Green Gadgets For Dummies E-Book

Joe Hutsko

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 418

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Save some green by going green with these environmentally friendly gadgets! With concern for the future of our environment growing stronger and more serious every day, there has never been a better time to take a new approach to some of the most popular gizmos and gadgets on the market and learn how you can convernt to electronics that have minimal environmental impact. Green gadgets encompass everything from iPods to energy-efficient home entertainment devices to solar laptop chargers and crank-powered gizmos. This helpful resource explains how to research green gadgets, make a smart purchasing decision, use products you already own in a more environmentally friendly way, and say goodbye to electronics that zap both energy and money. * Explore the environmental and financial benefits of green gadgets with this friendly reference * Discusses which gadgets save energy-and which ones create energy * Learn ways to offset your carbon footprint when you can't reduce consumption * Get tips for understanding products labels and avoiding "greenwash" * Discover how to calculate the energy and money your gadgets consume Get moving and start living green with this informative guide to environmentally and wallet-friendly gadgets! Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Leseprobe

Green Gadgets For Dummies®

Table of Contents

Introduction

About Green Gadgets For Dummies

Foolish Assumptions

Conventions Used in This Book

What You Don’t Have to Read

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Settling into a Green Gadget Mindset

Part II: Getting Green with Gadgets You Own

Part III: Minimizing Your Computer’s Carbon Footprint

Part IV: Acquiring Green Gadgets and Gear

Part V: Ridding Yourself of Gadgets the Green Way

Part VI: The Part of Tens

The companion Web site

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Settling into a Green Gadget Mindset

Chapter 1: Mother Nature’s Green-Eyed View of Gadgets

Hey, Joe, Where You Goin’ with That Green Gadget in Your Hand?

Assessing “green” companies

Defining gadgets

Defining green gadgets

Relating the Four Rs to Green Gadgets

Following a Green Gadget’s Carbon Footprint

Thoughtful manufacturing

Ecofriendly features

Other green electronics

Understanding Energy Star and EPEAT Green Gadget Labels

Implementing Green Living Habits with Gadgets You Already Own

Taking a bite out of “energy vampires”

Calculating your gadgets’ carbon footprints

Taking other simple green gadget steps

Staying Informed about Green Gadget Developments

Chapter 2: Practicing Green Gadget Living

Evaluating Your Energy Waste, er, Usage

Reducing Your Gadgets’ Carbon Footprints and E-Waste

Reusing Your Gadgets and Electronics Gear

Recycling Gadgets the Green Way

Rethinking Your Gadget Purchases

Sharing Your Gadget Greenness with Others

Part II: Getting Green with Gadgets You Own

Chapter 3: Saving Money (and the Planet) with Rechargeable Batteries

Understanding Basic Battery Pluses and Minuses

Hunting and Gathering Battery-Powered Gadgets in Your House

Sorting Out and Choosing Rechargeable Batteries and Chargers

Gauging matters of size, type, power, and price

Picturing how long battery types last

Getting a charge out of chargers

Choosing rechargeable batteries and chargers

Finding Rechargeable Battery Packs

Buying rechargeable batteries for less

Replacing rechargeable batteries in iPods, iPhones, and other sealed gadgets

Properly Disposing of Dead Batteries

Disposable batteries

Rechargeable batteries

Chapter 4: Maximizing Energy Savings for Your Portable Gadgets

Getting a Grip on a Gadget’s Energy-Saving Settings

Battery-draining items

Cellphones and smartphones

MP3 and media players

Digital cameras and camcorders

Running Mobile Applications to Monitor and Adjust Power

Chapter 5: Energy Savings All Around the House

Practicing Green Living in Your House

Reviewing Energy-Saving Opportunities in Your House

Televisions

Computers and peripheral devices

Mobile phones, MP3 players, GPS trackers, and other personal gadgets

Adjusting Power-Saving Options on TVs and Entertainment Gear

Taming TV power

Reducing power consumption in DVD, video game, and other types of players

Part III: Minimizing Your Computer’s Carbon Footprint

Chapter 6: Your Computer’s Energy Use

Quashing Computer Power Myths

Evaluating Your Everyday Computer Needs

Understanding Computer Energy-Saving Settings

Changing your computer’s energy settings the easy way

Taking greater control of your computer’s energy settings

iPods, Printers, Hard Drives, and Other Connected Devices

Chapter 7: Reducing Energy Consumption in Windows

Minimizing Windows Energy Use On-the-Fly

Adjusting the Windows Automatic Power Options Settings

Choosing and customizing Windows Vista’s power plans

Customizing Windows Vista’s advanced power settings

Choosing and Customizing Windows XP Power Schemes

Power Schemes

Alarms

Power Meter

Advanced

Hibernate

UPS

Making Additional Windows Vista and XP Power Options Adjustments

Windows Mobility Center (Vista only)

