Stickers make you awkwardly aware of power use
(Credit:
Yanko Design)
Place this one in the "interesting idea, bad execution" category.
Label With Green is a concept design by Shao Wei Huang, Chia-Yi Cho, Yu Pei Kuo, and Chung Kai Chiang that I spotted on Yanko. The idea is that you'd get a package of solar stickers, each of which powers a separate gadget component such as the display, speaker, keypad, camera, or solar battery.
Adding more stickers manually is supposed to make you more aware of how much power your device is taking up and presumably train you to adjust your behavior accordingly--whatever that might mean.
It's a cool idea in theory, but it's impractical. As fellow post fellow blogger Jaymi Heimbuch of Treehugger notes: "This idea has its heart in the right place, but unfortunately completely ignores human nature." That's entirely correct.
It's good these designers want to help the world become a greener place, but there are probably better ways to do it, especially since gadgets already in use would probably need to be re-engineered to get their power from the stickers. That, of course, could lead to more upgrades, which could lead to more e-waste, and so on and so on.
(Credit:
Yanko Design)
With more than 15 years experience testing hardware (and being obsessed with it), Crave freelance writer Matt Hickey can tell the good gadgets from the great. He also has a keen eye for future technology trends. Matt has blogged for publications including TechCrunch, CrunchGear, and most recently, Gizmodo. E-mail Matt. 
- by jCounsel September 30, 2009 6:03 AM PDT
- I disagree with the statements
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- by c|net Reader September 30, 2009 10:58 AM PDT
- The usual scam (I mean scheme) is that you must immediately replace the old with the new, which ignores the value of the old. Until the old fails, becomes prohibitively expensive to repair, or is no longer considered valuable by its owner, there's no good reason to replace the old with the new. (In the latter case, however, it may continue to serve for years with another owner.)
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(3 Comments)<blockquote>
It's a cool idea in theory, but it's impractical. As fellow post fellow blogger Jaymi Heimbuch of Treehugger notes: "This idea has its heart in the right place, but unfortunately completely ignores human nature." That's entirely correct.
It's good these designers want to help the world become a greener place, but there are probably better ways to do it, especially since gadgets already in use would probably need to be re-engineered to get their power from the stickers. That, of course, could lead to more upgrades, which could lead to more e-waste, and so on and so on. "
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If that is accurate, why make ANY improvements since waste is created and the resulting product is may need to be re-engineered. If that is the case, throw back the Prius and the "electric" cars. I agree that power from the "plug" may be created by burning coal (and is, thus, worse for the environment than burning gasoline), but we have to have re-engineering to move past the current way of doing business.
There is no "one step" that will solve our problems, and we will have the waste when their, what?, three-year lifespan is over anyway. We might as well improvise and improve. Remember, not everyone upgrades right when the technology is released--they might wait until their device was going to be waste anyway...
If we were in dire need to eliminate our dependence upon fossil fuels, it *might* be valuable to switch immediately, despite the costs involved in discarding the old, but that is decidedly not the case.