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Samsung Reclaim: Eco-friendly Cell Phone

Charles Hamilton — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:00:50 +0000

Like most web workers, I’m dependent on my cell phone for staying in touch with my clients when I’m out of the office. I’ve gotten used to having a smartphone with a calendar, an address book, a web browser and downloadable apps, in addition to the phone functions. But since I now have an iPod touch that can get a Wi-Fi signal from my Overdrive hotspot, when I lost my venerable Treo 755p, I decided to see if I could do without a smartphone — and the expensive monthly plan that most of them require.

It was a coincidence that I had to shop for a new cell phone on Earth Day. But buying the Samsung Reclaim from Sprint seemed like a good way of marking the occasion. Sprint says that the Reclaim is “both eco-friendly and…feature-rich.”

Reclaim’s hardware is made from bio-plastic materials extracted from corn, making 80 percent of the phone recyclable. Reclaim’s eco-friendly features extends to its packaging and support materials, which include a link to an online user manual in lieu of a print version, use of soy-based ink on enclosed printed materials, a phone box and phone tray made from recycled materials, and an Energy-Star approved phone charger.

In honor of its green-ness, the Reclaim is available in a “Earth Green,” but the color is too bright for my tastes. I opted for “Graphite Grey,” which, in light of the recent news, looks rather like volcanic ash. On the whole, it’s a nice-looking gadget.

The Reclaim is considerably lighter and thinner than my old Treo. Its screen is bright and clear, and it seems to be pretty sturdy. I’ve dropped it a couple of times with no adverse effects. The covers for the slots for the charger plug and the MicroSD card seem awfully flimsy, though, and I suspect they may break easily.

I prefer full keyboards with vertical layouts as on the Treo, Palm Pre, and many BlackBerry phones. Keyboards that slide out sideways don’t work too well for me, since I’m left-handed, and the navigation keys are invariably on the right side of the keyboard. The Reclaim’s keyboard is well laid out, but the keys themselves are flat, close together, and not easy to type on.

Incoming sound quality is very good; one person said I sounded a bit “electronic,” but otherwise, outgoing voice quality seems to be fine. Signal strength has been excellent, even in places with marginal reception.

The volume of the ringer, earpiece, and speakerphone can be set quite loud, which I appreciate. I haven’t had the phone long enough to really test its battery life, but Sprint claims 6 hours of talk time. I also haven’t tried some of its other features, including a 2-megapixel camera, voice recognition and stereo Bluetooth.

The software isn’t bad, as long as you know what you’re getting. The Reclaim comes with Sprint’s “One Click” interface and basic productivity apps, including a mail app, a web browser, a calendar and an address book. It also has apps for social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. The screen fonts on the Facebook app are so tiny I can’t read wall posts, even with my glasses on — I guess Sprint figured that oldsters like me wouldn’t be using Facebook.

Sprint claims that this phone can download 60,000 free applications through the “Digital Lounge,” which is the Sprint-branded version of the GetJar app store. I did find some free apps, but most of the useful apps I looked at carried monthly fees of $3-10. And the quality of apps is variable. The free version of Google Maps is almost illegible on the Reclaim’s screen, and didn’t pick up where I was, even after enabling GPS.

So compared to the one-time purchase costs that are common on the iPhone/iPod touch and Android platforms, apps for the Reclaim can get expensive very quickly. Sprint even charges a monthly fee for their service to back up one’s contact list — and it’s not even full sync. For me, this is the biggest limitation of the Reclaim’s software: its inability to sync address book and calendar data. (There are some third-party solutions that claim to be able to do this, but I have no idea if they work.)

Sprint is continuing its green efforts and has just announced the Restore, another eco-friendly phone, which is scheduled for availability this summer. Meanwhile, Sprint is offering the Samsung Reclaim online at no charge after rebates and with a two-year contract, which is a good deal. But for web workers who are used to smartphones like the iPhone, Treo, Pre, BlackBerry or Android-based phones, the Reclaim has limited functionality. If all you need is a phone that can make calls, send texts and do some light web browsing, it might work for you.

If you find the Reclaim’s green tech credentials appealing, you should check out our Green:Net conference, which takes place on April 29 in San Francisco — there are still a few tickets left.

Do you think you could get by without your smartphone?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Cleantech Market Overview, Q1 2010

AT&T Specifies iPhone MMS Go-Live Date

Darrell Etherington — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:31:14 +0000

AT&T customers can finally get their multimedia messaging on come the end of September, according to a company spokesman speaking to TUAW’s Mel Martin today. The official go-live date is Sept. 25, which falls only a tad short of the company’s original late summer prediction for the service.

Spokesman Brad Mays ascribes the lateness of MMS’ arrival to the unmatched size of AT&T’s iPhone user base. The U.S. provider does have far more subscribers than any other carrier globally, and its network has shown signs of strain already. No doubt significant infrastructure build or reconfiguration was required to enable MMS support.

