Hasta La Gadget!

A mass-produced piece of plastic and electronics more environmentally-friendly than a simple book? Possibly, at least according to a new study released by the Cleantech Group. While the group found that the Kindle‘s upfront environmental impact was indeed fairly significant, they also found that the numbers can change dramatically over the course of the device’s lifecycle — depending largely on the users’ reading habits, of course. More specifically, they say that the Kindle can produce a potential savings of 1,074 kg of CO2 if it replaces three books a month for four years, or a whopping 26,098 kg of CO2 if the Kindle DX is used to its fullest capacity. They also found that the Kindle would still break even if it replaced just 22.5 books over its lifespan, although they’re quick to point out that its impact can turn to a negative if folks continue to buy books and print periodicals in addition to e-books and don’t recycle them.

Filed under: Handhelds

Study finds Kindle more eco-friendly than actual books, maybe originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Studies just released by RBC Capital and ChangeWave Research polled iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre owners on their respective levels of satisfaction with their devices — then compared them. In the studies, 200 iPhone 3GS users and 40 Palm Pre owners were polled. Overall, 99 percent of owners of Apple’s phone proclaimed themselves to be “satisfied,” while 82 percent of that number declared they were “very satisfied.” The poll of Pre owners showed that 87 percent are “satisfied,” and 45 percent of those owners describe themselves as “very satisfied.” Interestingly, the 42 percent of “very satisfied” customers are the highest score ever attained by a Palm device, and it’s a number that’s only ever been bested by RIM and Apple. When asked about their respective reasons for buying their devices, Palm Pre owners listed the touchscreen interface, ability to multitask, and ease of use in the top three, while iPhone users cite its touchscreen, ease of use and faster web browsing as its biggest draws. So what about drawbacks? iPhone users (a whopping 55 percent of them, in fact) say that AT&T’s network is their main gripe with the device, while Pre owners list short battery life and lack of third party apps as the devices biggest drawbacks. All in all, a pretty good showing for both — though the microscopic sample size (especially for the Palm Pre) makes us wonder about the validity of the findings a bit.

Read – Apple’s iPhone 3GS has 99 percent satisfaction rate
Read – iPhone vs. Palm Pre: Satisfaction bakeoff

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre, iPhone 3GS owners’ satisfaction polled, compared in new study originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

As we’ve seen with the slight resurgence of new and improved incandescent light bulbs, the amount of energy used to actually light up the bulb isn’t necessarily the whole measure of energy efficiency. There’s also the small matter of producing the bulb, shipping it around the world, and eventually disposing of it. With that in mind, the Siemens Corporate Technology Centre for Eco Innovations conducted a study that compared regular compact fluorescents to LED lamps — using one 25,000-hour LED lamp as a constant, compared to 2.5 10,000-hour compact fluorescents (and 25 1,000-hour incandescents). While it’s still holding back on some of the finer details, the group did apparently find that LEDs are no more or no less energy efficient than compact flourescents when the entire lifecycle of the bulb is taken into account, although it is quick to point out that LEDs should eventually win out as they become more efficient to produce.

Filed under: Household

Study says LEDs are about as efficient than compact fluorescents, all things considered originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Marketing research company ComScore recently conducted a survey highlighting socioeconomic differences between iPhone and iPod Touch users.

First spotted by Fortune 500’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt, the survey discovered the following about the general iPhone and iPod Touch population:

• 70 percent are men
• 50 percent surf the mobile web more than they read newspapers or magazines
• More than 40 percent use mobile devices more often than their computers to browse the web
• More than 40 percent spend more time on mobile web browsing than they do listening to the radio

But more interesting are the results illuminating what iPhone users and iPod Touch owners don’t have in common:

• iPhone owners are older: 69 percent of iPod Touch users are between 13 to 24 years old; 74 percent of iPhone customers are older than 25
• iPod Touch owners are less wealthy: 78 percent of iPhone users have a household income of $25,000 or more, compared with 66 percent of iPod Touch users
• More iPhone owners are parents: 46 percent of iPhone users have children while only 28 percent of iPod Touch users do

And other more general observations:

• iPod Touch owners are more likely to shop for cellphones (obviously), clothes, TVs and other electronics
• iPhone owners are more likely to spend on traveling, financial services and real estate

Pretty neat, and the results make plenty of sense. I’m surprised iPod Touch owners shop for gadgets more than iPhone owners, though. I always thought the iPhone was a status symbol for spend-happy tech geeks — more so than the iPod Touch. Your thoughts?

See Also:

• IPhone Study: Two Thirds Of Cell Users Ready To Switch Carriers …
• Study: Most Free iPhone Apps Have One-Night Stands
• Study: iPhone Users Not All High Earning Tech Geeks
• If Your iPod Has a Name, You Need to Get Out More
• Study Finds Youth Embracing Traditional Radio

Photo: Steve Rhodes/Flickr

A new report, entitled “The Single Female Tech Buyer: Cast Aside Myths And Embrace This Target Segment” may read like the latest Tom Clancy techno-thriller (okay, not really) but its message is crystal clear: “cast aside myths,” it says, “and embrace this target segment.” In its study of one thousand single men and one thousand single women residing in the United States and Canada, Forrester Research uncovered a slew of facts you can use to sell single women stuff that they probably don’t need. Behold: When asked about their next computer, the vast majority of women (forty-seven percent) said they were planning on buying a laptop, while most of the men (again, forty-seven percent) said they’d be buying a desktop. Clearly, laptop makers should be concentrating hot-to-trot models like the Vaio P (or, for the budget conscious, the Vaino), while desktop manufacturers should concentrate on superhero or vicious animal-themed desktop rigs. But that ain’t all! Ownership amongst bachelors and bachelorettes were darn near equal for things like gaming consoles, handheld games, and digital cameras. If you can’t wait to dip into what is sure to be a real page turner, make sure you hit the read link — the report can be yours for a mere $749.

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Report finds single women enthusiastic about technology, single men enthusiastic about single women originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments