The 2010 Toyota Prius IV isn’t the type of automobile that car aficionados lust after. Rather, it’s the type of car that those who only want to get from Point A to Point B will love because it’s fuel efficient and reminiscent of a luxury sedan. That’s not to say that it is a luxury vehicle, because it’s not, but the Prius IV has a number of comfort features that aim to impress: heated leather seats, good sound system, rear-view camera, sun roof, and vent-powering solar panel.

(Let’s clarify for a moment: we’re talking about the Prius IV, not the more basic I, II, or III packages. The differences between these may be slight, but to be fair, it’s the IV and V that are reminiscent of a luxury car, whereas the other packages can be significantly more spartan.)

It’s a hybrid.

For us, coming off a Volkswagen R32, the difference in performance is significant. The trade-off is obvious, however: a more quiet ride, with twice the mileage per tank and half the price. That trade-off may not be appealing if you’re prone to aggressive driving with open stretches, but in metropolitan areas where traffic patterns are dense, with fun escapes from this traffic being rare, then having a car without much oomph isn’t a huge issue, as long as basic driver comfort is met. And here, the Prius IV delivers fairly well.

And let’s be honest, that twice-the-distance-half-the-price thing is pretty awesome. With basic unleaded gas (87), we’re talking $25 for a fill-up, which gets us over 500 miles of range. Considering that the only other car to do that is the now-discontinued and very compact original Honda Insight, the Prius naturally wins the MPG race, and does so packing more people/stuff.

When we first looked at the 2010 Prius, the salesperson was keen on pointing out that the car had three driving modes. One was the “EV” mode, for forcing the car to run only on the battery. “Eco” mode was next, for focusing on best gas mileage. Third was “power” mode, for getting more juice to the wheels. Let’s be fair, though: in real-world use, you’re only going to use the second mode most of the time, because power mode doesn’t really add that much spin to your wheels, and EV mode shuts itself off when you go beyond a certain speed/acceleration, or if the air conditioner is up in high gear. So really, EV mode may be fine for just cruising around the parking lot, and maybe you’ll push the power mode button when trapped between two trailers on the freeway, but slowing down to a snail’s pace or putting the petal to the metal as it were accomplishes both of these things as well; eco-mode will automatically draw power only from the battery at low speeds, and provide more juice from the engine when needed. Perhaps giving consumers the perception of micromanagement is helping sales, but these options feel almost silly to us.

We assume that for power-management purposes, Toyota pulled the daytime running lights from the Prius, despite the fact that models such as the Matrix come standard with this feature: it’s a safety feature, after all. We can’t imagine that the power draw is that big of an issue, especially since the car will never be sucking battery juice exclusively when not cruising a parking lot. The mystery continues when you forget to leave the Prius’ lights on when the car is off, because unlike most other cars on the market now, the Prius doesn’t complain with an audible beep – the lights just stay on.

A cool family car.

The Prius IV is now considered an intermediate sized-car, up from the “compact” footprint that hybrids were previously known for. With four doors and adequate cabin room to fill the back seats, the Prius can make for a good family car, whether that means you have kids or just a backseat-filling dog. The rear seats fold down completely, and by “completely” we mean that they don’t angle upwards towards the front of the cabin, so sliding furniture or boxes or whatever else in is easy. There’s also no drop behind a lip when the trunk is open, again making for easy loading and unloading of whatever you plan to haul around. This is a solid hatch-back feature, and it’s a wonder that other car companies haven’t come around to this, as it really complements the already-spacious interior.

Locks on the Prius IV are keyless, as is starting the engine. There’s a key-fab that’s proximity-based, so as long as the fab is on your person, you can lock and unlock doors just by touching the car’s door handle(s). It’s a nice feature with a physical override in the event that you key-fab’s battery dies, and the effect of keyless entry is another space-age touch that makes the Prius cool.

Inside, the Prius doesn’t disappoint aesthetically – the dash is full of sexy, mesmerizing LCDs, letting you see where the car’s power is currently coming from (battery or engine), and not even displaying things such as RPMs, as most people could care less about this in the first place. This is indicative of the Prius’ market: not gear-heads, but people who appreciate a clean interface and straightforward usability. Were it not for the lack of little touches here or there, the Prius could almost be considered the Macintosh of cars.

