Our latest podcast is now available to download, in episode 6 we discuss the Skyfire and Opera browsers with flash support, iPhone 3G charge converters and some App talk , HTC Touch 3G, some info on O2 and Vodafone UK Networks and loads more. You can subscribe via iTunes, RSS or download the mp3 file here. Full show notes after the break.
Steve Trotto over at Mobile Tech Moment has taken a detailed look at iBlogger for the iPhone. This application lets you post to your Blog from your iPhone. With support for many of the most popular Blogs you can’t go wrong with this application if your a keen blogger. Check out the video after the break.
At the Flash On The Beach (FOTB) conference in Brighton, Sr. Director of Engineering at Adobe Systems Paul Betlem, confirmed that Adobe is indeed developing a Flash Player for the iPhone. However, Apple calls the shots as to when it’ll be available. In other words Apple could just say no, but at least we have some hope now.
Sony Ericsson announced earlier this week a concept phone named GreenHeart. This project was set to focus on making a phone that will be environmentally sustainable throughout its entire life cycle.
The phone is built entirely from recycled plastic and bio-plastic, and uses a Zero Charger. You might well ask how did they do it? Well, the housings are made out of bio-plastic, the keys of recycled plastic and the manual is an HTML based e-manual, instead of coming in printed form. The packaging is, of course, also environmentally friendly.
There’s also the green Zero Charger, which was developed along with the phone. As we all know, most, if not all, the chargers on the market also consume power if left in the outlet without a phone connected to them. This Zero Charger is an experimental model that has a built-in switch that makes sure that, when you unplug your phone, the charger will go out and will consume only 1% of the electricity that a normal plugged-in phone charger would normally consume when not used. Im sure you will all agree that this is the way forward but surely SE could come up with a a design that more appealed to the mass market than one that, most likely, will only be bought by the more eco friendly folk.
Here is what Sony Ericsson had to say in their Press Release:
Sony Ericsson expands its sustainability credentials with the launch of its environmental warranty and the GreenHeart™ phone
24 September 2008
Lund, Sweden – September 24, 2008 – Today marked the launch of Sony Ericsson’s environmental warranty, and the concept of Sony Ericsson GreenHeart™ phones, just two initiatives the company is taking to further its commitment to a sustainable future and continually reducing its impact on the environment.
Environmental warranty
The launch of Sony Ericsson’s environmental warranty means that now, when any Sony Ericsson product is taken to a designated collection point, Sony Ericsson will recycle this product in an environmentally sound way. This warranty is valid globally, regardless of where the product was originally purchased, as Sony Ericsson strives to show its support for ‘individual producer responsibility’ (IPR).
Sony Ericsson has long-since participated in and supported the development of common industry systems that relate to the collection and recycling of old mobile phones and accessories. Launching its own collection points and system means that Sony Ericsson will be able to further strengthen its commitment to taking responsibility for the products it sold to consumers.
This new initiative has now been initiated in India, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Singapore USA and Mexico. To date, more than 500 collection points are already in operation. Sony Ericsson intends to complete this rollout by 2009 in all the countries in which it operates. The company’s solely-owned collection points will be primarily made available in those countries where the current industry-standard system of phone recycling have been judged to be too limited.
Sony Ericsson also plans to develop the way in which it spreads information about this new initiative through its customer help desks and over the internet. The aim is to give consumers easy access to information on their nearest recycling drop off point.
GreenHeart™ phones
As a company that puts environmental sustainability at the heart of its product development, Sony Ericsson wanted to explore new ideas in this area through a concept design study.
The GreenHeart™ is a full concept with all life cycle in mind it includes features such as bio-plastic housings, recycled plastic keypads, zero charger with 3.5mW standby power, HTML based e-manuals, a game style educational application ‘Ecomate’ and environmentally conscious packaging.
This concept has been shared with a few selected partners in the industry, whose response has been extremely positive. Sony Ericsson will therefore take this concept and initiate a two-way conversation with customers on what features they believe should be implemented in future phones and in what priority.
