Environment
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Sony called most green games company by Greenpeace
Do you love the earth? How about the PSP and PS3? Good, because your loves are one and the same. Sony is called the most green games manufacturer by environmental group Greenpeace. Sony scored an impressive 7.3 from the organization, making it the third most green company in the list. Compare that to Microsoft at 2.7 and Nintendo at a shocking 0. Sony fans certainly can be proud of their company's efforts to truly go green.Read the full report here.[Via Joystiq]
Greenpeace: Nintendo bad for the environment
Greenpeace took a look at major companies and their output on the environment, recently. And, for all of us who love the Big N, it's sad that Greenpeace ranked them dead last. Yup, turns out Nintendo doesn't have favorable policies toward managing their toxic chemicals and recycling, according to Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics.Due to the addition of television manufacturers and gaming consoles, some companies are finding themselves on the list for the first time. Such a company is Nintendo, who also found themselves to be the first company to score a zero out of possible ten points. Nintendo's competitors in the gaming space fared a bit better, with Microsoft scoring a 2.7 and Sony scoring an incredible 7.3.
Maglev wind turbines 1000x more efficient than normal windmills
We've seen a couple innovative wind power solutions pop up, but none that claim to offer the benefits of maglev wind turbines, which use full-permanent magnets to nearly eliminate friction by "floating" the blades above the base. According to developers, the technology is capable of scaling to massive sizes, with a proposed $53M turbine able enough to replace 1000 traditional windmills and power 750 thousand homes. Additional benefits include the ability to generate power with winds as slow as three miles per hour, operational costs some 50 percent cheaper than windmills, and an estimated lifespan of 500 years. That all sounds great, but the real proof will come when these things get put to use, which may happen sooner than you'd think: Development is proceeding rapidly in both the US and China, with Chinese power company Zhongke Hengyuan Energy Technology currently building a $5M factory to produce the turbines in capacities from 400 to 5,000 watts.
NY Times compares SimCity Societies, Inconvenient Truth
We never saw An Inconvenient Truth (it came out a little too close to X-Men: The Last Stand for us to have any interest in it), but apparently, the planet's getting warmer. We've been told this by numerous celebrities and Nobel Peace Prize-brandishing ex-vice presidents, but we were surprised when we heard that Electronic Arts and Tilted Mill Entertainment were jumping on the Save the Icecaps bandwagon with their latest title, SimCity Societies. But can the game's eco-friendly undertones affect the environmental thinking of a generation of gamers?That's the question posed by eco-journalist Andrew Revkin in a recent article on The New York Times website. If a SimCity Societies player sees the long term effect of fossil fuel usage on his or her virtual metropolis, can they "internalize and act on that kind of information in their real, not simulated, world?" We know that the game affected us. It was a rough transition, but we've stopped powering our servers by burning tires and cans of hairspray. Yeah, you're welcome, Earth.However, considering the game's lackluster reviews, Crysis-esque system requirements, and unfortunate holiday competition, we wonder if it can still change people's minds if nobody plays it.
Tree-inspired PC wins Dyson design award
One of the main arguments that Windows users offer during those habitual debates with Macheads is that PC boxes are much easier to upgrade; instead of buying a new machine every year, you can simply swap out components ad hoc. Well a graduate of Ireland's National College of Art and Design imagines taking this convenience a step further, with a tree-shaped rig -- known as Cultivate - the Sustainable Living Computer -- whose CPU, RAM, hard drive, and other swappable parts extend from the motherboard-packing "trunk" inside removable "branches." Designer Laura Caulwell won a cool €2,000 $2,929) for her concept, and also earned the right to compete for January's annual International James Dyson Award in Australia, which offers up £15,000 ($31,476) in prizes.[Via The Register, photo courtesy of Electric News]
Project LifeLight set to illuminate African homes -- no electricity required
First it was radios, now lights. The Freeplay Foundation has undertaken a new project -- dubbed LifeLight -- which aims to provide just a few hours of lighting each night to the 500 million or so sub-Saharan Africans without appropriate access to electricity. The idea is to place a wind-up (or foot-pump driven we presume) base station into the home which charges a collection of detachable lights. Similar to the technology behind the 150,000 wind-up Lifeline radios (pictured) they've already distributed. Freeplay hopes to replace expensive and unhealthy kerosene or battery powered lamps currently in use with their low-cost, environmentally safe alternative -- local women will be trained to sell and repair the devices. Prototypes are being readied with tests to begin in Kenya in the "next few months."
