Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Apple abandons green certification, fans ecstatic

A quick note on Apple's new products is overdue. First, this iconic picture speaks a thousand words:

Attention: Apple has launched a new laptop. Via Shawn's Tumblr.

The fanaticism of the Apple cult surprises me every time. But this time critical voices were raised:
The Retina MacBook is the least repairable laptop we’ve ever taken apart: Unlike the previous model, the display is fused to the glass, which means replacing the LCD requires buying an expensive display assembly. The RAM is now soldered to the logic board — making future memory upgrades impossible. And the battery is glued to the case, requiring customers to mail their laptop to Apple every so often for a $200 replacement. The design may well be comprised of “highly recyclable aluminum and glass” — but my friends in the electronics recycling industry tell me they have no way of recycling aluminum that has glass glued to it like Apple did with both this machine and the recent iPad.
 - Wired / The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable (bold added by me)
I haven't noticed Apple defending their products from these environmental common sense concerns, have you? On the contrary, Apple has just given Mother Earth the middle finger by actively withdrawing from the US certification system:
Apple has notified EPEAT that it is withdrawing its products from the EPEAT registry and will no longer be submitting its products to EPEAT for environmental rating.
 - epeat.net / Apple Ceases Registering Products in EPEAT
Apple asked EPEAT, the electronics standards setting group, to pull its 39 certified desktop computers, monitors and laptops, which included past versions of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, off the list of green products late last month, Robert Frisbee, CEO of EPEAT told CIO Journal. EPEAT, created through funding by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and manufacturers, awards products a seal to certify they are recyclable and designed to maximize energy efficiency and minimize environmental harm.
 - Wall Street Journal / Apple Removes Green Electronics Certification From Products (bold added by me)
Not good enough, Apple!

Meanwhile, millions of Apple fans don't care and probably don't even know.

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