Greenpeace hands out green grades

Greenpeace hands out green grades to electronics makers (AFP)

LAS VEGAS (AFP) - Consumer electronics manufacturers are making greener products than a year ago but more progress needs to be made before they can claim a truly environmentally friendly product, Greenpeace said Friday.

In its second greener products survey, "Green Electronics: The Search Continues," the environmental activist group assessed the progress made by consumer electronic companies in greening their products over the past year.

The Greenpeace survey was released at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where manufacturers have been seeking to outdo one another this year in touting how green their products are.

The CES organizers have dedicated a special area in the convention hall to Greener Tech and among the products unveiled here was a mobile phone made of recycled plastic water bottles from Motorola.

For the survey, Greenpeace said 15 companies submitted 50 new products they considered their greenest for evaluation: mobile and smart phones, televisions, computer monitors, notebook and desktop computers, and game consoles.

The products were graded on use of hazardous chemicals, energy efficiency, innovation, promotion of environmental friendliness and lifecycle -- whether they can be recycled and upgraded.

"Progress is being made," said Casey Harrell, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner. "We're no longer having to cajole people about the need for green.

"These companies understand both what green is and the need for it," he said. "We're moving in the right direction."

The Greenpeace survey found that fewer products contain harmful PVC plastic and hazardous chemicals and more post-consumer recycled plastic is being used in televisions and monitors.

Electronics manufacturers are also taking back more used products and engaging in more recycling, Greenpeace said.

But the "race for the green winner is still on," Harrell said.

"We're on the hunt for a truly green product that is free from toxic chemicals and excels in energy efficiency and durability," he said.

"The electronics industry has taken encouraging strides towards increasing the green features on some gadgets over the past year but none stand out in all environmental categories."

Greenpeace said the Lenovo L2440x wide computer monitor scored highest in the monitor category with 6.9 points on a 10 point scale.

Other category leaders were the Sharp LC-52GX5 television (5.92), the Samsung F268 mobile phone (5.45), the Nokia 6210 Smart phone (5.2) the HP Elitebook 2530P laptop (5.48) and the Lenovo ThinkCentre M58 Desktop (5.88).

Submitting products for the survey were Acer, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, RIM/Blackberry, Sharp, Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba.

Greenpeace said the following companies refused to take part: Apple, Asus, Microsoft, Nintendo, Palm and Philips.

Among the green initiatives announced at this year's CES was a joint program by Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba to recycle televisions and other gadgets they sell in the United States.

The global firms on January 15 will begin using an Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management network of 280 locations as collection centers for their products.

The network will have at least one recycling center in each US state and intends to expand to at least 800 drop-off points.

Skype Extends VoIP To Some Mobile Phones

Skype Extends VoIP To Some Mobile Phones, MIDs (NewsFactor)

- Skype is offering its Voice over Internet Protocol service to Android and Java-enabled mobile phones, and to Intel-based Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). This is the first time the software has been released for mobile users in the U.S.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, Skype announced Thursday the release of a light beta version of Skype for Android and Java-based phones. Java-enabled phones include those from LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Call Anywhere

The light version currently does not offer video calls. The capabilities include calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world, sending or receiving instant messages, and making low-rate calls to landline or mobile phones not on the Skype network. Users can also see when their Skype contacts are available online for chatting.

The MID version, also in beta, is for the new category of small consumer devices based on Intel's Atom processor and the Moblin-based Linux operating system. They offer four-to-seven-inch screens, an enhanced Internet experience, and, for some, WiMAX or 3G/4G connectivity.

While Skype on a PC uses an Internet connection, the company pointed out that the light version for mobile phones works where phones work, without needing a Wi-Fi connection. But users do need both calling and data plans from a wireless carrier.

This means the prospect for mobile phones to save on calls via Skype is more complicated than on computers. The company noted that, while the light version requires both air time and data usage, there are no charges for Skype-to-Skype calls or for instant messages to Skype friends. But national calling rates may apply.

'Tension' Between VoIP and Cell Plans

The Skype software is available worldwide, but the company noted that the ability to make Skype-to-Skype calls and low-cost calls to non-Skype landlines and mobile phones are presently only available in 10 countries -- the U.S., the UK, Poland, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo in Brazil, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Australia and New Zealand.

Michael Gartenberg, vice president for consumer strategy at Jupitermedia, pointed out that Skype on mobile devices doesn't necessarily mean carriers' voice plans are obsolete. He noted that it does, however, "illustrate the growing tension between VoIP and regular cell plans."