Dojo update: The Summit
The dojo reveals the stage that s belonging to the Ice Climbers, The Summit. Aside from its look, the stage is also different than you might remember in that it has a bit more action going on within. The large glacier will become detached from the ground, sliding downhill and finally making its way into the sea, as you see above. Once out adrift, the environment becomes a bit more dangerous.
Katamari creator downplays importance of video games
Ever the eccentric, Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi went on stage at a video game conference and tried to tell the audience that video games are NOT the most important thing in the world.We couldn't believe it either.Standing barefoot in front of London Nottingham's GameCity conference, the obviously brain-damaged Takahashi alleged that "it would be impossible for us to be here... if the world was not peaceful." He tried to convince the crowd that real world suffering and problems were occasionally more pressing than games. "If you're suffering from poverty and disease, could you worry about collecting coins? I don't think so," he argued, unconvincingly.Takahashi also implied, rather laughably, that things like recycling and being friendly were just as important as beating Halo 3 on Legendary for the third time. "I'm not trying to be the next Al Gore but I'm not sure if we could afford to have video games in ten or twenty year's time," the fearmongering designer said, adding that white is black and up is actually down.After the confusing opening, Takahashi showed off a demo of Nobi Nobi Boy, thankfully distracting the audience from the problems of the real world once again.
Apple responds to Greenpeace: what part of "end of 2008" didn't you understand?
Yesterday's battle between Greenpeace and Apple had the former publicly chastising the latter for its continued use of hazardous chemicals in its iPhone. While they conceded that Apple is compliant with Europe's RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) standard, they lambasted Cupertino for its continued use of PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) which, according to Greenpeace, "suggests that Apple is not making early progress towards its 2008 commitment to phase-out all uses of these materials." This morning, an Apple spokesperson told Macworld that, "Like all Apple products worldwide, iPhone complies with RoHS, the world's toughest restrictions on toxic substances in electronics. As we have said, Apple will voluntarily eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008." Sure, you can fault Apple for not being as environmentally friendly as PVC-free Nokia, or Motorola and Sony Ericsson who offer some devices with BFR-free components. However, Greenpeace shouldn't feign surprise at what they found.
Greenpeace dismantles iPhone, discovers "hazardous chemicals"
Apple's no stranger to being slammed by Greenpeace, and while Steve certainly spoke of a "Greener Apple," it seems that the iPhone wasn't included. According to tests arranged by the entity, it was found that the iPhone contained "toxic brominated compounds (indicating the presence of brominated flame retardants) and hazardous PVC," which are said to be disallowed across the pond due to RoHS requirements. More specifically, the independent testing found "brominated compounds in half the samples, including in the phone's antenna, in which they made up 10-percent of the total weight of the flexible circuit board." As expected, Greenpeace wasted no time pointing to rival firms that have received pats on the back for their green efforts, and subsequently shook a finger at Apple while murmuring "tsk tsk" -- but we'll leave the actual politicking to you all in comments, cool?Update: Greenpeace does not claim that Apple is in violation of RoHS.[Via Switched, thanks Laura]
Lenovo's ThinkCentre A61e is all kinds of green
Not too long after Dell tooted its own horn when releasing the energy-efficient OptiPlex 755, Lenovo is hopping on the green PC bandwagon with a power-sipping machine of its own. The ThinkCentre A61e is hailed as "the company's smallest, quietest and most energy-efficient desktop yet," and can be equipped with a 45-watt AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core or Sempron single-core CPU. Additionally, this system is Lenovo's first to tout the oh-so-coveted EPEAT Gold status, and it can even be powered by "an optional solar panel." The ThinkCentre A61e will start at just $399, but picking one up will require you to turn a blind eye to just how hideous this thing truly is.
