While it's early

Three of our local farmers markets — Evansville Downtown, Newburgh and Henderson, Ky. — opened this month, and there are piles of good things waiting for customers who wish to buy home-grown vegetables, meat, bedding plants, homemade popcorn, flavored oils, sea salt, baked goods and more.


"While it's early, some of the vendors are bringing in vegetables grown a little farther south,Quality air impact socket tools for any tough job. but it's all fresh and not picked green and then shipped."

It looks as if the market's business is shaping up well.

"We have 20 vendors already, and it's still early in the year," said Schnautz. "A lot of vendors won't come until later, when their crops are ready."

In addition to fresh vegetables,As one of a leading China Projector Lamp provider from China. the markets also are a showcase for entrepreneurs, bakers, cattle ranchers, bee hive managers and others.

n The first booth I approached was Flour Power, run by mother-and-daughter team Marji Henson and Mickie Streets. The duo offer homemade muffins, strudel, brownies and various small pastries. I squealed out loud when I saw a basket of West Virginia-style pepperoni rolls. Henson and Streets joined in when they saw a Hoosier fit to bust over their home state's official snack food.

"We're originally from Clarksburg, W.Va., said Henson. "You see pepperoni rolls everywhere in West Virginia. Even in the bingo halls you can find one."

I've taken a few trips through West Virginia myself and always stock up on the soft, orange-blushing, spicy snacks as soon as I can get my hands on them.

"We make the dough from scratch," said Henson. "We flatten it down, roll up the pepperoni slices in it, let it rise and bake it."

The sweet dinner-roll dough and its yummy surprise filling are delicious together. At Flour Power, you can purchase one for a mere buck.

n Donna Fickey of Pappy and Grammy's Kettle Corn sells 12 flavors of fresh-popped kettle corn and fresh fried pork rinds.

"Our main account is Roberts Stadium," said Fickey. "People know us from there."

Will they be moving to the Downtown arena?

"We haven't heard anything yet," said Fickey. "We sure hope so."

Kettle corn flavors include original, which is lightly sweetened, and movie-style butter flavor, which is not sweet, along with chocolate, caramel, grape, raspberry, cherry, cinnamon and blends.

n Stonewall Farms by the Cannon Family of Evansville also has booths at the Evansville and Newburgh markets, selling all-natural, grass-fed beef and pork raised on their West Side farm and processed locally at Dewig's in Haubstadt and Merkley's in Jasper, Ind. Other Stonewall products include ham steaks, picnic ham and other smoked pork products, numerous cuts of beef,We are professional Plastic mould, hamburger, minute steaks and shank bones for soup. Stonewall Farms also offers the area's only meat CSA — Community Supported Agriculture — in which patrons buy shares of the product.

n For your best friend, Mr. Bear of Bear's Bone Bakery has human-quality dog treats.

Bear's human, Chris Thomas, said he began making Bear's treats with a peanut butter cookie recipe and just cut down on the sugar and fat to make it dog-healthy.

"When we got Bear, apparently he'd been eating people food," he said. "He won't eat dog food, so we started making his food and treats for him. Right now he's eating about three chickens a week, and he gets brown rice, spinach and all kinds of vegetables."

n Larry "Lorenzo" Minor of Zo's Chocolate Fix is selling sweet treats and bread from his hand-built adobe oven again this year. But prepare to get there early if you want any bread.

"You don't get any if you sleep until noon," he reminded me when I pouted over the empty basket.

n Bud Vogt of Bud's Farm Market on South Weinbach Avenue is bringing in some early produce (get there early to catch him before he sells out), and Roger Huff and Janet Burgess are bringing up home-grown tomatoes, green tomatoes and piles of other vegetables from Tennessee. Later, they'll be bringing their own crops.

n Also at the Evansville Market, make sure to visit Sandy Greenfield at Drizzle and sample her flavored olive oils, vinegars and sea salts.