Gartenberg also said the mobile versions extend the Skype experience, eventually including video calls, that many users regularly have on their computers.

US shifts Visa Waiver Program

US shifts Visa Waiver Program authorization to Internet

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Starting Monday, travelers from 35 countries must request authorization online to enter the United States, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Friday.

The Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) has been applicable since August 2008, but will become compulsory from January 12 for applicable European countries, Japan, South Korea, Brunei, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

These countries are currently exempt from visa requirements to enter the United States for short visits under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). The new program will keep travel to the United States "visa free" for travelers from VWP countries, the DHS said.

Instead of travelers filling out paper I-94 visa waiver cards en route to the United States, the new measure requires online registration.

It is a "free service, the approval comes back very quickly ... it is almost immediate," said DHS spokeswoman Kathleen Kraninger.

Once approved, the waiver is valid for years, she added.

Travelers who fail to fill out the online form "might be delayed at the border," Kraninger said.

The new measure is among the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, which sought to promote laws tightening border security in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The DHS recommends that applications be submitted as soon as an applicant begins making travel plans. Upon authorization, travelers can enter the United States for 90 days for business or pleasure.

Instructions on how to obtain travel authorization are available on the website in 22 languages, including English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.

SIPA,CAT,TOT JOIN FORCE TO MAKE

SIPA, CAT, TOT JOIN FORCE TO MAKE “PHUKET ICT INNOVATION PARADISE PROJECT” THE WORLD’S ICT HUB
	The Information and Communication Technology Ministry (ICT) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA), CAT Telecom Plc., and TOT Plc., the country’s three key ICT promotion organizations, for high-speed communications infrastructure construction to pave the way for the “ICT Innovation Paradise” Project. Following next will be a series of road shows to encourage leading IT firms to invest in research and development center here.
Dr. Mun Patanotai, Information and Communication Technology Minister, disclosed that the Phuket ICT Innovation Paradise Project is an initiative of the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Public Organization). The project is aimed to increase the country’s economic value through the development of software and technology. This initiative is a part of the ministry’s attempts to encourage all concerned agencies under its leadership to work together in utilizing the shared resources to their maximum potential. Under this policy, the ministry assigned TOT And CAT Telecom to accelerate their telecommunication infrastructure development plan and to work together to materialize this project. “The Phuket ICT Innovation Paradise Project is a showcase of the close cooperation between all concerned organizations under ICT Ministry, like what we earlier held the TOT and CAT Super Board meeting,” said Dr. Mun. “The Ministry plays a liaison to help smooth all the work and enable the project to successfully take shape for the benefits of the country.” In addition to IT infrastructure construction, the Ministry will work closely with SIPA in amending regulations and rules that do not support the project. At the same time, they will initiate new measures to enhance the project development as well as convincing the world’s leading IT companies to invest in this project. Dr. Rungruang Limchoopatipa, SIPA’s President, said that the MOU between the three organizations under the ICT Ministry is the very first remarkable step of the Phuket ICT Innovation Paradise. The telecommunication and IT infrastructure construction will provide for an enhancing environment that promote research and development of IT and communications products. With good infrastructure, the project will attract more domestic and overseas investment in the country’s ICT industry, which will in the end promote Thailand-made ICT product development for export to the global market. According to the MOU, SIPA, CAT Telecom and TOT will provide integrated ICT services for all target groups. The services are, for example, high quality and affordable Data Center, reliable high-speed Internet and stable international circuits. The three parties will also ensure that the sufficient services are in place to support rising demand in the future. SIPA will coordinate with various organizations to ensure that the project’s missions are achieved. Mr. Phisal Jorphochaudom, President of CAT Telecom Plc., said that to enhance the Phuket ICT Innovation Paradise Project’s success the company has already have plans and projects. The company will ensure that the Gigabit WAN Network construction will be large enough to meet with the increasing demand in Phuket; and the Local Exchange Phuket Project can support individual users’ and Internet service providers’ demand for Internet service. The International Internet Gateway (IIG) in Hat Yai will also be built to support the entire Southern Region. He noted that the network that CAT Telecom developed will act as a multi-lane highway that can accommodate high traffic. In 2008, CAT Telecom will commence its high-speed Internet service, 155 Mbps (STM1), to business operators and general public in Phuket’s Muang and Patong districts. The Internet speed for individual rental circuit will be as high as 1Gbps. The service coverage will be further expanded to other areas in the future. CAT Telecom targets four groups of Internet users and provides different services that best address each group’s demand. For smallbusiness operators or government organizations, the service is provided through the “Fiber to Home” project. For people who are already cable TV subscribers, CAT Telecom will join hands with local cable TV service providers to offer broadband cable TV service. General consumers who wish to use high-speed Internet service can also subscribe to the Hinet by Cat service which will be expanded to cover 70% of the entire province in 2009. For tourists, CAT CDMA high-speed wireless Internet service based on the 20001XEVDO technology is available throughout the province via 35 CAT’s base stations. Mr. Varut Suvakorn, Acting President of TOT Plc., added that TOT has already completed telecommunication infrastructure to support this project. Optical fiber cable network has already been completed by 90%. Telephone switching system and ADSL Internet system have been constructed in high-demand areas, such as in housing projects, industrial areas and shopping centers. TOT has increased TOT Hotspot public high-speed Internet service coverage in five-star hotels and Phuket Airport and will build the TOT Wi-Fi and TOT Wi-Max to meet with demand of investors and consumers in Phuket. A key development plan is the construction of an optic fiber cable network, approximately 200 k.m. in length, around the island to support the development of Fiber to The Home (FTTH) project, a part of FTTx. The network will enable TOT to provide up to 30 Mbps Internet service speed to target customers. In the area where there is huge demand for telephone, TOT has offered the Next Generation Network technology (NGN). In the mean time, it has expanded the gateway and IDC construction in the Southern region to meet with business growth, high Internet service demand and international calls, increasing TOT’s capacity to handle higher traffic. All these projects are progressing well and will be fully available in 2009. ********************************** For more information, please contact • SIPA’s Public Relations Bureau Tel.0 2554 0480-1, Fax. 0 2554 0401 Email: pr@sipa.or.th or click to www.sipa.or.th • Public Relations and Corporate Communications Department, CAT Telecom Plc. Tel.0-2104-3299 / Fax 0-2104-3100 / e-mail: pr@cattelecom.com • Public Relations Department, TOT Plc. Tel.0-2505-1212 / Fax 0-2574-9541 / e-mail: pr_totplc@tot.co.th

