Green apps for Android and Iphone
Nov 28, 2008 Green Technologies
Ecorio
Android and IPhone have recently become hot amongst mobile application developers. And guess what? Both are seeing a trickle of green apps like location aware carpooling and carbon footprint calculator. A perfect excuse for guilt free holiday shopping for all ecowarriors out there 
One of them is Ecorio on Android. It is a carbon footprint calculator that uses the G1’s GPS feature to track movement. The user inputs mode of travel choices, including automobile, public transit and bicycle. Ecorio determines how fast you’re moving — and if you’re in a car, how efficiently. Vehicle make and model are taken into consideration as well. Indicating that your ride of choice is a Prius, for instance, helps improve your overall rating more than choosing a Humvee.
Ecorio seeks to “Reduce,Inspire and Offset” (RIO). Use “Reduce” and Ecorio analyzes past or planned trips then suggests carpool options via another Android app, Zimride, a service that matches up drivers and passengers who wish to use less fuel by traveling together instead of as one.
The Reduce feature also recommends public transit routes. The “Inspire” feature offers a Twitter-like social networking interface to communicate with other Ecorio users. Tapping a user’s profile icon displays their location and how many pounds of emissions they’re responsible for so far. Lastly there’s “Offset,” which links to a site that accepts credit cards to purchase offsets from Carbonfund, an organization that supports carbon offset projects for renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation.
On the other hand, the free IPhone app Carticipate claims to the first ride share app on a location aware mobile platform and can be downloaded from the Apple AppStore. Below is a video of the app being demonstrated at a developer conference.
Nokia already has a Sportstracker app that helps to determine things like distance travelled or average speed in GPS enabled phone and maybe, someone could build on that code to launch similar carbon calculator for S60!
Tags: android, apps, eco-apps, green apps, Iphone
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