Saturday, February 24, 2007

Green Mac

I finally switched over to a mac about a month ago and it's been great. No, this isn't a "Supported Post." hehe. But I just got tired of all the viruses on my PC laptop. I'd say I must've formatted my laptop at least ten times ever since I bought it 5 or 6 years ago. So much for anti-virus software. Also, the hard drive on my PC was only 6 GB. That's pretty small for today's standards. Not only that, but the battery didn't seem to last too long (i.e. it would only work if it was plugged in). That sort of defeats the purpose of the laptop, which is that it's supposed to be portable. It was portable alright...as long as there was a plug outlet nearby. ;) Anyway, I thought it would be a difficult transition from PC to mac, but the mac is truly a user-friendly computer. Ok, forget the fact that Steve Jobs actually got the idea for the windows format from Xerox, but still, gotta admire the guy for improving and marketing the product very well.

Recently, however, I was surprised to find out something about macs...something disturbing. I was doing some blog hopping and came across Ajay's blog. She had a post about Greenpeace claiming that the upcoming Vista operating system will not be compatible with as much as half of the PCs out there. That incompatibility will force people to upgrade sooner, thus trashing their computers into landfills along with their hazardous chemicals. I thought, "No worries. I don't use a PC anymore. Everything's cool, right?" Wrong. That same Greenpeace website had bad news for mac users, also: apple ranks among the least environmentally-friendly electronic products. These products also include iPods and iBooks. According to Greenpeace
When they [apple products] are tossed, they usually end up at the fingertips of children in China, India and other developing-world countries. They dismantle them for parts, and are exposed to a dangerous toxic cocktail that threatens their health and the environment.
I was quite surprised to read this. Of all the companies I would expect to be green, surely it would be apple. Say it ain't so, apple. Well, I did just what Greenpeace suggested and clicked on their "email Steve Jobs" link, which had a pre-formatted letter urging Jobs to make his products greener. When apple was in trouble a few years back, Jobs stepped in and saved the company with his leadership. He can show his leadership abilities once again by stepping up and making the company more environmentally-friendly.

Technorati tags: apple, Steve Jobs, Greenpeace, mac

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

I so love my iBook. I've had it for more than a year now. I could make videos, dvds, organize my photos, etc. without worrying about viruses, battery life, wifi, etc. But I think I need to e-mail Steve Jobs too.

Wil said...

Toe, I heard nga that magaling ang apple sa multimedia (e.g. pictures, videos, etc). That was another reason for me to switch. Photoshop was so slow when I was using a PC.

vic said...

Until the leaders of leading hi-tech industries turn greener, the respective governments and the industries meantime should mount an aggressive educational campaign about the hazards of improper or illegal diposal of hazardous discarded electronics products.

And there should be a universal guidelines for governments to follow and laws to enact to protect the environment, because there will be mountains of these PCs and Macs to dispose in the near future..

Wil said...

vic, yup, governments should indeed play a role by providing incentives for companies. Still, high tech companies should just do it (go green, that is) even without gov't intervention because, well, it's just the right thing to do. Besides, it's good business to look green to consumers. No company wants to be perceived as harmful to the environment....ok, well, except for the makers of the Hummer. :D

Anonymous said...

I'm really surprised about this news. Since there aren't a lot of macs compared to PC's the environmental risk is still lower but I agree that Apple must correct this issue as soon as possible.

Wil said...

bw, according to greenpeace's website, their two criteria for judging a company was that they:

*clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances;

*takeback and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete.

I guess apple scored low on these two. It looks like they also included the iPod and other apples products when making their rankings, so I suppose that adds to apple's low ranking.

vernaloo said...

All I know about computers is Noah Wyle hehe love the movie Pirates of the Silicon Valley.

Okay that's an exxageration...I know stuff about computers/gadgets but apparently not enough for me to know what an ibook is hrhrhr

C said...

My husband works for a computer recycling company. I'll forward this post to him...

Wil said...

verns, Noah Wylie as Steve Jobs? That's like George Clooney starring as me in a movie. hahaha.

an iBook is just a mac laptop. :)

cai, cool. I'd be curious to see his opinion. :)

vernaloo said...

lolz :) I love George Clooney! :)

Anyway what's a mac laptop ba? hahaha just messing but seriously I don't know. Now I'm really a certified dork and dumb hrhrhr :) I mean I know what a laptop is...Mac is a brand? sheesh...