NSTDA committee sets future direction

NSTDA committee sets future direction

Becoming a leading research-and-development organization on the world stage, The National Science and Technology Development Agency has set up the NSTDA International Advisory Committee (IAC) to advise the agency on its activities and direction while strengthening collaboration with other countries in science and technology development.

Set up five months ago, the committee earlier this month conducted a two-day annual meeting to review NSTDA's activities on the development of science and technology in Thailand.

NSTDA's assistant president Sirirurg Songsivilai, who is also the committee's secretary, said that after reviewing the agency's overall activities and visiting all research laboratories, the committee realized the importance of NSTDA as the country's R&D organization which brought science and technology to support industries.

The committee comprises 14 members who are senior executives from both public and private science and technology organizations, as well as renowned scientists in various fields around the world. The committee is headed by Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, the president of the National Institute of Advance Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) from Japan.

Other members include Calestous Juma, the director of Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government; Johnsee Lee, the president of Industrial Technology Research Institute from Taiwan; Narayana Murthy, the chairman of Infosys Technologies from India; and Nobel Prize Laureate from Germany, Bert Sakmann.

Apart from publishing research work for practical use through the cluster model, Sirirurg said the committee suggested the agency should also develop a long-term science and technology foundation by conducting basic research as well.

"Conducting basic research will give the country a strong science and technology foundation to make more developments in the future," he said.

The committee agreed that the agency should conduct both basic and applied research in parallel and it should determine a proper proportion for the two kinds of research. For Thailand, Sirirurg said a suitable proportion for basic and applied research would be 30:70.

To make the country stronger in science and technology, the committee said the country should increase the number of scientists. The number of scientists in Thailand is still low at only 6.7 per 10,000 of population while other newly industrial countries like Korea, Taiwan and Singapore have 38.9, 57 and 60 scientists per 10,000 of population respectively.

Sirirurg said the committee also agreed on biotechnology, information and communication technology, material science and nanotechnology as areas that NSTDA had already put a focus on. They recommended that instead of putting a focus on developing each technology separately, the agency should create links among the four technologies when it comes to research and development.

Sirirurg said in this new era, the development would move to technology convergence so the agency should put more emphasis on combining different technologies to conduct new research and development work.

Once nanotechnology combines with electronics, for example, it would lead to a new area of nano-electronics which could be used in the automotive or medical industry, while the adoption of nanotechnology in biotechnology would bring discoveries of new active ingredients which could be used to develop new drugs.

