You’ve done it.  I’ve done it. We’ve all squawked at the lack of green-ness current gadgets have to offer. In fact, Greenpeace has built an entire campaign around it.

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Every time I buy a new gadget it’s like welcoming a new pet into the family. You go to the store, select the perfect little tyke, and rush home to introduce it to your existing collection. The best part? No jealousy among your older electronics: they’re made to play together.

But electronics rarely last as long as a real pet. As faithfully as it might serve you, within a few years it’s time to put that gadget out to pasture. This is your guide to the greenest pastures around.

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Back in late May, I shared some information about the Medis 24 x 7 PowerPack, a fuel cell that charge a variety of electronic devices through the use of interchangeable tips. Last night I noticed an story on CNET’s Crave (”the gadget blog”) about a new application for the cell. It described an LED flashlight with an adapter to plug into a PowerPack that can operate for as long as six weeks on a single fuel cell.

That would have been a great item to have in my storm kit a couple of weeks ago when we lost power for more than 24 hours because of a line of thunderstorms that knocked out power for us and a few hundred thousand fellow residents of the Washington DC metro area. I am looking forward to trying it out for my next backpacking trip; the cell weighs less than the half dozen AA batteries that I normally carry for a 4 day trek.

For those of you who wonder how to keep your iPhone or iTouch operating when not close to a wall plug, the company recommends using the 2 watt power management cable. Wait a minute - 2 watts - that sounds like it might work for a device like the Cherry Pal that Michelle Bennett wrote about yesterday. Wonder how long it would work in that kind of service? Hmmm.

Disclosure: I have been following Medis for several years and own stock in the company. A long time ago, I worked as the General Manager in a small factory making simple plastic products. The virtual Medis factory tour in their facility in Galway, Ireland fascinates me.

Photo credit - Medis Technologies

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As far as green gadgets go, this little desktop computer will give Dell and (to a lesser extent) Apple a run for their money.

The CherryPal promises to be affordable, efficient, and powerful enough for the average PC user. At first glance, that stats on the system look modest, and for good reason. This design actually cuts out 20% of PC components to reduce energy usage. But fear not, despite being small (the size of a paperback), the CherryPal claims it can start up in 20 seconds, and cloud computing provides more power/storage when you need it. A Linux operating system (now more user friendly than ever), and cloud computing means you won’t need to worry about viruses or install protective programs that can slow down your PC.

On a more green note, the CherryPal is supposed to sell for under $400 (monitor, keyboard, etc. not included). It should hit the market on August 4th, 2008. For that price and low energy use, it will appeal to wallets as well as the environmentally conscious. Though there is some understandable skepticism, I’ll praise any manufacturer that lowers the bar on PC environmental impact.

I recently took a blow to all of my electronics in the same week (Murphey’s Law at work), so it’s nice to see alternatives on the market. I’ll definitely have my eye on this cute little computer that thinks it can.

Readers: What are your thoughts on cloud computing? What are CherryPal’s chances of becoming popular?

Image via Inhabitat

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