By Paul Smith •
June 11, 2009
Unless you’ve been laid up in bed all this week, you’ve heard that Apple is releasing a new iPhone 3G-S with an amazing array of features But one you may not have heard of is a brilliant bridging between the iPhone and Zipcar.
These two are as they say peas in a pod, technology enhanced life(style) enhancements, for a demographic that I imagine likes that they get to both have what they want, when they want it, and do good by [...]
Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google believes that newspaper executives should create a “new format” for online journalism, including delivery methods that give consumers personalized content they want to read.
By Jerry James Stone •
January 24, 2009
Today, President Obama delivered his first weekly address to the nation. I love these kinds of things. As archaic as the Bush administration was, I have to give them props for putting the President’s weekly address on iTunes. I expect Obama will follow suit.
By Jennifer Kaplan •
December 10, 2008
Last week Melissa Chungfat wrote an excellent post on how to give the gift of carbon neutrality. I love the idea, but, there are some people on my gift giving list to whom I’d really like to give something. And while I know that virtual gifts are not carbon neutral because online activity burns a lot of electricity, I’ve come up with five actual gifts that reduce my footprint to a minimum.
1. The most neutral gift I could find is an iTunes gift certificate. Its the perfect virtual gift: no box, no plastic gift card, no shipping and its good for any iTunes download. Music, movies, TV shows and apps. One catch is that email gift certificates can only be bought in iTunes (which is free to download). Once on the store homepage look for the “buy iTunes Gifts” link. Another catch is that the recipient needs to be an iTunes user.
2. Virtual gift certificates for audio book downloads from audible.com and Ebooks.com follow the same concept as iTunes. Alternatively, Simplyaudiobooks.com has a netflicks-like download program that you can gift for 1 to 12 months. These too are online purchases redeemable for downloads.
3. The next most virtual gift I could find is Fandango email gift bucks redeemable for “any movie, any time, at any Fandango partner theater.” As the sender, you get to choose a theme “card,” write a personalized message and send a gift in dollar amounts from $10 to $100. The recipient can pre-buy movie tickets online that they then pick up at the theater. Almost as neutral as an iTunes gift. No box, no plastic gift card, no shipping, but your friend or colleague still ends up with printed ticket stubs at the theater.
By Jerry James Stone •
November 17, 2008
In an attempt to save the planet—and possibly just to piss off Canada—the company Mapflow is bringing a ridesharing app to the iPhone. The app is called Avego and Mapflow hopes it will help save the world. Hey, they had me at pissing off the Canadians.
In my previous eco-dating post I described a possible afternoon out to share with your significant other. This time let’s explore a night in!
I have found that cooking with your favorite guy or gal is a great way to spend time together and learn something new. Aaron and I tend to make a lot of whole grain pasta with chunky organic veggie sauce. Whole grain pasta is less processed than typical pasta and any foods made from grains rather than meat are less energy intensive to produce.
After this hearty meal you can rent a movie that you have both wanted to watch. Renting instead of buying is a way to share and re-use resources, in this case DVDs or tapes, as much as possible before they must be recycled or sent to a landfill. For us, renting is a particularly attractive option because theater tickets are so expensive these days and rental businesses definitely give us more choices. If you’re not keen on renting but want the same effect try Netflix or buying movies on iTunes.
