Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Green apps that can save you money
As the market for applications running on mobile devices like Apple’s iPad and iPhone grows, so do ways to save you money and cut your carbon emissions.
Among them is Avego, a ride-sharing app for the iPhone that lets you offer vacant seats in your car to others and search for free seats if you’re car-less, all in real time. You receive updates on how far away your ride is, so you don’t have to wait around. And it even calculates how much gas-money each passenger should pay. Users create a publicly viewable Avego profile and their reputation can be rated by other members. Paul Smith of Triple Pundit calls the service “brilliant” and an example of “what can be done to reduce traffic, right now, at no additional cost and disruption to our current transportation infrastructure”.
3rdWhaleMobile’s FindGreen app gives GPS-equipped Android smartphones, BlackBerry, and iPhone owners a guide to local retailers and services listed in GenGreen’s Green Business Directory. TechCrunch’s Matylda Czarnecka thought the iPhone version was one of the “top ten apps to make you more green“. But some users in Google’s Android Marketplace complain of few or no listings in their area.
The remotely controlled home may still be in the realm of sci-fi for most, but the future is now for iPhone and iPad users keen on conserving energy and who already have their homes wired to dim the lights and turn the heating on from afar. Lutron’s Home Control+ iPad app allows RadioRA 2 or HomeWorks QS users to control heating, lights, and their window shades.
Control4’s MyHome app for the iPhone and iPad (an Android-powered version is planned) does all that and gives you control of your home entertainment and security systems. The Control4’s iPad app offers “a high-end home product, slick design, and a dashboard offering rich media around energy”, writes GigaOM’s Katie Fehrenbacher.
Finally, zerogate’s MeterRead iPhone app puts control of your energy consumption and subsequent savings in your hands by recording your electric meter readings and suggesting ways to improve efficiency. While it may not have the sexiest graphic interface, iPhone App Review’s Kevin Morris thinks MeterRead is worth its 99-cent price tag.
Apple plugs iPod into the sun
Apple apparently has applied for a patent that would allow its megapopular iPods to run on solar power.
The patent drawings suggest the entire surface of the iPod would be covered in solar paneling, save the display screen and click wheel, Geeksmack.net and GreenBeat report.
And before you point out how annoying it would be to have to pull out your iPod for some sunbathing, it doesn’t need direct rays — the technology enables it to function even when covered by your hand. (The jury is still out on if it works when it’s buried in the inside pocket of your windbreaker or backpack, but whatever.)
Nothing worse than when your iPod runs out of juice right in the middle of your favorite song or exercise routine so this could be a nice backup power source to keep it (and you?) running.
What do you think? Would you buy it?
(Image shows patent application diagram of entire surface of the iPod, except for the screen and click wheel, covered in solar panelling, from Geeksmack.net)
I think this is a wonderful idea I don’t think too many people would mind getting a clear covering for thier Ipod instead of a red or black if they knew that it would help extend the batterys life. But thier would be the problem that most Ipods don’t have a clip so therefore to charge your Ipod you would have to hold it. This would be a big inconvience considering most people listen to thier Ipods when thier in the middle of doing something to have some source of entertainment at the same time. But overrall I think it would be a wonderfull Idea. I’m not to sure on that price though it would cost a lot more than it already does, and it already cost a whole lot.
from Ruben Ramirez:
Change lightbulbs. Save millions.
Norfolk Southern says it is working hard to reduce the rail operator's carbon footprint. CEO Wick Moorman says the company is in the midst of a 2-year, $10 million project to change the lighting in it's facilities...he says he's even changed the lightbulbs in his office. Click here to listen to how much money Norfolk is saving and what else it's doing to be more "green." Wick from Tony Johansson on Vimeo.
it’s great article, I like this app very much, but I have my favourite one.It’s Track money app.It’s very simple and useful, because I have already saved a little money. You should try this one too, even in the article mentioned app is also great.But personaly I allways test more than one program, just in case to found my own.