged up. That tech would eliminate the worry about forgetting to plug the vehicle in each night. The company behind the tech envisions a future where their power technology is embedded into roads allowing cars to drive indefinitely by getting the power from the road. A commercial scale demo of the IPT tech is expected in 2012.

The TV market is turning into a bit of a commodity market these days with everyone offering up sets that have very similar features and often use the same exact screens. All you get that is different on some sets is the brand name. Philips has unveiled a new green TV for Europe that is a bit boring called the Econova LED TV with a 42-inch screen.

The set has green features and needs only 40W of juice in eco-mode and is made from recycled aluminum. It also and has a 0W mode when turned off. BORING. What’s not boring bout the set is its remote control. Philips bundles a remote with the TV that is solar powered. That is something you don’t see on every TV.

The solar remote has been designed to be green and needs no batteries. Few details are actually offered about the remote, but I can say I wish my Harmony One were solar powered. It will run for just long enough on a charge for me to forget the thing needs to be placed on the charge cradle across the room. The Philips solar remote appears to lack multi device control capability. The downside to solar power is that you will need to be able to set the thing near a window and if there isn’t one near your set that can be a pain.

You might not think much about the light bulbs that are in your home, but there is a ton of research going into methods of making green light bulbs that will not only run longer but also use less power. The amount of energy that can be saved by moving the US from existing incandescent bulbs over to green bulbs using LED and florescent technology is staggering.

A research team at GE has invented a way to cool a prototype LED light bulb using technology employed to cool jet engines. The bulb the researchers made uses LEDs and can produce the same amount of light as a 100W halogen bulb. The prototype LED bulb is rated for 1500 lumens.

The jet engine cooling system used for the bulb has tiny micro-fluidic bellows type devices that provide high velocity jets of air that can be aimed at the LED heat sink. The jets of air allow heat transfer rates more than ten times that of natural convection cooling. That increased cooling in turn allows the bulb to use less LEDs to get the same light output allowing for smaller bulbs that are cheaper to make.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

• LED Light Bulbs Last For 11 Years
• Home Depot offers EcoSmart LED light bulbs
• Green Element LED task light – The New Look of Green
• CeeLite’s Bright and Thin
• The Vaka Light has removable lighting

It seems like launching a battalion of new handsets over the past month wasn’t enough for HTC, so today the company’s rolling out yet another option for European mobile phone buyers. Americans will already be familiar with the Gratia from their experience with AT&T’s Aria, which looks to have made a more or less straight transition to the Old World markets. It now comes with Android 2.2 as its OS, while retaining its HTC Sense top-level skin (notably without the new “new” Sense additions present in the Desire HD and Desire Z), and is available in a pair of fresh new hues that include the deep green above and a lustrous white number after the break. Black is also an option for the more conservative among you. Look out for the Gratia on your local Euro retailer’s cheap and cheerful shelves from next month.

Continue reading HTC Gratia is an Aria by another name, coming to Europe in November

HTC Gratia is an Aria by another name, coming to Europe in November originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 06:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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