Unfortunately, as space-age looking as the interior is, it’s not perfectly polished: the leather trim is minimal beyond the seats, with much of the dash and doors trimmed in a hard, patterned plastic. It doesn’t look bad, but it doesn’t look as clean as leather either, and while likely more durable in the long run, it doesn’t feel particularly robust when giving some areas a slight push and not feeling much resistance.

The car’s climate controls are nice, but aimed at the front seats. Rear passengers have it tough during very hot or very cold weather, because there are no rear vents – not even under the seats. Even our R32 which had little space in the back seats had vents beneath the front seats and at the rear of the center console. That the Prius, which is a larger car aimed more at a family market doesn’t have this, is almost ludicrous. “But WyldKard, we’ve had cars for decades without rear vents, and our rear passengers have made out just fine. ” We’ve made out fine without power steering for decades too, but that doesn’t mean modern cars should shirk this feature today.

The nav-stereo.

The stereo with built-in navigation is pretty good considering just how poor most stock navigation systems are. The downside is that a number of features are disabled when the car is in motion, such as entering an address or manipulating bluetooth controls for wirelessly connecting to, say, an iPhone. The nice thing is that none of these features require add-ons, which was the case with our R32 and bluetooth telephony. It’s pretty stupid for a car manufacturer to disable features temporarily under the guise of safety, however, when real-world use cases mean that a passenger should be able to use the navigation equipment when the car is in motion. In this sense, it’s rather sad that the car detects the presence of a passenger for the purpose of enabling the passenger airbag, but that this same detection mechanism isn’t used to unlock navigation controls.

The stereo itself is good – not as good sounding as the premium system that came stock in our previous 2005 Ford Mustang GT, but with adequate base nonetheless. Control-wise, the Prius IV’s stereo is fantastic, and truly shows how much better touch-screen interfaces are than the pitiful controls on our R32 were. Surely, it’s no iOS interface still, but it’s better than much of the competition.

Speaking of iOS, the Prius IV’s stereo connects to iOS devices via A2DP, letting you listen to any audio from an iOS device (not just from the iPod app), as well as letting you make and receive calls using the car’s speaker system. Thus far, no one we’ve talked to in this manner even knew we were calling from the car, and assumed we were using our Jawbone headset or stock iOS hardware. So good and convenient are these calls, that we haven’t recharged our bluetooth headset since setting the car’s bluetooth connection up.

Unfortunately, while the bluetooth connectivity is solid 80% of the time, there’s the occasional glitch. Normally, as soon as we turn the car on, bluetooth connectivity is achieved and playback from whatever audio app we used last resumes, be it from the iPod app or Pandora. Every once in awhile, however, we have to run through a couple menus to get bluetooth to work properly, and while even rarer, there are times that bluetooth playback of our music suddenly stops, and we have to disconnect the device manually and reconnect it using the car’s stereo interface (when the car is stopped). We don’t know where the problem lies, as it may be an issue with Apple’s bluetooth implementation or Toyota’s, but it’s annoying either way. Fortunately, the only time we regularly have to touch the car’s bluetooth settings is when ours was not the last device used, such as if our significant other used the Prius with her iPhone. In those cases, when we start the car up, we have to tell it to look for our iPhone instead, but then we’re off five seconds later with streaming audio goodness.

Mandatory conclusion paragraph.

We didn’t get a chance to play around with previous Prius incarnations, but judging the car on it’s 2010 build, the Prius IV is every bit as comfortable as other “premium” cars in its price range. What you give up is base performance, but most families don’t care about raw performance as much as safety anyway. What they care about is getting from one place to another, and these days, doing it as cheaply as possible. Raw fuel savings may not be spectacular compared to a cheaper, non-hybrid car that’s still considered fuel efficient, but the Prius epitomizes fuel efficiency in a package that greenies can put on a pedestal for not supporting terrorism and being slightly more earth-friendly.

While the Prius still takes top honors among “alternate fuel vehicles,” we realize that’s partially because the respective roster is so thin right now. As this roster grows, the Prius will have to keep getting better, not just in respect to its hybrid engine, but in terms of features and polish as well. Right now, the Prius IV is slightly above middle-ground when it comes to in-car comfort, meaning that Toyota has a solid platform for building more budget-oriented vehicles, or more premium models. Whether the Prius maintains its position as Toyota’s flagship standard for hybrids remains to be seen, but with only a little more polish, we easily see it holding its ground for the immediate future, especially if other titans like Honda aren’t able to quickly capitalize on hybrid technology (e.g. the Insight’s sad resurrection).

