Archive for June, 2008
by Darla Mack
June 28, 2008 at 9:35 pm · Filed under ATT, Apple, Devices, iPhone
According to Engadget, if you purchased your 2G iPhone after May you can trade it in for the new 3G model. How nice of AT&T and Apple.
So if I bought an original iPhone, I can trade it in for an iPhone 3G?
Yes, but only if you bought it AFTER May 27th, 2008. Anyone who bought theirs before that has to live with their purchase — not that anyone can stop you from showing up to your local Apple store and raising a ruckus.
Engadget also confirmed my suspicions on the dissappearance of the current iPhone plan. Rumors speculated that the plan would be discontinued, which didn’t make sense to me, but I’m happy to know that it’s being kept.
by Darla Mack
June 24, 2008 at 6:50 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Usage + Usability
Cellular-News reports that residents in Sacramento might have to pay taxes on their text messaging.
Voters living in the Californian city of Sacramento will be given the opportunity to vote on a measure which will extend an existing utility tax to include SMS messages. Currently the tax is applied to voice calls from mobile phones, along with electricity, gas and television services but does not include text messages.
Lobby group, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is opposing this new tax and has previously sued stating that tax on cellphone bills is illegal.
“The city is packaging an increase as a tax reduction,” said Timothy Bittle, from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association. “Communication is a basic human right. It’s a constitutional right. It’s free speech. Why do we have to be taxed?”
While I agree with Mr. Bittle’s statement I’m curious to understand just how text messaging is considered a utility? It isn’t something that is stand-alone such as power or water, but a feature that is incorporated in carrier service plans… which are already being taxed.
Voters will be able to vote on the tax change this coming November. Under California’s Proposition 218, voters have the right to vote on all local taxes, and requires taxpayer approval of assessments and property-related fees.
by Imran Ali
June 23, 2008 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Crowdsensing, Devices, Research, User Interface
Earlier this year we covered the emerging field of crowdsensing - the ability to aggregate sensor readings from networks of mobile devices.
Last week, CNET highlighted research underway at Georgetown University that’s exploring the use of mobile devices to track the glocose levels of diabetes patients…a more personal form of mobile sensors that may have some ‘crowd’ applications but are very much about individual users…
- RFID-enabled skin patches sense glucose levels.
- The patch sends glucose data to a nearby mobile handset.
- The handset can do any number of things - submit data to a healthcare tracking service, emergency services and first responders or use the data to direct a dispensation device to administer insulin.
The process and the technology are still in teh early stages of development, but have exciting implications for healthcare, further underlying the emerging role of cellphones as mobile sensing platforms.
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In a bizarre inverse of the Georgetown project, a recently published design concept for a digital tattoo display also uses blood - this time to power a fuel cell that runs a display surface implanted under the skin of the user! The display, could potentially be used in concert with mobile technologies and as the author points out, it would be ‘waterproof and powered by pizza’!
A food shortage coupled with a profilerating mobile market, potentially powered by said food? Oops!
by Imran Ali
June 23, 2008 at 2:37 pm · Filed under Health, Psychology
Last week The Register reported on a curious case ’sleep-texting’ involving a Texan woman texting her boyfriend whilst - wait for it - asleep! The article goes on to quote sleep researchers and expert’s various theories of addictive and nocturnal behaviour in an attempt to understand if the phenomenon is real.
Though the piece describes another case of ‘midnight mobility‘, I’m not convinced this is a real trend…just the random happenings of people with disturbed sleep.
I guess it’s not just radiation that can cause insomnia, headaches and confusion!
by Darla Mack
June 22, 2008 at 10:17 pm · Filed under Jaiku, LinkedIn, Messaging, Mobile messaging 2.0, Social Networking, Twitter, mobile social networking
One of my mobitopia buddies, Sir Erik Thauvin (lol that’s not really his name but I like calling him that) introduced me to Hellotxt awhile back and my initial thought was this is the place to be for updating all of your social media networks simultaneously… especially via mobile.
You know who you are… you Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Bebo, Facebook and so on people that bounce from spot to spot in order to make sure all of your locations are updated.
That’s where HelloTxt comes in.
HelloTxt is an aggregate of microblogging services through which the user can insert their messages on all main microblogging services in a simply and simultaneous way.
Now although it is web-based, it still offers the solution of multi-service update in a convenient way. Updates can be sent via email gateway, sms gateway or through the users dashboard.
There is a mobile web version of hellotxt (m.hellotxt.com) that does the same thing, however I think it would be much better to have a real mobile client than just having to use the mobile browser all the time. But its still a good solution for quick multi-service updates.
