When it comes to gadgets, simple is better. At least for me. I never was much of a geek, to be honest, and I sometimes have trouble with simple instructions, often creating not-so-simple problems that require (if I’m lucky) simple solutions. With that in mind, here’s the simple story of the Belkin Conserve Socket Power Timer.

This little device turns stuff off. Gets to the root of the issue, really, as for all intents and purposes it unplugs plugged-in stuff when it’s plugged in. Okay, so it’s simpler than I’m making it out to be. The gadget basically acts as a timer for your electro-stuff, shutting off power – including standby power – after a time interval that you select.

To use it, just plug it into a socket and then plug your device, in turn, into its outlet. Then set its little timer for either 30 minutes, three hours or six hours and that’s it. Whatever is plugged in gets cut off from the juice when it’s had enough. This is good for all sorts of stuff, like coffee makers, irons, phone chargers, even television sets.

The Conserve Socket Power Timer’s reason for being is that many electronics and appliances suck electricity even when they’re not being used. This waste is sometimes referred to as vampire energy or standby power and, as pointed out by our pals at Good, adds up over time. Put on your times-millions-of-devices-times-millions-of-households hat and, well, doing the math is pretty simple – that’s a lot of suck.

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Billed as the greenest-of-the-green-tech gadgets, enter the iPad – a blockbuster with staying power, enjoying colossal success beyond its celebrated opening weekend. (Wondering as I write, how long it’ll be before my spell-check passes over “iPad,” as it now does “iPod.”) For the eco-geek, this is great news: An A-level toy in sustainable form. A maker makes good on its promise to be a leader in corporate environmental solid citizenship.

Indeed, there are a lot of reasons for you to feel good about buying the iPad. The much-talked-up tablet features a way-long battery life, an arsenic-free display glass, is free of brominated flame retardants, has no mercury in its LCD display, lacks any PVC and is fitted with a recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure. All this is an articulation of an admirable commitment by Apple that goes far beyond design. Behind the scenes, the company’s approach to its facilities, production, water use, transportation and recycling is as state-of-the-green-art as is its technology.

But not everyone out there is drinking the apple juice. Not at all at ease with yet another massive production demand for an insanely desired electronic device, more than a few watchdogs are looking behind Apple’s green curtain. These folks are drawing attention to yet more precious metals mining, increased supply chain requirements and the device’s energy use over its lifetime. “End-of-life management,” too, is of a great concern for both the iPad itself and the devices that it will no doubt (in many cases needlessly) replace. Just hours, in fact, after Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPad back in January, Greenbiz’s Managing Editor Matthew Wheeland referred to this latest gotta-have as “still another resource-intensive gadget.”

Moreover, the iPad is cloud computing-based, relying on the ever-growing methodology to access videos and music and other forms of data streaming. The rapid growth of this approach requires the construction of places to store vast amounts of data, immense facilities that gobble up tremendous amounts of electricity.

Greenpeace Press Officer Daniel Kessler, writing in The Huffington Post, recently opined: “If we hope to phase out dirty sources of energy to address climate change, then – given the massive amounts of electricity needed in order to run computers, provide backup power and coordinate related cooling equipment that even energy-efficient data centers consume – the last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power.”

You might say there are bigger enviro-challenges to address than these. Greenpeace and the other hardcore greenies would do better to focus on some of the real uglies out there, including those who portray their products and manufacturing processes as environmentally friendly when they’re truly anything but. But the “radicals” on this issue, as is often the case, have a purpose and an important point to make.

The advent of the iPad begs some real questions to those of us who love new(er) and clever(er) gadgetry, green or otherwise – questions that perhaps we didn’t ask ourselves when we joined the compact disc, cell phone and laptop revolutions. We’re an insatiable culture with an insatiable appetite for progress, particularly high-tech progress, and if we can call it green, well that’s just great. But it’s good – critical, in fact – to keep in mind that (even green) tech progress comes with a price. More stuff means just that – more stuff. And that requires mining, manufacturing, transportation and power. It also means your old stuff has got to go – somewhere. (It’s interesting to note, says Wheeland, that those in the recycling biz adore the iPad almost as much as they adore flat-screened televisions.)

So ask yourself before buying in: Do you need a new device – or do you want a new device? This is not always a simple question, and can require a hard look at a fine line between what truly inspires you and what’s simply a new toy, between charging your creative engine and consumption for its own sake. We’re presented with new options to make our lives easier and more enjoyable every day. Discerning which of these roads to follow – read: purchases to make – is a big issue when considering how well we want to play with our community and our planet.