"Right now, we're doing markets and craft fairs, but I'd like to have a shop where you could come and have an olive oil tasting and try some different things," she said.

n At the Historic Newburgh Farmers Market, Steve Willett of Evansville is offering organic early crops such as broccoli, mixed greens and lettuces.Detailed information on the causes of Hemorrhoids, Willett believes in totally organic farming and an organic lifestyle. Later in the season, he'll be bringing various crops, including tomatoes, squash, green and yellow beans, onions, okra, peppers and chilies.

n Jim Arnold of Esther's Gardens, an Evansville-area vegetable CSA, also is at the Newburgh market with early crops such as greens, sugar snap peas and leeks, and he is looking forward to high summer, when he'll have heirloom tomatoes and many interesting varieties of squash and peppers.

n At the Henderson Farmers Market,Find everything you need to know about Cold Sore including causes, Gibson Produce Farm is selling bedding plants and flowers until their own crops come in. If you have a free corner in your garden, check out Bruce and Lynnie Gibson's tables for interesting varieties of tomato, eggplant and pepper plants.

n If you're into honey — or strawberry whipped honey butter — stop by Betsy Stone's Stone Hill Honey booth in Henderson. The Spottsville, Ky., farm also is providing early red leaf and head lettuces, beets and scallions.

New Wave relocates to large Cleveland site

New Wave Plastics was getting cramped in its 20,000-square-foot building in Medina, Ohio. So the 5-year-old recycler moved north to Cleveland — into a former heavy-manufacturing building with 20 cranes and 120,000 square feet of space.

The giant building will help New Wave Plastics continue to expand beyond its original core of credit card waste into a broad-based recycler of all types of plastic, and even do brokering of some scrap metal, company officials said.

In Cleveland, the main bay has cranes with a lifting capacity of more than 200,000 pounds, said T.R. Mitchell, who co-owns New Wave with Tony Lotts.

Mitchell said New Wave needs all that space to classify, process and store different materials, then find buyers. "The distribution side of our business is big.is the 'solar panel revolution' upon us? We need that amount of space for storage," he said.


In Medina,is the 'solar panel revolution' upon us? employees had to shuttle material back and forth between the main building and two separate rented warehouses.

The company employs 26 people and expects 2011 sales to exceed $5 million.

Mitchell said that recycling of credit card waste accounts for about 10 percent of total business today. But in 2006, when Mitchell teamed with Tony Lotts, credit card scrap was the company's only market — and ended up providing the link to the big building in Cleveland.

Mitchell, Lotts and Doug Coates, director of sales, reviewed the company's history and looked ahead during an interview at the plant earlier this year.An Insulator, also called a dielectric, Crews were moving equipment from Medina into the Cleveland factory, the former plant of Soberay Machine and Equipment Co., a rebuilder of rubber and tire machinery. New Wave has purchased the building.

Part of the Cleveland industrial building also used to manufacture presses to laminate credit cards. As the vice president of sales and marketing, Lotts knew all the players in that industry. So it was natural that, when Lotts and Mitchell began talking about business opportunities in recycling, credit card waste came up.

"We were trying to figure out, OK, what material would we start with?" Mitchell recalled. "We didn't want to be a broker, or somebody who's just staging plastics for overseas sales. So we said let's look at the credit card industry and see what kind of stuff they're generating."

They picked up a client in the Cleveland area, then began working with the Boltaron Performance Products LLC plant in Newcomerstown, Ohio, a major maker of calendered PVC credit card stock.

Klockner Pentaplast Group bought the card stock and rigid graphic arts business last year, and now New Wave supplies Kl?ckner with the recycled PVC credit card material.

When they founded New Wave, the partners recognized that credit card stock recycling was an underserved market. Credit card companies buy PVC sheet stock, then laminate and produce the finished cards. They generate trim waste.When the stone sits in the kidney stone,

The card makers were selling to local recyclers, which exported the material outside of the United States, Mitchell said. Much of it also ended up in landfills.

Lotts said New Wave filled a need. "Recycling in the card market was not very big. Nobody had developed any use for the material because of the contamination problem," he said. "That's when T.R.How is TMJ pain treated? and I partnered up, and we developed some proprietary processes for separating this material. That's what really opened the door for us to move into this market."

New Wave closed the loop, by developing a technology to separate credit card waste and identify the clean material. The material gets reprocessed and then shipped back to the card stock manufacturer, to be made into new credit card stock.

"We had a perfect solution for taking it out of the landfill," Lotts said. The company's tag line is: "giving the earth a credit."

Mitchell said delivering high-quality recycled material is critical to the credit card sector.

"Credit card stock is very sensitive. You can't have contaminants. You have to print on it, and if it's going through a printing press, you can scorch the blanket. And PVC's not forgiving, like some other polymers. So we need to send them only very, very clean material," he said.

Of course, the industry is not just about credit cards. The proliferation of debit cards, automated teller cards, smart cards and frequent shopper cards ensures a steady stream of recycled material.

