I bet everyone of us have got an old mobile phone lying about in our homes which is in almost pristine condition. Rather than letting it gather dust in cupboards, hoping that one day you might be able to auction it off to an antiques fair, why not instead send it off and convert it into some hard earned cash.

We have already talk about our top 5 mobile recycling sites, MoPay, Envirofone, Mazuma, Mobile Phone Exchange and Fonebank, but there are plenty more sites which can offer you cash for your mobile.

It would appear that UK mobile phone carrier, O2 has caught onto the idea and have launched their very own online service that claims to make it easier for people to recycle handsets in return for cash.

The service can be used by anyone in the UK, regardless of the network and they will also redeem your old MP3 Players, Digital Cameras, Games Consoles and much more. So if you’re interested in converting cash for your gadget stash then all you have to do is follow these 6 simple steps?

1. Visit the O2 Recycle Website
2. Enter the details of your device
3. Get an estimated value
4. Print off the Receipt
5. A prepaid postage envelope is sent to you to put your receipt and phone in
6. Once the phone is received and shows it is in good working order you’ll receive a text saying the money has been transferred into the account.

Plus, what is even fantastic about this is that for every device, O2 donates £1 to “It’s Your Community” charity and your products are sold onto global markets by a company called Redeem.

With my iPhone 3G up for renewal this month, I’ll soon be getting an upgrade so I thought I would check out how much cash I could get for my current iPhone 3G, which is a staggering £173! If that’s the case then all I can say is bring on the cash O2 Recycle!

Has anyone else used O2 Recycle to redeem their gadget stash for cash? Or did you opt in using another mobile recycling site? Share your experiences and leave a comment…

Mobile Phone Recycling from O2: Redeem Your Gadget Stash for Cash is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Have you got that horrible guilty feeling now that the electricity bills have come through following keeping your fairy lights on all the way through Christmas? Realised that your keeping up with the Jones’ is actually costing the Earth?

Make yourself feel a little bit better by investing in the Water Powered Clock. No mains power used, no batteries to throw into land fills, just six weeks of time keeping on only water with a splash of lemon juice.

Ok, so Duracell might last longer, but water is 100% natural – and it’s completely free (except the price of a Jiff lemon anyway).

£12.99 Gadgets Quick

Water Powered Clock: 100% Natural Time Keeper is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

The auto blog reviews for cars has revealed that BMW have started trialling electric powered MINIs in the UK. This is the first UK trial for real world drivers to experience a fast charging electric car under everyday conditions.

BMW is striving to create the zero emissions vehicles of tomorrow and to help it in this task it has handed over forty electric MINI E cars to their test drivers, who are all members of the public. This field trial will evaluate the psychological, social and technical aspects of living with an electric car. The findings will be used to help guide power providers, policy makers and component manufacturers in their decision making about the cars of the future.

The front wheel drive, two-seater MINI E uses a single-stage helical gearbox which powers the MINI E seamlessly to 62 mph in 8.5 seconds and on to an electronically limited top speed of 95 mph. Although based on the familiar MINI Hatch the MINI E is a two-seater because the space normally used by rear passengers is reserved for the lithium-ion battery.

This state-of-the-art rechargeable battery unit combines high output with ample storage capacity and a remarkable power output. A full recharge draws a maximum of 28 kilowatt hours of electricity from the grid. Each kilowatt hour translates into 5.4 miles giving the MINI E a theoretical range of over 150 miles.

What do you think? Are electric cars really the future? Are the days of the petrol station numbered?

BMW Starts Trialling Electric MINI is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

The winners of the iawards have been announced. I wrote about the iawards back in August to encourage budding inventors to enter the awards which aim to recognise and celebrate the best British achievements in science, innovation and technology. The awards ceremony was held this week at the Science Museum and it saw the teams behind this year’s best British innovations rewarded for developing practical solutions to some of society’s greatest challenges. Among the winners was the Solargorilla a portable solar charger, from Powertraveller, which extends the power life of laptops and other electronic devices via the company’s Powergorilla device.

The Solargorilla can also directly charge mobile phones, iPods, handheld consoles and other devices from its 5V USB output. It works via two photovoltaic glass solar panels which produce electric current when exposed to light. To make it fit for travelling, it is housed in tough, rubberised casing. It is also water-resistant and has a portable, fold-up design.

