Here's an iPhone app with a difference. Called Cool Tree, it enables you to plant a virtual sapling and nurture it into a tropical tree, like a sort of green Tamagotchi. Neglect it and you risk losing it to loggers and bulldozers!

Costing £1.79, £1 from the app is donated to the charity Cool Earth. The idea is that your purchase protects a real endangered rainforest tree in the Ashaninka region of the Peruvian Amazon which is, handily, geo-located for you to view on Google Maps as part of this application.

Three different species are available to choose from. Take care of your tree and you can unlock the next levels. You start with the Cocoa Tree but progress apparently to the more challenging Murumuru and Capirona trees.

For more info go to www.syncstudios.co.uk/cooltree and www.coolearth.org

The irony with advice is that while everyone loves giving it, so few us are actually up for receiving it, writes Ashley Norris. No matter if it does make our lives easier, saves the planet or keep a few extra quid in our pocket, quite often we simply don't want to know.

So the Vexia Econav, a clever new-ish product from a Spanish company claims to be the first to tell us how to drive more efficiently. I can't help but inwardly groan a little. There are two ways of looking at this. One, that is is a genuine attempt by a progressive company to make a difference to consumers and the planet. Or two, that sat navs are all the same these days and too stand out a new company needs to have a bit of a hook.

Fortunately for the Vexia, I think it is more the former than the latter, but whether all this driving advice is going to work is another thing.

So I put the device in the car and fired it up. It locked on to the satellites quickly and presented me with a straightforward interface. It is is not perhaps as elegant as some of its rivals, but I got used to it pretty quickly. Overall the maps are clear and easy to follow and the turn by turn instructions clear and precise.

There are some decent extra features too such as advanced lane guidance - which shows you which lanes you can use when coming to a turning - speed camera alerts and a healthy database of points of interest. As a basic sat nav this works fine.

Fuel efficiency

What though of its driving features? Well the blurb is impressive. It claims to be able to reduce fuel consumption by up to 30% which means reducing CO2 emissions by up to one ton and also saving the user up to £400 per year.

To do this though I have to change gear each time I am told (it calculates which is the best gear by analysing your car's details and pairing it to the road you are driving on) and I am also prompted if I pull away too quickly or stop too suddenly.

The eco features clearly do work, but I think you have to be a certain type of person to live with them. Some people will relish being told when and where to change gear, others will reach straight for the off button.

The latest version of the Vexia's software also has a speed nag built in. This tells you not only when you are breaking the speed limit but how many points you are likely to get on your licence. I wouldn't say it was a useful feature, but the first time you use it does come as a bit of a shock to see how easy it would be lose your licence.

Overall the Vexia is a sound enough satellite navigation system. If those extra features appeal then it is well worth the additional money you'll pay for it.

Vexia

Here at Shiny Towers it looks like another scorcher of a day, and we reckon you should make the most of it, writes ShinyShiny's Kate Baxter. No, not by slathering yourselves in cooking oil and frying yourselves to a crisp. But by etting your hands on some gadgets which really can bring a bit of sunshine into your life.

And when it comes to solar powered gizmos we're not just talking about portable chargers. Check out our gallery for pretty party kit, robots and other miscellaneous goodies.

The time I chose to visit Australia was one of mass drought. Water saving was of utmost priority, and every drop was accounted for. When my Australian friends visited me during our 'drought', they scoffed that our water saving measures tended to extend as far as - not using the garden hose. My friends concluded that we Brits didn't even know the meaning of water saving, and our concerns existed purely on a superficial basis. I contested that this was because our droughts weren't so dangerous as those in a land mass made up of mostly arid desert, but I still didn't know many examples of British concern for water usage to back up my weak argument.

The growing awareness of our need to conserve the resources handed to us by mother nature, however, has increased the number of water saving gadgets on the market. It's time to encompass these gadgets into our lives and put us Brits back on the water saving map. Click on the image below to start our gallery of the best new gadgets around.

There seem to be few Londoners left who still battle with public transport and are yet to be converted to the cycling revolution. Either they feel that work is a little 'too far' to arrive there solely on their own steam or they believe that getting on a bike is certainly going to end with them arriving at work a sweating heap or, worse, with a broken limb.

Technological development serves yet again to convert the unconvertible with the 'electric' bike. From now on that burdensome hill can be conquered without groaning through flaming thighs, by switching on the electrics allowing you to scoot up with ease. The easier, more effortless electric cycle allows you to roll up to work sweat free and smelling fresh.

It's also apparently safer to travel by electric rather than pedal bike, although I'm not sure I fully follow the logic here. Either way, if you think the electric bike is for you, check out these options.