Brightness

Screen saver

Keyboard brightness

Wireless networking

Bluetooth

Sound

Indexing options (Vista only)

Chapter 8: Conserving Power with Your Mac’s Energy-Saver Settings

Minimizing Your Mac’s Energy Use On-the-Fly

Adjusting Your Mac’s Automatic Energy-Saver Settings

Making Additional Mac Energy-Saving Adjustments

Brightness

Screen saver

Keyboard brightness

AirPort

Bluetooth

Sound

Spotlight

Part IV: Acquiring Green Gadgets and Gear

Chapter 9: Knowing the Difference Between Truly Green and Greenwash Hype

Paying to Be (Seen As) Green Is Big Business

Reviewing the Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics

Tapping In to the Greenpeace Electronics Survey

Considering Another Take on Green Gadgets: The Consumer Electronics Association

Taking Companies at Their Own Green Word, Sort Of

Browsing gadget-makers’ ecocentric Web sites

Seeking a second, third, or tenth opinion

Chapter 10: Choosing Green Mac and Windows Computers

Considering Upgrades to Make Your Computer Feel New Again

Upgrading hardware

Upgrading operating systems and applications

Choosing and installing upgrades

Getting Up-to-Speed on Computer Energy Standards and Ratings

Evaluating Computer Manufacturers’ Levels of Greenness

Getting a Handle on Green Computers

Picking Green Macs

Breaking down the MacBook, piece by piece

Considering other Macs and products

Looking at Green Windows Computers

Two green Windows desktops

A pair of green Windows notebooks

Chapter 11: Buying Green Mobile Phones and Handheld Gadgets

Getting Up to Speed on Green Gadget Matters

Dialing in to Green Mobile Phones

Motorola MOTO W233 Renew

Samsung SGH-W510, SGH-F268, and E200 Eco

Nokia 3110 Evolve and N79 eco

Looking at Green MP3 and Video Players, and Other Entertaining Gadgets

iPod nano

Shiro SQ-S solar-powered media player

Baylis Eco Media Player

eMotion Solar Portable media player

Saving Trees by Reading E-Books

Mobile phone and computer e-book readers

Dedicated e-book readers

Electronic bookstores

Getting Wound Up Over Green Windup Gadgets

Chapter 12: Getting Green Gadgets for on the Go

Driving Your Car More Efficiently

Tricking Out Your Car with Efficiency Gizmos

Tapping into GPS and Mobile Phone Applications for Green Getting-around

Talking mobile phone GPS navigator apps

Portable GPS navigators

GPS and green mobile phone apps

Tracking Green Gadgets for Fitness and Outdoor Activities

Staying in Charge with Portable Power Chargers and Extenders

Leafing Through Green Garments, Bags, and Cases

Chapter 13: Adding Green Gadgets around the House

Considering Green Gadgets for Every Room in the House

Monitoring and Controlling Household Energy Usage

Turning Things On and Off Automatically

Controlling Your Entire House with Home Automation Systems

Looking at Green HDTV, Music, Movie-Watching, and Audio Products

Fiddling with Other Ecofriendly Home Gadgets

Part V: Ridding Yourself of Gadgets the Green Way

Chapter 14: Donating, Gifting, and Selling Unwanted Gadgets

Determining whether an Unwanted Gadget Is of Use to Anyone

Weighing the Risks and Rewards of Donating, Gifting, and Selling Unwanted Gadgets

Giving the Gift of Unwanted Gadgets

Doing Good by Donating Computers and Other Gadgets

Trading In or Selling Gadgets for Greenbacks

The basics of the trade-in process

Finding a trade-in site for you

Selling Your Old Electronics on Craigslist

Auctioning Unwanted Gadgets on eBay and Other Auction Web Sites

Chapter 15: Erasing Your Personal Information before Getting Rid of Gadgets

Deleting Your Personal Stuff — The Short Way and the Long Way

Considering Trust to Decide How to Erase Personal Information

To know you is to trust you

I want to trust you, but I’m just not sure

Deauthorizing Computer Programs before Giving Away Your PC

Deleting Your User Account Files before Getting Rid of a Computer

Deleting your Windows XP user account and creating a new one

Deleting your Windows Vista user account and creating a new one

Deleting your Mac user account and creating a new one

Restoring Computers to Factory-Fresh Condition

Formatting and restoring a Windows hard drive

Formatting and restoring a Mac hard drive

Completely Erasing Deleted Files and Hard Drives

Wiping Windows hard drives

Wiping Mac hard drives

Chapter 16: Recycling and Properly Disposing of Hopelessly Useless Gadgets

Understanding E-Waste and E-Cycling

Finding E-Cyclers

Reputable or not?

