EcoATM Cell Phones Recycling

clipped from www.treehugger.com EcoATM Arrives in Stores - Accepts Used Cell Phones, Spits Out Store Credit Could gadget recycling get easier than this? In a similar vein as ATM-like change machines, where you bring your bucket-o-coins, dump them in and out pops a far more convenient currency, EcoATM wants to buy back your old cell phones with this cool kiosk. Insert cell phone, withdraw currency. clipped from www.fastcompany.com EcoATM Pays Cash for Your Old Cell Phones The ATM, which is the first station to be installed by San Diego startup EcoATM, identifies cell phones, gives them an estimated secondary market value, and provides payment in the form of cash or an in-store credit. In the event that the phone no longer holds value--if it's old or there are too many signs of wear--it heads to a recycling bin and a tree is planted in your name.

clipped from www.ecoatm.com

The ecoATM Kiosk: How it works

The ecoATM - Easy as 1, 2, 3

Step 1) Insert portable CE device or handset
Step 2) Used device automatically valued
Step 3) Portables automatically binned inside. User receives trade-up coupon, gift card, and/or charitable contribution

clipped from www.ecoatm.com

Green - The Environmental Equation

In the Making of Phones 1 Phone >3 tons mining waste
In the Disposal of Phones 75,000 tons into landfills annually -
Arsenic, Cadmium, Mercury

clipped from www.ecoatm.com

Green - Where Does The Stuff Go?

Almost all consumer electronics (mobile phones, computers, monitors, printers, etc.) contain toxic materials such as lead, mercury, arsenic and a broad variety of other materials that pose a threat to the environment and health. The eWaste challenge is to extend device usage to end-of-life, safely mine existing eWaste for materials, and design new devices with planned reclamation using reclaimed materials where possible.

Sources:

1. EcoATM Arrives in Stores - Accepts Used Cell Phones, Spits Out Store Credit : TreeHugger
2. EcoATM Pays Cash for Your Old Cell Phones | Sustainability | Fast Company
3. ecoATM | How It Works
4. ecoATM | Green
5. ecoATM | Green | Where Does The Stuff Go

Related:

1. EcoATM pays you for used gadgets | Crave - CNET
2. ecoATM Automates Cellphone Recycling Process, Dishes Out Cash (Or a Tree) - Cellphones - Gizmodo
3. For Quick Cash, Drop Your Gadgets at an EcoATM - Fresh Greens (usnews.com)
4. The EcoATM–Scrap Your Junk, Get Paid | GadgetReview
5. ecoATM-web-final

Ambient Power for Cell Phones

Clipped from: Nokia developing phone that recharges itself without mains electricity | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Nokia developing phone that recharges itself without mains electricity

Prototype harvests radiowaves from TV, radio and other mobiles

Standby mode is often accused of being the scourge of the planet, insidiously draining resources while offering little benefit other than a small red light and extra convenience for couch potatos. But now Nokia reckons a mobile phone that is always left in standby mode could be just what the environment needs.

Clipped from: Technology Review: Wireless Power Harvesting for Cell Phones

Wireless Power Harvesting for Cell Phones

Nokia hopes to create a device that could harvest enough power to keep a cell phone topped up.

A cell phone that never needs recharging might sound too good to be true, but Nokia says it's developing technology that could draw enough power from ambient radio waves to keep a cell-phone handset topped up.

Ambient electromagnetic radiation--emitted from Wi-Fi transmitters, cell-phone antennas, TV masts, and other sources--could be converted into enough electrical current to keep a battery topped up, says Markku Rouvala, a researcher from the Nokia Research Centre, in Cambridge, U.K.

Clipped from: NRC Cambridge UK laboratory | Nokia Research Center

NRC Cambridge UK laboratory develops nanotechnologies for mobile communication and ambient intelligence. Studying physical, chemical and biological phenomena and manipulation of matter at the nanoscale enables generation of knowledge for enhancing human capabilities.