I thought this was an April Fool. But seemingly not, given we are half way through June. Orange really has developed a mobile phone charging device for your wellies.

Billed as perfect for this weekend's Glastonbury festival (handy given your mobile phone normally runs out of charge after a few hours of texting/phoning your mates to find out where they are) it apparently works by converting the heat from your feet into electric current.

Twelve hours of stomping through the mud will give about 1 hour of charge (not much really), but you can increase it by dancing around because the hotter your feet get the more energy you produce.

Developed in conjunction with Got Wind, the Power Wellies are unfortunately still in prototype form. But you can recharge your devices in the Orange Chill 'n' Charge area. For more information go to www.orange.co.uk/glastonbury

Here's a video featuring a guy from Got Wind explaining how the wellies work. Though after watching it I'm still no clearer whether this is for real or just a wind up.

Name: Infinit Solar Charger Bag

Type: Backback with solar-powered gadget charging technology

Price: £89.99 (Infinit)

As the Summer sun slowly begins to peek through the ever-present layer of British cloud-cover, you're probably looking to head on out, tastelessly displaying your milk bottle legs in a pair of shorts, beer in hand, ready to catch some rays. You'll probably want to bring an MP3 player with you for a few tunes and your mobile to call your mates on too. But what if a technophile's worst nightmare comes true and you suddenly find yourself without any battery power for your many gadgets? Enter the Infinit Solar Charger Bag to save the day.

The bag features a 2.4w photovoltaic solar panel on its outside to harvest the sun's rays ,which it then stores in a high capacity 2000mAH Li-ion battery, safely stored away in a pouch inside. Detach the battery from the solar panel and you're then free to use its stored energy to power hundreds and hundreds of devices using the myriad included connections. These include anything from a Nintendo DS to an iPhone or TomTom GPS device (click here to view the full list of compatible devices). You can even plug the battery into both the solar panel and the gadget to be charged at the same time, giving you continuous power providing you stay in quite strong sunlight. The battery can also be pre-charged from a mains supply if you want ready portable energy before you leave the house.

It's a great, green way to stay charged while on the go, and requires very little fuss to attach the many compatible devices it's capable of powering. The battery itself has a great capacity, offering roughly enough power to charge an iPhone twice-over when it has maximum solar power stored. Charging the battery is not always a smooth process though; the length of time it takes to fully power up the battery is very dependant on the amount of sunlight you expose the solar panel to. On a day of bright weather it hit maximum capacity within a reasonable 8 hours, but on a dark, wet, overcast day it was closer to 11 or 12 hours, give or take. It's also worth noting that the Infinit Solar Charger Bags currently don't support charging abilities for laptops or netbooks, though Infinit have suggested this will be on the way in later designs.

As a rucksack, the Inifinit Solar Charger Bag can't be knocked. It's a little weighty at 1.4kg, thanks to the built-in solar panel, but it seems more spacious than its 25 litre capacity would suggest. There are copious amounts of pockets and pouches, including an elasticated spot for laptops up to 15 inches in size. Straps are heavily padded and adjustable, and there's a clever mesh air-flow system for keeping your back cool while the bag is being carried. All in, it's a well built bag that should easily see you through some rugged usage.

How useful you'll find the Infinit Solar Charger Bag is, quite obviously, down to how much time you spend in the sun. It's a great rucksack by conventional standards, with plenty of space and useful pockets, and it is very comfortable on the back, even during prolonged, intensive journeys. But if you live in a dreary corner of the world weather-wise, you may feel that the extra premium you pay for the solar tech wont be worth it. On the other hand, if you're an outdoors type who is always out hiking, is looking to do a bit of globe-trotting or are even planning on attending a couple of music festivals this year then it really comes into its own, providing on-the-go power from Mother Nature herself. Expect to see Ray Mears sporting one of these bags very soon.

4/5

By Gerald Lynch

The summer's finally here. Time to invest in solar gadgets like this Infinit Solar Bag. Developed for power-hungry consumers who use iPhones, iPods, Mobile Phones, Blackberry, Tom Tom and Nintendo DS devices, the bag features a 2.4 Watt integrated solar panel.

This continuously soaks up and stores natural light which you can then use to charge your devices. The energy is stored in a high-capacity internal battery. The solar bag is lightweight, powerful and can be used anywhere in the world to create a self-sufficient charging resource for your gadgets.

As part of the company's social and environmental policy it also makes a donation Solar-Aid.org with every purchase of the Infinit Solar Bag on its website.

