cellphones

A Blow to Cell Phone Recycling? Recycled Phones Found to Still Have Your Data

jplatt — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:00:00 -0500

Hundreds of thousands of new cell phones are sold every year. Most of them go to replace older phones, which can end up being donated, refurbished and resold, thereby keeping them out of landfills and extending their life cycles.

But now comes word that, in a study of 2,000 recycled phones, a shocking 99% of them still had some amount of private data stored in their memory. This even included personal data like passwords and private emails, according to Regenersis, the UK-based cell phone recycler, which conducted the random test on the phones it was recycling.

Now, if your cell phone is a golden oldie like mine, there's probably not a lot of data on it. But if you're been migrating to smarter phones, or if you use yours for any type of online services, this could be more of a problem in the long run.

There are a few steps you can do to help ensure that your data is safe when you donate or recycle your phone:

1. Remove the SIM card. (This contains a good chunk of your private data.)

2. Take the time to clear your memory of your contacts, bookmarks, photos and other data.

3. Reformat your cell phone yourself, wiping out all of the old data in the process.

4. Confirm that the company recycling your phone wipes out all data, and does it well. (I think it's important to note here that Regenersis does not seem to be one of those companies that wipes phones clean. They rely on the people doing the donating to do that, which is kind of weak.)

Here's an earlier post that offers more tips on recycling your old phones.

Cell Phone Industry Hangs Up On Vampire Power

jplatt — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:00:00 -0500

As we've written here before, cellphone chargers are not the most efficient devices in the world. Even when they are done charging your phone, they continue to suck energy out of the wall. That energy does no one any good, and it's power (and money) that goes to waste.

Cell phone manufacturers are finally ready to recognize this problem. Last week, the top five handset makers -- Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG Electronics -- rolled out a new five-star ranking system for their chargers which will identify the most energy efficient models.

In a statement, Nokia said "If the more than three billion people owning mobile devices today switched to a four- or five-star charger, this could save the same amount of energy each year as produced by two medium sized power plants."

This is great news, and well overdue, but one part of this story worries me. Here's a statement that Markku Hangasjarvi, CEO of charger-maker Salcomp, gave to Reuters: "This should be positive for us. Such chargers are more difficult to produce, their average selling price is higher and they demand special know-how."

Really? The better-rated chargers are going to be marked up? Hopefully this isn't just another way to rip off the consumer while appearing greener.

Well, until these newly ranked chargers hit the market, let's assume this is a good idea and applaud it. But until then, keep an eye on your phones while they're charging, and unplug them when they're done.

Here are links to the five companies' sites and the data on their chargers:

Green Your Cell Phone in One Easy Step

jplatt — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

If you're anything like most cell-phone users, your phone is always on. It's always ready to take a call -- and always consuming power. And if your phone is anything like mine, that means it's probably also always in need of a recharge.

Now, it's great that cell phones are rechargeable -- could you imagine having to change the batteries every few days? -- but there's still a problem that makes them less green than they could be.

Your cell phone, you see, is a glutton. It doesn’t know when to stop sucking electricity from the wall. Oh, sure, the battery can only hold so much juice, but the charger keeps pulling power as long as it's plugged in. Your phone could fully charge in two hours, but if you leave it plugged in for four hours, you've used twice the amount of electricity that you needed to.

The best solution is to pay attention when you're recharging. Leave your phone out in the open and keep an eye out for that "charge complete" notice to flash across the screen. Then unplug it. (While it may be convenient, I'd recommend against letting a phone charge overnight. You won't be able to unplug it, and it could use hours worth of extra power.)

Need help remembering? Some phones (like these from Nokia) offer audible reminders to unplug a fully charged phone.

You could also switch to a solar charger (several are on the market), or even a wind-up charger. That's taking things even greener.

Even better, tech companies could get a move on and market more chargers that actually stop taking electricity when a device is fully charged. UK retailer Carphone Warehouse introduced such a device last year, but as far as I can tell, nothing like it is available in the U.S.

Until then, unplugging may be the environment's best friend.