Giulia Rozzi
December 27, 2008 | 11:01 am EST
Lately I’ve been having my fair share of “Wall-E” moments. By this I mean that I’ve been thinking a lot about our current addiction to I-Phones, computers, internet video etc.. More or less we seem to spend too much of our time with our faces glued to screens. But almost every time I have one of these Wall-E moments I find something on the internet that seems to make it OK. The video below is a great example of this. It never would have existed or been seen without internet video. Sigh - the confusion!
And because, even though videos like that seem to make the whole faces glued to screens thing seem not so bad, it is amazingly important to get outside, takepart to learn about a National Park near you.
Today, AT&T began offering refurbished iPhones for the lowest price yet seen in the United States ($99 for 8GB, $199 for 16GB). And starting tomorrow Wal-Mart will carry the iPhone phone at nearly 2,500 stores for $197.
Oh my! I remember some of friends freaking out to get their way pricer iPhone months ago. As an AT&T customer I contemplated getting this fancy phone, but opted for a Blackberry instead. Personally I find touch-screen keys annoying and prefer my lil’ ol’ key pad. Of course, my choice to upgrade to a Blackberry over the iPhone bewildered many of my tech thirsty pals, but my thinking is by the time I get sick of my Blackberry (which may be soon considering the rotating button already broke and it sometimes randomly shuts off on me mid-convo) there will be some newer, fancier phone avail over the iPhone. Maybe it’ll be a little widdle phone the size of your pinkie (like that teeny tiny cell phone Will Ferrel used on the SNL sketch where rides a scooter. I couldn’t find the video online, but it’s hilarious). Maybe it’ll be called the iPinkie? Haha. No? Yeah, you’re right that was dumb.
Anyhoo, some organizations have used the popularity of iPhones to raise money for their causes. For example the Seattle Salvation Army used an application, created by the company Melodeo, to stream hundreds of holiday songs to users for $2.99, of which $1 goes to the Salvation Army.
That’s pretty cool, if you aren’t already full of holiday hits via your local oldies channel (seriously, is it just in MA but do all oldies radio stations play non-stop Christmas music starting in early November? Like non-stop. Like all day,all night, fa-la-la-laing). takepart and learn more about the Salvation Army and their programs at http://www.salvationarmyusa.org
Sure, you’ve calculated your carbon footprint online and made the frightening discovery of how many planets are needed to support your lifestyle. But some folks over at UCLA gone way beyond mere demographics to develop the Personal Environmental Impact Report (PEIR), which lets you use your mobile phone to explore and share your impact on the environment and how the environment effects you. Whoa. Check it out:
This exciting program is currently in beta, but you can takepart by exploring the demo and keeping up-to-date for when PEIR becomes more widely available.
In the mad, gift-buying chaos that precedes the holidays, it’s important to keep in mind those who are less concerned about getting an iPhone, and more focused on staying warm and dry through these wintry days. And given the current economic chill and housing crisis, increasing numbers of people are finding themselves jobless and homeless. So, this holiday season, as you scurry around spreading cheer to friends and family, take a moment to share a bit of warmth with those in need. Here, in no particular order, are the top ten ways to help the homeless this holiday season:
1. Food Banks and Soup Kitchens
Feeding America is an excellent resource if you’d like to volunteer at a soup kitchen in your area or donate food.
You can drop off gently used clothing or other goods at places like Goodwill or The Salvation Army, and if you have a lot to give, some will even schedule a pick-up. Also, look for local charities that often have collection sites around this time of year, such as Big Brother/Big Sister.
If you’re like me, you’ve stood puzzled at the fish counter trying to remember which seafarers are sustainably caught, which ones have mercury, and which ones to just plain avoid. Well, ponder no more, the amazing Blue Ocean Institute has developed Fishphone, a cool text-messaging based application that let’s you know if your fish of choice is healthy for you and the environment. To learn about the seafood in question simply text 30644 with the message FISH and the name of the fish and they’ll text you back with their rating of the fish and suggest alternatives if it doesn’t pass mustard.
