UPDATE: Listen to the segment here The Rude Awakening 07-01-09.
On Ocean 98.1 The Rude Awakening (98.1 FM WOCM in Ocean City, MD) at 8 AM to talk about Green Gadgets For Dummies.
Excellent story in the New York Times about advances in making it easier to properly dispose of unwanted or hopelessly useless consumer electronics products.
Read the full story at: A Green Way to Dump Low-Tech Electronics – NYTimes.com.
My new book, Green Gadgets For Dummies, is now available in paperback and Kindle editions.
Below is a brief description of the book, followed by the book’s foreword by Tom Zeller Jr., editor of the New York Times Green Inc. section.
Thanks to everyone who provided so much support and assistance throughout the writing of the book.
(Special thanks to Wiley project editor Nicole Sholly, who made the process a learning experience that set me up for my next book, Macs All-in-One For Dummies (2nd edition).)
Book Description
Save some green by going green with these environmentally friendly gadgets!
With concern for the future of our environment growing stronger and more serious every day, there has never been a better time to take a new approach to some of the most popular gizmos and gadgets on the market and learn how you can convernt to electronics that have minimal environmental impact.
Green gadgets encompass everything from iPods to energy-efficient home entertainment devices to solar laptop chargers and crank-powered gizmos. This helpful resource explains how to research green gadgets, make a smart purchasing decision, use products you already own in a more environmentally friendly way, and say goodbye to electronics that zap both energy and money.
- Explore the environmental and financial benefits of green gadgets with this friendly reference
- Discusses which gadgets save energy-and which ones create energy
- Learn ways to offset your carbon footprint when you can’t reduce consumption
- Get tips for understanding products labels and avoiding “greenwash”
- Discover how to calculate the energy and money your gadgets consume
Get moving and start living green with this informative guide to environmentally and wallet-friendly gadgets!
From the Back Cover
Think green, save green, love Mother Earth, and have your gadgets too
No doubt about it, we’re a society of gadget freaks. But if you love your gadgets and the planet and saving money, here’s where it all comes together. Discover new environmentally friendly gadgets, ways to use the ones you have more efficiently, and steps to safely recycle or dispose of out-of-date or broken gizmos. You’ll even find out how being green saves green!
- Start thinking green — learn the “four Rs” of green gadgetry, understand carbon footprints, and starve energy vampires
- Save energy now — by using rechargeable batteries, monitoring power use, adjusting settings on TVs and video game consoles, and more
- Control your computer — discover how to adjust power conservation settings for Macs and PCs
- Know green from greenwash — find out how to choose electronic devices that are truly environmentally friendly
- Recognize when it’s time to say goodbye — know what you can donate, how to erase your personal information, and how to find reputable recyclers
Visit the companion Web site at www.dummies.com/go/greengadgetsfd to find more online resources and information about green gadgets!
Open the book and find:
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How many dollars you can save with energy-saving settings
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Sneaky ways your gadgets steal energy
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The six sins of greenwashing
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Safe ways to dispose of dead batteries
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How (and why) to deauthorize iTunes before donating your PC
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Steps for wiping Windows or Mac hard drives
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Greener gadgets for your home, car, and outdoor activities
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What EnergyStar ratings mean
Foreword
The very idea of “green gadgets,” to many, might seem an oxymoron. After all, it is a fundamental tenet of the environmental movement that less stuff is better, and that consumerism – the thing that makes us want to have that snazzy new cell phone, or to covet that nifty new digital camera – is at odds with maxims like “reduce, reuse, recycle.”
There’s some truth to this paradox – but it is hardly the only way to frame the contribution that technology can make to a greener, cleaner world. Setting aside the efforts underway to develop large-scale, clean-energy technologies like wind and solar power, which promise to address the steady march of climate change, there remain myriad ways for ordinary consumers to make simple adjustments in how they live – and what they buy – to generate substantial environmental gains.
In many cases, gadgets can help. Sure, we could all do better to manage our electricity consumption at home – but what if there were a product that could provide detailed data on when and where we were being most wasteful? What if there were “greener” versions of the technologies – like computers and cell phones – that we use frequently, and upgrade regularly?