Image: Robert Scoble

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First up – is there really such thing as a green gadget? Answer: define “green”, says Wired. And is it really cheaper to recover gold from junked electronics than to mine it out of the ground? (Amateur gold panners, please form an orderly queue at your local landfill.)

Things doubling up as other things afterward – we like. So Paul Clark’s design for a plant pot doubling as a birdhouse – seen here at designspotter – is an intriguing idea (and perfect for my allotment-mad corner of the world).

A holiday with a difference – you’re stuffed into a sphere and slung into the trees. In fact, this prospect is far from nightmarish, as Twilight Earth explains.

Handmade goods are doing great: the economy, well, not so much. The Etsy revolution (and that really is beginning to look like the right word) currently represents around $90 million of commerce every year and growing. Clive Thompson takes a fascinated look at Wired, via Apartment Therapy.

Eco-friendly heater upgrades: brilliant idea. And lots of money up front. Ouch. So it’s nice to see the new administration is keen to lend a helping hand, in the form of very welcome tax credits.

Oh PETA. Why, PETA, why? Again and again, you make us feel older than our years. And now this? Can we get back to the business at hand, please?

Fashion websites should absolutely drip with style, yes? The same way dentists should have good teeth. Take a look at Smashing Magazine’s round-up of the most beautiful sites out there – via The Steel Closet – and attempt to resist their formidable charms. (Bet you can’t.)

You can do anything with LEDs. Even – prepare yourself – Extreme Sheep Art. You heard me. Or how about this?

We’ve been following Josh Dorfman – a.k.a. The Lazy Environmentalist – for a while now, and we were delighted to hear about his new book The Lazy Environmentalist On A Budget: Save Money, Save Time, Save The Planet – and he’ll be on the Sundance Channel this June, as Ecorazzi reports.

If you want to make your business sustainable – truly sustainable – it’s about utilizing creativity, cutting-edge business practices and more interdependency than ever before. It’s about facilitating small-scale “minipreneurs” so they can thrive. It’s a new business model for a new era.

Meet the latest tool in the fight against pollution – chickens! Or rather, what chickens leave behind. As Planetsave reports, it turns out that chicken poop seems to act as a catalyst for the breakdown of crude oil in the soil.

Where do you think you rate on the Global Rich List? Higher than you expect.

It’s the weekend – time to switch off the computer and get out into the “real world”? Except that line is getting awfully blurred. Do you Twitter? Use a Blackberry? So when exactly are you actually offline? As Max Gladwell quips, who needs Second Life when the everyday world is getting just as wacky and wired?

And lastly…true love has rarely had such dire consequences!

Image: masochismtango

The post Eco Links to Green Your Weekend appeared first on EcoSalon.

The other day I saw an advertisement for The Digital Recipe Reader. Kinda cool, as it has a 7″ touch screen, holds up to 2,500 recipes and not a single tree was hacked nor CO2 emission spent delivering cookbooks. Sold through Neiman Marcus, the ad said that owners have access to a gaggle of exclusive NM recipes in addition to the few hundred preloaded ones. The Reader also syncs to an online database that can be customized. Pretty nifty – this, too, can be yours for a mere $300. I did a little research to see if anyone had test-driven it and found a wonderfully snarky review on Wired.com. Writer Jose Fermoso had me laughing at the headline, which reads:

Digital Recipe Reader Copies iPhone UI, Scams Grandma

After a few paragraphs he goes on to say: “The problem is that [The Reader] is $100 more than the cheapest iPhone (8GB), which could easily serve as the main kitchen helper and access thousands of recipes online. (Did anyone say Epicurious?) The only apparent difference between the devices is that this one is ‘splash resistant,’ and of course, doesn’t make calls, play movies, or have hundreds of interesting other online applications, like the steak cooking timer.”

But as I gazed at the advertisement and saw the perfectly art-directed image of the reader, one thing became very clear: a simple recipe for spiced red lentil stew was displayed as an example of what a potential owner could expect. It was free. And delicious.

Spiced Red Lentil Stew
1 cup red lentils
1 carrot coarsely chopped
1 onion coarsely chipped
2 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (I used 2 tablespoons)
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon chopped parsley or cilantro (I had none)

Cover lentils with water in a bowl and stir. Drain, rinse, rinse and repeat until the water is clear. Place lentils in a pot with 3 cups of water and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that develops on top (I had none). Reduce the heat and remaining ingredients. Partially cover and cook over low heat until the stew is thick and lentils are soft, 45-60 minutes. Garnish with parsley or cilantro.

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