Other winners at the awards included:

• Cortexica Vision Systems have developed an intelligent image recognition system based on the human visual cortex. Image recognition (IR) can be used to look for a logo in a stream of video, recognise a human face or match an image against a database of images.
• Visual effects software developers The Foundry have created Ocula, the first set of dedicated tools for 3D film post production. The Foundry’s software tools have helped create films including Watchmen, District 9 and Quantum of Solace. Ocula will be used in James Cameron’s highly anticipated film Avatar.
• The first automatic hands-free jar opener. The One-Touch automatic jar opener is a kitchen gadget that enables the easy removal of stubborn lids.

You can read a full list of all the winners on the iawards blog.

Solargorilla, a Portable Solar Charger, Among Winners at British Innovations Awards is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Isn’t there anything that Facebook can’t do… Volvo Cars have released a new Facebook game in which you need to virtually drive around the world in 80 days. In the game, which has been released to promote Volvo’s super fuel efficient C30 DRIVe, you DRIVe (sorry, their pun, not mine) the C30 around the world using only your network of Facebook friends.

The game started just a couple of days ago and will run 80 days (which is 6,912,000 seconds – by the way) until February 4, 2010.

The C30 will do 828 miles on just one tank of fuel, so using the principle of six degrees of separation, you need to drive your Volvo to a Facebook friend who lives as close to 828 miles away as possible. Then the car is passed on from friend to friend, moving around the world until it makes its way back to you.

Volvo will donate €15,000 to a project that fights global warming (an environmentally-friendly wind farm in Izmir, Turkey) in the name of the team that drives around the world the most efficiently. And, for everyone who plays DRIVe Around The World, Volvo will additionally offset 99 grams of CO2; so the more people play the game the better it is for everyone.

If you are the captain of the winning team you will be arguably the world’s most well-connected person!

Find out more here: http://apps.facebook.com/drivearoundtheworld/

[Via UK Car Reviews]

Sponsored: Around The World in 80 Days – Volvo’s New Facebook Game is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Sometimes it is the simple things that take the longest time. As a race we have sent people to the moon, we can communicate via satellite, we have GPS and we can call someone on the other side of the planet… But could we agree on a simple thing like a phone charger. No. Every phone has a different charger, even different models from the same manufacturer have different chargers. But now, at last, after what seems like decades of mobile phone use, a new mobile phone charger that will work with any handset has been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The charger uses a micro-USB port to connect to the phone, this type of plug is already used on some phones and on many digital cameras. It will mean that any phone, which uses this standard, can be recharged on your computer, from a wall socket or in your car using a single universal cable and accessories.

The only sad thing is that it is not compulsory for manufacturers to adopt the new chargers but the ITU says that some (like Sony Ericsson) have already signed up to it.

Waste
It is estimated that 51,000 tonnes of redundant chargers are generated each year as people tend to throw away their old charger when they upgrade to a new phone. What would be great is if mobile phone companies and networks gave discounts to people who don’t take a new charger with their phone but continue to use their existing universal charger. Of course it will take a few years for this to happen as no one has the universal chargers yet!

Another good thing is that these chargers are energy-efficient (they have a 4-star or higher efficiency rating making them up to three times more energy-efficient than unrated chargers) and it is estimated that they will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 13.6m tonnes.

“Information and communication technologies are an essential element of an effective Copenhagen climate agreement,” says Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré.

[See also BBC]

At Last a Universal Phone Charger And It’s an International Standard is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Sweden have come up with a, shall we say, interesting way to turn their rabbit problem to their advantage. Some 3000 bunnies have been culled this year in a move to rid the country of the plague of wild and stray pets which destroy parks and generally cause a nuisance. And in true waste not want not style, the bodies are shipped off to Konvex, part of the Danish company Daka Biodiesel, which makes car and heating fuels from vegetable and animal oils and fats.It doesn’t just use rabbits, but also makes use of dead cats, cows, deer and horses.

Now on one hand, its a frugal idea which does make sense. For example, in Sweden, slaughterhouse leftover are turned into biogas, which is a methane based fuel used to power taxicabs. And Sweden aren’t alone in their use of biofuel- in tAmerica, companies ConocoPhillips and Tyson  make biofuel from pork and chicken fat, which would otherwise have been put into pet food or turned into cosmetics or soaps.