Of course, such technologies do exist, and that’s part of what Joe Hutsko has assembled here: A guide to green gadgetry and how you can best deploy it to your own personal environmental advantage.
But this is not just a buying guide, and there’s a key point in that: Making better, less wasteful use of the gadgets you already own, and finding sensible ways to reduce, reuse and recycle those things you no longer need, are first-order strategies for consumers seeking to limit their overall footprint.
So, too, is learning to understand the increasingly complex eco-friendly and energy-efficient labeling systems used to keep consumers informed. You’ll find guidance on these matters here as well.
There is no magic wand – no magic gadget – that will neutralize consumers’ impact on the planet. But I think few green advocates would quibble with the idea that every consumer can make simple, informed choices about the technologies they buy and the energy they use – and that these decisions, factored collectively, are an indispensable part of any environmental movement.
Tom Zeller Jr.
Editor, Green Inc.
The New York Times
After accidentally knocking my original iPhone off my desk, which caused the glass screen to smash into a pretty spiderweb-like pattern that, thanks to my Invisible Shield screen protector, allowed me to continue using the smart phone as I stood in line to buy an iPhone 3G when it went on sale the next day, I decided it was time to surround the new one with a protective case.
Although I initially went with InCase’s leather-wrapped Slider Elan, I later chose the InCase black Slider (pictured on the left) as my iPhone 3G’s protective partner. The case’s tight fit adds minimal thickness to the 3G, and its lightly rubberized finish provides just enough grip to prevent accidental sleights of the hand, so to speak. I’ve also used Griffin’s Clarifi for iPhone 3G, but only on the couple of occasions when I needed to take a close up snapshot, thanks to the Clarifi’s built in lens, which corrects the iPhone camera’s farsightedness.
InCase recently sent me their new Bamboo Slider for iPhone 3G, and having just finished Green Gadgets For Dummies, I welcomed the new model’s reduced carbon footprint, thanks to the case’s composition of 40 percent recycled bamboo, 60 percent polycarbonate construction.
InCase says the bamboo pulp used to create the case comes from “reclaimed bamboo shards of materials such as construction scaffolding and chopsticks.”
In hand, the Bamboo Slider feels like plastic, though a deep whiff of the case’s backside betrays plywoody hints that evoke memories of under-construction new homes and lumberyards.
Bottom line: The inclusion of bamboo is an interesting novelty, but the case’s less grippy finish was reason enough for me to stick with the lightly rubberized Slider that’s served me well since acquiring my iPhone 3G.
At Home With the Energy Detective
By JOE HUTSKO
I used the Energy Detective, left, to monitor the energy-consumption profile of my various appliances.
Although home energy tracking devices like the single-outlet Kill A Watt or the whole-house Power2Save unit are gaining popularity in this energy-conscious age, I hadn’t tried one out until my electric bill topped out at $150 in January. That prompted me to invest in anEnergy Detective, a device that retails for $145 and promises to give homeowners a telling glimpse into their personal energy.
Over on sister site gGadget.org, MNN.com tech blogger Karl Burkart’s interview with me about Green Gadgets For Dummies at the Greener Gadgets 2009 Conference in NYC.
Link to full story: Green Gadgets for Dummies … and smart people, too | MNN – Mother Nature Network .
By now the new Xbox 360 you buy will be built around a chipset known as “Jasper.”
Jasper 360s feature a redesigned motherboard with 65-nanometer graphics and processing chips. The cooler running, less power-hungry sum-of-parts is meant to make the infamous Red Ring of Dead a thing of the past.
My Xbox 360 arcade, purchased in October, was acting weird – mainly lockups when sending messages to Xbox Live buddies. Having purchased the Product Replacement Plan with the Xbox 360 from Tim at the Hamilton Mall’s downstairs Gamestop last October, I returned with the console for a replacement. There was Tim again, smart and friendly as before, but unfortunately he was out of 360 Arcades. He checked with the store upstairs, nada, then called the Shore Mall store, where Travis told him he had one left, and yes, he’d hold it for me.