Local or from a distance?

Finding a local e-cycler

National and corporate e-cycling programs

Erasing Personal Information

Deciding Whether to Break Down E-Waste or Leave It Whole

Keeping useful parts

Peripherals and other parts and pieces

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Chapter 17: Ten Cool Green PC Peripherals and Accessories

PC TrickleSaver

Ecobutton

Bamboo Laptop Stand Workstation

SimpleTech [re]drive R500U 500 GB Turbo

Lenovo ThinkVision L197 Wide 19-inch LCD Display

Apple 24-inch LED Cinema Display

Ink2image Bulk Ink System

Canon Generation Green Printers

D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme N Gaming Router

Netgear 3G Broadband Wireless Router

Chapter 18: Ten Green Gadget Designs

Bware Water Meter

Laundry Pod

Social-Environmental Station: The Environmental Traffic Light

Indoor Drying Rack

Thermal Touch

Fastronauts

Tweet-a-Watt

Standby Monsters

Power-Hog

WattBlocks

And the Winners Are

Chapter 19: Ten Green Gadget Buying Tips

Don’t Buy!

Do Your Homework

Buy Recycled and Highly Recyclable

Buy Reconditioned or Preowned

Buy Small, Think Big Picture

Take a Bite Out of Energy Vampires

Make the Most of Multifunction Gadgets

Charge Your Gadgets the Green Way

Get Rid of Gadgets the Green Way

Buy Carbon Offsets to Minimize Your Carbon Footprint

Chapter 20: Ten Frequently Asked Questions about Green Gadgets

What Is a Green Gadget?

Why Should I Care about Buying Green Gadgets?

What Is EPEAT?

Which Electronic Products Does EPEAT Cover?

What Is Energy Star?

How Does a Product Earn the Energy Star Seal of Approval?

What Is the “Change the World, Start with Energy Star” Campaign?

Should I Donate or Recycle My Old Computer?

Should I Donate or Recycle My Old Cellphone?

Should I Recycle My Old Rechargeable Batteries?

Green Gadgets For Dummies®

by Joe Hutsko

Green Gadgets For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009928175

ISBN: 978-0-470-46914-9

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Joe Hutsko lives in Ocean City, New Jersey and blogs about green gadgets for the Green Inc. section of the New York Times. For more than two decades, he has written about computers, gadgets, video games, trends, and high-tech movers and shakers for numerous publications and Web sites, including Macworld, PC World, Fortune, Newsweek, Popular Science, TV Guide, The Washington Post, Wired, Gamespot, MSNBC, and Salon.com. You can find links to Joe’s stories on his tech blog, JOEyGADGET.com, and on his green gadgets blog, gGadget.org.

As a kid, Joe built a shortwave radio, played with electronic project kits, and learned the basics of the BASIC programming language on his first computer, the Commodore Vic 20. In his teens, he picked strawberries to buy his first Apple II computer. Four years after that purchase (in 1984), he wound up working for Apple, where he became the personal technology guru for the company’s chairman and CEO. Joe left Apple in 1988 to become a writer and worked on and off for other high-tech companies, including Steve Jobs’ one-time NeXT. He authored a number of video game strategy guides, including the best sellers Donkey Kong Country Game Secrets: The Unauthorized Edition, and Rebel Assault: The Official Insiders Guide.

Joe’s first novel, The Deal, was published in 1999, and he recently rereleased a trade paperback edition of it with a new foreword by the author (tinyurl.com/hutskodeal).

Dedication

This book is lovingly dedicated to my closest friend, considerate neighbor, and frequent dog walker and supper-supplying feeder, Frances Hutsko. Thank you, Mom, for being you.

Author’s Acknowledgments

This book wouldn’t have my name on its cover if my literary agent, Carole Jelen, hadn’t reached out on LinkedIn.com last summer to say hello after we had fallen out of contact since meeting in the 1980s, when I was working at Apple. Thank you, Carole, for pitching me to Wiley acquisition editor Amy Fandrei — and thank you, Amy, for saying yes!

Kudos to copy editor Rebecca Whitney for minding my words, grammatically speaking.

