One of the worst things that can happen to a traveling geek/businessperson is to have their gadgets run down before the day is done. Power for your cell phone, MP3 player, or GPS device can be at a premium some days. A new messenger bag from Eclipse gives you a place to store all your gear and can help keep the gear charged at the same time.

The Fusion Solar Messenger bag can charge cell phones, MP3 players, and rechargeable batteries or any other device that can be plugged into a 12V auto adapter. The solar charger itself is removable and can be used outside the bag.

Helios was clearly inspired by the Jurassic era, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Helios is a concept design for an off-road electric solar-powered vehicle. When you take a break from your off-roading and stop the vehicle, the car will spread its “wings” which are made of photovolatic panels, in order to capture the sun’s rays and charge up the battery.

You’ve seen the concept in nature, where some animals have stretchable skin that absorb heat and light. A lizard might stop on a rock to take a breather and as he does, he opens up his extra skin and recharges. Same thing here. The Helios Concept won the Best Use of Technology at the Interior Motives Design Awards 2008. Pretty awesome.

The Post-it note is pretty handy. It’s something that everyone has used at one point or another. Just imagine how many trees it takes to keep us in Post-it notes every year. Whatever the number is, the E-note concept from Sequoia Studio can keep those trees firmly in the ground. It uses tactile and flexible electronic paper technology, and can be stuck and unstuck easily thanks to a “Gecko” glue.

Whether it picks up hair and dirt and becomes useless, we aren’t sure. The E-note is solar powered, giving it enough juice to take care of your message and reminders across before it runs out. It even has a visual alarm, an organizer and the ability to change between 8 different colors. We want this on our desks ASAP.

Designer David Veldkamp created this futuristic concept PC he calls the LawnPC. The device would create all the power it needs from solar cells embedded in the grass that sits on top of the PC. The grass isn’t real grass, it’s actually made from natural cotton fabric that carries inkjet printed solar cells. The use of cotton makes the blades biodegradable, just like real grass. The idea is that hundreds of these blades can generate all the power the system needs at about 60 Watts per hour. The blades transfer energy to the battery plug-in at the bottom of each blade. The Lawn PC is also completely wireless.

All the electricity is generated by the machine. Which doesn’t even require a cooling fan. The natural air flow in between the lawn is enough to cool the system. All you have to worry about is placing the system near a window or a vent, where it can get all the light and air it needs. The lawn is removable, so it will also power your other electronic devices. Those devices will look like they do now, just with a blade of grass sticking out of them like an organic antenna.

Sure, when the oil shortage becomes oil-no-more, it would be nice to drive around in search of fuel like Mad Max, but what would be even better is to have your own movable home to wander the wasteland in. Something on legs that can roam anywhere. Something like this. But faster.

It’s made to be a “modular dwelling system that enables persons to live a peaceful nomadic life, moving slowly through the landscape or cityscape”. It’s even environmentally friendly according to its designers, thanks to its use of solar energy, small windmills and a wood stove. So it looks like nomads of the future, or gypsies if you will, will be wandering the landscape in this contraption. I look forward to this new breed of hippy and I’d like to be the first to tell them to get this beast the hell off of my property. Damn long-hairs. But I guess I’ll just have to wait.

Behold. This new 9,000-square-foot, 3-story spaceship is called “Second Solar” and it has just been constructed in the German city of Böblingen. It’s a real looker. It’s got “giant engines, a thermal shell to protect the crew and landing runners designed to cope with unknown surface conditions.” And it was designed for the children. It’s amazing what can happen when a nation that loves David Hasselhoff stops watching Knight Rider re-runs and thinks about the children.

It’s an interactive exhibit designed by Different Futures for the Sensapolis fun park. Inside you’ll find such things as a 3D theater, a lab, alien breeding ground, a medical center and a warp-core. Pay attention nations of the world. Especially you U.S.A. This is how you need to treat your kids. I propose we have one in each state. It’s too damn awesome for words.

The Shiro SQ-S MP3 player is one the finalists for the HKEIA Award for Outstanding Innovation & Technology Products. It features a 1.8″ 65K color LCD display that will display all the usual stuff like track lists, Images, Video, eBooks and supports MP3/ WMA/ WAV/ FLAC/ APE/ OGG music formats. You’ll even get an integrated FM tuner and voice recorder, which will let you record the song you hear right from the station.

The player also sports 16GB of built-in memory, and will play music for up to 35 hours or 7 hours of video. The interesting thing here is the Solar cell in the back of the player. It allows for more charging, around 4 hours, giving you nearly unlimited music time. As long as you have sun anyway. The player will be available in three flavors. Silver/ Red/ Blue, and also four different patterns in its circular keypad. No word on price or availability.

In the future all beasts of burden will have solar powered backs so that they can better serve man. Look how well it’s working out for the camel. The solar cells power a small refrigerator, which allows them to deliver heat-sensitive vaccines to remote health centers in Africa.