Oh, also, the Prius’ brakes seem to work fine, in case you were wondering.

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Granted, America is a place where people tend to buy things they want rather than need, or often, can even afford, but let’s not go down that road. Instead, let’s look at a point Trent recently made over at The Simple Dollar:

A few years ago, there was a very widely circulated statistic from the National Association of Home Builders about the increase in home sizes over the last sixty years. According to their numbers, the average American home grew from 983 square feet in 1950 to 2,434 square feet in 2005.

For those who don’t want to do the math, that’s almost a 250% increase in home sizes over the course of 50 years. This begs the question as to whether or not this kind of increase is really necessary, or if it’s simply a reflection of the typical homeowner wanting to show off their spoils, even if these spoils are little more than real-estate gluttony.

When one looks at the chief differences in lifestyle from the 1950s to the modern era, a couple things spring to mind. For one, it’s become less common for middle-class children to share one room. Two, entertainment centers, namely televisions, have increased substantially in size from the 1950s, suggesting that home living rooms should become longer. Thirdly, with the widespread proliferation of vehicles, with most dual-income households having two cars, space required to park them has no doubt increased.

Still, the 250% bump in size isn’t warranted even with these considerations; a separate bedroom for a second child adds less than 150 square feet in most cases. For a big-screen LCD television, the viewing distance of approximately 10 feet, at most, should certainly add less than 100 square feet to even a modest living room, and we’d need even less than that to bump up the size of a one-car garage to be two-car friendly. In other words, the rampant bloat of houses today is simply unpurposeful, unless one is content with the realization that larger homes basically serve as easy-access storage for one’s acquired junk.

With smaller homes comes a built-in need for less materialism. That’s the simple truth when one stays away from buying, say, unnecessary kitchen gadgets because one’s kitchen simply isn’t big enough to house them. That’s on top of the savings from requiring less energy to heat or cool one’s smaller residence. Recently, a friend told us about the 208 light-bulbs required to light their home. Yes, 208. No home for a couple and one child should require that many light-bulbs, especially a home advertised as “Energy Star compliant.” Any good one has done by buying into the Energy Star label is immediately undone by compounding one’s energy needs, whether those needs are served by CFLs or not. We don’t know if LEED certification takes into account the energy needs of a single housing “unit,” but at least LEED certification still means something considering that Energy Star is merely a rough guide for a single energy-using widget. If one doubles the widgets in one’s home, the fact that they’re both Energy Star compliant does not make the duo energy efficient.

While there are many arguments for larger homes, few actually make sense in the end. Even the guest room argument, for example, falls short when one considers the cost of having the extra room in the long-run versus the sum of hotel expenses for occasional visitors.

Of course, this whole discussion would be moot if people invested in slightly larger properties instead of larger houses. This would at least create more space to help green the community, allow space for children to play on, and even to grow gardens. And, unless one lives in the deep south where couches and old appliances can easily be found scattered on one’s front lawn, smaller houses with larger properties would help us minimize the junk we keep around.

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On a daily basis, it seems that the media wants everyone to believe that the American way of life has ended. There are even comparisons, frequently so, about the state of the U.S. today and the state it was in during the Great Depression. There are even some who are convinced that we’re in a depression, and not a simple recession. Meanwhile, even grasping that the economy has turned down of late, we still wonder what the majority of the fuss is about. There are no bread-lines, people, and we are not living in a dust bowl!

Fortunately, more eloquent sense comes from Trent at The Simple Dollar, who agrees that the media is not the best source for information about the financial crisis they keep shouting about. When one breaks down the numbers, things certainly seem less scary:

…the actual unemployment rate changed from 4.9% to 7.2% from December 2006 to December 2007 – a difference of 2.3%. In other words, out of every 100 people I know, two more should be unemployed right now than a year ago – and that’s pretty accurate.

What about consumer spending? Most accounts have consumer spending dropping about 4% during 2008, which makes it appear to be a truly terrible year. However, what’s being left out of that picture is that 2008 had virtually no inflation – almost every other year has at least 3% inflation, which artificially boosts that consumer spending number. In a year with normal inflation, the consumer spending would have appeared unchanged and thus there would be little or no panic about it.