When the PVC regrind is not clean enough for credit cards, New Wave sells it to the building products sector.

The company set up a complete distribution system, staging empty semi-trailers at customer plants, and then picking the full ones up. "We supply them with gaylords and pallets to restock them, to fill the containers," Mitchell said.

Apple upgrade micro-SIM for iPhone 5

In the quest for ever-smaller smartphone devices, not many people consider the humble SIM card. Not many people except those smart chaps at Apple, that is. Having already pushed for a much smaller micro-SIM design in the iPhone 4, the company is now looking to make the SIM even smaller – read on for details.

The micro-SIM in the iPhone 4 is only the first stage of Apple's assault on excess plastic. Indeed, the micro-SIM itself is no radically redesigned component. Rather, it's simply a stripped back,Save on hydraulic hose and fittings, bare bones version of the old subscriber identity module we've come to know over the past few decades.

Now Apple's getting serious, and it won't take no for an answer on a dramatic downsizing of SIM technology.

ETSI bitsy teeny weeny

Apple's intentions are no longer a matter of rumour or cWhat to consider before you buy oil painting supplies.onjecture. A spokesman for ETSI – the European Telecommunications Standards Institute – recently confirmed that Apple had submitted a proposal for a new, more compact SIM card standard.

However, one issue could stand in the way of the new SIM standard making it into the iPhone 5. As the ETSI spokesman told Reuters: "This process may take some time, up to a year or more, if there is strong disagreement between industry players. However,Customized imprinted and promotional usb flash drives. when there is broad consensus among the companies participating in the standards committee, the process can be accelerated to a number of months."

So the big question is, will the mobile networks stand in Apple's way?

Network solutions

It seems unlikely that the networks will put up much of a fight. One mobile network executive recently told Reuters that they were "quite happy" to see Apple submitting its new SIM proposal to ETSI. In fact, it was revealed that Apple had achieved this "with the sponsorship of some major mobile operators."

It seems a happy compromise has been met between network operators and Apple. Originally, Apple initially had plans to eradicate the need for a SIM card entirely and to go with an e-SIM (electronic SIM) solution.A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. This obviously didn't go down too well well with the networks, who view the physical SIM as a vital cog in managing customer relationships.

Also, as one network exec told Apple (and AllthingsD), removing the physical SIM is "a bad idea because the SIM card is a critical piece of the security and authentication process."

Smaller iPhone 5?

Apple seems to have listened, and there could well be some fringe benefits for Apple. If Apple is the only manufacturer to adopt this new form of physical SIM card, as it may well be, it would be much tougher – or rather it would be pointless – to unlock the iPhone 5.

After all,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. the idea of unlocking an iPhone is so that you can switch to another network. If the only compatible SIM cards are sat inside other iPhone handsets, there'll be no practical way to obtain a replacement.

The other benefit is, of course, that Apple will be able to push on with making its handsets – starting with the iPhone 5 – even slimmer. And we all want that, don't we?

Where the Rubber Meets the Skype

In the early days of my company, one of our first big customers described our system as "where the rubber meets the sky:" wildly visionary yet entirely practical. It was a great complement.

In 2003, the founders of Skype had a vision that was both wild and practical: "free" phone service. They realized that PC's had become powerful enough to run packet-switching protocols for handling voice calls. Different packet-switching protocols had been used inside the telephone system for decades, but required expensive, special equipment owned and operated by the phone company. Skype's founders realized that the user had already paid for both the PC and the Internet connection, so computer-to-computer voice calls needed no new spending by the user, hence the perception of being "free."

It gets better. The Skype founders realized that with the PC and the Internet doing almost all of the work of handling the call, their business would require only a tiny amount of capital compared to building out a new telephone system. Further, users would recommend the system to other users, so it would cost almost nothing to attract new customers. A handful of employees and a small fleet of computer servers could handle millions of users.

It seemed like the Estonian founders discovered a new gold mine. In 2005, eBay snapped up the burgeoning enterprise for a reported $2.6 billion. Their timing could not have been worse. Wall Street's love affair with Internet stocks was already over; the champagne toasts turned to a long, nasty hangover.

Despite management turmoil, write-downs, and divestitures, Skype kept growing, reaching 663 million signed-up users by 2009 and handling 13% of all international calls by 2010. Skype kept adding services, including calls to and from ordinary wire-line and wireless phones, for a fee. Most of Skype's revenues ($525M in 2008; $575M in 2009) are for those calls, and most of its expenses are settlements to ordinary phone companies for those same calls ($225M in 2008; $290M in 2009).

