water

Water out of the tap, though convenient and a modern marvel, just isn't good enough. We can do better. And we certainly try to: from filtered water pitchers to UV water systems, our options for home-based drinking water has never been more abundant. And that's not even considering bottled water--either in little single serving sizes, or those gigantic bottles that are hard to lift. There are pros and cons for each of these water delivery methods, which would imply that the concept could be improved upon.

Taking water directly from the air, the EcoloBlue 30 Atmospheric Water Generator … Read more

Water is not only the next big environmental issue, but also the next savings opportunity, according to several companies.

A survey conducted by research analyst Ethical Corporation in May 2010 found that 99 percent of corporate sustainability managers saw water becoming a top priority for businesses in the next 5 to 10 years. The report "Unlocking the Profit in Water Savings" found that 52 percent of sustainability managers ranked "water stewardship" within the top five most important issues they now deal with.

But more interesting is the hard data supporting the trend. Companies have found that … Read more

Meet WaterBoy, an odd and scary performance art project by one Marque Cornblatt. WaterBoy is a series of water tanks that look much like fishbowls. Cornblatt wears them on his head while walking around as if nothing is wrong.

As a major aquaphobe (showers over baths!), I find every single moment of the above video, called "Bubble," excruciating to watch. Cornblatt calls his devices "the leading brand of self-contained, portable submergence environments." I call them a unique nightmare from which my real nightmares are likely to be generated. I'll be sleeping with a ShamWow and … Read more

When I first heard about the proposed merger of music promoter and venue-owner Live Nation and ticket broker Ticketmaster, I predicted that ticket prices for big-name musical acts would rise. Now that the merger's completed and ticket revenues are down for the first part of 2010, Live Nation is admitting that it's hoping to charge higher prices for desirable concert seats.

The reason? Simple economics. As long as customers are willing to spend $500 or $1,000 on front-row seats, why sell those seats for $150 and let a scalper or broker make all that extra money? In … Read more

At one point having running water in the house was a novelty, even a luxury. Thankfully, indoor plumbing became commonplace, and we all moved along. At some point, simply getting a glass of drinking water from the tap became a reality of the past, as people discovered that filtering water at home usually improved the taste by removing chlorine while at the same time reducing heavy metals and some pollutants. Running water through a carbon filter in turn became commonplace, and as it stands today, many people use or at least know someone who uses a filtered pitcher from which … Read more

Sharing images online is a lot of fun, but it's not always easy to control what happens to your work once it's been uploaded. Watermarks can help prevent image theft by making sure that your name, logo, or other information is never separated from your photos. Easy Batch Watermark is a basic program that lets users apply watermarks to multiple images at once, making the watermark process fast and easy.

Easy Batch Watermark is, as its name implies, pretty easy to use. The interface looks a little dated and clunky, but it's fairly intuitive. Users simply select … Read more

If irrigation systems were half as smart as scientific calculators, they could cut water usage by 20 percent to 50 percent, says ET Water Systems.

The company earlier this year introduced its SmartBox, a replacement for commercial-scale irrigation controllers that determines the watering needs for landscaping based on a mash-up of site-specific data and local weather. A new version of the device, set for release this summer, will be able to get firmware upgrades over the cell network it uses.

Water conservation is an area that's often considered overlooked by investors and technology entrepreneurs. That's largely because there … Read more

Moments before heading out for dinner this past Saturday night, I learned I was living in what you could call a dry town. Along with 2 million other people in the Boston area, water service to my town was disrupted because of a "catastrophic" break in the distribution system.

Early Saturday morning, a collar attached to a giant water pipe in Weston, Mass., broke off, which cut off the source of clean water to 30 cities and towns. Two days into the crisis, people in the area are now being supplied by a backup reservoir system that requires … Read more

While just about all soda and juice bottles are made with the trash can in mind, a new water bottle from designer Kisun Kim offers an opportunity to keep them out of the landfill. The Cumulus Bottle is, at first glance, a simple reusable water bottle. It's a little more elegant than some of the alternatives, but until you take a look at the cap, it doesn't seem to be unusual. Hidden within the cap is a juice concentrate dispenser. You can pop in a new flavor of juice, fill the bottle of water and screw on the … Read more