Our experiences are similar to Trent’s: those we know who, during the period of this purported financialpocalypse, lost their jobs, managed to find new ones rather quickly. At present, only a couple people we know haven’t found gainful employment, but that’s not necessarily because jobs don’t exist. Rather, jobs they want don’t exist, but that can be true even when the economy is doing well. (For example, one friend quit her job because she wanted to find a better one on the opposite coast. One friend who lost his job found a better paying one within a couple weeks. And another friend who remains unemployed has turned down a number of admittedly shitty jobs, but has still received job offers.

That’s not to say that very fundamental lifestyle changes shouldn’t take effect in the U.S. To the contrary, Americans are consumers of the worst degree, with absolutely no comprehension of sustainability or future impact. That’s in great part because for the last hundred years, Americans have managed to piss away money on consumer goods, and live a disposable lifestyle that simply cannot exist long-term. This goes hand-in-hand with financial sustainability, and why we urge the new Presidential administration to pimp, quite severely, a green infrastructure. While such an initiative is certainly no magical bullet, it would certainly steer the U.S. in the right direction, and with firm lifestyle education beside it, will ensure we don’t succumb to our man-made cancers.

In the meantime, stop comparing today with the Great Depression. It’s just… depressing.

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According to the Washington Street Journal, “green” company Dell is, at best, doing a bit of green washing, what with their declarations of being the first carbon neutral computer company. The truth is, Dell’s not very green at all. In fact, Dell hasn’t take considerable strides in environmental sustainability at all, and though they’re purchasing environmental credits, what they should be doing is overhauling how their products are made and distributed, and how their buildings are powered.

Again, it’s great that some thought has been put into a cleaner environment by Dell, but considering Dell’s size and profit margin, there’s no reason consumers shouldn’t expect much, much more.

As we noted in the past, computers are inherently not green, but that’s in great part because of industry-made decisions, not because they couldn’t be wholly cleaner to produce. And really, it’s a shame that the media often paints companies like Apple and Dell as greening their practices, when what we’re seeing are baby steps at best. That slow start should certainly be expected, but it’s time to pick up some steam, and low-power LCDs are not the only course to be taken.
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As fans of machines, we’re inevitable drawn to vehicular transportation, which is why we were crazy enough to buy a 25-year old DeLorean despite already owning two other vehicles. (We won’t chalk the DeLorean up as anti-green though – we’re reusing old stuff!) We also used to own a 2005 Ford Mustang GT, which was one of the most enjoyable rides we’ve ever had. In short, we have nothing against American-made cars (well, some of them), and are actually quite fond of Detroit’s history as the automotive capital of the world.

That said, with American car companies losing money left and right, we don’t agree with bailing the guys at Ford and GM out, not because we don’t appreciate their contributions to the industry, but because we won’t agree with bailing out businesses that seemed to make decisions aimed at purposely going under. For example, with Ford’s steady decline and the obvious rise in green consciousness (what with the Toyota Prius’ great sales), Ford still won’t bring their 65 MPG diesel wonder to the States. Nevermind that Ford’s home base is the United States – Ford America President Mike Fields stated simply, “We just don’t think North and South America would buy that many diesel cars.”

If American car manufacturers don’t want to get on the green bandwagon, they deserve to be doomed.

At the very least, if Ford and GM can’t muster the innovation to compete with Japan on the basic consumer level, then they should ditch that part of their business and instead focus purely on their commercial (truck) and luxury/sports (Mustang, Corvette) offerings. But don’t beg for bailout funds – where is your sense of pride?

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Lately, a number of people we know have gotten onto the weight-loss bandwagon, which to us seems about six-months early since we’re not even close to the holiday season yet, but to each their own. The methods we’ve recently heard for losing weight range from crazy dietary restrictions (like no alcohol!) to long-winded work-out routines. Even more recently, our friend Maxator started what he calls the “hunter gatherer diet”, which effectively cuts out processed sugar and flour, and potatoes. The diet has worked for him, as he’s lost 20 pounds in 30 days, with no other major behavioral modifications other than the types of food he eats.

While some of Maxator’s friends may have been surprised at Maxator’s weight loss resulting from his modified diet, we were less surprised, as his modifications are very similar to those described by other individuals. For example, StrongLifts.com proposes a similarly healthy diet, albeit with the goal to fuel fast muscle growth by increasing protein intake. The core phlosophy at StrongLifts.com is simple: earlier generations didn’t struggle as much with weight because they were constantly working, and the more manual labor done, the greater muscle strength is, and those with greater muscle strength tend to burn fat much quicker/easier than those who are weak and flabby. In other words, by building muscle and not taking in carbs/sugars that can’t easily be burnt off, weight problems will be minimal.

