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How much does it cost to charge the iPhone 6 for a year? Less than you might think

iphone-6-plus-power-cost

via Opower

Some new numbers from the Opower blog have revealed how much you can expect to spend when charging your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. At average U.S. energy prices, the cost comes in at a mere $.47 per year for the smaller 4.7-inch device. The 5.5-inch model will run a little extra due to its larger battery, coming in at just over half a dollar for a total of $.52 per year on average. As you might expect, this year’s larger devices will cost a little more than the smaller iPhone 5, which cost only $.41 per year.

According to the blog, adding up the energy used by each of the 10 million units sold over opening weekend would come out to less power than the entire state of Nebraska uses in 12 hours. By comparison, a typical desktop computer uses about 41x the power of an iPhone 6, while Microsoft’s Xbox One console uses has much as 61x as much energy.

As was pointed out last week, while charging your device may be fairly inexpensive, it can cost you a lot of unnecessary time if you’re using the charger that ships with it.

You can find more facts and figures about the new iPhone’s power consumption over at the Opower blog.

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Apple takes fourth place in EPA’s list of green-powered tech companies

Screen Shot 2014-02-02 at 1.50.30 PM

The Environmental Protection Agency has published its list of the top 30 tech and telecom companies in the U.S. that take advantage of the most renewable energy sources, placing Apple near the top of the bunch at fourth place. Apple’s green power consumption reached 537,393,667 kWh, according to the EPA’s report.

According to the EPA, only Intel, Microsoft, and Google use more green energy than the Cupertino company—though Apple definitely takes the prize for sourcing its power from the longest list of providers (eleven, compared to the next-highest count of only five).

The study also notes that around 85% of Apple’s total power usage comes from “green” sources, such as wind and solar, while the other 15% comes from non-green sources.

Implications of updated Apple TV: Lower cost, new A5 Chip, ramping numbers

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New Apple TV-2013-A5

A1427 (left) vs. A1469 (right) image via AnandTech

While initial speculation was that Apple’s quietly refreshed Apple TV would include an A5X processor, recent tear downs of the device have revealed Apple is actually including new silicon with a single core 32NM ARM Cortex A9 CPU and overall die size reduction of 50 percent. However, new information today revealed even more tweaked components in the new Apple TV that could account for significant power savings, reduced cost, and possibly new low-cost iOS devices from Apple.

A5-vs-new-AppleTV-2013-A5

Chipworks previously performed its usual analysis finding the new A5 chip measures 6.1-by-6.2 mm, compared to the larger 69mm2 previous generation A5, and features several redesigned components. While Apple reassured us the slightly upgraded Apple TV is identical in appearance and user experience for consumers, its tweaked components could have some major implications for future Apple TV products and possibly even other iOS devices.

Apple included a dual-core chip with 1-core disabled in the Apple TV, and Chipworks speculated the move to the redesigned, single-core silicon could signal Apple has plans for an additional single-core device in the future. This has not surprisingly lead to speculation that the device could be Apple’s much-rumored, low-cost iPhone.

With new evidence today of even further power and cost reduction changes in the Apple TV, it’s also possible Apple could lower the price on the device and/or enable further discounts through retailers (you can now find it as low as $85)…
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