Scope of Nokia nanoscience and nanotechnology research.

Clipped from: Nano Devices, Cambridge UK | Nokia Research Center

Home > Research > Laboratories > NRC Cambridge UK laboratory > Nano Devices, Cambridge UK

Research topics

• [...]
  
• Enhanced energy and power capacity in mobile devices: As mobile devices become ever more capable and thus power-hungry, one key issue becomes increasingly important: the storage and efficient use of energy. In practical terms, this translates as the development of energy storage media that are able to provide more energy, both more quickly (for responsive operation) and for longer (less recharging needed) whilst occupying a smaller space. In addition, what if such devices could also harvest their own power without needing mains recharging? Here too, nanotechnology has an enabling role to play; electrodes incorporating nanostructures can to be fabricated with hugely-enhanced surface areas providing significantly increased charge-storing capacity. In this project, the University of Cambridge's great strength in novel nanomaterial synthesis, and their previous work developing polymer-carbon nanotube composites with controlled conduction is used to fabricate and test nanotube-enhanced supercapacitors and nanocomposite solar cells - all essential ingredients in a coherent approach to improved energy handling.
  

Sources:

1. Nokia developing phone that recharges itself without mains electricity | Environment | guardian.co.uk
2. Technology Review: Wireless Power Harvesting for Cell Phones
3. NRC Cambridge UK laboratory | Nokia Research Center
4. Nano Devices, Cambridge UK | Nokia Research Center

Related:

1. Inhabitat » Nokia Phone Charges by Drawing Energy Out of Thin Air
2. Nokia trying to charge mobiles with radio waves | // Pocket Picks //
3. Ambient power | Nokia Conversations

Cell phone used as sociometer

Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that cellphones may be used to give insight in periodicities of human behavior, human group behavior and more: separate the rich from the poor, the sick from the healthy, even the outgoing from the introverted.

clipped from www.forbes.com What Your Cell Phone Knows About You Sandy Pentland, director of MIT's Human Dynamics Research program, has focused his work on that unlikely task: using gadgets as simple as a cell phone to better understand the quirks and patterns of human behavior. Pentland's experiments began with what he calls a "sociometer," a simple badge-like device that hangs from a subject's neck and records his or her movements, tone of voice, and location. A cell phone can do almost exactly the same thing as a sociometer, the only difference being that it's not around your neck. It talks to cell towers and can tell your location, it has Bluetooth to scan for other devices, and some even have accelerometers to measure motion. clipped from labcast.media.mit.edu The Media Lab clipped from www.media.mit.edu Human Dynamics Principal Investigator: Alex (Sandy) Pentland clipped from hd.media.mit.edu People Publications Research Topics clipped from hd.media.mit.edu Social Network from Mobile Phone Usages

Via: textually.org: What Your Cell Phone Knows About You
Related:
What Your Cell Phone Knows About You - Forbes.com
Alex (Sandy) Pentland Homepage Reality Mining Honest Signals Sensible Organizations
The Media Lab
The Media Lab » Research
MIT Media Lab: Human Dynamics Lab
HD: Reality Mining
MIT Media Lab: Reality Mining
Pegasus Communications--Expanded Information

Universal SIM Unlock Card

Looking to unlock your iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia or Motorola? USB Fever is offering a $23 universal unlock card made of a very thin piece of FPC. Simply fit your SIM card on top of it.

clipped from www.macsimumnews.com USB Fever releases Universal SIM Unlock Card for iPhone USB Fever has released the Universal SIM Unlock Card, an US$22.99 card for unlocking the iPhone. clipped from www.usbfever.com Highlights: This SIM unlock is with A&B Modes. This version will unlock MOST GSM phones in the market now and works with 3G cards. Features: This SIM unlock is made of a very thin piece of FPC (0.10mm) with a Microcontroller mounted on, that goes between your Operator's SIM card & the phone's SIM socket. Because of it's very thin & slim design it fits into almost all phone's on the market and can also be easily removed again. It's got Gold Immersion and makes perfect contact with the card and the socket at ALL times. Cutting of your Operator's SIM card is required but kept to a minimum. (there are products on the market claiming that no cutting is required to use them, however they don?t give a reliable connection between the phone and the SIM card so that in certain cases it might not work at all or you might get problems during usage) clipped from macenstein.com clipped from www.usbfever.com

