Eco-Amp: If They Really Cared About The Environment
Eco-Amp is an eight dollar piece of recycled cardboard that amplifies audio on your iPhone. Watch this video to see how it works.
The problem that I have with this product is that if they REALLY cared about the environment, they would have a template that you could download and print up on your used cereal boxes. THAT would really be an environmentally sound product. EVEN if they charged a couple of dollars for the template download, I would believe that they really cared, but since their only option is to pay them eight bucks for their recycled cardboard, I’m not buying their “green.”
In fact, here is a video of someone who has designed his own.
iPhone amplifier (Cardboard, do it yourself) from Alexei Konovalov on Vimeo.
Here is a bunch of free DIY iPhone amp techniques and their registered decibel levels:
I’m sure you could design something very similar to the Eco-Amp by cutting out your own cereal box. I urge all of you to do that instead of shelling out money and paying a mail truck to spew fumes and deliver an Eco-Amp to your doorstep.
Via Eco-Amp: environmentally smug sound | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog
Update 08-21-12
After thinking about this for a while, I realized that a screen shot from the video might be good enough if printed at the right size.
When I printed this image at 93% on card stock, I was able to recreate the Eco-Amp.
The disappointing thing, however, is that it doesn’t really WORK. I didn’t notice much amplification at all from this little piece of cardboard and I’m wondering if the original would do any better. The audio from the video sounds as if it was electronically made louder, so even that demonstration is suspect.
I filmed the lack of difference in sound here:
Sure, you can print up your own Eco-Amp, but the difference in sound was so minuscule that it’s hardly worth your bother.