Found these on clearance at Officeworks. A lot of the signs still say $10, but the online site has been updated to $2. Have bought 2 today and both scanned at $2 each.
EcoButton Home Edition $2 at Officeworks
80
Related Stores
closed Comments
Q: Does my PC go into 'Hibernate' mode when ecobutton™ is engaged? ^
A: No, ecobutton™ does not put your PC into Hibernate mode. ecobutton™ educates your PC to use the lowest power mode available to it whilst at the same time, remain capable of waking up quickly for you to resume work.
http://www.eco-button.com/usa/A3.13.faq.htm
haha it "educates".
It puts your computer into standby.
You'd have to be a real idiot to purchase this to save the planet, the resources and co2 emissions that would have gone into manufacturing this would outweight any power you save, especially when you can do the same thing via software.
Well, whether you like it or not, these things have been manufactured. There was quite a few at Officeworks QV in Melbourne city when I went. I guess it's better to actually use them and help CO2 emissions, rather than leave them on the shelf after all the harm already done.
The more you buy, the more the manufacturer will think that there's a demand for it, and hence the more they'll produce. Vicious cycle, unfortunately…
Challenge Accepted!
Best thing to do is not buy any of them at all right now.
Manufacturer sees these products as not selling and closes down the production. They then sell these at a very cheap price or give away free after which they go bankrupt and can never manufacture any items again.Why are people begging this comment? == haven't you considered that this is on CLEARANCE at officeworks, hence any sales through them won't cause more manufacturing?
Gilliar says it's ok as long as it's manufactured overseas.
Overseas emissions don't affect the planet mate, only Australia's does, that's why we are the only country that's going to whack a huge tax on our already miniscule emissions.
No other country is dumb enough to give lunatic "Green" parties so much power.
"No other country is dumb enough to give lunatic “Green” parties so much power."
You mean many Australians are dumb. LOL
It's a button that simplifies standby for your computer. I know, it sounds stupid, but apparently it's highly rated. It illuminates to remind you to press it when you leave your computer, and then you press it again to wake up the computer. It also claims to calculate power saved from standby-ing your computer, compared to leaving it on while you do other tasks. I thought I would give it a go for $2, instead of the normal price of over $25.
It does exactly what START > SLEEP does.
I have my computer power settings configured to sleep automatically. That works even better!
The ecobutton™ acts as a strong visual reminder and prompt for you to save electricity each time your computer is going to be left idle.
The ecobutton™ is illuminated and sits on your table/desk top next to your keyboard. It connects to your computer via a USB cable.
Each time you take a short or long break, a phone call, go for a meeting etc. you simply press the ecobutton™ and your computer is put into the most efficient energy saving mode available - we call this 'ecomode'.
People generally do not like turning off their computers due to the time it often takes to restart (particularly when hibernate is used). However, with ecobutton™ by simply pressing any key on your keyboard (some computers require a momentary press of the power button) your computer instantly returns to where you left off.
There's also an additional bonus as each time your computer is put into 'ecomode' the clever ecobutton™ software records how many carbon units and how much power and money you have saved by using the ecobutton™. Over time this can add up to quite a lot (especially if you have many computers running in an office) and you can use this data to help reduce your carbon footprint as well as your energy bills.
I think i am increasing my carbon footprint by thinking about how to use this device, one of the most pointless bargains here, although not as pointless as the whistle keyfinder that didnt work!
Well, I didn't post this on the basis whether you think it's useful or not. I simply posted something that is a bargain ($2 for a $25+ item). Whether you choose to take part in this bargain is up to you.
I understand, i choose to take part in the community though, and part of that is commenting. I didnt take part in the bargain though as its not something i am interested in, quite happy you posted it!
wow what a fantastic idea! right up there with Homer's Everything's OK Alarm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTzByQTeyJQI see your Everything's OK Alarm, and raise you a DVD Rewinder.
The coolest thing about thse buttons is you can make them do other things instead.
They work by emulating the following keyboard presses:
Windows Key +r
ecobutton
enterYou can make them do other things by making a batch file to run whatever commands/programs you want.
Just name the file ecobutton.bat and place it in your user directory.Nice thinking. How long is the lead? Maybe it can be used to remotely mute the audio, electrocute the goldfish, or whatever. :)
Mine is almost 1.2m
I was originally writing a "dashboard" program that would be launched when you press the button, the program would have icons to frequently used programs so it would be a quick way for me to open programs.
I never went through with it because of the LED.
What this product really needs is to be wireless and no install required - You can save heaps of power by just magically "sleeping" every computer you walk past…
The off button may work better that this button
Very true.
The ecobutton also has a LED in it which is always on so it would save you power to not use it too.
I actually want to remove the LED from mine so it will stop annoying me.
I heard that GreenPeace use these devices to access your computer…
Best comment ever.
haha this thing is as useless as earth hour.
LOL @ everyone's comments
Yes, it is a bargain. +1
Would I buy one or recommend it NO. -1
Loving all the comments and the Homer clip ^_^I hear Officeworks found these on Clean Up Australia Day and decided to recycle them.
what a gimmick -_-;
Thank goodness Julia didn't buy two of these for every household in Australia ;-)
For Earth Day I've pledged to have every light, every applicance including air-con on to offset people turning off their lights for an hour
I've been doing that right from the start of earth hour. Well, just every light in the house on, not the AC etc, might just have to up my game this year.
I'd love to hook one of these up to an ammeter and see how much power it's using just sitting there sucking 5V from the USB port.
It is basically a USB keyboard with 1 key/button - and by default, that button is Sleep.
I don't quite understand why most USB keyboards don't have Power key and Sleep key. By having those 2 keys, you can turn PC on/off without using the power button on your desktop/PC case. You can also put your Windows to sleep.
It is only $2… but it is a bit bulky and take up 1 USB slot.
it's not a sleep button.
As I said in a comment above it simulates the following key presses:
Windows Key +r
ecobutton
enterWith the software installed it runs the software which causes your computer to go to sleep.
The software keeps track of how long your computer was asleep and works out how much power you saved or something along those lines.
calculating how much energy has been saved is just using up CPU cycles
lets hope they don't create one with a twitter/fb share button(s)haha I'm sure it's just around the corner. Couldn't possibly have something that has happened in your life not auto-fed into Twitter and FB!
lol at this
kirynflare, I feel for you, baptism of fire on your first post!. Chill out people… "why can't we all just get along!".
I only see negative comments about the product??
I think you have a hater out there, what's with all the negs people, geez.
waste of a usb port
I feel compelled to agree with you. I'll give this a miss and save my $2
What does an eco button do?