Hasta La Ideas

You fill it up with ordinary tap water (or preferably de-ionized water). With the aid of electrolysis, powered by ordinary household electricity, the fireplace will separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in the water (water, H2O, is basically hydrogen and oxygen), ignite the hydrogen, add some oxygen to make the flame visible, and releases the rest of the oxygen into the room air. With this technology you get a warming fire without carbon monoxide, ashes, smoke, or the energy losses you always suffer in a chimney. The fireplace is supposed to produce 31,000 Btu/hour and it requires 0,5 gallons of water per hour. This smart eco friendly fireplace is called Aqueon, but at present it is a concept and a prototype. But we can always hope…brbr

I could kick myself for not thinking of this first. Kudos to whoever did, though. It is simple, smart, and usable. Just freeze the cooling blocks like you would any other cooling block, stack your beverage cans in your bag or cooler and off you are. USD 7:98 a piece or 2 for USD 14:98.brbr

Imation Micro Hard Drive is a portable, 4 GB backup hard drive. It comes with software that automatically copies and saves the current version of a document along with the previous six versions. The design is pretty cool, too. It reminds of a padlock, and the USB plug is protected within the cover. It is also supposed ti have a shock proof chassis around the mini hard drive. The jury of IDEA 2007 practically loved it.brbr

A tripod flashlight seems to be the thing to have when you are alone and have to change a flat in the dark. We do not know if there are any like it, but this one has been awarded in the recently presented IDEA Awards 2007. The flashlight, called MaxLife 369 TriPod Flashlight from Stanley, is actually even smarter than what one thinks at first, since each of the legs contain 3 AA size batteries. The batteries in each leg is promised to last for 75 hours and the brightness can be adjusted in three steps; 1 LED, 3 LEDs or all 6 LEDs. The flashlight is available, among other places, on Amazon, where it is USD 22:82.brbr

Phoenix Motorcars in California has used new battery technology to develop the new electric SUT, apparently based on Korean SsangYong Actyon Sports (insert). The Phoenix has very promising stats, among them a working range of over 100 miles on a charge, a top speed of 95 mph and it will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under 10 seconds. The new batteries are Altairnano NanoSafe™ based on lithium titanate instead of lithium-ion. The very short charging time is achieved at special charging stations using 480 V three phase current. If you charge at home with your ordinary household current, it will be about 4 to 5 hours. The company will manufacture about 500 SUTs during 2007, and hopes for 6,000 in 2008, when they are looking to introduce a SUV. From available pictures it appears to be based on the SSangYong Actyon. At present all sales are directed at fleets, but Phoenix promises consumer sales during next year. There are no prices to be found on the Phoenix site, but an ordinary 4×4 diesel Actyon Sports is around AUD 33,000:- in Australia (that is about USD 29,000:-).brbr