The Kudocase doubles as a stand, and uses photovoltaic ink technology to generate electricity from indoor or outdoor light. The device has a slim 4mm 10,000 mAh battery, and will also let other mobile devices, like smartphones and cameras, get juiced up via the built-in USB port. The solar charger is supposed to provide up to 10 days of power for the average user.

The case itself is rubber-coated and composed of biodegradable corn grain. Like any good iPad case, it supports automatic sleep/wake, and works at several angles. It also has a handy built-in HDMI port.

Kudocase began as a Kickstarter project and raised more than four times its initial funding goal. It’s now being produced in black, with more colors – blue, gray, green, and pink, being released at a later date. It sells for $190 at the Kudo shop and it starts shipping on May 11.

[via designboom]

The ship even traversed the Suez canal and docked at many port locations along the way. The ship was made to be as lightweight and aerodynamic as possible and measures 31 x 15 m. The PlanetSolar was made from carbon fiber and the deck surface has 537 square meters of solar panels. Those panels were able to generate 93.5 kW of power.

The power was stored in a lithium-ion battery system. The power generated and stored was enough to keep the crew of four people cruising on their trip around the globe. The vessel traveled as near the equator as possible to provide the maximum amount of sunlight. Once the ship docks officially, the power left in the batteries will be used for a light show display during the arrival festivities.

[via EcoGeek]

The new accessory will protect your iPad, and uses the power of the sun to charge it up. Solar power is a cool addition, and the whole package looks a lot more streamlined than their previous Keyboard Case. It works with Bluetooth, and just like their earlier keyboard, this one lasts a long time on a full charge. Logitech states that it can last up to 2 years, which is amazing. It’s too bad the solar panels can’t be used to recharge your iPad too.

The Logitech Solar Keyboard Folio is available for pre-order for $129.99(USD) directly from their online store.

[via Ubergizmo]

The massive solar tornado was big enough to have swallowed 100 Earths. The tornado is actually known as a solar prominence and they have been seen on the sun for decades but this was the largest ever seen. Astronomers have calculated that the storm was an astounding 124,000 miles tall. Watch the spiraling movement of this impressive solar phenomenon in the video clip below:

Rather than being caused by winds like tornadoes on Earth, the solar prominence was caused by a spiral shaped magnetic structure that rises from the sun and is attached at both ends to the surface of the sun. The solar tornado starts with a huge injection of plasma that shoots up one of those structure’s legs. The plasma is guided along the helical shape of the magnetic structure giving it a coherent rotation of material, in turn causing the massive solar tornado. One of the more interesting parts is that this solar tornado didn’t produce any plasma eruptions, which generally happens.

[via National Geographic]

Using the included solar panel, once fully charged up, the Nomad lamp will provide 6 hours of light at full intensity. The lamp only has one button and can be placed almost anywhere since it’s designed to be resistant to shocks and falls. The luminous globe is protected by a silicone disk, further enhancing its usefulness.

The lamp can also be hung almost anywhere and can also serve as a good camping light. There are 12 LEDs inside of it, which should provide plenty of illumination. In addition to solar power, it can also be juiced up conventionally, or from a car’s cigarette lighter. There’s also an attachment to charge up mobile phones.

[via designboom]

This watch was designed by Michael Young for Hong Kong-based brand o.d.m., known for its creative and reasonably priced watch designs. The Sunstich watch has no buttons and comes with a touch-sensitive screen. By tapping on specific sections of the face, the functions of the watch can be triggered. It’s also got a battery backup in case the sun doesn’t shine enough.

There’s no word yet on the release date or price of the Sunstitch, but if you’re interested in one, you might want to keep an eye out on o.d.m.’s Michael Young collection here.

[via Moco LoCo]

The new case is made for the iPhone 4 and 4S and it will keep yours safe from drops, falls, and accidental spills. The case will even allow you to take your iPhone underwater, up to 20 feet. The built-in solar battery and solar charger will keep your iPhone juiced up until the sun burns out.

The Aqua Tek S is made from durable polycarbonate materials, and has rubber grips on the sides to make sure it doesn’t slip from your hands. Despite its thickness, it still provides access to all controls and the touchscreen – and the cameras still work too.