The agency is now gathering all the comments from the committee so it can analyze the direction the agency should look to and these will be used to adjust the agency?s plan for science and technology development.

He said the committee members, who were all appointed by the NSTDA board, would have three-year terms and there would be annual meetings to review and give advice to NSTDA.

BIOTEC researcher awarded

BIOTEC researcher awarded "The First Japan International Award for Young Agricultural Researchers"

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council (AFFRC) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan recently made an official announcement of "The First Japan International Award for Young Agricultural Researchers".

BIOTEC researcher, Dr. Chalermpol Kirdmanee is one of three recipients who receive this award for his acheivement in the development and extension on in vitro selection and mass propagation for the production of high quality transplant of medicinal, food and industrial crops.

Dr. Chalermpol Kirdmanee obtained Ph.D. (Supreme Award) Horticultural Engineering from Chiba University, under Monbusho Scholarship, Japan. He has worked at BIOTEC since 1995. His research expertise is on the development of salt-tolerant plants and trees. As an outstanding researcher, he received several awards such as Technology Transfer Award 2000 from the Ministry of Labor, National Top Five Innovation Award 2005 from the National Innovation Agency, and APEC Outstanding Innovation Award 2005 from the APEC-TIC, Taiwan. Recently, Dr. Chalermpol's collaborative project with Pimai Salt Co.,Ltd awarded EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Monitoring Award 2006 from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for his project on turning salinity affected soil to be agricultural worthy for the three communities surrounding the mining site in Nakornrachasima Province. The project also focuses on selecting appropriate plants that are considered tolerant to soil salinity, including Thai fragrant rice. At present, Dr. Chalermpol is the manager of BIOTEC Plant Physiology & Biochemistry Laboratory as well as an invited lecturer at Silpakorn, Mahidol and Kasetsart universities.

Other two awardees are Prof. Jiang Zhengqiang from China Agricultural University and Dr. Jonathan Hosier Crouch from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) UK. The award ceremony will take place on September 12, 2007 at the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo.

NSTD, MTEC AND Chulalongkorn University

NSTD, MTEC AND Chulalongkorn University hold IDC RoBoCoN 2007

Bangkok (28 December 2007) - The National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) and the National Metals and Materials Technology Center (MTEC) recently joined Chulalongkorn University and other partners to organize the International Design Contest RoBoCon 2007 at BITEC. Here are the results: Grand prize winners: Yellow Team with Hatairach Jaroenkulwanich (Thailand), David Sanchez (USA), Sukhum Sattaratanamai (Thailand) and Jun Hwi Bak (Korea) Runners up: Red Team with Nate Sharpe (USA), Rafael Bellini de Faria Gazi (Brazil), Atsushi Sakai (Japan), and Pakchone Hunsuwan (Thailand) Original innovation prize: Pink Team with Teerapong Samutsadohng (Thailand), Koretaka Ogata (Japan), Sebastien Frys (France) and Ju Hyun Bae (Korea) IDC RoBoCon 2007 was an opportunity for Thai students to use their creativity and to exchange knowledge of science and technology by joining students from other countries to build robots. Participants came from many world famous institutions like MIT and Tokyo Tech. The students were divided up into mixed teams with people from different nationalities. The Thai students from different universities in Thailand were matched up with students from leading universities in the USA, Japan, Brazil, South Korea and France. In the contest themed ?Thank you, Mom? the teams were given the challenge of building and controlling a robot that could pick up a garland of flowers and deliver it to the ?mother? figure while overcoming various obstacles.

BIOTEC clones Giant Swing teak

BIOTEC clones Giant Swing teak

After being scarred by weather for 224 years, the rotting Giant Swing, one of Thailand?s famous tourist attractions, underwent a ritual ceremony for its removal on 7 October 2006, paving the way for the installation of a new swing. Accordingly, the new Swing has been installed on 11 September.

The DNA signature of the teak logs that have been used to make the new Giant Swing, has been successfully extracted. The tissue culture technology will be used to clone and grow a million teak trees to be distributed for free to the public, said Dr Somvong Trakoolrung, a senior National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC) researcher.

Six gold teak trees, each taller than 20 metres, were brought from three forest reserves in the northern province of Phrae province in May last year. The tree trunks were processed by a company in Ayutthaya province. The completed woodwork was then brought to Bangkok for installation late last year.

The one million trees will be grown over the next four years, with the first 200,000 ready for distribution in the first two years.