These figures illuminate Skype as a money-making engine. With almost 50% gross margin, few employees (less than 1,000), and relatively low capital investment, Skype should be a solid money-maker.

But a limited one. While Skype is valuable to its users, they already paid their PC manufacturer and Internet provider for all of the resources that deliver that value. Skype recovers none of this in their business model. Zip. Zero. Nada.

The sizzle is that Skype is the world's largest voice carrier, largest international operator, largest video conferencer, etc. The steak, or more exactly the hamburger, is that Skype is a reseller of conventional telephone minutes. A solid and profitable reseller, but a modest one by telecommunications industry standards. The thing is that other companies get the revenue for most of Skype's sizzling services.

If you think of Skype as a phone company with 663 million customers, it should be enormously valuable. The entire US telecommunications industry, with less than half as many customers, has an aggregate market capitalization of $383 billion. If that were the case, Microsoft's $8.5 billion buy-out offer would be a steal.

But Skype is not a phone company. It's cash business is to resell conventional phone minutes. That cash business might, in a stretch, be worth one-third of Microsoft's offer. So what it is?

Perhaps the customer base? But a Skype account does Microsoft no good by itself. They will have to figure out how to invest even more money to follow up on that contact to sell them something else.

The going rate on Facebook is about $1 per click-through. A click-through means that the user already has interest in the offer and wants to learn more, a big step ahead of where Microsoft will be with Skype users when the deal closes.

Steve Ballmer is paying almost $13 per user. Make that $10 if you take out the value of Skype's minute-reselling business. So it's hard to see how Microsoft could possibly sell enough product to enough people to justify this heady price. Microsoft would have to sell an additional Xbox machine or Office license to each and every one of Skype's 663,000,000 users for the deal to make sense.

Ballmer does have an easier go than Meg Whitman. She spent almost $35 per user on Skype in 2005, and eBay never figured out how to leverage it. I don't see it.

Burning Too Much Rubber Could Leave a Hole in Your Pocket

Don’t look now, but tire prices are surging again, as they have been throughout the year, and motorists can expect to see more price increases on tires shipped to the market before or after June 1, 2011, the start of the summer driving season, AAA Mid-Atlantic and tire manufacturers say. Blame it on the increasing cost of the raw materials, including rubber and petroleum, used to make tires, commercial tire makers say.

Consumers, who already know that the high cost of crude oil is responsible in part for the extremely high gasoline prices they have been paying for months, might be surprised to learn that expensive barrel of petroleum is also pushing up the cost of tires, observes AAA Mid-Atlantic. Surprisingly, “an entire barrel of crude oil is required to produce just one pair of truck tires,” according to the tire industry.

“The cost of owning and operating a car is already on the increase this year primarily because of the rising costs of petroleum-based products, such as gas and diesel fuel. Now, motorists are discovering that tire prices are being impacted by that too,” said Martha M. Meade, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Manager of Public and Government Affairs. “Petroleum is a key component of tires, up to 20 percent in some brands, and both motorists and the tire shops that sell them are feeling the pinch.”

Approximately 55 percent of the material used in conventional tire is petroleum-derived, including synthetic rubber and other polymers, according to industry sources. As a result, a growing number of commercial tire makers are announcing price increases for their products from nine percent up to 15 percent. Even the biggest tire manufacturers out there, including Michelin, Goodyear, Cooper, Bridgestone, Continental, and Yokohama, have already increased prices on passenger and light truck replacement tires this year, according to industry sources and watchers.

Increasing raw material and petroleum prices have retailers paying anywhere from 5 to 12 percent more for tires. That increase not only means higher costs for them but for their customers too. Tire makers complain the price of rubber and other raw materials have been soaring, and that is forcing them to raise their prices to keep up.

According to one manufacturer, “the costs of Malaysian SMR 20 natural rubber” rose by 177 percent during 2010 alone. Depending upon the brand and the manufacturer, the cost of rubber can account for 25 percent of what a company spends on raw materials. On top of that, “petroleum-based synthetic rubber” can “make up another 25 percent” of the cost of tires, according to news reports.

