Posted by: Olga Kharif on July 08
Clearly, handset makers and carriers aren't doing enough to encourage cell-phone recycling. World's largest cell-phone maker, Nokia, just released results of a survey that suggests that only 3% of people have ever recycled their old handsets. After years of industry efforts, "three out of every four people added that they don't even think about recycling their devices and nearly half were unaware that it is even possible to do so," according to the survey. Nokia interviewed 6,500 people in 13 countries, including the U.S.
Interestingly, people aren't throwing the phones away, either. While the survey respondents owned, on average, some five phones, only 4% of those are being thrown into the landfill. The majority, 44%, are simply sitting at home, in a drawer. There's one area of success, though: The survey shows that monetary incentives offered by recyclers like CollectiveGood do work: Some 16% of people try to sell their used devices, particularly in emerging markets.
Clearly, carriers and handset makers have a long way to go on increasing wireless users' awareness of recycling. The pay-off for these companies and the environment could be huge. "If each of the three billion people globally owning mobiles brought back just one unused device we could save 240,000 tons of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gases to the same effect as taking 4 million cars off the road," according to Nokia.
Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on July 08
In a recent column, I noted that while the Instinct, Samsung's would-be iPhone slayer, was a very nice piece of hardware, the reason it doesn't pose a significant challenge to the iPhone is its second-rate software. Now Sprint is proposing to do something about that by sponsoring a developer contest for the Instinct.
The $20,000 top prize and two $5,000 runner-up awards leave the Instinct competition somewhat short of Google's $10 million Android application contest of the $100 million iPhone development fund put up by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Still, it's a welcome step.
The bigger problem is that the Java Mobile environment offers nowhere near as rich a development opportunity as the OS X-based operating systrem of the iPhone. And Java development tools have never won anywhere near the praise from programmers that has greeted the combination of Objective C and the iPhone Software Developers Kit.
Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on July 07
And didn't believe either.
Newbury Park, CA (July 7, 2008) – During a recent customer survey, Minimus.biz asked its customers what unavailable travel-sized product they wanted the most. The response was overwhelming – an aerosol travel starch! So Minimus.biz partnered with colleagues at Minimus Products and created a solution – the first travel size premium aerosol spray starch available in the marketplace, aMINIties Travel Starch. “Minimus.biz is excited to be the first wholesaler and retailer of aMINIties Travel Starch,” said Minimus.biz CEO Harriet Shrater.
Posted by: Olga Kharif on July 07
I just read some staggering data: By 2016, U.S. wireless industry will help bring about more productivity gains -- $427 billion annually -- than auto and pharmaceutical industries combined, according to a just-released report from consultancy Ovum.
Where will these benefits come from? Well, employees will increasingly use wireless broadband networks to access the Web from anywhere. Such networks should improve efficiency of providing at-home health-care services and help enable a much more mobile sales force. Wireless voice services will continue to displace desktop phones.
Clearly the CTIA, the wireless industry's association that commissioned the Ovum study, has done so hoping for some favors, such as less regulation. I suspect that the Big Two -- AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which control the lion's share of U.S. wireless subscribers – are trying to prove that market consolidation of recent years has not had an adverse effect on consumers. And they want to warn Congress and regulators to thread carefully with efforts such as free-broadband-for-all, currently in review by the Federal Communications Commission, to make sure they don’t disrupt the industry -- so Ovum’s productivity projections can come true.
Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on July 07
You can sell just about anything on eBay, so why not your vote? That's apparently what University of Minnesota student Max Sanders was thinking when, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, he offered his 2008 vote to the highest bidder on eBay. The offer earned him a criminal investigation an possible felony charge.
Vote selling was rampant in the corrupt politics of the 19th century. One major reform was the adoption of the secret ballot in place of open voting. Buying and selling votes is still regarded as a very serious offense. And this, perhaps surprisingly is a major complication in making electronic voting secure.
Continue reading "Why You Can't Sell Your Vote"
