Original article by Zaher Karp on Matter Network a News Portal dedicated to Sustainability

Wi-Fi lets you work around the house or check kitchen recipes, but it does have its issues. Wi-Fi was recently outed as being slowed primarily by interference between devices, rather than congestion in an area, according to a recent report Estimating the Utilization of Key License-Exempt Spectrum Bands.

The new ePlug series from Hercules will connect users to the Internet without the potential for network interference by utilizing existing home electrical wiring, and it will save some power in the process.

Most of us who carry tons of gadgets around will appreciate something like the Scott-e-Vest, but the Solar Vest that you see here will definitely be a fashion faux pas whenever you wear it out. It is pretty self-explanatory, actually, being a vest with solar panels located behind, featuring cables that string to your pockets to make sure your cellphone and perhaps digital camera will get their batteries recharged. Sounds perfect if you love taking long strolls under bright sunlight, but otherwise we might be tempted to just leave the gizmos in the jacket hanging under the sun while we cool ourselves down in the house with a nice, cold can of beer in one hand and TV remote in the other.

Nissan's Intelligent Driver Project makes us sound as though we drivers are dumb, but then again that holds true for certain people behind the wheel who seem to be rather absent-minded at times, ramming into trees or missing out on a turn and running into a wall. Well, the Nissan Intelligent Driver Project (NIDP) relies on satellite navigation systems, cellphone technology and advanced vehicle telematics that will help analyze driving habits, giving useful tips to improve fuel economy that indirectly helps reduce fuel consumption and CO2. The NIDP is able to display real-time fuel economy updates through the vehicle's satellite navigation screen, while data from each trip is transmitted to the Nissan Global Data Centre for analysis on a daily basis. Depending on your driving habits, the uploaded date on the website will award you with Bronze, Silver or Gold status, while those who are the most fuel-efficient will be awarded the Platinum ranking.

ZigBee Alliance has started work on its ZigBee Green Power feature set which enables the development of self-powered, energy-harvesting electronics devices. The ZigBee Alliance consists of 300 members from all over the world, and this new technology standard will be play nice with existing ZiGbee and ZigBee PRO networks. It enables the creation of new, maintenance-free products which ultimately will not need any wires or batteries to run. As it stands at the moment, ZigBee devices are already ultra low-powered devices and can be powered by regular batteries for years, so here's hoping that the newer iteration will eliminate the need for batteries once and for all. It is said that the ZigBee Green Power standard will be released to the Alliance members before the year is over.

The AIRPod might look like some sort of concept, but it is an actual working electric car which drives like an amusement part ride, getting you from point A to point B without straining our environment with more greenhosue gases. The AIRPod will rely on compressed air to power a small two-cylinder engine, so you can be sure the 180cc poweplant's 5.4 horsepower isn't able to burn rubber anytime soon, but at least it helps get you around without having to worry about how much prices at the gas pumps are at the moment.

Philips has created their new Brilliance LCD computer display which comes with an integrated sensor that is able to detect whether there is a human in front of it or not. This is a first for monitors, whereas Sony Bravias of the newer variety are also able to detect people. This PowerSensor function within will work independently of the operating system, allowing you to cut down on your power consumption in the process. Each time you move away from your machine to chat by the water cooler, the monitor will dim while reducing its power consumption by a whopping 50%. We don't see no reason NOT to include such helpful technology into all future LCD monitors and not just those by Philips.

Water consumption can be quite tricky when it comes to different households that have their own priorities. Some people can't be bothered to fix a leaking faucet, while others will look for every opportunity to recycle water. The Measuring Consumption water sprayer targets those who love spending their time in the garden, as it will keep a reading of just how much water you have consumed each time the water sprayer is used in order to toe the line when you've passed the average 80 gallon mark for each day. Hopefully designer Tobin Spann will be able to turn his idea into reality in due time.

Telecom giant Orange has come up with a concept solar tent that will debut at this year's Glastonbury music festival in the UK. Needless to say, this is pretty much a self-explanatory concept that helps juice up devices plugged within the solar tent without the need for any power generators apart from a generally sunny day. Just in time for summer too, if you ask us. Hopefully this is one concept that will be mass produced.

In nine hours, Microsoft will officially announce Hohm, a web-based service that has been created to help people and utilities companies manage energy more efficiently. The official announcement will be made at the Edison Electric Institute utility industry conference, at 9am (PT) on Wednesday.

Hohm works by tracking one's energy consumption and providing some optimization advices, based on the information that is provided by the user, or by sensors. Hohm will provide an estimation of the savings induced by a proposed change (use different light bulb, choose a different time to plug your electric car ) and will track the actual results after you follow the advice. Hohm will constantly refine its data to provide ever more pertinent advices. Microsoft's approach is interesting in many ways and here are the highlights:

Android phones are still few and far in between when it comes to the smartphone market, but here we are with ZTE of China announcing that they are working on a solar-powered Android handset. This new model will be launched in Q2 2010, and chances are ZTE will use its expertise from its previous solar-powered model known as the Coral 200 Solar. This device will as expected come with rear-mounted solar panels. Well, what do you think of solar powered phones? We think that it is a long time in coming, but would definitely be an added bonus in the future. Hopefully displays that have photovoltaic properties will come into existence on cellphones down the road as well so that the handset can soak up the sun's power regardless of which side they're facing.

The Solar Impulse Project, the first 100% solar-powered aircraft looks set to take off later this month on the 26th. This model will rely fully on the power of the sun, and has been dubbed the HB-SIA, featuring a superior wingspan of 61 meters and covered in almost 12,000 solar cells. While this sounds impressive, there has been numerous engineering obstacles to overcome. In fact, the 200 square meters of photovoltaic cells are unable to provide more than 6kW of power to the plane’s four motors, achieve a maximum of 8hp - somewhat similar to what the Wright Brothers had to play with back in 1903. This means the Solar Impulse won't be able to go too fast, maxing out at around 43.5mph.

Check out this super advanced sun bed that ought to be reality to meet the demands of summer. Currently on parade at the “Beach&Pool 2008/09? design competition, this S3 hi-tech lounger will come in three relaxing positions that can be molded according to the owner's specifications and comfort level. It will feature an automatic mechanism that follows the sun in order to keep the bed oriented with our solar system's brightest star always regardless of what time of the day it is. Not only that, it comes with an automatic waterdrop spray that helps keep you refreshed without being burnt like a lobster just in case you accidentally fall asleep while getting a tan. Best of all is the inclusion of functions such as a touchscreen LCD display, DVD player, speakers and USB connectivity, where they are powered by solar energy.

At first glance, the Urban hydrogen car might seem to be a failure from the get go since hydrogen-powered vehicles has a fast shrinking fanbase, in addition to its low maximum speed of just 50mph. Well, creator Hugo Spowers has different plans for it since he will make this car available as a product service system, meaning they will be leased only, and are open source in a sense since he wants suppliers to reveal their proprietary secrets for passengers with an interest to improve upon it. How far will this idea take off, we don't know, but it is something different in this day and age where individualism trumps all. The Urban is tipped to cost users around $325 monthly to drive, averaging around $0.25 per mile.

Folks who want to do their bit for the environment can check out the Magic Cube which merges the functionalities of many a device into one, including a lamp, an alarm clock, radio and charger. You don't even need to plug this puppy into your power outlet since it is equipped with a solar panel at the bottom, allowing you to turn it upside down whenever you head out to work so that it can harvest the day's amount of solar energy that comes streaming through your bedroom window. The topside of the cube will show you just how much juice it holds left before it needs to bask under the sun yet again. Hopefully the Magic Cube will move beyond the realms of a concept pretty soon.