Tag: environmental
Samsung launches "Blue Earth" solar-powered phone
Many tech companies seem insistent on just using “green” as a marketing gimmick, and Samsung is the latest to launch an ‘eco phone’ rather than just integrating green principles into all its handsets.
The company has come up with the “Blue Earth” phone, which is made of recycled plastic, free of Brominated Flame Retardants, Beryllium and Phthalate, and has a great big solar panel on the back for charging purposes.
The integrated solar charger is excellent news, but why isn’t the company planning that for all its future handsets? Why aren’t ALL Samsung phones made with recycled plastic and free of harmful substances? Why don’t they ALL come in recycled, minimum-mass packaging with an energy efficient charger? Why don’t they ALL come with a low-power “eco mode”?
Confining all those things to one model, especially one that looks as garish as “Blue Earth” does, won’t have any real ecological benefit. All it does is let Samsung say to its critics “look how green we are!”. Well, I’m afraid that’s not going to wash with us. Sorry Samsung – come back when your intentions lie in saving the planet, rather than your marketing department.
Samsung at MWC
EU's knee-jerk anti-plasma campaign could lead to total ban and more sensationalist tech headlines
Everyone knows that, in general, large TVs consume more electricity than small ones, but it seems that EU bureaucrats are just turning themselves on to the idea of banning plasma TVs because they’re not energy efficient.
The yawn-inducing title attributed to plasma sets is “the 4×4 of the living room” (I reported this over at HDTVUK two years ago) because it’s easy to lump them all together as electricity guzzlers.
Sweeping generalisations reported in the mainstream press include such gems as “they use up to four times as much electricity and are responsible for up to four times as much carbon dioxide as traditional cathode ray tube sets.” The clue is in those two words — “up to” — which, just as when applied to your flagging broadband connection, can cover a huge range of values…
O2 launches universal, enviromental phone charger
This is the ‘Universal Charger’, which O2 will be selling in its high street shops. It kills two birds with one stone – firstly the annoyance of trying to find the right charger on some dodgy market stall if you happen to lose yours, and secondly, the annoyance of not being able to charge your phone in someone else’s house.
O2’s also touting the energy-efficient nature of the device. It consumes 70 percent less power than a standard mobile phone charger, and meets the strict energy efficient guidelines of the US Energy Star rating system. If every single phone in use in the UK was charged with one of these, it would save the country nearly £31.4 million, and cut the carbon emissions of the equivalent of 36,000 cars.
Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 all "hazardous" and laced with DEADLY TOXINS
The leaf-strokers and mushroom-worriers at Greenpeace have released another of their NAME AND SHAME press releases, this time focussing on the top three video game consoles.
Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 are all RAMMED with DEADLY CHEMICALS that are POISONOUS and BAD FOR YOU, according to the report, which points out that safe alternatives are available.
Xbox 360 seems to come off worse – it contains a “phthalate” (a chemical used to make plastics) called DiNP which is already banned from being used in toys for kids in the EU…
Greenpeace launches range of dimmable energy-efficient lightbulbs
As part of the 100% Design London exhibition, Greenpeace unveiled what it claims to be the world's first dimmable low-energy light bulbs. They commissioned designer Jason Bruges to create an "interactive garden of light", which responded to human movement via…
Xerox develops paper that erases itself
I'd hope that none of us wants to see the planet in ruins (apart from maybe a few comic book baddies) so when something like the following comes along we should all be pretty happy. Those clever folk over at Xerox…
