iPod Recycling

Recently we took a look at the greenest apps for the iPhone, but you don’t need to be an iPhone user to get Eco friendly apps. You also have lots of green apps if you are an Android user including the following:

Eco Charger

As soon as your Android phone has finished charging this app will let you know so you don’t use up too much electricity.

IAmGreen

This app is available to Android, iPhone and Blackberry users and helps you reduce the amount of power wasted when using your mobile. Also when you download this app a tree is planted.

Print Green

This app keeps you up to date with the latest green issues and sustainability news in the printing industry.

GreenYou

This app allows you to calculate your own carbon footprint when doing daily activities, once calculated it works out ways in which you can reduce it.

iGreenCircle

This app allows you to connect to a social media network and speak to other green minded people, although it isn’t that popular yet.

Green Mileage

This Android app helps you keep track of how much petrol your using in your car and how far your driving each day.

Seasonal Harvest

This application uses your Android’s GPS to work out which foods are local to your environment during a certain season.

PowerTutor

PowerTutor works out whether you have too many apps on your mobile and are just wasting power, it helps organize your apps to make your phone more efficient.

Regan, a company who create personal and home electronics powered by light have created a new device called the ReNu Tablet. The ReNu Tablet is small solar tablet that can be taken outside or hung on a window to gather energy to charge personal electronics including iPods and iPhones.

Once the energy is gathered the tablet stores it in a battery and then consumers can charge their iPods and iPhones either via the USB port or through a dock that works with the ReNu.

There has already been a lot of interest in this product that is due to be available in June, this is probably because many people want to do their bit for the environment.

Find out more about the ReNu here

Apple has recently applied for a patent on solar cells for small media devices however there are no plans to equip the next iPod with solar panels.

There are mixed thoughts about putting solar panels on small devices like iPods, one advantage would be to provide an alternative source of power. From sketches released by Apple the solar cells would be underneath the screen so would not use any more space on the small iPods.

The disadvantages of using solar panels on iPods include there being no established recycling programs and the chemicals used to make solar power can be extremely toxic at landfill.

Maybe Apple will include solar panels on future iPods but no plans have yet been drawn up. It is still possible to use solar power to generate the charge by using a solar backpack which plugs into an iPod and will charge it for up to 3 and a half hours.

A new puzzle game for the iPhone, Zombie Recycling Inc : Moldy Green has recently been released by Japanese arcade game designers Tecmo.

The new game makes users bounce zombie heads around a human recycling factory and then catch them on a zombie body. By recycling the human brains helps to combat the zombie shortage.

CEO of Zombie Recycling Inc said, “Think of the Zombies, we hope everyone makes the green choice and helps to relieve the terrible zombie shortage.”

Zombie Recycling Inc can be downloaded from the Apple app store for just £1.19, so buy it and help the zombies!

Apple’s new tablet computer the iPad has not been designed to replace your existing phone or laptop or be the latest 3G device. After launching last week it’s left some people wondering what the point of it actually is, it’s meant to be better than a netbook but barely supports flash so many websites won’t run on it and only has video support for YouTube.

The new iPad runs on the iPhone operating system rather than MAC OSX which would allow it to do much more. It has no camera, no USB port, no multitasking, no voice support, no video output, no DVD / Blu-ray drive and a very small hard drive. It seems to be targeted at people who use WI-FI at home and want to sit it on the coffee table.

It was said before it launched that the new iPad was going to be ‘revolutionary’ but after closer inspection it’s really nothing more than a larger iPod Touch. It’s competing with several other products including tablets from Dell and HP who may be able to offer users a much better experience.

The new Apple iPad was unveiled last week in San Francisco. It weighs less than 2 pounds, is only half an inch thick and 10 inches tall, but apart from a great design it also has many green features as well.

Eco-friendly features on the new iPad include a recyclable aluminium and glass enclosure, mercury free LCD display and arsenic free display glass. It’s also completely free of brominated flame retardants and PVC.

The iPad also allows users to listen to music, watch videos or surf for up to 10 hours on a single charge. Unlike other Apple products the battery inside can be recharged up to 1000 times making it last much longer.

The Apple iPad is also an e-book reader; users can download Apple’s latest application, iBooks for free from the App Store to read environmentally friendly electronic books.

Wi-Fi models of the iPad will start shipping into the UK in late March and 3G models in April.

Vodafone has revealed that they have sold 100,000 iPhones since its launch onto the network on the 14th January this year.

The figure included pre-orders taken before the launch date but the network is very happy that so many have already been sold. The iPhone will also be released on Vodafone pay as you go in the next few weeks.

People who have recently moved to Vodafone and bought the iPhone may have an old model that they now want to sell and can do using popular mobile recycling sites including Mopay, Money4urMobile or Mobile Phone Xchange.

It has been estimated that by the end of 2012 there will be over 80 million iPhone sales worldwide.

Recycle your old iPhone here

Networks that carry the Apple iPhone including Orange and Vodafone were awarded the 2^nd and 3^rd places in an evaluation of Europe’s greenest mobile operators. The study carried out by ABI Research saw Deutsche Telecom claim the top spot.

Under the innovation category the networks were measured their direct or indirect impact on green innovations for the supplier value chain, their green Research and Development efforts, their smart grid networks and their use of innovative metrics for the measurement of carbon reduction.

In the implementation category each network was measured according to their green network infrastructure, green initiatives and how green their IT operations are.

The research also looked at the network’s use of green packaging, green logistics fleets, whether they added green content onto their handsets and how environmentally friendly their buildings and facilities are.

New iPhone carrier Vodafone was commended for its green efforts despite the size of the company and Orange showed initiative in terms of measuring its own environmental impact through innovative internal tools.

When most people buy a new iPod the plastic case that it came in will be the first thing to be thrown in the bin and end up at landfill. In order to help solve this problem Japanese company Bird-Electron have designed a new iPod recycling speaker which fits into the existing plastic case.

The Bird-Electron EZ17-B recycling speaker is a gadget that turns the plastic packaging into a cool set of external speakers. The speaker requires no external batteries or power supply and simply drops on top of the original open plastic case which is then used as a carrying case. The speakers own packaging is made entirely from biodegradable materials.

The EZ17-B recycling speakers are not yet available in the UK but can be purchased from many US websites for around £24.

Mopay launched back in 2005 making them one of the oldest mobile recycling services on the web. In the past 5 years they have only dealt with mobile phones up until now when they have launched a new iPod trade in service for all their customers.

The new cash for iPods service has been set up in an effort to deliver more value to their website users and also help to recycle more of the UK’s electrical waste correctly.

Mopay’s iPod recycling service allows users to send in any iPod model ranging from the classic through to the touch generations. They offer competitive prices for each iPod model ranging from £2.50 to £60.

Recycle your old iPod at Mopay here