-Hey, I'm Mark Licea and this week, high tech trash bins, the Empire State Building gets a makeover, and a not so intense phone.
The Green Show starts now.
There's a lot of new cool phones coming out and, hey, the Samsung Intensity may not be as intense as the name suggests, but the packaging and phone are made from recycled materials.
Jessica Dolcourt has more.
-We've got a 2.2-inch QVGA display with a pretty sharp clear resolution.
One unique element is the default menu which favors pictures and icons over a standard list to show off the phone's software features.
Below the screen is the fairly cramped navigation array.
Below that, the smallish size dial pad gives off the feeling of sufficient space by covering upwards but a diagonal slant makes the keys easy to press.
On the back, there's a 1.3-megapixel camera with a vanity mirror,
the external speaker and an infrared light that's used in the camera's night vision mode.
Back on the front, there are two buttons that become soft keys when you slide open the QWERTY keyboard.
The keyboard itself is compact but easy to get around.
The texting shortcut button is a definite plus.
Inside, you'll find texting and MMS, instant messaging, and mobile e-mail for a variety of e-mail providers.
Just be forewarned that it costs $5 to download the app.
There's also a free app for social networks.
You'll also find a pretty basic music player with support for V CAST music with Rhapsody, but you'll have to download via the PC before transferring music to your phone.
There's turn-by-turn navigation, a Bing search app, and voice commands as well.
Call quality was mostly fine, but there were definitely moments of weakness.
The Intensity 2 comes in deep gray and metallic blue.
It costs $49.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new 2-year customer agreement with Verizon.
-The Xbox 360 has a new chip and Microsoft says it's low power.
The special chip integrates the CPU and GPU cores, similar to the way Intel makes their core i3 and i5 processors.
That's why the new Xbox 360 is less noisy than the previous generation.
Microsoft and IBM say the total power savings account for close to 43%.
And the Empire State Building is getting ready to cut their energy use by 38%.
The plan is to revamp the 6514 double hung window frames.
The cost is around $20 million but reports say this will shrink the annual utility bill of $11 million.
The retrofit program is expected to pay for itself in 3 years.
And Cleveland residents should be extra careful about recycling.
If not, their trash bins will rat them out.
Cleveland is starting a program that uses high tech waste containers embedded with special chips.
If the recycling cart is not rolled out regularly on to the curb, then trash collectors will go through the bins and make sure said resident is recycling.
Trash bins with more than 10% recyclable materials will mean a $100 fine so while it does pay to recycle, you will pay if you don't recycle.
That's the show for this week.
I'm Mark Licea, thanks for watching.
