Sure, you probably need the newest iPhone for some reason or another, but have you considered whether or not your smart phone is Fair Trade?

They seem harmless enough, if not downright necessary. Can you even name one person you know who doesn’t own a smart phone? They’re more prevalent than landlines ever were. Can you remember when payphone booths were like, things on streets people actually used? We’re such a savvy future culture these day. If only we were civilized, too.

Today’s communications happen via smart phone technology—be they texts, Tweets, Snapchats instant messaging, or yes, even the occasional phone call (kids, ask your parents). But at what cost?

According to The Conversation, mobile phones contain “rare minerals that are often linked with violent conflicts, and many of them are produced in “difficult conditions by low-paid factory workers.” Kinda ruins the mood for a selfie just a little bit. “Part of the problem is that we really feel like we have no choice but to buy a phone.” The Conversation asks, “Can we realistically expect to ‘go without’ a phone, when our work, family and friends expect us to be available at all times? And when our carrier invites us to upgrade our phone for next to nothing every two years, what incentive do we have to slow down?”

We may no longer have the option of foregoing smart phones altogether, but we can opt for a smarter phone, like the Fairphone, which has emphasized its production process as its sole marketing strategy.

While not yet available in the U.S., Fairphone is picking up momentum in Europe. The first production run sold out completely (a meager 25,000 of the 1.7 billion phones sold last year, but it’s a step in the right direction). And the company is excited by the potential. The trend has even caught on a bit with Motorola and it’s “Ara” phone, “their attempt to provide a less destructive alternative,”  notes The Conversation. “The Ara phone is modular, meaning that people can use 3D printers from their homes to replace core technological components as needed and switch aesthetic parts such as the housing at leisure.”

Technology is moving our communication devices forward by leaps and bounds. It’s only a matter of time before our ethics catch up and impractical, wasteful smart phone devices go the way of phone booths too.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Images via gizmag

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Whether it’s a busy workday or an international adventure, one thing’s pretty much guaranteed: your phone will be dead or dying when you need it the most. Here are some easy ways to power up fast and preserve battery life.

We all know the feeling: you’re lost, or bored, or observing an adorable moment. You pull out your amazing smartphone to get directions, play a game, or snap a picture, and you hear the dreaded beep. A beep that tells you your battery is on its last bar. You need power, and now! What do you do?

Smartphones add features almost faster than the market can keep up, but the feature that hasn’t really improved that much is battery life. Depending on how many bells and whistles you have running at any given time, your smartphone is likely to become real dumb before the day is over.

Thankfully, there are some tricks to extending battery life, and charging quickly when your phone is needed immediately. Study them well and share liberally–you’ll be the hero of your airport gate crowd.

1. Switch to airplane mode when charging

Switching to airplane mode disables all of your phones transmitting functions–no internet, no apps. This means all available power heads directly to the battery. You won’t be able to get any calls or texts during this time, but you’ll get the biggest charge out of the few minutes you can stay connected to the outlet.

2. Turn off radios you aren’t using

If you can’t go completely incommunicado, just disable GPS, Wifi, and Bluetooth functions (most advanced smart phones make it easy to pick and choose). On the iPhone this is in the Settings menu under Location Services. Lots of apps are constantly using GPS to determine your location, even if you’re not actively using the app. Disabling these functions ensures you can still get a call or text, but you’ll preserve power and charge faster.

3. Dim your screen

Most new phones come with the screen brightness cranked up high because it makes images on the screen look amazing. Unfortunately, that much light takes a big bite out of your battery. Set your screen’s brightness at half-mast or below. You’ll still be able see calls and emails, and your battery will thank you.

4.  Limit notifications

Do you need to know every time someone likes a picture on Facebook or makes a move on Words with Friends? Limiting or disabling app notifications, especially those that update often like Twitter or email, can slow battery drain and reduce the amount of times a day you turn on the screen to find out which app is alerting you. Set them to only ping once (in the case of email or text) or not at all.

5. Pay for apps

That’s right. Research suggests that free, ad-supported apps drain battery life. In one case, 75 percent of an app’s energy consumption was used just to power the ads! That’s enough to turn anyone into an Angry Bird. If you know you’ll be using an app frequently, shell out the  buck or two for the add-free version. Your battery will thank you.

Image: ishane

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The digital age has irrevocably changed the way we communicate, but has it also changed the way we view our friends and relationships?

What’s in a name? In the olden days, when telephones were things that stayed at home connected by wire to a socket in the wall, we all knew by heart the numbers of our closest friends. It was comforting, almost poetic: first name surname number number number, like the rhythmical beat of a train on the tracks. The sound of the phone number of my mother’s house from my childhood, long confined to history and newly replaced with another, longer, less sing-songily elegant number, still invokes in me a feeling of comfort and warmth.
These days, the phone and user have switched places and the phone is definitely in control: I have no idea how to get hold of my parents without my mobile showing me the way. I feel anxious if I leave the house without it, not because I suffer from some kind of modern day Hyper Communication Syndrome, but because if I got lost I would never ever ever be able to find my way back again. Whom would I call? How would I call them? Even if I found a pay phone, what number would I dial?

And worse, I don’t even know anyone’s surname any more so I couldn’t look anyone up. Scrolling through my phone book is like a hilarious litany of drunken nights out, but not very useful for actually getting hold of anyone.

My friend Jen, who I met while organising a friend’s hen party and who was charged with making a cake for said party, is listed as Jen Hen Cake. I’ve now known her for nearly five years. No idea what her name really is.

Caroline Jo is Caroline who was met through Jo. Sophie Tattoo has lots of tattoos. Jenny Flapper Dress was met…well in truth I have no idea who Jenny Flapper Dress is. Maybe I’ll text her and find out.

My husband, my actual husband to whom I am married and share a surname, is listed in my phone as Toby Drums. I met him while he was playing the drums in another friend’s band.

There is a theory that says a person’s name influences their role in society. J. W. Splatt and D. Weedon were the authors of an article on incontinence the British Journal of Urology. The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is named Igor Judge.
But nominative determinism is not new. It is, in fact, how all surnames came to exist in the first place. Frank Johnson was John’s son. James Fletcher put the fletching on arrows. Dave Cooper made barrels. All these names were given to identify, to allow others to know their place in society.

Even early in the 1900s, thousands of immigrants to England from Europe changed their surnames in order to better find their place. My grandfather was one of them, changing his Polish name (Schakowsky) to something considerably more Anglicised (Lewis) in order to more fully assimilate into his adopted country.

And today, parents agonise for nine long months to come up with the perfect name for their children, but by the time we get to school we all end up being called what our classmates want to call us, anyway. We all nestle neatly in to a niche somewhere and it makes sense that our names end up reflecting that.

These mutating identities are nothing new, it’s just that now we record things in a different way, often a much more public way (see: Facebook, Twitter, blogs).

It would be easy to assume that our relationships must be diminished because of this loss of personal information. How can you possibly be proper friends with someone if you don’t even know their surname, if you can’t possibly recall their mobile from memory? I would argue that these things are simply the natural evolution of language and culture, and while I don’t expect Jen Whateverhernameis to suddenly and officially change her name to Jen Hen Cake, it is a connection we share, a way we become more fully assimilated into our social circle, a sign of affection that I do actually know who she is and what she does, and our friendship is better for it. Even if I can only maintain it on speed dial.

What do people call you and why, or what odd names have you found in your phone book?

Image: Pink Poppy Photography

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