(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 may have downplayed Apple's recent environmental efforts, but the organization on Thursday is holding the company up as an example for everyone.
(Credit:
Greenpeace)
"Apple has stormed out of the biggest lobby group in the United States," reads a post on the environmental organization's Web site. "At issue is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's use of funds to oppose climate change legislation. Apple has done the right thing, and IBM and Microsoft should think different too."
Catherine Novelli, Apple's vice president of worldwide government affairs, informed the Chamber of Commerce in a letter on Monday that the company would be resigning its membership. Apple cited differences in environmental policies.
"Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the chamber at odds with us in this effort," Novelli said in a letter to chamber President Thomas Donohue.
Donohue didn't take the news laying down. In a letter addressed to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Donohue said that "while we do support legislation to address climate change, ... 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
The new Windows 7 packaging.
(Credit: Microsoft)Before Microsoft announced Windows 7 pricing, the company detailed earlier this week how it plans to package the operating system.
Microsoft claims that Windows 7 packaging "has a 37 percent weight reduction, and the econometrics score has improved by 50 percent over its predecessor." Instead of forcing customers to read instructions on how to open the box, Windows 7 packaging will open just like a DVD case.
"We've reduced the number of elements in the package down to three: the plastic case, the paper sleeve, and a simple Getting Started Guide," Microsoft wrote in a blog post. "The plastic case opens easily like a standard DVD case, and it will have a single easy-to-remove seal at the top--and that's it!"
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, packaging accounts for a third of consumer garbage. And as CNET pointed out on the Green Tech blog, "plastics comprise 12 percent of U.S. waste each year, but are rarely recycled, while some scientists fear that irresponsible dumping is making a plastic soup of the world's oceans."
Although software arguably should not require any packaging, instead relying purely on Internet downloads, and plastic packaging could (and should) probably be avoided altogether, Microsoft's reduction of packaging materials corresponds with a trend that I think is better for all of us.
... Read moreDon Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Correction at 9:20 a.m. PDT: The time span for Office Depot's figures is one year.
Last year, Office Depot recycled almost 1.5 million pounds of old tech equipment through its service for consumers, the company said Wednesday.
That sounds like a lot. It makes you realize how quickly all those landfills must be filling up since that figure represents only the junk from people who 1) actually bother to recycle, and 2) chose to go with Office Depot's recycling program.
For a comparison, I decided to check how other company-sponsored recycling programs are doing. Unfortunately, as sustainability expert Kevin Wilhelm told CNET, there is yet to be a standard way for companies to calculate such statistics. What's included in recycling statistics varies from company to company, but the data I dug up offers a rough idea of what's going on in this arena.
Staples, an Office Depot competitor, began offering an in-store recycling service in May 2007. It charges $10 per large item regardless of where you originally ... Read more
Related coverage:
• Apple overhauls iMacs, 24-inch models more affordable
• Apple finally refreshes Mac Mini with updated specs
Updated 8:25 a.m. PST with analyst note.
As expected, Apple announced desktop updates on Tuesday with a focus on energy efficiency.
There are new Mac Pro high-end desktops powered by Intel's Nehalem-based Xeon processors, new and more graphics-intensive Mac Mini machines, and updated iMacs that offer the lowest price yet on these consumer desktops.
Here are the new ports on the updated Mac Mini.
(Credit: Apple)All the new machines meet the requirements for Energy Star 5.0 certification, which kicks in this summer.
The new Mac Pro is priced at $2,499 for the quad-core version and at $3,299 for the eight-core version, with the Nehalem-based Xeon processors running at up to 2.93 GHz. The interior of the machine has been cleaned up to make physical expansions easier.
The new iMac all-in-one desktop offers a 24-inch screen and is priced at $1,499, the cost of Apple's previous 20-inch ... Read more
Apple touted its new MacBooks unveiled on Tuesday as the "industry's greenest notebooks," and on reduction of toxic chemicals they may be. But environmental groups point to greenhouse gas emissions and recycling as areas where more needs to be done.
The notebooks do seem to lead the industry in the elimination of toxic chemicals by having a Mercury-free LCD display, arsenic-free display glass, Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-free internal cables and components, and being free of brominated flame retardant (BFR), according to the Apple news release.
"This is greener than what Apple has been putting out," said Casey Harrell, toxics campaigner for Greenpeace International. "It's welcome news and it is also in line with their commitment to phase out all PVC and BFRs from all their products by the end of the year."
Steve Jobs goes through an environmental checklist for the MacBook Pro.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)Apple has taken a shine to using solar cells in its mobile devices.
A patent application, unearthered by MacRumors.com, describes technology to integrate solar cells into portable devices. The named inventors of the patent application are Apple employees, some of whom are iPod engineers.
Images from an Apple patent for solar cells in portable devices.
(Credit: U.S. Patent & Trademark Office)Using small solar panels to charge portable devices is nothing new; there are several such products already available. Apple appears to be trying to innovate in the integration of the solar cells into a portable device.
Rather than make a separate charger, Apple engineers have sought to package solar cells right into the device in an unobtrusive way. Electricity-generating cells could be placed underneath the device's display. Specifically, the patent application details the use of a semitransparent display with a solar cell placed underneath it.
Sandwiched together, the device's cover would have "at least one glass layer coupled to the solar-cell layer; and a ... Read more
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