This year, the big increase in driving costs is primarily due to large increases in fuel, tire and depreciation costs, according to the 2011 edition of AAA’s annual “Your Driving Costs” study. The cost of tires had the largest percentage increase, rising 15.7 percent to 0.96 cents per mile on average for sedan owners, the study shows.

The rise in costs of raw materials, energy and transportation has led to notable tire price increases in recent years and 2011 is no exception, Meade notes. “Also contributing to higher average tire costs is a trend by automakers to equip their sedans with premium grade tires as original equipment,” Meade said.

And when motorists cannot afford to pay more, they settle for either used or lower quality tires – leading to earlier replacement.

“When you’re ready to replace the tires on your vehicle, it is best to replace all four tires at the same time with quality tires of the manufacturer’s recommendation,” said Jeffery Boone, an ASE Master Technician with AAA Mid-Atlantic Automotive Services. “But if you’re only able to replace two at a time, replace the rear tires in order to guarantee maximum vehicle stability.”

With tire prices increasing, some consumers face the temptation of purchasing used tires. However, that might pose a risk to motorists, forewarned AAA Mid-Atlantic and the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA). “Keep in mind, your tires are the only part of the car that has direct contact with the road,” said Meade. “Tires affect your vehicle handling, ride, braking and safety.” What is more, “used tires may have been exposed to improper service, maintenance or storage conditions and may have been damaged, which could eventually lead to tire failure,” the RMA cautioned.

Now gangs target rubber consignments

KOCHI: Large corporate houses like Apollo , Ceat and MRF are feeling the pinch of rubber price rise not once but twice. Trucks carrying natural rubber for tyre factories are disappearing without a trace as organised gangs hijack the vehicles. Rubber prices saw a 160% increase in the last two years.

A truckload of rubber weighing around 16 tonne would cost, along with taxes and other costs, close to Rs 40 to Rs 45 lakh. "The miscreants would sell the rubber at threefourths or half the price to the dealers again," said Vinod T Simon, president of the All India Rubber Industries Association. "Most cases of hijacking have happened in Tamil Nadu where the demand for rubber is very high," he said. With prices shooting up, rubber has become the target of organised criminal gangs. "Half a dozen such cases have been reported so far in the year," said Premkumar PM, vice president, Cochin Goods Transporters Association.

The rubber prices were at Rs 232 per kg on Wednesday. Average yearly price of rubber stood at Rs 114.98 per kg in 2009-10 . It increased to Rs 190.63 per kg in 2010-11 . Throughout the last year, there was a severe shortage of rubber in the domestic market. As a result, rubber in all forms like sheet rubber, compound rubber and raw rubber are being targetted by the gangs.

In most cases, investigations have drawn a blank though in one instance charge-sheet was filed. "Of the two cases that came under the jurisdiction of Alathur police station in Palakkad, one was transferred to Mettur in Tamil Nadu and the other was charged against the transport agent and driver," said VS Nawaz, circle inspector in-charge of the investigation.

Second Day Advance in Japan Stocks; Orix, NEC, Sumitomo Rubber Rise

Stocks in Japan traded higher for the second day in a row as the yen edged lower and companies report higher than expected earnings. NEC, Sumitomo Rubber and Orix estimated better than expected earnings.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 0.5% to 9,864.26 and the broader Topix index increased 0.1% to 857.62.

The yen traded as low as 116.90 and the depreciated to 80.10 to a dollar.

The latest report from the Finance Ministry confirmed that the Bank of Japan conducted a currency intervention on March 18 and sold 692.5 billion yen to buy dollars.

The intervention was carried out after the agreement with the Group of Seven nations to stem the sharp rise in the yen after the March 11 earthquake.

Automakers led the rally on the speculation that supply chain worries are easing and companies are likely to return to normal production sooner than expected.

Tepco also surged after it agreed to conditions laid out by the government to compensate victims.

Stock Movers

Tokyo Electric or Tepco increased 8.5% to 525 yen after the troubled electric utility agreed to six conditions to receive government aid. The nuclear power plant operator agreed to a government monitoring and said it will pay full-compensation to those affected by the nuclear disaster.

Automakers closed higher on a speculation that the companies are making steady recovery and part supplies problems are easing.

Honda Motor increased 2.1% to 3,130 yen and Nissan Motor gained 2% to 784 yen. Toyota Motor advanced 1.5%. Suzuki Motor, Hino Motors and Isuzu Motors closed higher as well.