It will be available in 10 different styles, including a variety of outdoorsy camouflage patterns.

You’ll need to pledge at least $100(USD) to get this case, which will save you $30 off the retail price once it’s launched. Head on over to Kickstarter if you’d like one.

[via Ubergizmo]

However, the idea of putting your device under the heat of the sweltering sun isn’t very appealing because it might overheat and end up getting fried if you don’t pay attention. A pretty neat solution for taking advantage of solar energy without being out in the elements? The XDModo Solar Charger.

Basically, the charger “catches” solar energy through the window where it’s stuck on, and uses this energy to charge up your device, while it sits safely in an indoor environment, such as an office or even in your car. Of course, there’s no reason you can’t just flip it over and use it outdoors if you want too.

The XDModo charger comes with regular and micro USB outputs, and stores power in its 1400mAh rechargeable lithium battery – which should be good for about a full charge of today’s smartphones. It’s available for purchase online from Design3000 shop for €49.95 (~$66 USD.)

[via The Green Head]

Its makers state that with the cover in place and a reasonable amount of sunlight, you’ll be able to use your Kindle for three months straight before needing a regular recharge. The SolarKindle cover also comes with an LED lamp, to allow you late night reading. The lamp will be juiced up for 50 hours of continuous use.

The cover can also be recharged via USB, so it doubles as conventional battery in case there isn’t much sun around. Thanks to the Kindle’s minimal power requirements, an hour under the sun translates to 3 days of reading. The SolarKindle cover will retail for $79.99 when it’s launched.

The giant vehicles that the military uses are far from fuel-efficient and the more fuel they consume, the more fuel the military has to transport to wherever they are operating from. The more transportation runs to fuel up, the more soldiers are in harm’s way. Never mind the massive fuel expenses passed onto taxpayers. Clearly, saving fuel has many benefits in the military. This is why the Hummer is gong hybrid.

The full details on the vehicle known as the Fuel Efficiency Group Vehicle Demonstrator or FED Bravo are still classified. However, it is said to be a plug-in hybrid, using technology similar to the Chevy Volt. More details are known about the FED Alpha, a lightweight model which uses a solar panel to power its electrical system, and runs on a turbo 4-cylinder diesel engine, along with special tires which have a low rolling resistance. The vehicles are said to get the same performance as current Hummers and save 70% on fuel.

[via Inhabitat via Jalopnik]

In order to complete the hack, you’ll need to replace the stock batteries with higher capacity ones. Then, the battery compartment has to be modded to accept Voltaic Systems small 2-Watt solar panels. Finally the lamp has to be re-wired to accommodate Adafruit’s MintyBoost charger module.

The resulting hack adds a USB charging port, while at the same time allowing you to still use the lamp, which is cool and that makes it even more useful. You can check out the whole procedure here.

[via Ikeahackers]

The Solar Ship is made by the Toronto-based company of the same name, and is wing-shaped airship that includes solar arrays on its roof. The balloons are still filled with helium, but can fly using only the power of the sun to extend flying time and conserve energy. While you might think this is just a concept, you’d be wrong as the vehicle pictured is actually a flying prototype called the Caracal.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Since airships don’t require much room to land or take off, they are perfect for delivering medical and relief supplies to disaster zones, without the need for a runway. Running on solar power, the Caracal can carry about 330 pounds while on hybrid power, it can lift as much as  1,653 pounds of cargo. Top speed is about 37mph on solar power, or 75mph on hybrid power.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[Toronto Star via DVice]

Unfortunately I don’t know exactly how fast it cooks food. In fact, I don’t know how fast food is cooked in general. I just wait until my sister says it’s time to eat. Anyway, ID Cook does say this on its product page: “Cooking time: 60 minutes Chicken.” So yeah. No idea.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I wonder how one goes about retrieving food off of a 200°C surface. I’m sure it’s in the manual, because the Cookup is undoubtedly a long-term investment. You’ll get savings from not having to buy fuel for it, but you’ll have to burn a lot of money upfront – the stainless steel and plastic Cookup INOX sells for about $429 (USD), while the wood and aluminum Cookup200 sells for about $715. You can order both from ID Cook’s website.