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by Darla Mack
June 22, 2008 at 9:54 pm · Filed under ATT, Apple, iPhone 3G
The truth has somewhat been revealed regarding AT&T’s pricing of the upcoming 3G iPhone. According to Gizmodo, ineligble customers won’t be able to benefit from the $199/$299 pricetag that was announced by Apple. Didn’t you kind of figure there was a catch of some sort?
The 3G iPhone pricing of $199/$299 with AT&T will only be for: A) Existing customers who qualify for an upgrade. B) New customers. C) Existing iPhone customers who purchase an new iPhone and extend their contract for 2 years.
So that means that there will be an unsubsidized price for those who don’t fall into that category, however, the price hasn’t been mentioned.
What I find odd is that before the iPhone left the shelves of AT&T, customers didn’t have an upgrade option… or so I was told by my local store. So why have one now?
Am I Eligible for an AT&T Cell Phone Upgrade?
Not all Cingular/AT&T customers may qualify for a cell phone upgrade. At this time, AT&T Mobility allows these customers to upgrade with no upgrade fee when they commit to a new 2-year contract:
* AT&T customers who have had 24 months of cell phone service since activation of their cell phone or since their last phone upgrade.
Certain AT&T customers may be eligible for a cell phone upgrade even if they have been in their current plan for less than two years (24 months), if they commit to a new 2-year contract and meet these eligibility requirements:
* Customer has had a standard calling plan plus data services costing at least $68.99 a month but no more than $98.99 a month, and who has been in contract (and not had a phone upgrade) for 21 months or more,
or
* Customer has had a standard calling plan plus data services costing $99 a month or more, and who has been in contract (and not upgraded) in the last 12 months.
A customer with a calling plan and data services of less than $69 who is 21 to 23 months into contract may upgrade for a fee and a commitment of an additional two-year service contract extension. No upgrade fee is assessed for any customers who are on a month-to-month agreement.
Note that AT&T upgrade eligibility may be further limited based on customer’s usage history, payment record, previous phone replacement, etc. Upgrade eligibility is solely determined by AT&T Mobility at its discretion. [via: Wirefly]
by Tarek Abu-Esber
June 18, 2008 at 3:37 pm · Filed under Android, Apple, LBS, Mobile messaging 2.0, Nokia
If you’ve read any articles about the Future of Mobile then the chances are Location Based Services (LBS) got heavy billing. These days LBS has become a real industry buzz-word with more and more GPS enabled devices hitting the market and a plethora of new LBS services going live.
The user scenarios are pretty compelling: be able to know where your friends are, meet new people in your immediate area, get search information based on where you’re located, Geo-Tag your content so you can map where it was taken and many others being dreamed up.
In fact the future of mobile LBS was so pervasive that Google used it as a main components in their Android platform. It should come as no surprise then that when the top 50 entries to Googles Android Developer Challenge were revealed a large portion had used location in some way.
The pattern was also evident when a group of students at MIT handed in their projects which were created using Google’s Open mobile platform. Their professor had asked them to come up with the kind of Mobile Service they would like to use in the future and to then try and build it for Android devices. Again LBS was the most common type of service with the students using location information to determine various phone settings like ring-type or call barring and to deliver reminders (e.g. reminds you to buy milk if it detects that you’re near a store) as well as other useful features.
And the pattern isn’t unique to Android. When Apple announced the iPhone SDK they also announced that VC firm Kleiner Perkins were setting up a $100 Million iFund to invest in companies building applications for the iPhone. At the end of May the first two companies that had been chosen were announced and Whrrl, an LBS application, was one of them.
Apple themselves had acknowledged the importance of LBS when they added location tracking software in an firmware update for the original iPhone which identified the users location using cell towers and WiFi hotspots. This trend continued when they added Assisted-GPS to the iPhone 3G which was announced last week and will be available in July. The mapping application will take advantage of the AGPS and iPhone developers can too, so we should be seeing just as many iPhone LBS applications as on Android.
And then there’s Nokia who’ve probably put more GPS enabled handsets in the hands of customers than any other manufacturer. GPS support has become a staple in their N-Series Symbian devices and from this week the same is also true of their E-Series enterprise handsets. Nokia have driven users to take advantage of that hardware by releasing a couple of free LBS applications for S60 users, both of which have been hugely successful.
Nokia Maps, which was originally a free add-on and now comes pre-installed every Nokia S60 handset, and Nokia Sports Tracker have been downloaded by millions of users whose feedback has been used to improve the products over the last few months. In fact Nokia Sports tracker, originally used to track your performance while exercising, proved so successful and was used in so many diverse ways that users dubbed it Life-Tracker.
