New Hippo Techie: Disposal o’ the green

Spring is a very good time to think about electronics recycling, what with Earth Day at the end of April and everyone cleaning out their garages. In years past, organizations have scheduled electronics collection days to coincide with Earth Day, though that’s getting more rare — but for a good reason. It’s actually becoming easier to dispose of your old electronics responsibly.

Read the full column at The Hippo.

I TOLD you it was terrible

A few months back, I wrote I wrote a scathing review of the Wireless Air 60 gaming system for the Hippo. It’s one of those plug-and-play consoles, where all the games are stored in memory and you just hook it up to your television with RCA cables.

Yeah, it looks like a Kinect. Big coincidence, I’m sure. It certainly doesn’t act like a Kinect, though. From the review:

See, you don’t make natural motions to roll your bowling ball or swing your bat. You hover your hands on controls overlaying the action on the screen. I had to wiggle my fingers to get the controls to activate (unless they accidentally activated from some motion I didn’t remember making). On-screen instructions are sparse, and the included manual, having been translated at least four times, is of only limited use.

When I purchased (and subsequently returned) my Wireless Air 60, it was on sale for $20 from its normal $40. Today I walked into CVS and saw this:

On one level, I hope my review didn’t tank a product into the shameful end of the clearance bin. It’s unlikely that I have anywhere near that much influence.

Then again, at $4.99, it’s still not worth it.