Layar is one of the most visually impressive and powerful applications I have seen to date using a mobile. As noted on Download Squad, “Layar uses the camera and location-based services of your mobile device — Android devices only, so far — and overlays information on the camera image. This is flying-car level tech, the […]
Tag Archives: Cellphones
Mobiles to dominate Internet access by 2020?
From Network World, By 2020, mobile phones will be the primary Internet devices for most people in the world, according to a panel of experts, who also predict that Web technologies will probably not lead to increased social tolerance. “The mobile phone – now with significant computing power – [will be] the primary Internet connection […]
Capturing violent conflict in Kashmir with mobile phones
The BBC runs a fascinating story today on how young people (who in the story are mostly male) are capturing violent events and processes in Kashmir using their mobile phones. The example of Kashmir suggests that the prevalence of mobile phones leads to a situation on the ground that mainstream news agencies could not have imagined even […]
The future of mobile applications and some other ideas
The Google Android Developers Blog lists the top 50 applications submitted to Round 1 of its developer’s challenge. It’s a damn impressive list. I was alerted to this from Appropriate IT’s excellent post on it, which I fully endorse. A PDF slideshow of all the apps, with screenshots and mock-ups, is available here. However, as […]
kiwanja.net launches the new FrontlineSMS
This is something I rarely do – plug a product. But my friend Ken Banks has something special with FrontlineSMS and I encourage you strongly to try it out. I’ve played with the beta and written about it (in sum, not a very positive experience) but Ken assures me that the feedback received from the […]
Mobiles for Social Development
There’s a very interesting paper on the web I came across recently that deals with the pros and cons of using mobiles for social development and linked to the discussions on Lirneasia’s recent post on the future of telecentres and the role of mobiles in complementing and / or supplanting them. The paper seems to […]
Refusing to use a mobile phone
I can’t think of being without mine (its integral to work) but there are some people who apparently simply refuse to use and own a cellphone. Can’t say I’ll become one of these types anytime soon, but they raise some vital points and ask us to look at just why we are wedded to our […]
Given the intimate place of cellphones in our lives, why do we get rid of them so quickly?
That’s a question an article in the NY Times poses and has an interesting answer for, “Somewhere during the last 100 years, we learned to find refuge outside the species, in the silent embrace of manufactured objects,” Jonathan Chapman, a young product designer and theorist at the University of Brighton, writes in his book “Emotionally […]