I drove to Travis’s Gamestop, gave him the dud machine and inspected the new one to make sure it was a Jasper unit, and repurchased the $19.99 Product Replacement Plan for the new one, in case something goes wrong between now and this time next year.
How did I know it was a Jasper? As reported for months, the thing to look for when buying a new Xbox 360 is a power spec of 12 volts, which you can find by inspecting the box’s serial number cutout hole. It may take some finger wiggling to reveal the power rating – assuming, of course, the person selling you the unit allows you to handle the box in the first place.
Unlike the Xbox 360 Arcade it replaces, the Jasper version doesn’t come with a 256 MB memory card. That’s because Microsoft soldered the memory onto the motherboard, making the card unnecessary for saving settings and game progress. With my initial purchase of the optional 120 GB hard drive ($140), the total cost for my 360 was $340 – $40 more than the Xbox 360 Pro, which comes with a few things the Arcade doesn’t: A 60 GB hard drive, a chrome-finished disc tray door and button, a headset, a standard and HD video cable, and, at present, different bundled games. Since I already own a wireless headset and HD cable, doubling the hard disk size for only $40 was worth more than the only thing my 360 was missing – chrome-accented disc door and button.
The new Jasper 360’s 150-watt power supply is lighter and absent of the visible fan found on older, higher power versions, and maybe it’s a placebo effect, but to my ears my new Jasper-equipped Xbox 360 runs quieter, both with and without a disc spinning inside.
Summary: Pretty much the same Xbox 360 as before on the outside, albeit with quieter, more energy efficient components running the show on the inside.
An old HP workhorse notebook that survived Hurricane Katrina and miscellaneous other hard knocks stopped working on account of a loose power jack, which wiggled and jiggled like a baby tooth ready to say goodbye.
Nearby PC repair shops quoted a minimum of around $150 just to “look at it,” to which they’d stack parts and labor costs to fix the ol’ girl – assuming they could.
Enter Pomeroy Computing’s $65 flat-rate DC Jack Repair service. I was skeptical at first, exchanged a few emails with Steve, the guy who does the fixes, then decided to give it a go.
I squeezed the hulking HP Z7000 series laptop into a Priority Mail flat-rate box (less than $10 to ship), dropped it at the Post Office, and within four days (owing to the weekend; the site says you can expect 3 – 5 days turnaround) I received the repaired notebook with the new power jack firmly in place.
Conclusion: This guy is like a seasoned dentist, he does so many of these things he could do them with his eyes closed.
Highly recommended.
UPDATE 12-10-2008: Check out this story on Play.tm to see the new Jasper-equipped Xbox 360 and find out what to look for when seeking a Jasper Xbox 360 of your own.
According to the Xbox 360 DVD Drive Database, it appears Xbox 360s outfitted with the much-anticipated Jasper chipset have finally started showing up in stores and at online retailers.
The key things to look for when buying a new Xbox 360 with the Jasper chipset is a manufacturing date (MFR) as early as 2008-08-06, Lot 8031 and up, and Team CSON. (You may have to bribe your local GameSpot salesperson to poke his or her finger through the serial number window of 360 box to inspect the manufacturing date.)
For those unfamiliar with why Jasper’s such a big deal, the chipset features 65nm (nanometers) GPU and CPU chips that require less power and are expected to offer cooler, quieter operation – and consequently fewer RRoD (Red Ring of Death) failures.
Here’s a link so you can check out all of the details for yourself: Xbox 360 DVD Drive Database.
Consumers Want, and Are Skeptical About, Eco-Electronics – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com
By JOE HUTSKO
Among other findings from a survey released today by the Consumer Electronics Association, an industry group representing computer and gadget manufacturers, 89 percent of consumers said that energy efficiency would be a factor in choosing their next television — even as less than half of the 960 people surveyed said they’re generally able to make sense of the environmental attributes attached to electronics on the market.
Read the full story here: Consumers Want, and Are Skeptical About, Eco-Electronics – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.
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