The iPhone 6 was released recently. It has new features, and apparently an increased environmental commitment...
Apple unveiled their much awaited iPhone 6 at a live-streamed event from Cupertino, California.
The new iPhone, which becomes available for purchase September 19th in the U.S, Australia and other selected countries, has a range of new features including better cameras, better battery life, barometers to sense elevation (yes...because I often think I need one of those), its faster, and the screen is laminated to a single crystal of sapphire, the hardest transparent material after diamond.
Oh, and not only is there going to be a regular sized 6, you will have the option of a 6 plus too. I guess it's somewhere between and iPhone and an iPad.
Well, that's all great! and I'm sure heaps of tech-heads are extremely excited, but Apple also unveiled some increased environmental commitments relating to the new iPhone which are worth a mention. Though, maybe not as exciting to some as a PLUS sized iPhone.
Grist reports, that according to the live-streamed event "Apple’s commitment to the environment includes a mercury-free, arsenic-free, and beryllium-free iPhone 6, among other things. This follows the company’s official ban, a few weeks ago, of benxene and n-hexane — two toxic chemicals previously used in the final assembly of Apple products."
Unfortunately, Apple haven't sorted out solar screens just yet, which would allow iPhone 6 owners to be a walking energy source. There was certainly a bit of disappointment about that...
If #Iphone6 can´t be recharged by solar energy then don´t talk about innovations! #applelive — Bengü (@_bngzdmr) September 09, 2014
The world is waiting for # iPhone6 & it's not even # solar !? Shame on # Apple ! A # popularity like that is a golden mean for # ecology ! # Politics Pierre belianin (@yamsala) September 09, 2014
But, let's face the music here, for all of Apple's environmentally responsible claims, there isn't yet such a thing as an eco-friendly phone, especially one without an easily replaceable battery.
However, reducing toxic chemicals used in the production, and in the product itself, is a good step by Apple, as such chemicals are a huge environmental problem should mobiles end up in landfills at the end of their life (p.s don't throw out your Apple products or any mobiles for that matter, recycle them!!!).
So to conclude, we wouldn't call the new iPhone 6 'green', but perhaps it will be Apple's 'greenest' smartphone yet.