Resource linked stocks gained after crude oil and base metals gained. Crude oil traded as high as $103 a barrel but eased in Tokyo trading but immediate moth delivery futures of copper, zinc and gold gained.

Inpex Corp increased 1% to 584,000 yen and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. gained 1.7% to 3,935 yen.

Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd increased 4.9% to 940 yen after the second largest tire maker estimated full year profit outlook by 28%.

Orix gained 4% to 8.020 yen after the financial services company estimated current fiscal year net to increase 15% to 77.5 billion yen.

NEC added 4.7% to 177 yen after a day ago company estimated profit in the current year of 15 billion yen compared to a loss in the year ago period.

YLiving Announces Addition of New Moooi Designs to their Collection

YLiving, an online retailer for modern furniture, announces the addition of new Moooi designs to its collection. An avant-garde Dutch design firm specializing in furniture, lighting and textiles, Moooi's new creations includes designs by Marcel Wanders, Studio Job and Sjoerd Vroonland. These new designs were showcased at Salone del Mobile in Milan, Italy in April, 2011, and are now available for sale for the first time in the United States.

Marcel Wanders, the art director and co-founder of Moooi, has two designs in the new collection. His Woood Desk, designed in 2010, is a modern interpretation of a classic piece. An ideal writing surface or computer desk, the Woood Desk features a sturdy structure with a two inch plug hole in the top to accommodate a computer cord or phone charger. The desk is stained a sleek black and features an oak veneer top and beech frame.

Wanders' Fata Morgana TJ One Rug and Fata Morgana TJ Two Rug, both designed in 2010, are also included in YLiving's new Moooi collection. A fearless piece of textile, the Fata Morgana TJ One and Two Rugs weave together tweed, hound's-tooth, embroidery, knots and knits to create a masterpiece for your living space. Printed on nylon threads, the rugs feature various colors in a neutral palette.

Also new to the Moooi collection is the Gothic Chair designed by Studio Job, a design studio in Antwerp. The Gothic Chair was designed for the recently renovated Groninger Museum in the Netherlands. With the use of brightly colored polyethylene plastic, the Gothic Chair is a playful take on the solid wood and romantic elegance of the Gothic era. The chair is available in seven different colors and features contrasting upholstery buttons. The chair is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

Rounding out the new additions to the Moooi collection, the Extension Chair, designed by Sjoerd Vroonland in 2010, draws on the manners and customs of how a chair is used. It features three extension accessories that can transform the chair into a coat hanger, hand-bag hanger, or card-holder. The Extension Chair is a study of modern craftsmanship and design while providing complete functionality. Whether used in a home, restaurant, or public space, the Extension Chair provides a visually intriguing way to sit.

Since its launch in 2001 by Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers, Moooi has inspired and seduced the world with sparkling and innovative designs. Moooi is named after their native Dutch word for beautiful - with a third 'o' for extra value in terms of beauty & uniqueness. Moooi style is exclusive, daring, playful and exquisite, as is seen in their other iconic designs such as the Smoke Chair Series, Egg Vase, and Random Light.

Camera, Green Cred, and Conclusions

The 2-megapixel camera has no auto-focus or flash capability. For such a low-resolution sensor, test photos looked okay, with reasonable sharpness and color balance both indoors and out. Tree leaves and other distant details were smudges, but anything close by looked good. Recorded videos looked jerky and maxed out at just 352-by-288-pixels and 15 frames per second. That was sufficient a year or two ago, but 640-by-480 or better camcorder features are now commonplace on smartphones.

As a green phone, the Replenish easily qualifies for our GreenTech Approved award. It's made from 82 percent recyclable materials, and comes in fully recyclable packaging. It reminds you to unplug the charger when the battery is full. Samsung sells an optional solar panel charger for this phone (which we didn't get to test), and you can install the aforementioned green-themed apps from Sprint ID. Sprint also includes a free, postpaid envelope in the box to recycle your old phone.

The Replenish's form factor is a nice idea, and we always applaud electronics with green cred. But the low-end screen, choppy performance, and poor battery life all do this phone in. Buyers looking for a low-end Android phone should check out the LG Optimus S; while it drops the hardware keyboard, it steps up to a 3.2-inch, 320-by-480-pixel touch screen that's much more usable, and it also has longer battery life. If you have a bit more cash, check out the HTC EVO Shift 4G ($149, 4 stars), which features a much higher resolution screen, a faster CPU, 4G WiMAX capability, and a roomier, slide-out QWERTY keyboard.