It’s an ingenious solution to getting them from point A to point B intact. When refrigeration isn’t needed, the solar system even provides lighting at the clinic. It’s win/win. Despite being in the desert, the sun doesn’t always shine and for those times they have a foot-powered generator.

This is one of a small fleet of GPS and cameraphone equipped bicycles that Flickr has deployed in select cities around the world. It’s purple, solar powered, pedal powered, GPS powered and it probably needs a little basket with a bow to complete the girl’s bike look. The bikes have handlebar-mounted cameraphones (Nokia N95s, based on the metadata in the Flickr photos) that will snap a shot every 60 seconds while the bike is in motion. Then the photos get uploaded with the geodata, to a special Flickr account.

I have no idea what the purpose is, other then publicity. I suppose they could partner with Nokia etc and start selling these bikes. They are likely to be a nice collectible in a few years, so if you have one keep it safe. And try not to get into too much trouble snapping pics of drug dealers and uploading them.

Back in February, the Dream Car 123 was the latest in pyramid power cars. Still is, but now instead of cruising the streets at about 45 mph, with an 80-mile range, it’s got a far greater range these days. It also has bullet proof glass should the Pope want to get in on the action. They’ve also cut costs considerably. Back in February, pricing for the amazingly un-streamlined car was about $60,000 in supplies.

Fast forward to today, with the Dream Car now costing about $8,000 in materials with a mass production model being somewhere between $16,000 and $24,000. A 3.5 hour charge will give the car a 240 mile-range for about $5 in electricity costs. Sure, people will see you coming and call 911, thinking you’re an alien, but it’s well worth it should you buy one in the future or build one yourself.

Marcelo da Luz is not an alien. He has never probed another living thing. In fact he loves his home planet so much that for the past two years he has been driving his solar powered car across the country. But when he reached the Sarah Palin/alien fearing state of Alaska earlier in the week, his UFO car was spotted by a concerned citizen who called 911 to report a UFO sighting. Nevermind that UFO’s reside in the sky and this was on the road.

Alaskan police are not the sort to let aliens roam their highways so they went into action, probably hearing 70’s theme music in their heads, and pulled over Marcelo for interrogation. Once they realized that it was yet another human on the open road, they let bygones be bygones and let him go. Marcelo has has been pulled over at least seven times thanks to his odd vehicle.

The Spark Lamp concept by Beverly Ng is an LED lamp that you can flip over during the day to recharge itself using solar power. It’s designed to educate the owner about their power consumption. The lamp sports integrated WiFi which wirelessly keeps track of you home’s power usage. When you turn the lamp on, it will change colors and flash to tell you what your home’s power consumption is.

It’s no accident that it looks like a houseplant as a metaphor for how plants are powered by sunlight through photosynthesis. The Spark Lamp was created in reaction to the Swedish’s government response to the energy crisis. In Sweden, future homes will have smart meters that will give real-time feedback to homeowners on the internet. But data on a website is not all that engaging so the Spark lamp was developed to enhance the experience.

It’s claimed that the Peugeot 888 is the “personal vehicle for the future Metropolis.” I’d have to agree. Created by designer Oskar Johansen from Norway, the car has room for two and all of your luggage, but the best part is that it can shape-shift. The Peugeot 888 will lie flat on the highway for stability and aerodynamics. Once you hit the city, it sits up for easy parking and road sharing.

It also has green in mind for a bright eco-future, since it’s powered by electric motors in each wheel and lithium-ion batteries in the trunk. Oh, and it’s also covered with solar panels. So I think it qualifies as green for a good long while. The 888 is one of many entries in the Fifth Annual Peugeot Design Contest.

We’ve seen our share of solar powered devices, but nothing so hideous and blatantly dorky as the solar powered necktie. It will not only collect solar power, but it also singles you out as a geek. You can thank a group of braniacs at Iowa State University for creating it. It’s made from newly developed solar fabrics. The solar panels are tiny and laid out in a grid that at least makes it look somewhat like any other tacky tie.

It even sports a pocket sewn into the back so your device can suck precious juice like a parasite that no one can see. This technology can only end with a living symbiote tie that strangles you dead, thereby making it look like you’ve committed suicide. Then they’ll take over the world. No one will know. It will just seem like unusually high suicides. Let’s just stop wearing them now, can we? They’re silly.

Air conditioners are not usually solar powered because they use so much power you would need a large surface area of solar panels to keep it going. What’s interesting here is that the GreenCore 10200 solves this problem by using a battery pack that it recharges continuously throughout the day. (It can also be charged directly from the wall)

The GreenCore comes with a configuration that will not be enough power to run the air conditioner completely on it’s own, but what it will do is save you some serious money on your next power bill by doing it’s part and it can be combined with other solar panels to supply its complete power needs. The technology looks pretty promising and can be used in a variety of ways.