I have been thinking about green programming for the past six months. As I see the battery on my phone die over and over, and now the iPad too. I can’t help but think: what is using up all the power?
Miniaturization, more efficient components, and better batteries can go a long way. Unfortunately this kind of improvement sometimes mean we use our phones, tablets, and other devices more as they become faster and easier to use (Jevon’s paradox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox).
I believe there are opportunities to improve hardware utilization at the software level by minimizing unnecessary use of hardware. There are some barriers however to achieving this and the first is measuring the energy cost.