I’m enormously grateful to Tom Zeller, Jr., the editor of the Green. Inc. section of the New York Times, for his insightful eye when helping me shape and edit my contributions on green gadgets. Special thanks to technology editor Damon Darlin, for making introductions — and for his first-rate guidance on features I’ve written for the newspaper’s Personal Technology section.

Special thanks to the people and companies who provided the “greener” notebook computer loaners used to write this book, including Janette Barrios, Bill Evans, and Keri Walker of Apple; Jeffrey Witt of Lenovo; Kelly Odle of Gateway; and Debby Lee of ASUS.

Major thanks to every one of my ever-encouraging dear friends, especially Drew Davidson and Sue Godfrey, and to Ric Firmino, Katherine Etzel and Robert Pascale, David Unruh, David Baron, my cousin Chip McDermott, my brothers Steve and John, and my sister, Janice.

I’m deeply indebted to five close friends, without whose generous support and faith this book could not have been written (literally!): Lisa Napoli, Linda Williams, Randee Mia Berman, Val Petrosian, and the person to whom this book is dedicated.

Last but not least, I’m hugely grateful for having the cosmically good fortune of being assigned to project editor Nicole Sholly, for her gently worded yet enormously intelligent guidance, brilliant organization, incisive editing, well-honed instinct, and, above all, tremendous wit and generous sense of humor. Nicole, you were this first-time For Dummies author’s dream-come-true-editor as we worked together to turn what was initially a nightmarishly overwhelming big-picture subject into 20 keenly focused, easy-to-understand chapters, from which I hope readers benefit as much from reading as I did from writing them.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Nicole Sholly

Acquisitions Editor: Amy Fandrei

Copy Editor: Rebecca Whitney

Technical Editor: Lee Musick

Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner

Media Development Project Manager: Laura Moss-Hollister

Media Development Assistant Project Manager: Jenny Swisher

Media Development Assistant Producers: Josh Frank, Marilyn Hummel, Shawn Patrick

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Lynsey Stanford

Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis, Christine Williams

Proofreaders: Cynthia Fields, Amanda Graham

Indexer: Sharon Shock

Special Help: Brian Walls, Barry Childs-Helton, Jennifer Riggs

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Foreword

The very idea of “green gadgets,” to many, might seem an oxymoron. After all, it is a fundamental tenet of the environmental movement that less stuff is better, and that consumerism — the thing that makes us want to have that snazzy new cell phone, or to covet that nifty new digital camera — is at odds with maxims like “reduce, reuse, recycle.”

There’s some truth to this paradox — but it is hardly the only way to frame the contribution that technology can make to a greener, cleaner world. Setting aside the efforts underway to develop large-scale, clean-energy technologies like wind and solar power, which promise to address the steady march of climate change, there remain myriad ways for ordinary consumers to make simple adjustments in how they live — and what they buy — to generate substantial environmental gains.

In many cases, gadgets can help. Sure, we could all do better to manage our electricity consumption at home — but what if there were a product that could provide detailed data on when and where we were being most wasteful? What if there were “greener” versions of the technologies — like computers and cell phones — that we use frequently, and upgrade regularly?

Of course, such technologies do exist, and that’s part of what Joe Hutsko has assembled here: A guide to green gadgetry and how you can best deploy it to your own personal environmental advantage.

But this is not just a buying guide, and there’s a key point in that: Making better, less wasteful use of the gadgets you already own, and finding sensible ways to reduce, reuse and recycle those things you no longer need, are first-order strategies for consumers seeking to limit their overall footprint.

So, too, is learning to understand the increasingly complex eco-friendly and energy-efficent labeling systems used to keep consumers informed. You’ll find guidance on these matters here as well.

There is no magic wand — no magic gadget — that will neutralize consumers’ impact on the planet. But I think few green advocates would quibble with the idea that every consumer can make simple, informed choices about the technologies they buy and the energy they use — and that these decisions, factored collectively, are an indispensable part of any environmental movement.

Tom Zeller Jr.Editor, Green Inc.the New York Times

Introduction

If you’re in interested in finding out all about the latest environmentally and economically friendly gadgets and computers, if you want to use more efficiently the gadgets you already own, and if you want to know how to get rid of those gadgets in a responsible way, Green Gadgets For Dummies is the book for you.

Whether you’re reading this book to get greener with gadgets to help save the planet — or just to save some green in your wallet — one thing is certain: Reading this bookcan help you achieve both goals at the same time. But this book can’t cover everything there is to know about green gadgets the world over. Even the most ardent green gadget activist, thinker, blogger, designer, or enthusiast would be hard pressed to tell you everything there is to know about green gadgets. (There’s just that much to know.) , however, gives you a running start along a much greener path.