And if you have a spiffy iPhone or similar device you can visit fishphone.org to view Blue Ocean Institute’s comprehensive list of fish formatted for phones.
takepart and help the Monterey Bay Aquarium protect the dwindling population of Bluefin Tuna. And use the Fishphone to make smart seafood selections.
Screen capture: Coolhunting
Greetings TakePart faithful! We’ve got some exciting news - TakePart is now optimized for your iPhone. Anytime, anywhere you can bust out your sleek iPhone 3G and learn all about ways you can TakePart to make the world a better place.
Speaking of, are you thinking of ditching your old cellphone for an Apple iPhone? Before you take the plunge to AT&T, buy a ton of iPhone apps, and upgrade to iPhone 1.1.4 takepart and donate your old phone to for recycling. It’s the green way to get dispose of your phone and all proceeds go to charity.
Here is the Social Actions roundup from last week:
1 - Philanthropy 2173: Mobile texting moves to Mobile Volunteering
Lucy Bernholz introduces and shares the potential of TheExtraordinaires - a tool that’s under development and will enable you to volunteer via you cell phone.
Note: TheExtraordinaires is also seeking an iPhone coder (and launched a cool video to boot)
A new service for the iPhone allows you to see data on real-world objects that appear on your screen.
A Tokyo-based company called Sekai Camera just demo’d a service for your iPhone that overlays tags and information onto real world objects that appear on your iPhone’s screen.
Hold your iPhone up to Mt. Rushmore, you’ll see a wikipedia article on the monument pop up on screen next to the monument.
Hold your iPhone up to supermarket shelf, you’ll see product info pop up on screen next to each item.
When I first saw the demo, I thought the iPhone was using image-recognition software to identify objects — like, ‘Hey, that looks like a box of Captain Crunch … Let me check my database … Yep, It’s a box of Captain Crunch! And it’s on sale!”
But it turns out the service relies on geo-tags to “recognize” the objects. (Geo-tagging works by assigning GPS coordinates to real-world objects.)
Regardless, this Sekai Camera is Brave New World territory, folks: Instead of wearing rose-tinted glasses to see the world in a layer of pink, we’re now wearing iPhone-tinted glasses to see the world in a layer of Cyberspace … “Hey, cool alley! Wonder what’s around the corner? … Let me check it out through my iPhone … Oh — a crack house. Maybe I’ll go the other way …”
Here’s a video of Sekai’s demo of the service, made at TechCrunch50, a popular industry event.
Of course, there’s a huge potential problem with this service…
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takepart to learn how you can recycle your dead Apple products.
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Okay, we know you’re dying for the next-generation iPhone in June. See the current iRumors here, but for those of us who can’t hand-me-down the phone to our distant and far less technologically advanced relatives, here’s the TakePart guide to recycling that first iPhone – and feeling good about it – while you get in line outside the Apple/AT&T stores for Version 2.0″!:
Apple has been offering free recycling of its products through its stores for quite some time now, launched way back in 2006. However, the recycling was only free if you bought yourself a new gadget to replace the recycled one. Now, iPods and iPhones can be recycled for free without having to buy a new one, but if you want to recycle your old computer (regardless of its brand), you’ll still need to upgrade or pay.
No surprise, Apple has gone greener – announced on February 24, 2008. Here’s the official Apple recycle link (funny, no iPhones showing ); and one site that raised additional noise was GreenMyApple. Check out its historical archive.
2. How about AT&T? – A little on the corporate side, but AT&T is doing some needed CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) to help the effort. Now if only they’d do a promotion around buying our first-gen phone and giving us some credit for the next-gen purchase. Odds are they will, but it will be minor as iPhone 2.0 demand will be high p.m.n.m.w. (pretty much no matter what).
Also check out: eBay’s Giving Works – Better yet, use Giving Works to support a worthy cause via your iPhone donation. Powered by MissionFish, this site has raised nearly $80 Million for 13,278 non-profits since 2003. Good stuff, and makes you sleep better at night (unless you keep your phone under your pillow…). Other worthy non-profits include Recycle Wireless Phones.
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