Japanese arcade game driving beetle extinction
"Gotta catch 'em all" has taken on a new meaning with a recent Japanese video game craze helping to drive the real-life extinction to the a subspecies of Turkish beetle. The Times Online reports that the popularity of bug-collecting arcade game Mushiking (King of the Beetles) is leading Japanese fans to import a million of the insects as pets each year, decimating the indigenous population."All we want to do is end the trade in our stag beetles," said Nazim Sonmez, chairman of the Amanos Environmental Protection Association. "They are being collected for economic reasons rather than research purposes. The stag beetle is under threat of extinction. It must be stopped."Bug collecting is a long-standing tradition in Japan that has appeared in games from The Legend of Zelda to Animal Crossing, but Mushiking has raised the activity to a national craze to rival Pokemon. The Sega arcade unit engages players in a rock-paper-scissors style battle of digital insects printed on collectible cards, more than 160 million of which have been printed to date.
Ambient Orb power-usage hack reduces energy consumption by 40%
We've seen some interesting uses for Ambient Devices' various "thin data" products, but Mark Martinez, a Southern California Edison power station manager, has probably hit upon the most interesting application we've seen: by reprogramming the device to reflect energy usage and costs, customers in his 120-person test program managed to reduce their energy consumption by 40 percent. Martinez chalks the results up to the "sentinel effect," saying that ""It's nonintrusive. It has a relatively benign effect. But when you suddenly see your ball flashing red, you notice." Ambient Devices actually sells a similar product called the EnergyJoule, and we've seen some other monitoring attempts before, but we think we like Martinez's hack better -- it brings a little mod flair to living green. Hopefully he'll let us know how he did it soon.[Via Inhabitat]
AT&T saves trees
Good news for iPhone owners who love information but hate wasting paper. AT&T is texting iPhone accounts with messages saying: "We are simplifying your paper bill, removing itemized detail. To view all detail go to att.com/mywireless. Still need full paper bill? Call 611". Check your iPhone for the message. After all the 500-page iPhone bill hilarity, sanity begins to return to the iPhone world. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
The console interactivity I wish WoW could have
As a teenager, I loved console games. I grew up with Nintendo game images, tactics and ideas rolling through my mind. For various reasons, however, I've never really had a chance to pick up any console system since then, and I have often wondered how many changes have taken place in those sorts of games over the years. So recently one of my friends treated me to a few evenings where he just showed me a few of his console games, so that I could get a sense of what they're like these days. The experience made me wish that it were possible for World of Warcraft to incorporate a few of the features I saw in those games.The biggest one was a sense of interacting more with the in-game environment that your character lives in. Especially in this game God of War, I loved how the main character was able to do special moves in special situations, such as jump on top of a monster and rip its head off, or pin it to the ground, or even climb inside its giant mouth. He can also sometimes climb walls or use special items to solve interesting environmental puzzles. Many other games have this sort of experience where there seems to be less of a barrier between your character and the other entities in the game's world.WoW just doesn't have that interactive feeling. Whenever you swing your sword, you swing it in pretty much the same way, even if your target is so huge that you're actually just swinging at the empty space between its massive legs. Whenever you run along up hills or mountains, you do just fine until you come to that magical angle at which your character cannot climb, cannot crawl -- only runs in place against an invisible barrier, even though visually it seems like he should be able to just use his hands. I have no idea how Blizzard would manage it, but I really wish my WoW character could climb up walls (or at least ladders!), flip enemies around, or climb up on top of giants' shoulders and stab them in the head. Even if all these things are an impossibility, I still hope there's something significant they could do to help foster a more cohesive and interactive feel between our characters and everything else in Azeroth.Do you ever wish for some console game features in WoW? Or are they totally apples vs. oranges for you?
