Gadgetstronics

The United States has a problem with e-waste, say some environmental groups, and it’s only going to get worse when the country fully transitions to digital TV broadcasting.

The Electronics TakeBack Coalition believes tens of millions of Americans will throw away their old televisions when TV broadcasters eliminate analog programming and go fully digital. What’s more, the coalition says many of those TVs will end up in landfills, posing health risks if their toxics contaminate groundwater and surface streams.

To shed light on the issue, the coalition started a campaign called Take Back My TV, urging manufacturers to offer safe take-back programs to properly recycle old TVs. The campaign on Tuesday began circulating a video (above), which shows old toxic TVs "puking" on people, to encourage consumers to participate in manufacturers’ recycling programs rather than throw away their TVs.

Coming Feb. 17, 2009, the termination of analog cable, called the DTV Transition, is a government-mandated action intended to free up parts of the valuable broadcast spectrum for communication between police, fire departments and rescue squads. In order to receive digital programming, homes must purchase digital TVs and subscribe to a digital-cable service or satellite. An alternative is purchasing a converter box.

Other than potentially harming the United States’ environment, improperly disposed electronics, including televisions, often make their way into Asian countries, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), who in September issued a 67-page report documenting the problem. The report says some electronics companies are dumping their e-waste in China and India, whose disposal practices are deemed unsafe and unregulated, as the people dealing with the waste are often poor junk dealers.

The GAO points fingers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for allowing waste to be improperly disposed. However, the EPA told Wired.com that its regulation regarding potentially hazardous waste is only about a year and a half old, and the agency is continuing to investigate potential violations of this rule.

That doesn’t go to say, however, that some tech companies aren’t trying to be more "green." Apple recently received kudos from Greenpeace, an environmental organization, for reducing the use of harmful toxins in its manufacturing processes of new MacBooks. Steve Jobs said in his "Greener Apple" statement that Apple will continue working toward greener hardware.

Undead Toxic Televisions [Take Back My TV] (Thanks, Allison!)

I can’t help but think that Sanyo’s newest digital phone frame, the ALBO, sounds like a major brand of dog food. As far as I know, ALBO isn’t a fancy acronym for something, but it is one of the coolest digital picture frames that I have ever seen. Considering that there is currently a huge market for digital picture frames now, that is saying something.

The seven-inch LCD frame has one of the most interesting designs, straight out of a science-fiction TV show’s prediction of what television would look like in the future. Just look at the design, and that last sentence will make sense.

As you can see from the photo, it is possible to turn the screen on a swivel for various formats. You can see them in slideshow format with a quick turn, and the photo frame has some other features and effects.

For example, the ALBO has the ability to display RSS feeds via Wi-Fi, and it can receive photos from a cellular phone through an infrared port. The ALBO comes with 256 megabytes of memory, but I’m not certain how much photos or video that it will hold.

The Sanyo ALBO is scheduled to come out in November 14, for a price of about $422. It is probably only available in Japan.

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Flashlights are not always the most convenient for walking in the dark. Particularly if you’re clumsy even when the sun is up. The circle of light starts to get fairly dim around the edges, so really you only get one direct area that stays lit. Which means you have to choose to illuminate what’s ahead or what’s at you feet. That or you could just move the flashlight around a lot and somehow manage to get both. Well with this NightWalker both what’s ahead and what’s at your feet will stay visible.

It has two separate LED lights to keep you covered. That will also likely make midnight walks with your dog a lot easier. Especially if your pup likes to dart in front of you and almost make you break your neck. The LED lights in the flashlight are said to be 10x more powerful than the average LED and won’t ever need replaced. If you’re worried about staying visible to traffic at night you can flip on the red flashing taillight on the back of the flashlight. To pick one up it will cost you $39.95.

Source: LikeCool

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Trying to keep all of your gadgets charged when you’re constantly out and about can be difficult.  Especially if you have the tendency to get so wrapped up in things that you forget to charge them all up once you’re finally home for the day.  With this kit, you could charge up your gadgets when they die on you at inopportune moments.  It would also be great for those that travel a lot.  If you don’t have a spare charger and you’re hundreds of miles from home on a tight budget, the kit could save you the money of having to buy another charger.

It features a rechargeable lithium ion battery and a power level indicator.  It also includes adapters for the ipod, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, USB male, mini 5 pins, Motorola, Nokia and so on.  Out of all that it has a total of seven charging adapters. The kit also has an attachment to turn the power bar into a flashlight and a USB charging cable.  To finish things off it has a convenient little pouch to hold all of those item in.  So all you have to do is toss this in your car, purse or luggage and you’ll have it with you.  The whole kit will cost you $32 from USB Geek.

Source: Geeky-Gadgets

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Feeling a wee bit naughty? Well, you will be able to take the plunge and zip through express lanes without worrying too much about getting fined with the RF License Plate Cover, although we still think that the authorities are able to track you down and slap your post box with a ticket sooner or later. A simple touch of a button will let a plastic cover slide over your license plate, rendering it unreadable. That might be a novelty, but it will definitely result in you committing two offences - the original plus not displaying your license plate properly. Fancy forking out $121 for the RF License Plate Cover? Take note that it is specially designed for Euro style license plates only.

Talk about a concept dining table that actually tucks itself away when not in use to double up as a decorative household item while helping you save space! The Kure table by Turkish designer Fatih Can Sariöz is able to sit up to six people when in use, and closes up as a sphere once you’re done eating. The sphere lighting will rise from the table’s center, basking the base with a glow of blue light to help enhance the eating ambience. I wonder how much the Jetsons will have to fork out for this…

Hitachi has just rolled out a new W63H clamshell handset which will feature the following specifications :-

• 3.1″ OLED display at 480 x 800 resolution
• 1-Seg support
• 123 grams
• 50mm x 110mm x 17.4mm

No idea on how much it costs though, but you can get it in orange, black and white shades.

Dell looks set to be offering a couple of Pharos-branded smartphones in the future - the Traveller 117 and 127. They appeared but for a moment on Dell’s website and was duly yanked after the gaffe, but not long enough for news to spread like wildfire. Some of the shared specifications include :-

• 7.2Mbps HSDPA support
• Assisted GPS capability
• Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system
• 2 megapixel camera
• VGA camera for video calls
• 4 hours talk time
• 200 hours standby time

The Traveller 127 comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, while the 117 settles for a touch screen display instead. There is no word on pricing or availability, but these don’t look as though they’ll challenge the smartphone market seriously.

Taking showers can be relaxing, but they are more often than not, a waste of water. Why not play your part in preserving the earth’s water supply with the Eco Showerdrop? This device will allow you to get your shower kicks in, but it will also monitor just how much water you’ve used so that you are able to keep tabs on just how much (less) time you ought to spend in the shower. Once you’ve hit the personal water limit which you set prior to stepping into the shower, it will beep until you cease showering. Since different showers use various amounts of water, the Eco Showerdrop is smart enough to read just how much water your current showerhead is releasing. The Eco Showerdrop retails for around $20 to $25 and ought to work on just about any showerhead.

I’ve lost track of just how many Eee PCs are there in the market already - how about you? Word has it there will be yet another Eee PC coming out soon, and this time it will be an upscaled version of the Eee PC 1001HA, known as the Eee PC 1002HA. The design is almost similar, and it will be powered by a 2-cell battery (pathetic), an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, 1GB RAM and a 160GB hard drive. Other than that, details are extremely scant, although we are alooking at a $559 price point thereabouts.