Nokia kicks off aggressive recycling program, Nokia Chat, and E71 further usage thoughts
Nokia must have peeked in my desk drawer recently as they recently issued a press release stating that only 3% of the people recycle their mobile phones and have lots lying around at home they no longer use. I keep some for comparison photos and others for nostalgia because they are part of my mobile history while I give others to family and friends. As a part of this new Nokia program, the Nseries Blogger Relations program asked that we send any phones back that are no longer being used for evaluation for passing out to other bloggers or recycling so I sent back a couple of the devices to clear out my drawer a bit. I think it is great that Nokia is focusing attention to and dedicating efforts to their we:recycle program.
The survey that Nokia discusses in the press release stated that one of the main reasons people do not recycle old phones is that they don't know that they can do so. Nokia stated that up to 80% of any Nokia device is recyclable and precious materials can be reused to make kitchen kettles, park benches, dental fillings and more. I wonder if I have an old Nokia phone in my mouth now :) Interestingly, the plastics that can't be recycled are burned to provide energy for the recycling process. Nokia does a great job of keeping materials out of the landfill and I plan to recycle all of my old Nokia devices.
Check out the we:recycle site to see if you have a local recycle station and if you are in the U.S. you can use this Nokia site to get a pre-paid shipping label to return your phone for recycling at no cost to you.
In other Nokia news, my buddy Jonathan let me know about a cool new application that is available for select Nokia S60 devices from the Nokia Beta Labs. Nokia Chat helps you connect using real-time location via an instant message, lets you use Nokia Maps to choose where you want to publish your presence and updates your location when you arrive, update your status so friends know what you are up to, and IM with your buddies (including voice message support).
Nokia Chat has been tested with the Nokia N95 8GB, N95, N82, N81 8GB, N81, N76, E71, E66, E51, 6290, 6120 Classic, 6110 Navigator and should also work with the Nokia E90 Communicator, 6124 classic, 6121 Classic, 5700 XpressMusic devices. You need to download and install a support file and then the mobile client. I am running it on my new Nokia E71 right now.
Speaking of the Nokia E71, I can't get over the superb quality and slim form factor of the device. The stainless steel and very functional keyboard has me doubting any upcoming device can knock it out of my hands anytime soon. I am also discovering some very cool functionality in the software that makes the device even more usable and productive. For example, the new Home/standby screen has a load of customization options and one of my favorites is the notifications that appear in little boxes along the bottom of the display. When a text message arrives you can quickly select it with the Navi-pad and move right to call the person back, text message them, MMS them, or even send an audio message. Email senders, subject, and time sent for the last 4 messages appear when you select a mailbox on the Home screen too.
At first I didn't think there would be much use for the mode switching utility, but after talking with Jonathan I think it may actually be useful for having a media and business setup to quickly switch between.
The video quality could be better, but this is an Eseries device and it has pretty good media support and isn't really targeted towards the power media features. Now, something like the N95 with a SureType keyboard may appeal to me as well since I am finding that a hardware keyboard (either QWERTY or SureType) is my preference.