Both Maxator and StrongLifts.com refer to prior generations and their food intake. These comments remind us of Mean Genes, an absolutely excellent book, which we would make required reading if mendax.edu were a reality. In short, Mean Genes is a reflection of man’s behavior as it relates to many years of genetic programming/evolution. In other words, the authors pinpoint why people tend to do certain things based on the things our ancestors had to do to survive. While the scope of the book exceeds the subject of this post, there’s a chapter on health and beauty that refers to the foods modern man is drawn to, and why that is. For example, the western world prizes sugar, to the point where high fructose corn syrup is in a significant percentage of the things we eat and drink. We’re drawn to such sugary substances because ancient man needed a desire for then-rare sugars that occur in nature, such as fruits. These sugars weren’t just tasty, but they were tied to foods that had nutrients necessary for survival. Unfortunately, programmed to seek out sugar, modern man indulges in all-too-accessible sugars, which corporations exploit easily.

The point? Cutting down on sugars that we don’t need will help us regain a healthy balance in regards to our food intake. The willpower to do so isn’t always easy, but as Maxator has shown, is quite possible to gather. What we find comment-worthy about his ordeal isn’t the focus on weight-loss, however, but rather in the premise that natural foods are inherently better for consumption that unnatural ones. For example, a major tenet of his diet is the lack of processed sugars and flour, which many organic eaters have touted for years.

For those who don’t know about processed sugars, we’re not simply talking high-fructose corn syrup, though that’s obviously one of the worst kinds of sweeteners. Rather, even table-sugar is processed, which is immediately evident in its coloration: “pure” sugar isn’t white, it’s brown-ish. In fact, cane sugar is bleached just like flour is, to give it that super-clean unnatural whiteness that people are so fond of. In the case of flour, the processing is even worse, because not only is flour bleached, but most of its nutrients are ripped clean in the process. That’s why ingredients like “whole wheat flour” are so important, whereas the lack of the words “whole wheat” tends to refer to a much less healthy product. As for sugar, if cancer-inducing Splenda is not one’s cup of tea (it’s certainly not ours), consider using raw cane sugar, which can be found in most grocery stores, and also served in little brown packets at many cafes (Peets and Starbucks included). For home use, there’s also organic blue agave nectar, a syrupy substance that sweetens foods and drinks beautifully.

The health benefits of eating naturally aren’t the only gains for an individual, however: natural foods tend to taste better than processed foods also. For example, while we grew up drinking milk, at one point we stopped drinking a glass of milk a day, and for decades never considered going back. Sure, we’d eat dairy products and even put milk in our espresso drinks, but we simply didn’t find milk tasty enough to drink solo. That is, until recently, when we first realized just how much better whole milk was than the needlessly skim milk most Americans buy, and later in just how much better organic (and especially raw) milk tastes than the processed crap found in most stores.

It’s easy enough to point at natural foods as hippy foods, but this is a misnomer: they’re legacy foods that technocrats deemed unnecessary in order to promote capitalism and production over time-tested health benefits. That’s not to say that processed foods are without nutrients entirely, merely that they’re sapped of many nutrients one could otherwise find in a natural counterpart. And that’s not hippy, it’s ancestral.

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A few months back, we commented on the slow baby-steps the computer industry is taking to green consumer computers, which comes across as one-part morality and one-part bandwagon-hopping at best. Take Dell’s Studio Hybrid PC for example, which was last reported to have an external bamboo casing as a sign of how green it is. Now, however, the Studio Hybrid PC is advertised as having interchangeable color sleeves for personalization, “or one in bamboo”. So much for a steadfast green initiative, Dell.

While the Studio Hybrid PC may very well be greener than the typical desktop machine thanks to containing recycled materials, the details of this greening are slim on Dell’s site, which isn’t much of a surprise considering the final “bamboo-optional” product. Third-party storage company Fabrik recently touted their [re]drive, an external hard drive with a bamboo/recycled aluminum chassis which acts as a heat-sink as well as a drive enclosure. That’s a basic concept we can get behind, but with bamboo in abundance, why aren’t more companies focusing on using easily-sustainable materials instead of even bothering with recycled aluminum, particularly when we all know that not everyone recycles their aluminum anyway? If anything, save the metals for where they’re important, like in the actual hard drive.

