Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Great Article by @heidicohen - 7 Top Online Marketing Trends for 2011 (with data) - http://bit.ly/dVj0sc

Five Easy Places to Recycle Your Old Gadgets and Computers [Environment]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5731190/five-easy-places-to-recycle-your-old-gadgets-and-computers

Maybe you got some next-generation gear over the holidays. Maybe you're just cleaning out unused cruft in this new year. Whatever the reason, you've got gadgets that need to go. Here's where to bring them for responsible, ecological, and (mostly) free recycling.

Many towns, cities, counties, and states have their own e-cycling programs that offer convenient drop-off locations for old computers, big monitors, and other electronics. The EPA suggests a cluster of search sites for helping you find a local ecycling program, including EcoSquid and the Consumer Electronics Association's MyGreenElectronics. And beyond the picks you see below, the EPA has a grid list of consumer-friendly e-cycling programs from stores and manufacturers.

With that in mind, almost everybody has a Best Buy, Goodwill, or Staples somewhere near them. Read up on their recycling programs, and learn about two other options you might not have considered:

Best Buy

Oddly enough, the electronics superstore that only just recently dropped a hefty restocking fee also has the most convenient and customer-friendly electronics recycling program around. Each household can bring in up to three items per day, including older-style CRT TVs (up to 32 inches in size), any flat-panel TV, monitors, cellphones, GPS units, DVD players—basically, if it has a plug and a display, and you can carry it, Best Buy takes it. There's a $10 charge for TVs and monitors, but you get that back in a $10 gift card. [Details]

Your Cellphone Maker or Service Provider

New cellphone packages often come with a pouch in which to mail back an older cellphone for recycling, or for re-purposing as an emergency 911 phone for community services. If your phone didn't, check out your current or past cellular provider. Each of them offers phone recylcing services, generally free and offered through both in-store drop-offs and postage-paid mail-ins. Your phone's maker (LG, Motorola, etc.) likely offers a similar low-hassle deal. [Details: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon; manufacturer details linked at EPA's Ecycling site]

Office Depot & Staples

Both of the office supply giants are fairly convenient for recycling smaller gadgets in different ways. Office Depot sells boxes (small, medium, and large for $5, $10, and $15, respectively) that you can fill with pretty much any gadget that fits, then drop it off for recycling. Staples does the smaller stuff for free, like phones, PDAs, calculators and the like. If you drop off TVs or monitors or other notably big gear, it's a $10 charge. It seems steep, but the back-end recycling groups such stores work through are often charging them very close to that amount themselves, or possibly a bit more. [Details: Office Depot, Staples]

Goodwill

The place thats synonymous with charitable drop-off partners with Dell to accept computers and monitors in "any condition," as well as any gear associated or attached to a computer. Its recycling program is free, and its web site is refreshingly simple. [Details]

Apple

Their recycling program is restricted to computers, iPods, and cellphones, but it makes it rewarding to turn them in. Recycle your old iPod or any brand of cellphone at an Apple store and you'll get 10 percent off the purchase of a new iPod. If you can't make it to a store, you can print out a prepaid shipping label. You can also recycle your older PC or Mac, desktop or laptop, through a prepaid shipping program through Apple, and if your older computer is worth anything, in reuse potential or just parts, that value will be applied to an Apple Store credit. Recycling any computer or display without worrying about the value is a straight $30, though you can ship it with a prepaid label. [Details]

Where do you recycle your gadgets and computer gear when it falls out of use? Tell us about recycling spots and ideas we missed in the comments, and we'll update the post with good picks.

Google Chrome Drops H.264 Support, Even Though It Still Loves Flash [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5730968/google-chrome-drops-h264-support-even-though-it-still-loves-flash

Oh wow. Google's dropping support for h.264 video in Chrome, because, they say, they're only going to support "open codec technologies":

To that end, we are changing Chrome's HTML5 support to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project. Specifically, we are supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs, and will consider adding support for other high-quality open codecs in the future. Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.

Instead, Google's going to push its own WebM video, based on the VP8 standard and Theora. The problem is that there's not a ton of support for WebM yet, in particular when it comes to hardware decoders and when it comes to mobile. H.264 also already has a ton of momentum, largely thanks to the mobile space. But this will definitely help WebM get some pick up.

In other words, the video standards battle is back on. And expect to still see lots of Adobe Flash outside of Google's YouTube to play video if you're using Chrome. Speaking of! How come Adobe Flash—a very closed technology—will still be baked into Chrome? [Google]

World's First Electric Supercar Taking Pre-Orders and Going Into Production [Cars]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5731351/worlds-first-electric-supercar-taking-pre+orders-and-going-into-production

The Li-Ion Inizio holds the distinction of being one of the first all-electric supercars. It can hit speed up to 170 MPH and with a range of 250 miles. Now it's going into production and can be yours for $139,000.

Li-Ion won 2.5 million dollars in the the 2010 Automotive X-Prize for their work on their Wave II vehicle. Now, according to Gizmag, they're using the money to bring the Wave II and the Inzio to market. The Inizio has three models for sale at $139,000, $189,000 and $249,000, with the fastest Inizio model going from 0-60 in 3.4 seconds. It uses 12 batteries, comes equipped with two motors and charges in 8 hours.

The less able Wave II will sell for 39,000 and 49,000, with the more expensive model able to travel 200 miles on a single, seven-hour charge. Pre-orders for both cars will begin this month. If all goes to plan, the Inizio should begin shipping in July 2011, and the Wave II will arrive in December 2011. [Gizmag]

Aigo A8 / Leo 14 megapixel cameraphone hands-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/11/aigo-a8-leo-14-megapixel-cameraphone-hands-on-video/

We were wandering the floor at CES just before the end of the show when we stumbled upon this oddly familiar device. It's the Aigo A8 -- née Altek Leo -- an Android cameraphone (more like a phonecamera, really) destined for China Unicom that sports a 14 megapixel autofocus camera with a CCD sensor, xenon flash, 3x optical zoom, and support for 720p HD video recording. Of course, we wasted no time taking this rare beast for a spin, even going so far as to sample the camera. Take a look at the pictures below, followed by more information -- and videos -- after the break.

Gallery: Aigo A8 / Leo 14 megapixel cameraphone hands-on (video)