Current Apple machines don't meet new EnergyStar guidelines
By Nilay Patel 
posted July 27th 2007 9:02PM
posted July 27th 2007 9:02PM
Uh-oh, Steve: Apple just got a little less green. New, more stringent requirements for EnergyStar certification went into effect last week, and while most manufacturers have a model or two that meets the updated regs, not a single shipping Mac qualifies. Apple's taken a lot of heat in the past for its environmental policies, and while Steve's blasted back with stats of his own and committed to steps like totally eliminating CCFL backlights in Apple displays, the loss of something like EnergyStar certification isn't going to sit so well with critics -- or shareholders, for that matter. Manufacturers have until January to update their machines or lose the certification, so this isn't a huge blow, but Apple's been insistent that it's more eco-conscious that other companies -- looks like it's put up or shut up time.[Via Floppyhead]
Oh noes! I'm switching back to my water-cooled PC with half megawatt PSU!
profitable for most of its existence? so what did they do with all the money microsoft gave them?
Take a look at their stock. For most of Apple's existance, it was going for under $50. Now it's almost 3 times that. That would be growth, and the more a company grows, the less likely it's going to be green.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AAPL&t=my&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=
When EnergyStar changed to revision 4.0, it expected that only 25% of the current chipset designs would comply. Because many of Dell's models did not, they created a tag called EnergySmart that may mislead the consumer. Get this, the 25% that would comply, are the high end systems with the most memory, fastest CPU's and most hard drives. The reason that they comply? EnergyStar uses a formula that compares the Maximum power possible to the Idle and Sleep state power. Systems with bigger dynamic ranges in power comply. Isn't that ironic.... the System that consume the largest amount of power are the 25% of systems that comply.
In addition...
The root of the reason most systems do not comply is the Chip-set of which the system is designed around. The AMDs and Intels have to be aware of the upcoming EnergyStar changes and make the nessecary changes within there own silicon. EnergyStar 4.0 compliant Chip-sets by design will not exist for another 6 to 8 months. EnergyStar releases the new rev with the understanding that MOST systems will not comply but work twards becoming better efficient month by month.
Did you know that its easy to game the formula discussed earlier. If you are able to somehow increase the max power by making the power supply less efficient and turning on all that consumes power within the system, you increase your odds of compliying. Kinda make you say Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Don't forget the choking levels of smug they generate too.
"Actually, Apple has been incredibly profitable for most of its existence."
Oh, well that clears a lot up.