That’s not to say that the green initiatives of Dell, Fabrik, and other companies aren’t appreciated, but let’s not over-appreciate them, either. Consumer electronics are notoriously dirty creatures that spit in the face of sustainability, requiring significant environmental footprints as part of the material mining process, production, and transportation required. With that in mind, there’s little reason that more components of modern computers couldn’t be replaced with greener alternatives like bamboo, particularly with the minimal cost associated with such replacements. Or, we can keep backing petroleum use with every plastic panel we decide to put on our overpriced toys.

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As we expected, the 3G iPhone was released with much fanfare, but we’re not quite sure why. Sure, a 3G data network and GPS sounds good, but there’s a lot of fine-print that Steve Jobs doesn’t want people to see, especially existing iPhone users.

Let’s state the obvious: push e-mail, the enterprise solution, and all the software functionality announced with the 3G iPhone are non-factors for existing iPhone users, because version 2.0 of the iPhone firmware will be available to all iPhone users. As such, these features are not reasons to drop more money on Apple’s latest cellular product. So aside from the software, what else is there?

Ooh, a blue dot. The only software advantage the 3G iPhone does sport is the GPS integration, but this component is somewhat lacking given existing triangulation functionality in the Google Maps program. That’s because as of now, the GPS-aided navigation is poor compared to any stand-alone GPS solution, and arguably worse than most GPS add-ons for notebooks and PDAs as well. Furthermore, the biggest obstacle for the GPS is the lack of an antenna port, making navigation in a car difficult thanks to many State laws banning windshield-mounted accessories. Even if such items are legal to mount on a windshield in one’s State, actually inputting information from a distance is difficult given the iPhone’s interface, which is exactly why an attachable, flexible antenna would be an ideal accessory. As it stands, the 3G iPhone’s GPS is great for people who need GPS on a bicycle or are foot in non-urban areas, but for everyone else, money is better spent on a real GPS. At least photos can be geo-tagged more accurately now, and real GPS software should eventually be available in the iTunes store.

2X? Apple can’t even advertise their 3G speed claims appropriately. On the 3G page, they list a speed increase over EDGE as 2.4X in large letters, but in smaller print, identify the speed as 2X faster (as per Apple’s front page). So which is it? How about “not really as close to wi-fi speeds as we lead people to believe”? AT&T’s HSDPA “3G network” is already getting some bad press, and is even being called 2.5G because of its poor performance. Maybe holding out for T-Mobile’s 3G network isn’t such a bad idea after all, even if it won’t be available nation-wide until late this year. On the plus side, if one really thinks that their internet use demands twice the speed of EDGE, the 3G iPhone may be worth considering, but since Apple’s advertised speeds are likely best-case scenarios, it’s doubtful that real-world use will be a fantastically different experience than sticking with EDGE. At least the new iPhones are backwards-compatible with EDGE, which means that T-Mobile users can still see real 3G benefits when overseas.

Size? For a company that is constantly pushing for a better form factor, it’s somewhat ironic that the new iPhone isn’t smaller. Some people are claiming that the 3G iPhone is thinner than the original, but this is false. In fact, the 3G iPhone is actually thicker than the original, which isn’t great news for people who were hoping the new iPhone would be closer to the size of the iPod Touch. Fortunately, the size difference is pretty small between the new and old iPhone, but it’s still disappointing.

Same shitty camera. If it’s one thing the new iPhone ought to have improved on, it’s the camera. The un-recessed headphone jack is nice to see, as is the fact that photos can now be geo-tagged, but the 2MP camera is still laughable, especially considering the fact that Sony Ericsson will drop a 5MP camera on the market shortly with the C902. Meanwhile, the iPhone is sans flash, and has minimal camera functionality. Perhaps this is because Apple wants to let third-party developers release camera features via software, but regardless, the hardware behind the camera is just pathetic, especially at close range.

Cheap for AT&T subscribers. The price cut on the 3G iPhone versus the original sounds great, but for unlockers, or those who don’t want an AT&T subscription (like those who pre-pay), the cheap price of $199 for an 8GB model doesn’t apply. Rather, this price is subsidized by the fact that AT&T gets a two-year subscription commitment. There goes the draw for unlockers, if the process will even be possible on the new hardware (we’re guessing it will be). In-store activations FTL.

Not as cheap for AT&T subscribers. Since AT&T considers their 3G network a luxury, they’re adding $10 to the price of the iPhone data plan. That sucks for any AT&T iPhone user, and is another reason we’re happy we unlocked our iPhone to use on T-Mobile. Our earlier price-savings estimate per month on T-Mobile over AT&T can now be updated to reflect this increase: yes, we’re saving $25/month by not sticking with the status quo.