Related:
Macsimum News - USB Fever releases Universal SIM Unlock Card for iPhone
Macenstein | The Universal SIM Unlock Card - Now with iPhone goodness!
» Universal SIM Unlock Card
usbfever.com - Funny + Gadget + Great for USB, 1394/Firewire, SATA stuff, iPod & iPhone, PDA / Cellphone accessories and headphones / earphones

Hop-on Disposable Cell Phones

Disposable cell-phones with no LCD screen that can be thrown away or recycled after use.

clipped from www.tmcnet.com Hop-on Brings Back the Disposable Cell Phone With a 10,000 European Purchase Order IRVINE, Calif., April 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hop-on, Inc. (Pink Sheets: HPNN) announced today that its low end GSM cell phone with no LCD screen was a big success during CTIA meetings in Las Vegas, resulting in an initial test purchase order of 10,000 phones. Hop-on is bringing back the disposable phone. clipped from www.hop-on.com CDMA Cell Phones Disposable cell phones sold out in 15-20 Walgreens along the west in a mater of hours below is a picture of the display set up in the store. Features Size: 112 x 46 x 17 mm Phone Book: 100 entries Speed Dial: 90 locations Bands: Tri-mode 1900MHz CDMA Battery: Standard Li-Ion 720 mAh Battery Life: Digital talk time 3 hours and standby time 240 hours Ring Tones: 12 Antenna: Embedded Graphic No LCD AFLT: For compliance with FCC mandated E911 Call History: 20 missed, 20 incoming, and 10 outgoing TTY Compatible: For the hearing impaired Optional GPS Module: For location-based services Multi Languages

Related:
The Disposable Cell Phone or Phone-Card-Phone
Hop-on Brings Back the Disposable Cell Phone With a 10,000 European Purchase Order
Hop-on.com :: Cell Phones :: CDMA2000: HOP1900
Cellphones: $20 Disposable Cell Phones Coming to Europe
telecoms.com

Japanese cellphones robot buddy

clipped from www.weirdasianews.com Robotic Cell Phone Friends Japan, known for their advanced cell phone technologies, has come out with a new advancement that will allow you to truly call your phone a friend. clipped from afp.google.com Japanese cellphones to turn into 'robot' buddies TOKYO (AFP) — For those who feel a bit lonely just talking on the phone, a Japanese company is offering a cellphone that turns into a robot buddy ready to chat. The PhoneBraver will be released in April after a character in an upcoming television drama series entitled "Cellphone Investigator 7." The telephone comes with enough artificial intelligence to learn the user's habits. If the user calls a particular person many times, a text phrase such as "You're calling her often these days, aren't you?" might appear coming out of the face's mouth, according to Softbank Mobile spokesman Katsuhide Furuya. The user could carry on conversations with the phone by responding "yes" or "no" or with other simple replies.

ChaCha Smartens Cell Phones (video)

ChaCha is a people powered search engine that uses paid guides to find search results for you. It also has a regular automated search engine. Users who want to use guided search must first create an account. Once logged in, users can chat with guides asking them any question. Guides will engage you in conversation from time to time, but will usually just offer you links to sites that they think will help you.

A Human-Powered Search Engine

ChaCha: search + brainpower | Simple Access, Better Answers

via: ChaCha | CrunchBase Company Profile
related:
Building a better search engine, one answer at a time - ChaCha Results
ChaCha: A Human-Powered Search Engine - ReadWriteWeb
ChaCha: 90% Pranksters