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YankoDesign posted this concept credit card created by Jacob Palmborg, and it is by far one of the better ideas on how we should be integrating technology into our lives.

You can read the post here

Ubergizmo just put this post up talking about Samsung’s product roadmap, which shows that they won’t have any large scale commercial OLED TVs until 2010.

Seems like a long time to wait but I’d rather wait for them to get the kinks out before releasing defective TVs.

Read Ubergizmo’s post here

Read about Sony’s OLED here

Technology was said to make life easier. Yet until recently you had to own several electronic gadgets to make your daily life seem simpler.  Every new gadget that comes out claims to bring aspects of your life together and make daily chores less time consuming.

Each day I check several RSS feeds, 4 separate email accounts, turn on several pieces of equipment at work, and make sure my cell phone is fully charged for the day, and I know there are people out there who have multiple cellphones, 2 or 3 computers at the work place or home, and several other gadgets to maintain. Which begs the question, is technology becoming more of a burden on our daily life?

More and more people are relying on the internet, several workstations, cell phones, and other gadgets to get through their work day, and all of these items require some sort of upkeep. Our lives seem to be becoming more dependent on our ipods and laptops and we are allowing this to be the norm. All of these objects require time and money to maintain, things that we are sometimes short on, and yet only a few companies are trying to combine these gadgets into one super gadget that is capable of multiple tasks within a single unit.

A great example of this is the iPhone(aff), which combines the ipod, with a phone, and also has internet connectivity.  This kind of device allows people to have one device that can perform the tasks of several others.  There are other devices such as this but this one has really taken technology to the next step.

So my question to you is this; do you feel that technology is becoming more of a burden on your daily life?  Or do you think that it makes your life easier?

Ubergizmo has posted about an in-dash Blu-Ray player for your car.  You can read the full article here.

I agree with Ubergizmo in that car TVs right now only support a limited resolution and I can’t really see the point of having such a high def player without the ability to see it in all of its glory

Stay tuned for my upcoming post about this war of formats (HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray)

In light of the Southern California Wildfires which are raging about 30 miles from where I am, I wanted to post a small thought and question for you all out there.

The weather here is making the effort to fight the fires very tough and I was thinking that man’s next great technological advancement should be focused on something that can create local weather systems such as rain or snow.  This would be a great asset in times like this when an area is going through a drought and rainfall is scarce.

What are your thoughts on this issue?  What do you think man’s next big technological advancement should be?

I recently did a post asking what people’s stances were on AI and if we are going to far, and what would happen if the machines turned against us.  Today Wired has a news story which you can read here.  A robotic cannon has malfunctioned and spun around wildly launched explosives in all directions, killing 9 people and wounding another 14.

Is this the beginning of the technology revolution?  Probably not, but think about what would happen if all our computers and electronic devices turned against us.

You can read my original post and leave comments with your thoughts be clicking here.

There are 2 ways of putting your computer into a mode where it will preserve your work, and save on power when you’re not using it.  These 2 methods are hibernate and standby.

Standby mode will cut the power to any hardware or peripherals your computer or laptop is not using at the time you select this option.  This will conserve battery power in laptops, and can be useful in desktops if you need to step away from the computer for an extended period of time.  Your programs and applications are stored in RAM, but your computer is still drawing power.  This method will allow a quick “wake up” because data can be read from RAM very quickly.

Hibernate on the other hand, will take a snapshot of your current configuration and save it to the hard drive, then it will power down your computer.  When you bring your computer out of hibernate mode, which will take a little longer than a regular start-up because the computer actually shuts down, any programs and documents you had open will reappear on your desktop, just the way you left them.

You may need to enable hibernate mode if you want to use it.  To do this, go to your control panel, select power options, click on the hibernate tab at the top of the window, and make sure the Enable Hibernate mode check box is filled in.  Hibernate mode uses hard drive space so be sure you have enough space to use this option.

Using either of these methods can save laptop battery life when you’re not using it.  It can also be used if you need to leave programs or documents open but have to leave your computer and don’t want to leave it on and using electricity.

Have you ever thought about recycling you computer, cell phone, or any other old electronics that you might be throwing away? Doing so can reduce the amount of harmful materials such as lead and mercury that enter landfills and in turn enter the ground or air.

Blog Action Day has chosen the topic of the environment for bloggers to speak up and have a unified voice about ways to protect it. You can check out Blog Action Day’s home page here.

Every year electronic waste accounts for 1% of the total municipal waste created by us. That may not sound that big but when you hear that it is growing at a rate of 3 times compared to normal waste, and that we are growing more and more dependent on electronics, that number will grow exponentially over the next few years.

Another benefit of recycling old electronics and cell phones is the retrieval of materials such as glass and precious metals. Electronic circuit boards contain copper and steel, which once recycled can be used for other products that we use everyday.

There are other benefits besides helping the environment, such as donating old cell phones and computers to charities that refurbish the electronics and give them to people who cannot normally afford to buy these products or even schools that can’t afford computers for their students. There are tax deductions that you can get if you donate your computer or cell phone instead of throwing it in the trash as well.

We only have one earth and at the rate we’re going, we are going to ruin it for our grand-kids and they’ll either live in a world with poisonous water and air, or they won’t have a world to live in at all.

Below are several links that can help you donate or recycle your old cell phone or computer. There are also links that can help you create a donation program in your local community or school.

Recellular is a site where you can buy refurbished cell phones, recycle your old cell phone, and also start a donation program to collect used and old cellphones.

Collective Good is another site where you can donate / recycle your old cell phone, and you choose a charity to give it to so they can help the less fortunate.

Earth 911.org This link will take you to Earth911.org’s post about non-profit organizations and charities that you can donate your old electronic, computers, and cell phones to. They also have some information about the impact of not recycling your cell phones and electronics have on the environment, click here to read it.

Recycle wireless phones is another cell phone recycling website that provides some helpful links as well as information on clearing your data so that the cell phone is completely clean before you send it in.

Another option to recycle your old electronics would be to contact a junk removal company.  A good one to consider would be Just Junk.

For those of you in school grades K - 12 or have kids in school, you can check out Motorola’s Race to Recycle website by clicking here. They are collecting recycled cell phones and donating money to every school that participates.

We need to make an effort to recycle our old electronics, computers, and cell phones so we can save the environment form being poisoned by the waste produced from them.

Contact your local community offices to see if they provide a recycling service for electronic devices, or have them provide bins for people to put their discarded electronics into. We already separate our paper and plastic, it wouldn’t hurt to throw batteries and obsolete computers into another bin instead of the trash.