Thursday 27 February 2014

Sony Unveils Xperia Z2 In Barcelona

Xperia Z2, the latest flagship Android smartphone from Japanese electronics giant Sony, made its debut at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, the company announced on its website.

Alongside the Z2 smartphone, Sony also presented the 10.1-inch Xperia Z2 tablet, which is lighter and thinner than the iPad Air.

The Z2 is 8.2 mm thick and has a 5.2-inch LED display. It is slightly slimmer than Sony's previous model – the 5-inch Xperia Z1. The device is capable of recording 4K video and its high camera resolution is its most prominent feature, as it cannot be found on any other Sony smartphone device: it is four times that of a full HD at 3840 x 2160. The smartphone's camera button allows users to easily open the software, and the device can even take pictures when submerged in water, according to Sony.

The camera of the Z2 is the same as its predecessor, the Z1; they share the same 20.7MP rear-facing camera with only the shooting capabilities having been refined.

The Xperia Z2 has a quad-core 2.3 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with Krait CPUs and 3GB of RAM. The smartphone is powered by a 3,200 mAh battery and is also 4G enabled.

The new model is dust-resistant, water-resistant to a depth of 1.5 metres and can stay in water for up to half an hour, as the device is IP55 and IP58 certified, the Japanese company states.

Sony also says that the Z2 has a more comfortable touch compared to the Z1, as the glass panels are encased in one aluminium frame with smoother edges.

The Xperia Z2 will be up for grabs next month and will be available in black, white and purple.

For more information visit Our Website

Tuesday 25 February 2014

Phone Battery Recycling Targets Need To Improve

Recycling electronic devices, including the lithium-ion batteries of mobiles and smartphones, is essential for sustainability, as they contain a surprising amount of precious metals and other materials. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of rechargeable batteries are being recycled in Europe: according to EU figures for 2010, released by Friends of the Earth, just 1,289 tonnes of batteries were collected for recycling, amounting to only 4-5% of the number of batteries sold in the same 12-month period. The good news is that very few batteries end up in landfills due to various regulations in place, but the bad news is that they are most often left in a drawer – unused, but also not recycled.

Lithium-ion batteries contain mostly cobalt, which constitutes 10% to 20% of the component, as well as nickel, copper and aluminium. The recycling process involves melting these metals into an alloy. According to the largest lithium-ion battery recycling firm in Europe – Umicore – the process for recovering metals has a 90% smaller ecological footprint than the initial mining process. The head of battery recycling at Umicore, Sybolt Brouwer, calls this urban mining and claims that the precious metal content in mobile phones is around 100 times higher than the content found in the ground. Urban mining, however, remains largely unexplored and valuable resources get lost.

The measures currently in use by the recycling industry are bring-back schemes and drop-bins specifically for batteries. Often batteries are disposed of together with the main body of the telephone and get separated at a later stage in the recycling process. European directives are being reviewed in view of raising battery recycling targets to 65% of mobile phone sales. This year's target is for 30% of all batteries sold to be recycled, and next year's target is 35%.

Friday 21 February 2014

Recycling Rates In UK "Stagnating"

Household recycling in the UK has been "stagnating", according to an industry expert commenting on the latest official statistics from Defra. The figures showed that households are sending more waste to landfills for incineration; this indicates that the UK may not be able to reach the EU target of recycling half its waste by 2020.

According to the data released at the beginning of February, household waste recycling in England in the 12 months leading to June last year stood at 43.3%, a very slight increase from just above 43% in March 2012. The quarterly recycling rate, which can be seasonal in nature, reached 46.2% between April and June 2013 – the highest rate reached for this particular three-month period.

At the same time, waste managed by local authorities that went to landfills or incinerators went up 1.3% between April and June 2013 compared with the previous year. This figure is still 32% below the level for the same period in 2006. Household waste arisings stayed at a stable 22.7 million tonnes in the year to June 2013; previous years had seen this figure drop steadily by 10% in 2008, 2009 and 2010..

Rob Crumbie, communications director at recycling rewards company Greenredeem, said that although the figures are going up, the rate of change is minimal. A recent survey by Greenredeem showed that 64% of Britons feel the current schemes aimed at incentivising consumers to recycle are not working as they should. The government should work together with local authorities and environmental campaigners to help the UK reach the targets set by the EU, he said.

For more information on mobile phone recycling, visit the FoneHub website.

Friday 14 February 2014

Recycling Firm To Build £25M Glass Recycling Plant

Recycling company Viridor has announced plans to build a £25-million plant in Scotland, where it will be able to process 200,000 tonnes of glass a year – the equivalent of 150% of all glass packaging that is currently collected in Scotland. The company hopes that the plant will reduce the necessity for importing glass in industries such as whisky production. Viridor has said the facility, which will be located at Newhouse in Lanarkshire, will be the most advanced in Europe.

The company already has a £100-million recycling network in Scotland, with this latest investment working towards bringing a £500-million nationwide strategy to implement a zero waste policy into practice. Commenting on the news, Viridor's chief executive Ian McAulay said the new plant will support the sustainability of the whisky production industry and associated areas. The director of operational and technical affairs for the Scotch Whisky Association, Julie Hesketh-Laird, said that whisky distillers in Scotland are committed to achieving a 40% proportion of packaging coming from recycled glass by 2020. Since glass is the main form of packaging for Scotch whisky, the industry welcomes any innovation in the supply chain that will improve the rate of glass recycling.

According to statistical data, approximately 1.65 million tonnes of glass containers were recycled in 2008, while the overall production of glass bottles and jars in the country stood at four million tonnes for the same year. These contained an average of 30% recycled glass.

For more information on the mobile phone recycling services that FoneHub offer visit our website or call us on 0207 377 66 44



Friday 7 February 2014

The Best Smartphones To Be Released This Year

Smartphone technology is evolving rapidly and the new year is set to bring a number of devices with better screens, smoother operating systems and individual features to make the new devices even more appealing to consumers.

First on the list is the HTC M8, which is expected to come on the market in the spring, featuring a five-inch 1080p HD screen, a Snapdragon 800 processor, a 2GB RAM, and a 2.1-megapixel front camera. The device will run on Android's Kitkat.

Samsung Galaxy S5 is another new smartphone we can anticipate this year, perhaps around April. No specific features have been yet unveiled, but sector experts bet on a 64-bit operating system, to match the 64-bit CPU. There have been rumours that the Galaxy S5 will have a 16MP camera and a 4K screen, which will make it unique among smartphones.

Nokia Lumia 1820 is the next entry on the list, set to keep its place as the smartphone with the best camera with its Lytro-style device that allows you to refocus a picture after it has been taken.

The iPhone 6, whose release is only rumoured for now, is expected to introduce some notable changes, such as a curved screen, since Apple has declared interest in the technology, or maybe gesture technology, after Apple bought the company that makes the Microsoft Kinect gesture control system. The new iPhone could be on the market in September.

Blackberry, which has been struggling recently, is betting on two new models, the Q30 and the Z50, with the latter rumoured to sport a 5.2-inch screen with 1080p HD resolution, plus a quad-core processor.