Inhabitat Earth Day special: seven gadgets that help you save energy and save the earth

The Week in Green is a new item from our friends at Inhabitat, recapping the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us. Today is Earth Day, so we're happy to have Inhabitat contributing this energy saving guide for you.

Each day Engadget dishes the dirt on the latest gadgets that make your life easier, more efficient, and just plain keep you entertained. But all of those high-tech gadgets have the potential to put a serious strain on your electricity bill, not to mention the environment. Fear not - this Earth Day Inhabitat is here to help with a set of energy-saving devices that will save you some green while dialing back your utilities bill and lowering your carbon footprint. From household energy monitors that help you understand your power usage to smart home control systems, to ingenious energy-visualizing gizmos, check out our top energy-saving gadgets after the break!

The Energy Detective The first step to saving energy at home is knowing how much energy you use. This $145 household power monitor comes with a transmitting unit that taps into a circuit breaker, dual current transformers that are attached to power cables, and a receiving unit that plugs into a wall outlet to display real-time power use. All that hardware hacking is worth it, though -- TED displays energy use for your entire house, and it connects to Google PowerMeter, which means you can easily access energy data from your Google account.

Energy Orb Another great way to cut back of energy use and save on your bill is to avoid using energy when the grid is overloaded. The Energy Orb is an ingenious eye-catching energy monitor that changes color to visualize the current grid load, thus displaying the relative price of electricity at any given moment. As creator Mark Martinez says, "It's non-intrusive... it has a relatively benign effect. But when you suddenly see your ball flashing red, you notice."

Visible Energy UFO Powercenter Visible Energy's series of smart powerstrips gather information on energy consumption every 5 minutes for all devices plugged into the outlets. An LED status light on the unit changes color from green to yellow to red depending on how much power is being used, so you don't have to check the numbers every time you want to see how much energy is being sucked up by your computer. Each outlet can also be set to turn devices on or off at specific times. No word yet on pricing for the powerstrips, but they're set to debut later this year.

Kill-A-Watt The Kill-A-Watt is an oldie but goodie in the world of home energy management. The device is simple to use: just plug it into an outlet and connect any gadget to find out its energy consumption by the kWh. Kill-A-Watt can also calculate energy expenses by the day, month, and year. It's easy, cheap ($20), and effective -- what more could you ask from an energy-saving device?

Wiser Home Control If you're really dedicated to saving energy, consider investing in a Wiser Home Control system. The Wiser Home Controller can connect nearly every device in your house -- lighting controls, security, air conditioning, audiovisual equipment, irrigation systems, motorized blinds and curtains, etc -- so that you can control everything via Internet or cell phone. So if you forgot to turn off the air conditioning, for example, you can easily do it from work or on your commute. The system comes with a range of options, so prices will vary.

SunPower iPhone App Say you've already installed a photovoltaic array on your roof and you're looking to glean even greater energy savings. SunPower offers an innovative iPhone app that lets you monitor the energy your solar system produces in real time. The Solar Electric Home Energy Management System allows you monitor energy produced by SunPower solar systems verses your household's net energy use, so you can make smart decisions about when to use electricity.

Wattson This futuristic power-monitoring device features a sensor hooked up to power cables, a wireless receiver and a readout on top of the box that shows energy consumption by the kilowatt or by cash spent. The box glows red, purple, or blue depending on how much energy is being consumed, so you can take a quick glance at Wattson to estimate your power usage. The device costs $280.

Microsoft snags $14.5b revenue, $4.01b net income for Quarter 3

About an hour before the company's analyst call, Microsoft has unloaded its third quarter fiscal results, which to be blunt, are a marked improvement over last year's momentous (but not in a good way) profits downturn. Reported revenue is $14.5 billion for the quarter ending March 31st, beating Wall Street expectations and culminating in a $4.01 billion net income. Those figures exclude a $305 million deferral related to Office 2010 but do include $78 million the folks in Redmond gave to Yahoo! in a search deal. That didn't help the Online Services Division's bottom line -- it reported a $713 million loss this quarter, compared to a $411 million loss this time last year. On the bright side, the Entertainment and Devices division (of which Xbox is a part) recorded $165 million in earnings, up from a $41 million loss year-over-year. Windows and Windows Live continues to be the breadwinner, unsurprisingly, with a $3.061b operating income (versus $2.273b in 2009 -- before Windows 7's debut). We're still sifting through the paperwork and will also be listening in on Microsoft's 5:30PM ET call, so stay tuned!

MSI's new GX640 budget gaming laptop packs Core i5 CPU, Powered By Radeon HD 5850

In the wake of Maingear’s eX-L gaming laptop getting revamped with new Intel Core processors and the latest ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 graphics, MSI announces an even cheaper gaming notebook that is also equipped with some new hardware.

Unlike the Maingear, the MSI GX640 comes in a single configuration, but it’s not a bad one for the $1,099 price tag. You get a Core i5-430M processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 500GB hard drive, DVD burner, and a 1,680×1,050 15.4-inch display. Most importantly, however, is that it includes the new ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 graphics, which won’t be as fast as its more powerful 5870 sibling, but still supports DirectX 11 and comes with 1GB of GDDR5 RAM.

You can grab the GX640 already at Amazon.com, and MSI says the budget gamer will becoming to Newegg later this month (which means in the next few days).

Intel scores first ever green building certification

Technology giant Intel has earned its first Gold level LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for a new design center set to open in June in Haifa, Israel. echnology played a significant role for Intel in helping earn the designation. Here are some quick specifics: The data center uses Intel Xeon processors (of course), which reduce power consumption potential by roughly $200,000 per year considered against comparable technology. The company has installed automated controls that regulate the use of natural lighting, which is available to about 75 percent of the “populated” areas of the building; it also is using individually controlled lighting for a higher degree of energy efficiency. Intel is using automation to measure carbon dioxide levels in the offices

Apparently, this new Intel Design Center is the first facility in Israel to be blessed with a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. This is Intel’s first high-level LEED blessing. One of its facilities in Kulim, Malaysia, received a more basic LEED nod for a retrofit. The company also has a Gold certification pending for its Octollio campus in Chandler, Ariz.

Dell Mini 3T1 and Mini 3iX 3G phones spotted

If we need another reason to be envious of Chinese residents, it'd be the premium treatment that they're getting from Dell these days. Spotted on Chinese mobile regulator TENAA's website are two 3G phones from seemingly different design departments -- the never-before-seen Mini 3T1 (pictured) is a "TD-SCDMA / GSM dual-mode cellphone" that "supports HSDPA," dons a 2-megapixel camera on the back plus a front-facing one, and we're betting on Ophone for the OS; the second device is the familiar Mini 3iX (an exotic cousin of AT&T's Aero) that will sport the same old WCDMA radio and WAPI (the Chinese equivalent of WiFi). No word on availability of either handsets in China yet.