smartphones

By Patrick Byrne and Karen Hudson-Edwards Nearly five billion people worldwide will use a smartphone by 2020. Each device is made up of numerous precious metals and many of the key technological features wouldn’t be possible without them. Some, like gold, will be familiar. Others, such as terbium, are less well-known. Mining these metals is […]

By Lotfi Belkhir When we think about climate change, the main sources of carbon emissions that come to mind for most of us are heavy industries like petroleum, mining and transportation. Rarely do we point the finger at computer technologies. In fact, many experts view the cyber-world of information and computer technologies (ICT) as our […]

By Insung Lee Last month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung announced its new Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, which only recently hit the market. But the event was unexpectedly quiet this year and the reason could be that, beside a few incremental features and larger cameras, new models aren’t really changing much. […]

By Elizabeth Jardim Smartphones have undeniably changed our lives—and the world—in a very short amount of time. Just 10 years ago, we took pictures with cameras, used maps to plan routes and kept in touch with friends and family using T9 text messages. If you’re among the more than 2 billion people in the world […]

Samsung’s lack of transparency on the disposal of its Galaxy Note 7 leaves tons of precious minerals at risk of being discarded into the environment. According to calculations by Oeko-Institut, a research and consultancy institution based in Germany, the 4.3 million smartphones contain more than 20 metric tons of cobalt, more than 1 ton of […]