Environmentally, all of Sony Ericsson products live up to the extremely high standards that are expected by the industry. Pursuing policies such as the global phase out of unwanted substances, and being a leader in charger performance, is included in all our current product offerings. This is also recognised by external organisations worldwide, with Greenpeace, for example, naming Sony Ericsson as the ‘greenest electronics company’ for 2008. With the GreenHeart™ concept however, Sony Ericsson is looking to the future, to ensure the full life cycle of a mobile phone can be made more environmentally friendly. Once the technology reaches maturity, new techniques and materials will then be included in the portfolio and a market wide launch. One ‘eco’ product by itself will not make a difference but by learning through this concept study we are ensuring the entire portfolio in future will be more sustainable.
Sustainability
Sony Ericsson takes its role in creating a sustainable future very seriously. The company continually works to improve people’s lives by following best business practices, conserving resources and protecting the environment.
Mats Pellbäck-Scharp, head of corporate sustainability for Sony Ericsson commented: ‘Building on Sony Ericsson’s existing sustainability efforts, we’re proud to have taken the next step in making our products and process more sustainable. The global take back scheme and the GreenHeart project bring us closer to our vision of being a leader in sustainability in the mobile phone industry’.
For Sony Ericsson, our approach to sustainability is based on the following principles:
- Safeguarding future profitability in an environmentally conscious world
- Improving our influence on the living and working conditions of all those involved in the making of our products
- Making a positive impact on those who use our products
- Improving how our products and activities impact on the environment
Other areas that the company are committed to improve include:
- Supply chain social responsibility
- CO2 emissions from transport and other activities
- Reporting of impact on the environment
- Projects to improve global social conditions in the developing world by improving communications
- Community engagement where we operate
- Employee empowerment and engagement
Sony Ericsson is a top global industry player with sales of over 100 million phones in 2007. Diversity is one of the core strengths of the company, with operations in over 80 countries including manufacturing in China and R&D sites in China, Europe, India, Japan and North America. Sony Ericsson was established as a 50:50 joint venture by Sony and Ericsson in October 2001, with global corporate functions located in London.
Greenpeace’s ‘Greener Electronics Guide’ is aimed to get the electronics industry to address the problem of e-waste and removing harmful chemicals in electronic products. www.greenpeace.org/international
Posted by: John
SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory products, today announced it is bringing to market its 16GB* microSDHC™ and Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) mobile memory cards – the world’s largest removable storage capacity for mobile phones. The fingernail-sized 16GB memory cards allow consumers to “wake up” the many storage-intensive features offered by today’s portable handsets such as music and video playback, high-definition digital camera functions, gaming and GPS applications.
IBM has released a way to get Lotus Notes e-mail on your iPhone that stops short of full support, but gets the job done. IBM’s iNotes Ultralite will be formally released Tuesday for Notes administrators and iPhone users. The software is a Web application that allows you to access Notes mail through the Safari mobile browser on the iPhone. Administrators need to install IBM Lotus Domino Web Access 8.0.2 in order to make the whole thing work.
Today is the official launch date for the Xperia X1 and I just wanted to confirm to everyone that it has launched as planned. Units have left the factory and are on their way to the shops in the UK and Nordic markets where they should be available in the next week or so.
WebMessenger Message Alerts puts you back in control of managing communications on your mobile device by providing powerful rules and filters for your mobile email, SMS Messages and incoming voice calls. Define your own filters using rules that are automatically applied to your incoming incoming E-mail, SMS Messages, and inbound voice calls and be alerted to just what is needed through user defined alerts to include your own MP3 or WAV audio files. Includes custom alerts for low battery and low memory on your mobile device.
To celebrate the launch of the Xperia X1 Sony Ericsson have launched a competition to win an Xperia X1. Sony Ericsson hereby invites you to participate in the “Johnny X – Spot the References to 9” Competition (the “Competition”). As participant in the Competition you have to answer our Competition question and write what you think is the correct answer and you could possibly win 1 of 7 Sony Xperia X1 mobile phones. You can get all the details here.
Pocketnow have posted a YouTube video showing the latest build of Opera Mobile 9.5 and it does indeed support Flash. The video shows the YouTube site and when clicking a video it plays in the browser window and looks great. It has few other new features like a zoom bar. We have the video after the break along with links if you want to give the new version a test.
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