Environmental issue seems to be keyword these days. We hear global warming, energy saving and many other terms almost everyday.

Yesterday, Nokia announced that they become the first phone makers to add energy saving alerts to their devices.

The alerts are one of a series of environmental initiatives that mobile manufacturers, led by Nokia, agreed to take action on this year. Nokia is the first of these manufacturers to implement the alerts into its products.

This is not the first action from Nokia to become a "greener" company. They have started a program last year, called Take-back and recycle, where we can send our unused phones to be recycled.

Nokia’s idea is to make it easier for consumers to act green by offering the possibility to return old, unused phones and accessories. Authorized Nokia Service Points, flagship stores, municipal collections, industry association's collections, or retailers' campaigns are all possible channels for returning used products.

Many other big companies are serious about these environmental issues. Steve Jobs from Apple wrote an open letter about "A Greener Apple" last week.

And we plan to bring other environmental issues to the table as well, such as the energy efficiency of the products in our industry. We are also beginning to explore the overall carbon “footprint” of our products, and may have some interesting data and issues to share later this year.

As the end users as well as mobile developers, should we do something? Yes, for sure. We need to take actions to save our planet. It's not for us, but for our children. There is a free booklet from Greenpeace, Your Personal Guide to Helping Save the Climate, which discusses some tips to save our lovely planet. Here are some of them:

• Buy the most energy-efficient products.
• Do your PC a favor and let it get some sleep.
• Don't leave chargers and transformers plugged in. This is exactly the reason why Nokia adds energy saving alerts into their latest devices.

These free booklets from Symbian are intended for developers. They discuss various development topics in hand and consie format. They are normally less than 100 pages long. The terms "free" here mean you can download it from Symbian web site and get the printed book for free.

Currently there are 9 booklets plus some translations to Chinese and Japanese and the list is growing. Here is the current list:

Essential Symbian OS booklets

• Signing Tips
• Coding Tips (also available in Chinese, Japanese and Korean)
• Performance Tips (also available in Chinese and Japanese)

Using Symbian OS booklets

• Getting Started (also available in Chinese)
  
• Java ME on Symbian OS
• P.I.P.S
• Carbide.c++
• Data Sharing Tips

Essential UIQ booklets

• UIQ Essentials Getting Started (also available in Chinese)