(Credit:
Easy Energy)
Outdoorsy types are sure to love mobile solar chargers, but what about those who rarely see sunlight? (No, we're not referring to "Twilight.")
Easy Energy will launch the YoGen, a mobile charger that solely relies on hand power. The pocket-size charger lets you generates energy by repeatedly pulling a ripcord, similar to the way a lawnmower is started.
YoGen Max generates energy through a foot pedal.
(Credit: Easy Energy)The Las Vegas-based company created this product as a part of its mission to "satisfy the enormous worldwide demand for practical, compact, 'green energy producing' manpowered chargers." Easy Energy is also in the process of launching YoGen Max, a laptop charger that lets you generate energy by continually pressing a foot pedal.
Similar technology can be credited to Baylis, a company that created a wind-up MP3 player in 2008.
Preorders can be placed at the YoGen store and will ship within the next month. The $40 charger is available in black or clear, but you'll have to choose between Apple and ... Read more
Greenpeace released its latest Guide to Greener Electronics on Wednesday, revealing that promises aren't always kept.
The Greenpeace guide, which started in 2006, ranks the top 17 PC, cell phone, TV, and gaming console manufacturers based on their policies regarding e-waste, climate change, and use of toxic chemicals.
Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Lenovo all dropped in the rankings for failing to live up to public promises to eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their computers by the end of 2009, according to Greenpeace.
While 2009 isn't over yet, Greenpeace noted that the companies have reset their clocks. HP (14th place) formally pushed back its phase-out of the chemicals to 2011. Dell (13th place) will fail to meet the 2009 deadline, but has offered no new timeline. Lenovo (down from 14th to 16th place) changed to a 2010 deadline, and Greenpeace claimed it has information that even that deadline will be dropped.
In conjunction with the release, members of the group protested at HP's Beijing facilities last week.
Apple, meanwhile, ... Read more
Nokia has introduced automated kiosks across the central Klang Valley of Malaysia in a bid to encourage people to recycle their mobile phones.
In a recent study conducted by the mobile-phone maker, only 3 percent of respondents recycled their cell phones, and 50 percent were unaware that their devices could be reused.
Nokia is hoping to improve the statistics with the introduction of kiosks specially designed to ease the recycling process.
An Integrated Nokia Kiosk
(Credit: ZDNet Asia)"We've been at the forefront of driving environmental initiatives in the mobile industry for over a decade, and Nokia Malaysia is the first to launch this automated recycling machine within Nokia globally," Nellie Abdullah, Nokia Malaysia's environmental coordinator, said in an interview with ZDNet Asia.
The Integrated Nokia Kiosk (INK) is touted to be a first-of-its-kind kiosk that combines recycling and customer care services. As part of a six-month pilot program, the booths have been rolled out in four locations across central Klang Valley. Mobile users can drop off their old phones at the kiosks ... Read more
Street repair services for cell phones are a big industry in India. Technicians there get a diploma from a 'Mobile Repairing Institute.'
(Credit: Jan Chipchase/Nokia)SAN FRANCISCO--Jan Chipchase is a cell phone modification guru. A researcher at Nokia Design in Tokyo, he's seen cell phones modified to hold up to 16 SIM cards and plenty more in his role at the company.
Chipchase is a member of a team at Finnish cell phone giant Nokia that's trying to lower the cost of phones for emerging markets, an effort that's part market development and part recycling. The group of 15 has scanned bazaars and street shops in places as diverse as Ghana, Brazil, Iran, India, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, China, and Mongolia to learn how end users relate to their products--and they discovered surprises that could impact consumer electronics makers within the next 15 years.
Jan Chipchase
(Credit: Nokia)Their main finding: there's no limit to how cell phones can be modified and how their life spans can be extended.
And breathing ... Read more
Although it's on the fringe of Europe geographically, Finland has for years been at the center of the continent's tech industry.
The country gave birth to cell phone leader Nokia and has emerged as a place where multinationals like to recruit and erect labs. The government and local entrepreneurs are now moving into clean technology.
It can be traced back to policies set up in the early 1980s, said Matti Vanhanen, the country's prime minister, during an interview with CNET News.com on Wednesday afternoon. The country saw the dawning of globalization and realized it would have to dig out a high-end niche in the industry.
Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen
(Credit: Courtesy of the E.U.)"Because we cannot compete with Asian companies with low wages, our only possibility has been to stay a few steps forward," he said. "Of course, we also invested in education."
Funding for research and development has also consistently remained fairly high, he added.
"As a nation, around 3.5 percent of our gross domestic product ... Read more
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