The Infinit Solar Backpack retails at £89.99 in the UK and ships Worldwide. The solar bag will be launching in the US, Australia and New Zealand in the next couple of months.

http://www.infinitsolarbags.com

CLICK ON IMAGE TO START GALLERY

If you're the sort of person who wants to keep a track on your carbon footprint with every carefully weighted step, you may want to have a look at Proporta's latest Smart range of eco-friendly smartphone cases.

These eco-friendly cases have waste packaging whatsoever. The bamboo packaging which lets the pouch hang on retail store hooks is removed and put inside a pocket of the hessian or recycled leather pouches to give your handset maximum protection.

This is a guest post by D. Salmons over at TestFreaks.

Digital displays are now a way of life. From our TVs and DVD players to our computers and phones, a crisp and bright colour display has become the expected norm.

But having that nice bright display takes valuable energy, and after you multiply all of the devices running it, it becomes a major source of energy use. Fortunately technology has come up with a solution that uses less power.

LED backlighting is a method of backlighting, or illuminating the screen, that replaces the standard Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL) typically used for this purpose. LED backlighting can be used as actual backlighting behind the LCD screen or side mounted with diffusers in order to keep the display as thin as possible.

It gives a longer life than CCFLs, and they are more efficient with the energy they do use. This means that in most cases the same energy on a LED backlight gives brighter output. Also LED Backlighting doesn't use mercury in its construction, making it more friendly to the environment when manufactured and for eventual disposal.

LED Backlighting can offer higher brightness than comparable CCFLs, resulting in a TV screen that can brighten up the room. It can also offer a wider colour gamut, making the colours on the screen stand out better.

And finally, LED backlighting can offer better dimming control, allowing for a fine degree of adjustment for the end user. Here we look at some of the LED backlight displays that are currently available on the market.

CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW TO START GALLERY OF LED BACKLIT DISPLAYS

As much as we all enjoy endless hours waving virtual lighters and popping virtual bubble wrap, you'd be forgiven for wondering if there was something a bit more... err...constructive that you could do with your iPhone, writes Kathryn Rodgers.

Well, by some miracle it looks like you weren't the only ones wondering. While you've been sipping your virtual pint at the virtual pub, some eco-conscious apps creators have been busy working on an array of green apps to help you help the planet.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO START THE GALLERY

With March welcoming the first cloudless days of 2010, I can't be the only one to notice certain people thinking that this warrants cracking out the shortest shorts and the tightest tanktops, despite the still freezing temperatures. With enough power to source the world's energy consumption 1,000 times over, solar is undoubtedly an underused energy source. So, if you want to enjoy the early blue skies without losing any of your limbs to frostbite, then let these solar powered gadgets soak up the sun while you stay safely wrapped up.

CLICK THE IMAGE TO START THE GALLERY

There were loads of iPhone solar chargers at CES this year but this is one from Novothink is probably the best. It fits snugly on to your phone and can deliver thirty minutes of power for two hours of charging. It doesn't have to be connected to the iPhone to charge and if the sun isn't playing you can charge it up via USB.

It goes on sale soon in Europe including the UK, for 80 (not 8 as it says in the video) Euros. It comes with a free app that works out how much you need to use the sun to charge the battery depending on where in the world you are. See video after the turn.

Driving the eco-bandwagon into the mobile phone market, Sony Ericsson has just gone and launched a pair of green phones today, the Sony Ericsson Elm and the Hazel, writes ShinyShiny's Anna Leach.

Elm and Hazel like the trees - the nice green trees.

"The Sony Ericsson Elm and the Sony Ericsson Hazel phones offer consumers a green choice without compromising on features or fun" say the company in a press release.

So, names aside, what's so green about these handsets?

1. Less energy and raw materials are used in their manufacture and packing:
- Made out of recycled plastics
- Free from hazardous chemicals
- The instructions booklet is not printed on paper but is an e-manual in phone
- Packaging has been minimised

2. The Greenheart phones are designed to be more energy-efficient
- Low power consumption charger (EP300 GreenHeart(TM))
- Clearer voice technology should mean lower volume is required
- A Widget Manager application, which allows users access to their social networking page via the stand-by screen and quickly switch between different social networks, reduces the battery-wasting waiting time.

3. They come with apps for helping you cut down on CO2 and energy use in other areas of your life..
- Walk Mate eco application
- Green calculator

How many times have you opened a great gift, been desperate to get playing with it but discovered it requires eight AAA batteries - which of course are not included and you can't find in your junk drawer.

And how many other times has your gadget run out of batteries at the crucial moment.

Over 5 billion batteries are used and thrown away every year at great ecological cost. ShinyShiny's Andrea Petrou has put together a gallery of eco friendly gadgets to ease your conscience and battery frustration.

Click on the picture below to begin the gallery.