What's with all this corporate responsibility lately? Free energy monitors for the Brits, Apple making green policy statements, and Dell going all hippy with cardboard, Big Business seems to be growing a conscience. Now Nokia is planning to cut electricity use with phones that sound a warning when fully charged.
According to Kirsi Sormunen of Nokia, "Around two-thirds of the energy used by a mobile phone is lost when it is unplugged after charging but the charger itself is left in a live socket." They have added the alert to remind people to unplug when the battery is full. Nokia plans to include this in every phone, but for now you will find in the new 1200, 1208 and 1650 handsets.
This scheme, if successful, could apparently save enough energy to power 85,000 homes, but still relies on people actually heeding the alarm. Why can't they just have the charger switch itself off?
Still, it might be a good way to let people know that they don't have to leave the things plugged in 24/7. My parents only remove their phones from the wall-wart when they make a call. Right after that they are plugged straight back in.
Press release [Nokia]
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