Tag Archives: battery-free

Portable Battery-free iPhone Speaker for Immersive Music Anywhere

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The ubiquity of smartphones has made these communication tools the perfect portable media players as well, allowing owners to enjoy their tunes, podcasts, and even videos at any given time or place. But while smartphones are great for private listening, even the most powerful smartphone speakers have limits, especially once the sound starts to distort at maximum volumes. Speakers can help spread the sound, but only as much and as far as their batteries or power cords take them. This distinctive smartphone speaker, in contrast, harnesses the laws of physics to take your tunes farther and immerse you and your friends in moving sounds, all without using any power and looking quite handsome to boot!

Designer: Ooi Masato of Pit-A-Pat for Shimawa

Click Here to Buy Now: $152 $179 (15% off at checkout). Hurry, Holiday Sale ends in 24 hours!

At one point in time, there was a breed of speakers that boasted requiring no electricity, no batteries, and absolutely no power at all to operate. These accessories acted as echo chambers to naturally amplify sounds, offering a simple and sustainable option to common speakers. Most of these, however, used plastic or at most wood to avoid the effects of vibrations, leaving their aesthetics and textures much to be desired.

The speaker is an innovative and unique take on this kind of no-power smartphone speaker that, unlike the rest of its kin, uses metal to offer a product whose value goes beyond its function. It uses Duralumin, a type of aluminum alloy that’s used in the aviation and aerospace industries because of its vibration-resistant properties and durability. Thanks to this, all you need to do is insert your smartphone into the speaker and feel the sound envelope you from all sides.

The choice of metal for this speaker’s material also gives the battery-free speaker a unique aesthetic you’d be hard-pressed to find in similar products. With a minimalist and retro industrial style, the speaker adds some character to any surface or space it is placed on. This elegant design is achieved through the use of the famed golden ratio to create a more natural proportion of the form’s shapes, particularly the different sizes of the speaker holes. Whether standing on its own or holding your smartphone, the speaker easily grabs your attention without being dominating or distracting.

And if you want to give the speaker a little more oomph, figuratively and literally, there are custom accessories you can screw into the holes to tweak the experience a bit. Reminiscent of airplane engines, Jet focuses and delivers sound in the direction the attachments are facing. Bloom, on the other hand, diffuses sound along the curves that try to resemble a blooming flower. Enjoy an immersive audio experience with this electricity-free smartphone speaker that requires no power to use and looks captivating anywhere you place it.

Click Here to Buy Now: $152 $179 (15% off at checkout). Hurry, Holiday Sale ends in 24 hours!

The post Portable Battery-free iPhone Speaker for Immersive Music Anywhere first appeared on Yanko Design.

A folding digital kitchen scale that uses kinetic energy to help you go battery-free

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If you don’t always measure ingredients in the kitchen, you might want to get a scale that doesn’t take up space or even needs batteries when it comes time to use it.

There are many things we take for granted until we realize we need them, and they are nowhere to be found. That goes for pens, blank sheets of paper, working batteries, or kitchen scales. Of course, these are also easy to purchase and keep, but you might not always need them all the time. One kitchen scale is designed to stay out of the way when you don’t need it and just work when you do, without having to worry whether it still has a battery inside when you need it the most.

Design: CASO

Kitchen scales come in all shapes, sizes, and designs, both the analog kind as well as more modern digital ones. In almost all cases, they take the same rectangular or circular plates that can take up precious shelf space. Digital scales, of course, also require power to function, mostly from batteries.

CASO’s Kitchen Ecostyle throws all that down the drain, so to speak. You might not even recognize it as a kitchen scale because of its unconventional design. It looks almost like a fat rectangular compass or protractor, with one leg that fans out to the side. This creates a gap where you can securely place a bowl that is too big to balance on the scale’s closed form safely.

Moving that leg also serves another purpose, though. It generates kinetic energy that is used to power the digital scale, at least for a short period. Not only will you no longer have to worry about batteries, but you also won’t have to be afraid of the batteries corroding over time when not in use. You can simply use the scale and then stow it away in a drawer or on some shelf without having to worry about a potential fire or chemical hazard in your kitchen.

The odd shape might need a bit of getting used to, but the benefits outweigh that brief learning curve. The CASO Kitchen Ecostyle’s unique form takes up less space than most other kitchen scales while also providing the power needed to use it. Along with its stainless steel construction, this makes it one of the most sustainable and environment-friendly kitchen scales you’d find in the market.

The post A folding digital kitchen scale that uses kinetic energy to help you go battery-free first appeared on Yanko Design.

Clean Teeth, Clean World!

