Martin is a Toxics Campaigner and is currently in San Francisco to get the word out to people in town for MacWorld... 

It was a long day. Waking up at 6 a.m. to get to the Moscone center for the keynote speech of Steve Jobs... but I was still getting more sleep than many other Apple fans. Coming to the conference center just before 7 a.m., I expected to see a queue but I did not expect not to see the end of if. Some people spent the night out there to get the best places to see the speech. They brought camping gear, doughnuts and all the stuff that geeks need to survive during the night to waiting for HIM to appear (well they left all the waste including the camping gear behind as they rushed in). When the gates opened, the crowd moved into the building, so after a while I moved in – just to end up in another queue, this time inside the giant hall on the ground floor. Just before 9 a.m., when the speech was supposed to start, I got into the big hall that was to host the show.

When Steve appeared, his ego filled the room, the crowds were cheering and everybody was tense – what is he going to show? Well, I had my own hopes (guess which ones). He started in style – virtually "burning" the Zune player from Microsoft. Well the e-waste in China is burning for real. He also showed the classic "I'm a Mac I'm a PC" ad – this time sending the PC for surgery in expectations of the changes it will need for Vista. But as we know – the Mac needs to change itself– to get rid of the toxics.

But the main news was of course the iPhone. Widely expected, after lots of rumors, it was finally unveiled. There were lots of features presented and as usual the design is nice and shiny. On the new visual voicemail Steve listened to message from Al Gore (hopefully Al will also tell him to green up); called the Starbucks to pretend to order 4 lattes to go (but he did not in the end and I would have appreciated a coffee!) listened to music; watched the video (he should see his own speech as we would like to have it); browsed the web (damn, missed the greenmyapple site again) and last but not least looked at the Google Earth pictures of Paris Eiffel Tower and Washington Monument in Washington DC (hmmm – why not the scrap yard in Guiyu, China, where thousand of old computers end up, including Macs). Lots of great functions, lots of new inventions, lots of patents (actually Apple claimed over 200 for the iPhone). But one thing was missing – will the iPhone be any greener? Will we finally see a greener Mac? These questions remained unanswered. So we have to keep asking them. Will you?

- Martin

Student Network Coordinator Sam Raskin here reporting back from MacWorld where yesterday was a full and exciting day of outreach.

It was uncharacteristically warm and sunny--even for San Francisco--so we set up hour huge, green inflatable apple right in front of the Expo and started talking to attendees. Everyone likes "green apples" so we had no trouble drawing in a steady stream of folks to our attraction and many of them agreed with us that we need a "greener Apple".

When we started to feel a little woozy from all the sunshine, Renee and I decided to go inside the expo itself to talk up the campaign in the shade. Of course we didn't go alone, we brought our buddy, the six and a half foot tall "Mac man" cut out for company. With our cardboard buddy in tow we didn't have any trouble meeting a crowd of interested Mac users and spreading the "Green My Apple" message throughout the expo. Well, it looks like we have a new shipment of fliers coming in, hot of the presses, so it's back out to Mac World we go. Until next time!

- Sam

Renee is currently in San Francisco to get the word out to people in town for MacWorld... 

Bright and early (6:30am) this morning we greeted the people waiting in line to hear Steve Job's famous MacWorld speech. As we handed each Apple enthusiasts a flyer and a cheery "Good Morning," we were welcomed with people interested in knowing more about the company they love so dearly.

We were asked thoughtful and interesting questions about our campaign during the two and half hours outside Moscone West. We even had a life size cut out of the "Mac Guy" with us for people to take pictures of/with.

Though I was a little skeptical about having him there, people responded really well and he had a personality all his own. Seeing events this week take shape outside one of the biggest electronics conferences in the world, I see that no one really thinks BFR's and PVC's should not be taken out of the life-cycle of their favorite computer. If no one wants these toxics in their electronics, why hasn't Apple said when they are getting rid of them?

As I write this, Job's almost finished with his speech and I am standing about a block away hoping that when the crowd floods out there will be news of a brand new 'Green Apple'.

- Renee

Hello folks-

Steve-o here from the Greenpeace team in San Francisco. I'm one of the lucky ones who got to show up here to talk to the 40,000+ people descending on this fabulous city for the Macworld Conference and Expo. We're a team that has come from all over the world- Beijing, Bratislava, Amsterdam, D.C. (where myself and some of us live and work) to bring our message to the Mac World at large: that we all love our Apples, but we desperately want them to be greener. As one of the world's leaders in technological innovation, Apple has always been leading the pack, but they have been slow to commit to timelines for which they should be leading: to eliminate the most hazardous chemicals from their products and to begin a very aggressive recycling program.

We held a press conference this morning to introduce ourselves to many of the folks who will be dealing with the Macworld Expo and conference, and all went well. We'll hopefully be able to get our message out to apple users through the media, that we want a Green Apple, and hopefully get all of the Mac enthusiasts out there to join our campaign to make Apple a leader in what could no doubt be one of the greatest innovations they could come up with: products that are less harmful to the environment.

Steve-o