Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

While on a quick shopping trip to Staples to replenish ink for my printer (which apparently is filled with gold at the prices they charge) I was handed a sheet of paper listing some trade-in discounts for a myriad of products.  From routers to printers to laptops, the trade-in value was significant, enough to make me think, “Hey I’ve got an old router somewhere.“

Why is Staples hoarding old tech gadgetry?  Do they just reprice them and sell as new or is something else going on here?  Follow to find out.

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Dell has made their eco-friendly and small desktop PC available, the Studio Hybrid, which is not your typical low-cost mini PC. Dell has managed to offer the Studio Hybrid at a fair price, beginning at just $499, but also managed to get some decent specs in there as well as keep it both energy efficient and stylish.

The Studio Hybrid, which was originally shown off back in April had the bamboo exterior, however they will ship with seven interchangeable sleeves, which include the original bamboo, as well as emerald, quartz, ruby, sapphire, slate and topaz.

The base model offers a 1.86GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and an 8x CD/DVD burner. The Studio Hybrid also offers a standard DVI and HDMI connector, five USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, a line-in jack on the front, a line-out jack on the rear and a wired Ethernet port.

The Studio Hybrid also has optional upgrades to include built-in Wi-Fi, Blu-ray and a wireless keyboard and mouse. The PC, being touted as eco-friendly and green was noted as using 70 percent less energy while still being 80 percent smaller than a “typical desktop minitower.“ It also has an Energy Star 4.0 rating and has its packing material made from 95 percent recyclable material.

Product [Dell]

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While everyone else in the world seems to be forgetting about snail mail, here comes the US Postal Service putting the old way of communicating into a fresh and yet good use – recycling electronics. The US Postal Service is advocating the recycling of electronic products, such as mobile phones and inkjet cartridges to name a few. If you’re sick and tired of your broken iPods you may put them in an envelope provided by the USPS and send those electronics via snail mail. The envelope will be provided by the USPS and will be strategically placed in 1500 post offices across the US.

The USPS “mail back” program does not only promotes and encourages environmental sustainability but it will help consumers to de-clog their homes and workstations with dead electronic products as well. 

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Apple is now allowing anyone to recycle their no-longer-used mobile phone for free. Simply bring your mobile phone into any Apple retail location or complete the process online and ship the phone in. The phone recycling program will allow any brand phone to be turned in with no charge to the person, Apple will even pay the shipping costs for those being mailed in.

In addition to phone recycling, Apple will also accept any iPod for recycling. The iPod program is also free free, similar to the setup for the mobile phones. There is a program for CPU recycling, but in order to have your old computer or monitor recycled you have to purchase a new computer or monitor from Apple.

Via [textually.org]

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