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Picture this. Count the number of products you own that use batteries. Multiply it by 7.3 billion. That’s roughly the number of battery-powered products we as a species use, and eventually discard. Only 1% of discarded batteries actually get recycled, so look at your electric toothbrush and ask yourself. Is a polluted earth an appropriate price to pay for clean teeth? There’s only one answer here really, and it’s a no! The Be. toothbrush aims at providing the experience of an electric toothbrush, but without the electric bit. Devoid of motors, and batteries, and circuit boards, the Be. is a pretty ingeniously made brush that uses common sense, rather than a lithium-ion battery.

Taking cues from an unlikely yet brilliant place, the Be. uses a wind-up mechanism we’ve seen being used for long in toys and timers. It simply converts one form of energy into another, allowing you to merely rotate a dial on its base that then winds up a mechanism within the toothbrush body, causing the head to vibrate as would any electric toothbrush.

The Be.’s creation was sparked by a need to solve the earth’s pollution crisis. Designed as a completely analog piece of highly effective dental equipment, the Be. rivals the best electric toothbrushes. Just two twists on its base are enough to power you through an entire brushing cycle, with the same (if not better) effectiveness of an electric toothbrush. The Be.’s body and bristles are a 100% recyclable and biodegradable too, so your teeth AND your planet stay clean!

The Be.’s battery-free approach isn’t just eco-friendly, it’s you-friendly too! It prevents the need to charge your toothbrush, or to replace batteries periodically. It also means the Be. can be easily carried on flights with zero hassle A snap-on case makes carrying the Be. around an absolute dream. Plus, with each Be. you get a one year’s supply of interchangeable and completely recyclable bristle-heads… That’s just dental! I mean mental!

Designer: Patrick Triato

Click here to Buy Now: $49.00 $129.00

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Battery & Electric-Free – Brushing with Be. means no cables, no batteries, and no problems. Transform your daily brushing routine into a simple 3-step process: put toothpaste on the bristles, give the dial two full twists, hit the power button and let Be. work its magic.

Sustainable – Practice zero waste at home with Be.’s 100% biodegradable brush heads and recyclable build. The first toothbrush that gives you all the benefits of clean teeth, at no expense to the earth.

Smart Technology – Be.’s smart sensor operates at the ADA recommended precise tartar-fighting pressure of 120g, training you to brush thoroughly but consciously. With 80,000 charcoal infused brushstrokes at the perfect pressure, you’re off brushing for a diamond clean smile.

Travel-Friendly – Whether you’re traveling for business, backpacking outdoors or just bringing your toothbrush to work, Be. keeps up with your on-the-go lifestyle. The snap-on case creates an easy to carry cylinder and fits 1 extra brush refill for extended travel.

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Simplify Your Routine – Be. keeps your daily brushing routine easy, similar to your manual brush.

If electric toothbrushes are so good, why do the majority of people still use manual toothbrushes? Well, manual is easy, and as a species we like easy things. If you haven’t made the switch to electric yet, don’t! We have good news. With no batteries, PCB boards, soldering, or wires, Be. is still a manual toothbrush for all intents and purposes. Two twists of the dial and no charging needed has you brushing like you would with your manual toothbrush, but with 10x the cleaning power.

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Improve your Dental Health – A deeper clean that changes your tartar fighting game.

Most dentists will suggest using an electric toothbrush to get that diamond clean smile. Why? It’s proven they do a better job at getting debris out of your teeth, avoiding plaque, cavities and tooth decay. With over 80,000 brushstrokes, Be. has more power than your average electric toothbrush, cleaning deeper and whitening faster so you never have to worry about compromising your oral hygiene for sustainability. As the ultimate hybrid, you get the best of both worlds by brushing with Be.

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Click here to Buy Now: $49.00 $129.00

Green House’s lantern runs on salt and water, powers your gadgets via USB

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Japanese company Green House Co Ltd has quite an eclectic product portfolio, what with its women-only camcorder and peripherals like a PCI Express interface card with USB 3.0 support. Its latest device falls under another category entirely: the rivetingly named GH-LED10WBW is an LED lantern that runs on just water and salt; no batteries required. The light source provides eight hours of electricity per dose of saline water, and the lantern comes with a dedicated water bag for mixing the solution. The salt / water combo acts as an electrolyte with the magnesium (negative electrode) and carbon (positive electrode) rods inside the lantern. Users can get about 120 hours of power with the Mg rod before they'll need to buy a replacement (the rod is sold separately to begin with). More than just supplying a battery-free source of light, though, the lantern can function as a charger, thanks to a USB port built into the casing. Pricing has yet to be announced, but the GH-LED10WBW will be available by mid-September.

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Green House's lantern runs on salt and water, powers your gadgets via USB originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Sep 2012 23:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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