mobile devices

So you want all the bells and whistles that come along with Google Voice: call recording, call screening, text messages via email, etc. However, after years of broadcasting your familiar digits via business cards, email footers, and crumpled cocktail napkins, you just can't bear to switch from your old cell number to a new "Google number," the requisite for taking advantage of the service. At least, it was requisite; Google is now offering a lite version of Google Voice that lets users retain their phone numbers while taking advantage of some features of Google Voice.

Bad news, tech lovers. IT is not so eco-friendly. According to University of Calgary researcher Richard Hawkins, digital technologies are not reducing our environmental footprint, but may in fact be turning us all into polluters.

"It was once assumed that there was little or no material dimension to information technology, thus, it should be clean with minimal environmental impact," says Hawkins. "However, we are finding that reality is much more complicated."