Wil said...

verns, you know what, it is a bit confusing. apple is the company and they call their computers macs. I think that's how it is. I guess i just use mac and apple interchangeably. check ko na lang sa wikipedia. :-D

oh, and if you love george clooney so much, then why don't you just.....hehe

vernaloo said...

why don't I just WHAT?! hehe

Wil said...

verns, hahaha. corny joke lang. you know when you say you love something, people (usually elementary schoolchildren...hehe) say, "If you love it so much, then why don't you marry it." :-D

vernaloo said...

ohhh! hahaha...:) the question is if George Clooney will marry me or not lolz

Anonymous said...

Oh cool! You've finally switched to a Mac ibook. I would love to get my hands on one... someday. hey show us pics of your latest "toy". :-D

Wil said...

verns, puede na si george at ikaw. just point him to your blog, ayos na. :-D Ay, naging celebrity post tuloy ito. Dapat apple ang topic. hehe

single, sure, I'll post it on my flickr page one of these days. You can also catch a glimpse of it in my "Final Thoughts on my Vacation" post. It's in the photo with my sim card. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Wil, i just notice that you're really into environment-friendly products. actually i haven't heard of greenpeace yet, until you commented on my blog about it. thanks for this informative post... di kasi ako conscious when buying gadgets and stuff that they too affect our Mother Earth. what i'm more conscious are the plastic wrappers and shopping bags w/c for me should be minimized...like what other countries do, let the shoppers bring their own bags.

admindude said...

Hi Wil,
Wow. You survived with a 6GB hard drive. Didn't realize that Apple is not environmentally friendly pala. Akala ko pa man din they are in the "good" column. But its true that they create disposable products that are then thrown to third world consumers :-(

Wil said...

carey, halata ba? hehe. Well, I try to be an environmentalist although it's impossible to be 100% environmentalist. About the plastic, paano nga kaya i-recycle yun? Puede ba? They have some of that "bring your own bag to the grocery store" dito sa states. Kaya nga lang, wala masyado ang nag-practice. I admit I am one of them.

bill, kakatawa nga na as soon as I bought my laptop nuon, computers all of a sudden had bigger hard drives. parang I bought at the wrong time. hehe.

Anonymous said...

It's really sad that the poor children in China, India, etc. are being exposed to these toxic materials from our junk.

Wil said...

niceheart, it really is. The good thing is that some companies like HP and Dell have stepped up to the challenge by becoming more environmentally-friendly. Apple just needs to catch up.

Belle TH said...

hi Wil,

sorry, was a little late in visiting your blog. how does your green mac taste like? as good as my fuji apples? hehehe

seriously speaking, my daugher S has Mac and she is happy with it. she is the person who will take her time before deciding to purchase an item.

Wil said...

belle th, I'll have to go with the fuji apples on this one. :-D

macs are definitely great for students, like your daughter S. My brother R also uses a mac. ;-)

tin-tin said...

really? i didn't know that. there's a group here in the philippines who recycle old computers and their parts. their main objective is to help the environment.

Anonymous said...

I'm a bit surprised din na ang dami ng nag ma-Mac ngayon. Before, mostly mga desktop at graphic artist industry lng gumagamit. Now it seems they are re-branding and going head -on with windows platform now. I think this is advantageous to us consumers.

The Nashman said...

Twisted Logic...

I made a personal non-scientific study about this. I normally upgrade my pc laptop every 5 months (getting a new one because they slow down eventually) I've been with my macbook for 6 months and it looks like i won't be needing to upgrade it for 5 months at least....so in the end, the mac is less wasteful for me.... :D

I don't have an iPod though as that's really environmentally bad. It's mean to last only for 9 months...

Wil said...

tin, really? awesome. Are you sure they're not just scavengers? hehe. Anyway, would be interested in who that group is.

ferdz, yup, macs are great for multimedia. That should be good for you b/c you seem to be into photo blogging. I have to say though that iPhoto hasn't been that easy. For one thing, adding pics to the Library? Why can't I just open the pic?

Nashman, hehe. You should have quite an inventory of laptops by now then. ;-)

tin-tin said...

ummm... i forgot the name of the group. just seen them in magandang umaga pilipinas. hehehe ;p

Wil said...

tin, oh, I see. Well, sounds like they're trying to improve things out there. Good to read about that. :-)