So in 2008 the hardware is starting to become common place with every major handset manufacturer shipping GPS enabled devices. We’re also seeing the handset manufacturers and OS producers starting to make LBS software available. The foundations are being set and by the looks of things the developers have taken notice. Will 2009 be dubbed “The Year of LBS”? I certainly hope so and I can’t wait to see what the industry comes up with.
by Ewan Spence
June 16, 2008 at 6:15 am · Filed under Android, Carriers, Civic, Communication, Devices, Mobile messaging 2.0, emergency services
want to look into the future of disasters - the so called ‘big ones,’ because while mobile phones are useful in ‘personal emergencies,’ it’s going to be in the large scale disasters that your smartphone could make the difference. At least, with some forward planning.
To a certain extent, mobile phones are already “emergency aware.” By that I don’t mean they’re constantly on the lookout for danger, like some sort of Finnish Knight Rider, but that they have systems in place that become useful in an emergency. The primary one for me, is that no matter what model of phone, even if the key-lock is on, then the emergency number (be it 911, 112, or 911) should still work - there’s no need to try to work out what the key-lock release is. They won’t even care what network they can find; you’re not network locked for an emergency call - if the signal can get through, through it goes.
The problem as I see it, is the reliance of the mobile phone on one thing. The network. Because in a major disaster (let’s pick the “it’s going to happen at some point” earthquake on the San Andreas fault as an example), there’s going to be a lack of power, and a lot of infrastructure damage. Do you think that the network cell towers are going to be around to carry the mobile signals from the handset?
Yet a mobile handset is both a receiver and a transmitter - and there are going to be times when that’s all you have in the disaster area. Traditionally, mobile phones are going to be useless (beyond the ability to take some pretty gruesome pictures). which is a shame, because communication is vital in these situations. If phones could literally piggyback on each other, chaining calls together like some demented Arpanet of mobile voice calls, then these little computers suddenly become a lot more useful in our scenario.
With the inclusion of Wi-Fi on many models perhaps that medium, rather than the GSM frequencies will act as the common carrier - although the range is far more limited than the radio circuitry for cellular calls.
I doubt we’d ever see anything like this on a regular mass market phone, but if Google Android takes off, and you get a bundle of handsets with re-write able firmware, I wouldn’t be surprised if (a) we see a Mesh Network using a mix of cellular and wifi hotspots spring up, and (b) it won’t really be noticed outside geek circles until something horribly big in the Bay Area. So if you start hearing of a strange underground phone network early next year, with no contract, no ties, but not quite 99.99% reliability, you know what’s happening.
by Imran Ali
June 13, 2008 at 12:08 pm · Filed under Activism, Environment
Previously we’ve covered some of the work of Global Voices Online, notably their Ethan Zuckerman’s views on global activism and the Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism and the role mobile technology plays in political and grassroots activism around the world.
Last week, Global Voices published a roundup of their observations of Mobile Phone Technology for Environmental Activism. The piece highlights interesting projects in societies as diverse as Kenya, Ghana, Argentina and the UK (Kenya seems to crop up everywhere!).
The key stories covered include…
- Greenpeace’s mobilisation of Argentinian activists in support of forest protection legislation involved SMS and email campaigns around the timing of crucial votes and debates.
- GPS-enabled sensor packs distributed to cab drivers in Ghana to provide distributed crowdsensing of air qualityand traffic patterns in the capital.
- Attacks on Kenyan farmers by wildlife are being mitigated by keeping wildlife rangers and landowners in contact by mobile communication.
- An SMS-based lookup service for South Africans to determine whether fish they’re buying is ethically harvested.
- An air quality service for Londoners to lookup pollution levels in their neighbourhoods.
The piece makes for an inspiring read, highlighting that mobility isn’t simply about, ARPU, iPhone fetishes and accelerated consumerism, but also as a vehicle for social change and a building brick in creating new, distributed forms of power and human institutions.
by Imran Ali
June 11, 2008 at 7:39 am · Filed under Civic, Government, Mobile messaging 2.0
Rising fuel costs and the growing affluence of 300m new middle-class Indian and Chinese citizens are driving a global food crisis, that’s affecting even developed countries such as Italy.
As a defense against hoarding and inflated pricing, Italy’s Department for Agriculture, Food & Forestry recently launched SMS Consumatori, a mobile service that tracks the price of around eighty common food items in categories ranging from dairy and meat products to produce
Shoppers simply text a product name to the service and receive pricing information by SMS which can be compared to prices in the store they’re shopping from.Interestingly, users can elect to track historical prices by create a grocery list of their common items that’s tracked from week to week as an average food budget.
Usage of the service is capped by a certain number of daily requests; a reasonable limitation, given most users won’t need to price-compare every item every day.
Such a service is perhaps even more valuable in less affluent countries where mobile penetration is very high - places such as Pakistan and Kenya where rising food prices are bing felt more acutely than in the West.
{ Originally covered by Springwise }
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