[via Notcot]

On the plus side, it works under lower sunlight conditions that normal solar panels. It will be interesting to see what happens with this film. It’s a nice (and inconspicuous) alternative to expensive solar panels.

[via Computer World]

If you don’t want to leave your iPhone sitting out in the sun, you can also remove the pack and charge it up separately. Once the Mobius is in the sun, charging starts immediately. There’s a handy LED readout to let you know how much of a charge is left in the pack. It can also be recharged using a USB port. A full charge will double the battery life of your phone, which is about 5 hours of talk time or 8 hours of 3G Internet or video playback. There’s a camera hole so that you can still take photos.

An hour in the sun gets you 25 minutes of talk time. The hard plastic case will also protect your iPhone. Mobius is slim and lightweight, and sells over at Amazon for about $80 (USD).

[via Cool Hunting]

But artificial tans sometimes make them end up looking a bit too orange and, well, plastic-looking overall. A better solution? This Solar Tan Swimsuit designed by Jun-hyeon Kim that solves the problem of uneven tanning if they choose to bake for a couple of hours under the sun–without having to be in the buff.

Kim’s concept makes use of a special fabric and a solar panel that’s integrated and sewn into the suit. So the way I see it, it’s like a tanning bed embedded into a swimsuit to tan your, er, privates (for lack of a better word) while the rest of your body soaks up the sun’s rays. No idea on the risks involved with using technology such as this, though.

While I believe Kim is still a far way off from getting the Solar Tan Swimsuit realized, it’s still definitely a good idea and a very interesting concept.

[via Yanko Design]

He calls the project the Solar Sinter. The device is powered by solar energy and uses the hot rays of sun to melt the silica in desert sand to form the 3D objects. You can see in all the images here that the finished products aren’t as precise as a real 3D printer would make. However, the fact that to uses solar power and the sun to let plain desert sand into anything is really cool in my book.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It looks like the Solar Sinter is able to heat up layers about a quarter of an inch thick with each printing session. The software that allows the printing of the 3D objects is open-source ReplicatorG. You can check out the video above to see the Solar Sinter in action. If you are in the UK you can see the actual device on display at the Royal College of Art graduate exhibition through July 3, 2011.

[via Colossal Art + Design and CreativeApplications]

Inside the Voltaic Spark tablet case is a removable and rechargeable battery. It can be charged from a USB port at home to use on the road. The coolest thing though is that the case has four rugged and water resistant solar panels on the outside. Those panels combined produce 8W of power, which will charge the battery inside the case fully in ten hours of direct sunlight.

Once charged the battery can fully recharge your iPad. Other tablets will need different amounts of time to charge. The case measures 13.5″ H x 11″ W x 2″ deep and has a number of pockets for cables. The battery has two USB ports and the battery comes with several adapters for other mobile devices. The Spark is available for $299 (USD) over at Voltaic.

The NC215S will be available in the US starting next month. It’s a netbook, and will come with a 10.1 inch screen that has 1,024×600 resolution, 1GB of RAM, and a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N570 dual-core processor. Apparently, every two hours of sunlight gives users an extra hour of battery life. Now that’s not bad, considering the alternative. It makes lugging laptops around that much lighter, since you don’t have to carry around a power adapter or an extra battery.

According to Samsung, the netbook has a battery life of 14 hours under ideal conditions. That may seem like a lot, but I get about that amount with my MacBook Pro 17 pretty consistently (no Flash installed, brightness to the max, browsing and reading). The NC15S will be available starting in the week of July 3rd for $399 (USD).

[Liliputing via Ubergizmo]

You can access the power via the built-in USB ports. The power can be used to light-up the inside of the chair, to give you light while you are reading or browsing when the sun goes down. Created by architecture professor Sheila Kennedy and a team of students at MIT, the SOFT Rocker can also capture the kinetic energy from your rocking motions, to add even more power to the chair.

The SOFT Rockers can be found at Killian Court, at MIT until the end of the week if you want to try them out.

[Arts at MIT via DVice]