MMS will be enabled via a carrier settings software update on Sept. 25, which users will be able to download by connecting their iPhone to iTunes and approving the update when prompted. No actual iPhone firmware update should be required at that time.

Mays also comments briefly on tethering, but sadly, only to dash your hopes, my American friends:

As for tethering, by its nature, this function could exponentially increase traffic on the network, and we need to ensure that some of our current upgrades are in place before we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect. We expect to offer tethering in the future.

Well, maybe not dash exactly, but definitely forestall indefinitely. The activation of MMS will likely act as a test for AT&T to see just how much pressure its network can sustain at this point, so it would be unwise for it to make any solid predictions about when it’ll be able to offer tethering until those results are in.

Check out TUAW’s post for the full-length press release from Mays.

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8 Green Cell Phones: Who’s Got ‘Em?

Katie Fehrenbacher — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:00:14 +0000

Cell phone manufacturers and wireless carriers are dabbling with the idea of selling green-themed cell phones to eco-conscious consumers, regardless of the fact that it’s not so clear that these green-marketed phones are actually finding an audience. Most of these phones are still in the pipeline and haven’t reached consumers yet in the U.S., but Sprint is taking a risk and says it will start selling Samsung’s Reclaim phone next week at Sprint Stores and Best Buy. Now the bigger question (beyond whether or not consumers will embrace theses phones) is this: Are the devices really more energy-efficient, responsible for less carbon emissions, and at the end of the day, better for the planet? Well, not if they’re being built out of corn like the Reclaim. Here’s eight green phones that could be coming to a store near you:

Name	Available	Eco Features	Features
Reclaim, Samsung	Sprint, August 16	80 percent recyclable materials, 40 percent of outer casing bioplastic made from corn (yuck), PVC free, and “nearly” BFR free, charger Energy Star qualified	3G, slider QWERTY, GPS, one click button for Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube
F268, Samsung	China	Contains no PVCs or BFRs	Slider
BlueEarth, Samsung	UK market	Recycled plastic from water bottles, a pedometer, software to track your reduced carbon emissions, free from beryllium and phthalates, solar panel on the back, one touch Eco-mode.	Pebble shaped
GreenHeart, C901, Sony Ericsson	NA	Claims to have a 15 percent smaller carbon footprint than standard phones, online manual, smaller packaging, and made of at least 50 percent recycled plastics.	Candy bar
GreenHeart, Naite, Sony Ericsson	NA	Claims to have 15 percent smaller carbon footprint than standard phones, online manual, smaller packaging, and made of at least 50 percent recycled plastics, Ecomate application with Carbon Footprint Calculator.	GPRS/EDGE/UMTS, candy bar
Evolve, 3110, Nokia	Europe	Made from biomaterials, charger only uses electricity when charging,	Candybar style, tri-band GSM radio, GPRS/EDGE 1.3 megapixel cam, FM radio
Renew, W233, Motorola	T-Mobile, Best Buy	Says it’s the first carbon-free cell phone on the market, works with Carbonfund.org to offset the carbon emitted to make and operate the phone. Made from recycled water bottles and is 100 percent recyclable.	Candy bar, dual-band GSM, GPRS
ZTE Coral-200-Solar	Jamaica’s Digicel Group	The first mass-market solar cell phone, being sold where there is limited access to the power grid.	Candy bar

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Microsoft Sued… Again

Jason McMaster — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:00:16 +0000

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is just one of those companies that attracts a lot of lawsuits. I suppose it has a little something to do with the fact that they have unimaginable amounts of money and don’t particularly play nice, then again, you don’t get a lot of money by playing nice. This time around, though, it has nothing to do with actual Microsoft software.

As reported by GamaSutra, In-Fusio, a French development house, is suing Microsoft, claiming that the company is stonewalling them on a deal to develop Halo content for cellular phones. The Halo franchise, developed by Bungie, is one of the most successful FPS (First Person Shooter) game series’ ever. Halo 2 sold over 125 million dollars in its first day. To say that the franchise is extremely desirable is an understatement, and the reason that In-Fusio is upset about their current position.

In-Fusio signed a deal with Microsoft last September to bring content from the hit game, starting with wallpapers and ring tones. The deal stipulated that In-Fusio pay Microsoft 4 payments of 500,000 dollars each. Since the company has claimed that Microsoft is dragging their feet on signing the necessary paperwork, they’ve withheld the second of those payments. Microsoft wants to terminate the deal based on the failure to deliver payment.

A recently released statement pertaining to the lawsuit says:

“Under the agreement, In-Fusio’s Halo programming designs are subject to Microsoft’s approval, which cannot be unreasonably withheld. Nevertheless, Microsoft has thwarted In-Fusio’s efforts to develop Halo under the agreement. Indeed, in the last 11 months, Microsoft has approved no fully-developed In-Fusio Halo game designs; ignoring and then refusing to accept In-Fusio’s game design concepts with little or no explanation and leaving In-Fusio little basis to revise its concepts to obtain Microsoft’s approval.”

In-Fusio is currently seeking damages from the suit.

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