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Cellphones

Submission + - Most New Phones in Europe Will Charge with USB

Hugh Pickens writes: "Dvice reports that as of next year, almost every new cellphone in Europe will have to be able to charge via micro-USB as the result of a voluntary plan agreed to by a whole host of cellphone manufacturers back in 2009, including most of the big names like Apple, Nokia, Qualcomm, RIM, LG, Motorola, and Samsung making more than 90% of the smartphones sold in the European Union. "Charger standardization is great for consumers, because we won't have to keep buying new chargers at ridiculous markups, and it's great for the environment, because we won't have to keep throwing those same chargers away whenever we get a new phone," writes Evan Ackerman. It's also worth noting that one of the first companies to agree to this standard was Apple, who has a history of making everything as proprietary as possible so maybe there will be a micro-USB on the iPhone 5."
Earth

Submission + - Pacific Vortex to become habitable island? 4

thefickler writes: The Pacific Ocean trash dump is twice the size of Texas, or the size of Spain combined with France. The Pacific Vortex as it is sometimes called, is made up of four million tons of Plastic. Now there's a proposal to turn this dump into "Recycled Island". The Netherlands Architecture Fund has provided the grant money for the project, and the WHIM architecture firm is conducting the research and design of Recycled Island. One of the three major aims of the project is to clean up the floating trash by recycling it on site. Two, the project would create new land for sustainable habitation complete with its own food sources and energy sources. Lastly, Recycled Island is to be a sea worthy island. While at the moment the project is still more or less a pipe dream, it's great that someone is trying to work out what to do with one of humanity's most bizarre environmental slip ups.

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