Gizmodo: standby

IntelliScreen Brings Useful Widgets to iPhone's Home Screen

Jason Chen — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:30:00 EDT

Instead of just staring the time, date and your choice of wallpaper when you start up the iPhone, why not make it more Windows Mobile-y by putting useful information there*? The app IntelliScreen lets you show either your upcoming calendar items, recent emails, recent text messages, the weather, or even an RSS feed up on the standby screen, letting you see what you need to see without even unlocking your phone. Useful? Definitely. Cluttered? For sure.

It's also in beta, and may crash or even wipe some of your data if it conflicts with some of your other apps. Be careful.

* Yes this is one of the few times that people want to make the iPhone more like Windows Mobile.

[ModMyiPhone via Just Another iPhone Blog via Lifehacker]

Philips Xenium Clamshell Yaps For a Month

Jason Chen — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 21:15:09 EST

Philips drops another handset in their Xenium 9@9 cellphone line for those people who never remember to charge their phones. Instead of a candybar form factor, however, this Xenium 9x9 is a clamshell with a brushed metal finish and a 262K OLED display, but still has the ability to last up to 30 days on standby.

Other than the extremely long battery life, there's not much else to the phone. There's a 1.3-megapixel camera, 18MB of internal memory, GSM Tri-Band, and a secondary outside OLED display. Great if you just want a phone, but mediocre if you want to do anything beyond calling.

– Jason Chen

New Philips Xenium 9×9s clamshell. 30 days on stand-by too [UnwiredView]

UK to Outlaw Standby On TVs and Video Devices

Jason Chen — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 21:00:03 EDT

In the same vein as the California Vampire Slayer Act, the British government is set to force manufacturers to dump the "Standby" status on their TV, video, and DVD products. That means your PS2 is either On or Off, not half-on, sucking power and waiting for you to play a little Gran Turismo.

The UK's "Energy Review" says that standby causes 8% of all power use in homes. That's quite a lot when you consider all the other things people are doing—watching TV, using their computers, and turning on their really inefficient incandescent light bulbs.

Lighting, set-top boxes, televisions, chargers, fridges, freezers, washing machines and computers were highlighted as wasteful products that must be redesigned to save power.

Bye bye standby! – Jason Chen

[Times Online via Tree Hugger]

California Passes Vampire Slayer Act

Jason Chen — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 14:41:04 EDT

Why are Californians worried about Vampires, and why should it matter to us? These vampires aren't the David Boreanaz kind, instead, California Lawmakers are referring to electronics that suck power when they're plugged in even when they're not being used.

DVD Players, battery chargers, and game consoles are culprits of having standby modes that draw power when not in full use. This recently introduced bill requires electronic makers to label their devices to show how much power is being drawn when in standby mode. Pretty useful information that all of us gadget fans could benefit from.

At a press conference before the Assembly vote, Levine had a large table festooned with electronic devices — cell phones, Play Station controls, a toothbrush, Tivo, a stereo system. Cloves of garlic were scattered among the devices.

Only in California. – Jason Chen

Law would bring vampire devices out of the dark Idle electronics that consume power a target of legislation [SF Chronicle]