conflict-free
Latest
The Fairphone 3 packs in features while keeping its green credentials
Fairphone, the company that wants to get ethically-responsible smartphones into the hands of consumers worldwide, has unveiled the third iteration of its modular device. Fairphone 3, launched under the tagline, "The phone that dares to be fair," is available for pre-order now, and boasts some pretty decent specs that put it on par with more well-established devices.
Fairphone delivers on its ethical, modular smartphone
Fairphone is a slightly different kind of smartphone manufacturer. It's not out to make the prettiest or the most powerful handsets, but the most ethically responsible. The company bankrolled its first device through a pre-order program, and went on to sell 60,000 of the things, affording it the capital to follow-up with a second-generation smartphone that pushes its agenda even further. Like its predecessor, the Fairphone 2 is built using as many conflict-free resources as possible, and a portion of the proceeds from every sale go to a worker welfare fund in China and an electronic waste recycling program in Ghana. The Fairphone 2 is more than just a hardware update with the same ethical angle, though. The company wants to tackle electronic waste at the source, by building a modular smartphone that's durable, repairable and upgradable.
Fairphone's £250 'ethical' smartphone comes to the UK
While big smartphone makers, like Apple, are actively trying to reduce the amount of conflict materials used in their devices, others pride themselves on being 100 percent ethical. Fairphone is a prime example. After a successful crowdfunding campaign allowed it to develop a new smartphone that meets both ethical and environmental standards, the company is bringing the device to the UK. It'll be exclusively offered by The Phone Co-op, the UK's only consumer-owned mobile carrier, starting at £22 per month with no upfront cost or £250 to buy outright. The Fairphone itself features a quad-core Mediatek 6589 chipset, Android 4.2 (with a custom Fairphone launcher), 8-megapixel rear and 1.3-megapixel front cameras, 16GB internal storage, and a 4.3-inch qHD display protected by scratch-resistant Dragontrail glass. While it's not going to win awards for the best smartphone, it'll meet the requirements of most users. Although it might be impossible to be totally conflict-free, Fairphone works with manufacturers to ensure better working conditions and fairer wages. It also donates three euros from each phone sold to a program that attempts to reduce electronic waste in Ghana.
Apple says most iPhone metal suppliers conflict-free, pushes the rest to get in line
It's easy to forget that the wondrous, tiny computer in your pocket is built from components sourced all over the world, and sometimes, those building blocks come from not-so-nice origins. War-torn regions of the world often use resource and mineral sales to fund local conflict, creating a moral dilemma for gadget consumers and hardware manufactures alike. Naturally this issue has gotten some attention, and Apple says it's doing its part to ensure that its products are built from conflict-free materials. In the company's 2014 Supplier Responsibility report, Cupertino confirmed that as of January 2014, all of the smelters that provided tantalum metal to its supply chain were verified as conflict-free by third-party auditors. The company couldn't quite say the same for the other metals used in consumer electronics, however: several of its gold, tin and tungsten suppliers won't openly verify compliance with the Conflict-Free Smelter Program (CFSP). Apple hasn't cut ties with these manufactures, but it has pledged to publish a quarterly report of the names, countries and CFSP status of all its suppliers to help "drive accountability" and promote participation. With any luck, Cupertino will be able to shame the rest of its supply chain into boycotting conflict-minerals -- delivering on its 2011 promise to build guilt-free iPhones.
Intel wants to have conflict-free processors by the end of 2013
Intel had already promised that it would avoid using conflict minerals, and now it's giving itself a more concrete timetable for that to happen. It wants to have at least one processor that's proven completely conflict-free across four key minerals -- gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten -- by the end of 2013. Lest you think Intel's not taking swift enough action, it wants to reach the tantalum goal by the end of this year. The effort's part of a wider array of goals that should cut back on the energy use, power and water use by 2020. Sooner rather than later, though, you'll be buying a late-generation Haswell- or Broadwell-based PC knowing that the chip inside was made under nobler conditions.
