Category: Computing/Consumer electronics

Green lifestyle, Natural resources, Smart phone apps

Find your next adventure with the new National Park Service app

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Read the full story from the National Park Service.

Just in time for National Park Week, the new National Park Service (NPS) mobile app (go.nps.gov/app) is now available for visitors to national parks across the country. Created by park rangers with visitors in mind, the NPS App gives the public up-to-date information about all 423 national parks in one easy-to-use app.

Visitors can download the NPS App in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store to plan a trip, find interactive maps, download maps and tours ahead of time and find things to do and places to visit during National Park Week and beyond.

Computing/Consumer electronics, Repair

Right to repair is on the way

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Read the full story at Green Biz.

Beyond enshrining consumer rights, the right to repair could combat planned obsolescence and a throwaway culture that has turned e-waste into the fastest growing waste stream around the globe.

Climate change, Data centers, Energy

Crypto Climate Accord aims for 100% renewables and net-zero digital currency by 2040

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Read the full story at edie.

A new global accord has been set up to align the swelling cryptocurrency market with the ambitions of the Paris Agreement by ensuring that blockchain and energy-intensive currency mining systems are powered by renewables and reach net-zero emissions by 2040.

Green lifestyle, Smart phone apps

An Irish startup can work out your carbon footprint from your grocery receipt

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Read the full story at CNN Business.

The production and distribution of food accounts for around a third of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. But as a consumer, it’s difficult to measure the climate impact of what you eat.

A Dublin-based startup called Evocco could soon make it much easier.

Computing/Consumer electronics

Large computer language models carry environmental, social risks

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Read the full story from the University of Washington.

Computer engineers at the world’s largest companies and universities are using machines to scan through tomes of written material. The goal? Teach these machines the gift of language. Do that, some even claim, and computers will be able to mimic the human brain.

But this impressive compute capability comes with real costs, including perpetuating racism and causing significant environmental damage, according to a new paper, “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜” The paper is being presented Wednesday, March 10 at the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency (ACM FAccT). 

Smart phone apps, Travel and tourism industry, Tribal/First nations

Blackfeet woman creates international travel website and app to share history, resources, information

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Read the full story at KULR8.

A Blackfeet woman has started a non-profit organization to gather and share information, resources, and history of the tribe with travelers across Montana and Canada. The project promotes interaction and contribution from the public. Souta Calling Last collects centuries worth of information through storytelling, factual data, and social trends to help tribal members and tourists better understand the area where they live or explore.

Circular economy, Computing/Consumer electronics, Consumer behavior

The Shocking Number of Phones Waiting to Be Recycled – How Many of Them Are Yours?

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Read the full story at Planet Ark.

We tend to hold onto items we see as valuable, like mobile phones. And that makes sense – we paid good money for our mobiles, so we’re not just going to throw them away! But how many of us are storing broken phones that will never be used again?

Computing/Consumer electronics, Sustainable design

Startup designs a modular, repairable laptop

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Read the full post at Engadget.

As devices become less and less repairable, it’s always heartening when companies build devices with an eye on sustainability. After all, repairing the machine you already own will almost always be more friendly to the environment than buying a new one. Framework is a hardware startup, founded by former Oculus engineer Nirav Patel, that is looking to take the Fairphone model and bring it to laptops, even shipping with a screwdriver in the box.

Computing/Consumer electronics, Europe, Regulation, Sustainable design

Europe’s ‘right to repair’ for some appliances comes into force to curb electronic waste

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Read the full story in the Los Angeles Times.

Companies that sell refrigerators, washers, hairdryers or TVs in the European Union will need to ensure that those appliances can be repaired for up to 10 years, in a bid to reduce the vast mountain of electrical waste that piles up each year on the continent.

Aerospace industry, Computing/Consumer electronics, Electronics manufacturing, Funding

Purdue to co-lead U.S. Department of Defense-funded project to advance adoption of lead-free electronics

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Read the full story from Purdue University.

A new consortium funded by an award from the U.S. Department of Defense has selected Purdue University to co-lead its first project aimed at advancing the adoption of lead-free electronics in defense systems.

The Defense Electronics Consortium (DEC), to be established and managed by the U.S. Partnership for Assured Electronics (USPAE), is designed to address the defense risks created by the contraction of the U.S. electronics manufacturing sector over the last 20 years.

Purdue, the University of Maryland and Auburn University will lead the consortium’s Lead-Free Defense Electronics Project, which has received $40 million to be distributed over a period of five to seven years. Of the $3.9 million in funds for the first year of the project, approximately $1 million has been awarded to researchers at Purdue’s West Lafayette and Northwest campuses.

The project’s goal is to foster research and action to accelerate the transition to lead-free electronics in aerospace, defense and other high-performance electronics. Consumer and automotive electronics have been transitioning to lead-free technologies since 2006 when the European Union banned the sale of lead-containing electronics. Japan, India and China followed suit with similar bans.

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