Maybe it’s just putting the cute little rabbit face on things that makes it seem less reasonable…

With the commonly spouted speeches about how we’re running out of fossil fuels, biofuel is one of the next steps for powering, well, pretty much everything in the future. So give it time and your car could be running on cats, your electricity converted from eels and your heating from… well, what begins with h? Just hope the cemeteries don’t become over crowded too soon…

What’s your opinion on the biofuel of the future? a good, sustainable resource? Or slightly too sick for you to support? Discussion as always encouraged in the comments.

Image credit- Nick Coombe

Cars running on rabbit anyone? is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

When you go to bed at night you switch off all the lights, turn off the TV, put out the cat and go to sleep. But you don’t switch off your fridge. It sits there 24 hours a day and probably has done so for years. Now what if there was a scheme which could help you get rid of your old fridge and buy a new more energy efficient one and get a huge discount at the same time. Look no further, Comet is running a scrappage scheme which offers up to £200 off white goods like fridges, freezers and washing machines. The scheme, which includes big brands like Bosch, Siemens and Neff, is specifically designed to get us to switch to more energy efficient appliances.

The Comet scheme, which is similar in idea to the government car scrappage scheme, gives shoppers a 20% discount of up to £200 on over 340 discounted new appliances. Customers will be able to get their old model collected and recycled free of charge.

But you have to be quick, the program which is run in partnership with BSH Home Appliances Ltd, is available for a limited time only, from Thursday 10 September until Monday 14 September. But there are rumours that it may be extended.

This scheme comes after the British Retail Consortium (BRC) recently called for an appliance scrappage scheme similar to the car industry style scrappage scheme for appliances. The BRC also called for the removal of VAT on energy efficient products.

Comet Encourages Consumers To Switch To More Energy Efficient Appliances With Scrappage Scheme is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Hot on the heals of the release of Google Earth 5.0, tomorrow the longest eclipse in a century will be webcast from a number of internet sources.

The solar eclipse, expected to last over 6 minutes, will be broadcast to those not able to see it from their locations with coverage starting at midnight tonight.

The next eclipse of a similar length will not take place until 2132 and the utilisation of technology in this respect will open up the door to anyone who would otherwise miss out on this once in a lifetime view.

Score one for the internet, citizen journalism and advances in web video technology.

Source: Best of Viral

Calling all space lovers is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

We’ve previously looked at how to turn your old mobile phones into a bit of cash by comparing the top 5 phone recycling sites, but now there’s another way to turn your old tech into something useful- a night out on the town.

Ticketmaster are offering the opportunity for you to trade in mobile phones or iPods in exchange for tickets to live events throughout the year.

Not only do you get credit towards seeing U2 or the Wembley Cup, but there’s the added bonus of a feel-good factor as your old bit of plastic will be recycled and £1 will be donated to charity. Virtue indeed!

To see what you can get for that old Sony Ericsson lying around in your underwear drawer, you just need to visit the Ticketmaster Mobile site to value your handset or iPod and request a freepost envelope to ship your device off in exchange for a Ticketmaster Gift Card.

In the interest of making sure you get a good deal, we went through the Ticketmaster site to take a look at how the offer compares to other mobile phone recycling sites.

Again comparing the low-end Nokia 6310i and the smartphone Samsung Omnia as we did in a previous post, we were a bit surprised at the Ticketmaster market value.

Trading in a Samsung Omnia would get you £87 towards the Backstreet Boys at the O2, which is definitely decent. It is, however, a bit less than with what you would get for the handset from at least four other mobile recycling companies.

If you tried to cash in your ye olde Nokia brick though for tickets to the hottest gig in town, the 6310i would get you absolutely nothing.

The moral of the story (again) is that it pays to look around at different sites before making the final decision on where to magnanimously donate your old handset for rewards. Ultimately there’s no hard and fast rule for which company will value your old mobile most favourably.

It’s nice to see Ticketmaster offer a cash alternative, and this new recycling scheme gives you the perfect excuse to check out TNA Wrestling while upgrading your old brick at the same time.

More info: Ticketmaster Mobile

Exchange Old Mobile Phones for Ticketmaster Events is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com