Apple earns a silver in environmental evaluation
Recently, Apple has been the target of much environmental criticism, especially from Greenpeace, and a recent EPEAT survey reinforces some of that negativity regarding the company's lack of environmental attention. EPEAT is a government operation created to approve computers before they can be purchased by other governmental institutions, and the organization gives product ratings based on a multitude of environmental criteria. Apple has earned five silver medals for several of its MacBook Pro systems, meaning that the company has passed 23 mandatory standards, and 14 of a possible 28 optional standards. The highest rank, gold, is rewarded to computers that have passed all 23 mandatory standards, plus 21 of 28 optional ones. For comparison, Toshiba has earned five golds, 15 silvers, and four bronzes, Dell has earned two golds and 12 silvers for its laptops, and Lenovo has 48 silvers and a single bronze under its belt. Hopefully Apple will step up and make a greater effort to address some of its environmental shortcomings in the near future and go for the gold.[via MacNN]
Verdant Computing opens an eco-friendly electronics store
Reducing the environmental impact of the electronics industry has been a hot issue lately -- and although it's inspired some wacky protests and even the occasional CEO rumination, there hasn't been an easy way for the average consumer to make environmentally-conscious tech purchasing decisions without doing a lot of research. Verdant Computing is hoping to capitalize on that market with their new store, which aims to only sell products that meet environmentally-oriented criteria like ease of recycling, energy-efficiency, eco-friendly packaging, and several others. In addition, the Verdant offices and servers are all powered with renewable energy, making the entire experience just a little more earth-friendly. It's nice to see companies take these types of steps to increase consumer awareness -- but it's even better to see how many products Verdant is already selling.[Thanks, Carl]
Ford and Edison power to partner on "plug-in" vehicles
If the electric car died, it has been very much revived by recent events: Ford and power company Edison are to partner on the creation of vehicles capable of being plugged into a power outlet. The new cars won't dump the combustion engine completely, but instead opt for a hybrid solution -- Ford is obviously not interested in cutting all its ties just yet. The precise details are to be unveiled at a press conference in California, so we won't know until then exactly how green the two companies are hoping to get. At least this time around the two companies are considering the infrastructure (hence the inclusion of a power company) rather than just focusing on the vehicles.
New details on Ecoris
The more we learn about Ecoris, the eco-centric RTS, the more we're planning to riot if the game doesn't get an English-language release. Get Atlus on the project right now!The latest updates on Ecoris focus on the beginning of the game, and there are some new details on online play as well. As the story opens, our fruity hero, Durian (sometimes Dorian in non-Japanese articles) begins to notice that not all is well in the forest. Development and pollution are destroying the ecosystem. He's not alone in his observations; the squirrels have noticed the same thing. On their own, the forest creatures are too weak to fight back ... but if they team up, anything is possible. Some other interesting facts about the game: apparently, there's a level-creation mode (we can only guess this comes in as you start to rebuild the forest), and once created, you can utilize those new stages in online battles. Our translation here may be a little rough, but it also seems as though Durian can either summon some sort of ancestral spirit, or take on its form, and you will need that power to pass certain sections. Ecoris is sounding more fascinating every day. For those gamers for whom the language barrier isn't a barrier at all, this one is looking like it may just be a must-import title.
Greenpeace rates Apple, Lenovo higher: Sony drops to least green position
Well well well, it turns out that Apple's new approach of partial openness is starting to pay off for the company as a whole, with Greenpeace increasing Apple's marks for promising to be more green in the future. In Greenpeace's most recent ranking of the technology industry, it put Nokia on top (thanks to its cutting the use of PVC), Dell and Lenovo in second, and Apple at 10th place -- a jump for the latter three companies, who came near bottom last time. At the bottom this time around is Sony, which dropped due to dodgy waste disposal policies: hence, we shall now commence waiting for a pseudo-blog post from Sir. Stringer announcing a "greener Sony." Gotta get on that bandwagon!
