Five green smartphone apps to shrink your carbon footprint

Takeaway: Small choices can have a big impact on how you treat the planet. Here are some apps that will help you green up your lifestyle.

Going green — whether you do it because you are worried about the environment or you simply want to reduce the number on your monthly electric bill — can be as easy as making a reasonable choice. Putting a soda can into the recycling bin instead of throwing it away. Thinking through the route you drive to work. Pausing before you print a 20-page document to consider whether the electronic version will do the trick. Here are five apps to help with your green decision making.

1: GoodGuide

With GoodGuide [iTunes and Android App Store], you use a barcode-scanning feature to find out whether the products you’re thinking about buying are green, safe, and healthy for your family. You can create your own personal filter to rate products according to the issues you care about. The app includes ratings for more than 120,000 products, and you can create your own personal shopping lists based on the results you receive. Free.

2: LiteFaire

LiteFaire [Android App Store] helps you estimate the cost and energy savings involved in replacing your light bulbs. You can display room-by-room estimates of replacement costs, energy saved, and the point at which your investment pays for itself. LiteFaire is available in a free version and in a Plus (no-advertising) version. If you’ve been thinking about changing to energy efficient lighting, this app can help give you the data you need to make the call.

Iphone 5 Exact Launch Date June 15th

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The iPhone 5 is set for a June 15, 2012 release date at the WorldwideDevelopers Conference (WWDC). The conference, which is to start on Monday (June 11) will come to an end with the new iPhone being introduced, some sources report. Apple will release the new version of its mobile OS, possibly iOS 6, which is expected to run the new iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 will have that 4.6inch screen which people have been talking about the last few days. The iPhone 5 will probably have the larger 4.6-inch Retina Display. No doubt it will have 4G LTE and some say a 3D camera and 3D editing tools software. Apple patent application says, “a user may take video of a home while walking through the home and the image sensing device could use the calculated depth and surface detail information to create a three-dimensional model of the home.”

What people already know is Foxconn the maker of Iphone 5 slipped up and leaked the month: “We’re looking for 18,000 employees…for the fifth-generation phone,” said the Foxconn recruiter. “Is that because demand is high for the ‘iPhone 5?’” asked the TV reporter. “That’s right. It will come out in June.”

0 digg Flexible Samsung Phones are Wearable Going Commercial 2013

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From what I heard today Samsung with its Flexible AMOLD OLED displays will soon outdate gorilla glass and be wearable 2013. We got a taste of Samsung’s amazing flexible OLED displays at CES in 2011. According to some Samsung peeps the flexible OLED will be going commercial in 2013 (dates are unknown as of now). They also say screens can be bent so a user can wear them on their arm or rest them on their shirt. No immediate detailsbut who needs gorilla glass anymore… Yes its unbreakable to a hammer! Check the videos below:

Samsung’s Flexible AMOD OLED screens in 2011 – Going Commercial 2013 according to talk:

Samsung’s OLED Display Undergoing A HAMMER TEST 

Google TV coming to Europe in September

Google TV will be launching in Europe and other parts of the world in September. Sony will manufacture and sell two different Google TV-based consumer products, according to a report by Les Echos via GigaOM.

A standard set-top box will retail for €200 ($266) while a premium model featuring a Blu-ray player will command €300 ($399). Echos notes that Google TV is confirmed to launch in France and could additionally be released in Germany, Spain and the U.K. simultaneously.

The report further highlights the inclusion of a Google Play button on the remote control that will direct users to Google’s app and content stores. Sony is getting in on the action, too, by bundling their Music Unlimited on-demand library with each system.

Google TV launched in October 2010 stateside with products from both Sony and Logitech. The devices received less than stellar reviews with many critics feeling that Google missed the mark initially. The high price tag was also detrimental to the product’s success and as such, Logitech announced in November 2011 that they would stop making their Revue Google TV unit after losing more than $100 million on it.

Google is expected to release a second generation of Google TV products later this year that will use ARM processors instead of pricier chips from Intel. But as GigaOM highlights, the pricing for international models doesn’t seem to reflect this much. Manufacturers are said to include LG, Samsung and Vizio in addition to Sony.

RIM launches Mobile Fusion for BlackBerry, iOS, Android devices

Fresh from its promise of focusing more on their traditional corporate customers, Research In Motion has announced the release of its BlackBerry Mobile Fusion software today, which will enable companies to manage iOS and Android devices through the same servers used for BlackBerry smartphones and the Playbook tablet. That includes configuring devices with email and calendar access, creating groups, establishing security policies, managing lost phones, controlling roaming to avoid pricey fees, and more.

RIM is offering a 60-day free trial for the new service and after that a Client Access License will cost $99 per user plus an additional $4 per user a month, with discounts available for bulk orders.

The move is an acknowledgement of the rise of competing OSs in the enterprise market. Although this is still a strong point for the Canadian handset maket, which appeals to big organizations because of its famed security advantages, many users have switched to Android and iOS as companies start to embrace BYOD (bring your own device) policies either to save cash or take advantage of the wealth of apps available.

As a result companies are looking to Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync and other third-party services to manage a mixed environment of devices. Mobile Fusion is RIM's response to this reality.

Compatibility with Apple iOS and Google Android will also add further weight to rumors that RIM is planning to release services like its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on to competitors' devices. Unfortunately, there's was no mention of such plans in today's announcement, so this remains purely speculation for now.