And this is why iPhone 1.0 will rock more. With AT&T users eager to buy the 3G iPhone, second-hand “original” iPhones will likely sell for very cheap. We should see, very shortly, original 8GB iPhones selling for half the price of the new 3G iPhone ($100), and 16GB iPhones for around $150. That’s a great deal for most iPhone users, who don’t need the poor GPS or twice the network speed.

Unlockers: fear. While technically, unlocking the 3G iPhone shouldn’t be a problem, the fact that the phones can only be purchased at brick ‘n mortar locations will make obtaining one without a contract very difficult. This is great for the Apple/AT&T contract, but pretty crappy for everyone else: lines will be longer at stores, and unlockers will ultimately drive up demand for foreign 3G iPhones and second-hand original iPhones.

Our suggestion for most buyers is to hold onto their old iPhones, and for those who don’t have an iPhone yet, to pick up a second-hand iPhone from the many people looking to pick up the sad improvements in 3G model. Not only will this save one a couple Benjamins, but it will still promote Apple’s saturation into the cell-phone market. And re-use of old technology is always good for the environment. At least, until we all fork over money for next year’s model.

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It’s an alchemical breakthrough: the transmutation of optical media to an older, analog format. According to Boing Boing, Aleks Kolkowski is using a vintage record cutter to cut grooves into CDs/DVDs such that they can be played on a record player. This physical mutilation obviously destroys the ability to keep playing the old CDs/DVDs in their original forms, but for turntable fans, this is a cool function, despite it’s limited applications.

What applications, one asks? For one, DJs who refuse to use newer forms of media will jump at the opportunity to dig out old AOL CDs that they threw in the closet back in 1998. So too will fans of steampunk phonographs jump, merely because of the novelty behind the concept. Others will release their small-label songs in hybrid forms, requiring a turntable to listen to their album’s bonus track.

Then there are those who might actually do this en masse, because gramophones don’t use electricity thanks to their hand-crank technology. This means that reusing otherwise discarded optical discs could very well become the green solution for recorded music playback. All that’s missing is an easy way to obtain a reasonably-sized record cutter, and a reputable gramophone dealer with solid restoration work.

Unfortunately, modern record cutters are quite expensive, even if restored gramophones make it to one’s local flea market. This means that to leverage hand-cranked, recorded music on the cheap, paying for the service to have a record cut onto CD is a more likely scenario than the overhead one would pay for the machine to do it at home.

Considering there’s a pretty cheap way to build a replica phonograph, we’re surprised there’s not a cheaper record cutter on the market. Maybe we just missed it though – anyone have more information?

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We’re not sure how many dead kittens it takes to manufacture a computer, but we happen to think it’s at least a few, at least if the computer can crank out more than a few cycles each second. That is to say, computer innards aren’t exactly grown on trees, so it’s a bit silly to expect them to not spit pollutants into the air/ground/water during their production process, but the green fad is nonetheless growing, and just as we should expect computers to not be the cleanest things on earth, we should certainly expect computer companies to jump on the eco bandwagon.

Forever Geek reports that Dell is one of these green computing forerunners, with the release of their Dell Earth initiative. While Dell’s front page didn’t have any obvious reference to the initiative, some quick digging revealed more information. In short, not only will Dell release an eco-inspired PC later this year, but they plan to become the first carbon neutral computer company. Why this information wasn’t more readily available on Dell’s front page is curious, and begs the question as to whether it truly has the whole company’s support.

In any case, pictures of Dell’s “bamboo computer” can be found at earth2tech, and the concept is worth raising a few eyebrows for. Firstly, some of the materials in the computer are made from recycled parts, while the exterior offers a nice bamboo casing. With the proliferation of greens out on the streets, especially in areas like San Francisco, it’s not a huge leap of logic to assume that these kinds of computers will bring in a ton of sales for Dell, and it’s a shame that other computer manufacturers haven’t announced similar plans. This is especially true for Apple, who seems to be on the forefront of pretty computer designs, and is a logical leader in any emerging green market. Logical as it would seem, however, aside from offering low-power LCDs and downsizing their packaging, Apple’s nowhere to be found with a sweet green concept PC. If anything, a company named after an organic fruit ought to have some natural looking computers out there.

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