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The folks over at TechDigest have got a great take on a recent report that humans have hit their evolutionary limit - they have suggested some tech upgrades for us! I’ve picked out a few of my fave ideas ideas below, but you’ll have to link over to their site to check out the full list

…

#3. CONDUCTIVE FINGERS Wouldn’t it be handy if you could put one finger in a plug socket, then another finger in your MP3 player or mobile phone to charge it up? It would save having to worry about chargers and would be an environmentally sound solution

#7. CLOSABLE EARS Our ears need “earlids” so we can shut out the sounds of whatever rubbish music other idiots are listening to. The existing ear should be very easy to adapt. Earlids could be standard among babies born from 2015 if these scientists get their acts together

…

[Via: TechDigest]

In the face of the multiple (and increasingly complex) Smartphone launches of late, comes the output from a conference on the future of the mobile phone - and the key requirement: simplicity!

The event was organised by mashup*, a membership-based organisation of executives, entrepreneurs and investors affected by and working within the commercial application of digital technology, products and services.

There was much discussion, and many points put forward and received - but it’s a fascinating conclusion, given where the mobile devices/services ecosystem has been going recently. Of course, simplicity may not necessarily mean the dumbing-down of the diverse range of apps, devices, and services - it may just mean that people want access to potentially complex offerings, but in an intuitive and clear way.

Anyhow, if you’d like to read more on the thoughts of the group, then pop over to the mashup* site, here.

[Via: mobilemarketingnews.co.uk]

Baby Monitors suck!

You may or may not remember some time back I wrote a post on Baby Monitors, where I lamented the specifications of the Transmitter/Receiver devices - using them, in my opinion, was like a throwback to 10 years ago with the state of Mobile phones! Well we are now 9 months on, and I thought I would re-visit the topic - mainly because I have a rapidly deteriorating relationship with the Monitors!

The other day I sat down to do some work at home whilst our Baby was asleep. I took the Receiver monitor with me, and got on with typing away. Now what do you think I noticed after less than ONE hour? Yep, the battery had failed! This has two effects, with the monitors I am using:

1) the first monitor was projected aerially at a steep vector, with massive acceleratory force (by me)

2) the transmitter, because it can’t “see” the receiver, started beeping - note - the transmitter is obviously in the sleeping childs room…!

Why why why are units (a) badly designed and (b) fitted with such shoddy batteries (which are basically done after 9 months)? Well I will tell you - because new Mums and Dads are an easy target - they’ll buy anything if they are told it will keep their child safe. Well I’m afraid that’s deceit on the manufacturers part if their so-called award-winning products don’t do the job!

It’s not often I get in to a rant - but on this occasion it’s justified - children are arguably the most important ongoing event in your life when they happen, and people shouldn’t have to put up with sub-standard products.

Rant over.

I read with interest an article in The Inquirer, which said that author of a new report (plug: David Crystal - Txting: the gr8 db8) believes that Texting doesn’t impair spelling or literacy - oh no - it actually improves it!

When I say I read it with interest, it was more a case of disbelief! Has this person actually received text messages from the “Yoof” (pun intended) of today? The messages consist of a mish-mash of different symbols, and phonetic abominations - and those are just the polite ones!

Not so very long ago, when text messages could really only be 160 characters long, brevity in messages was required. Costs per message were also higher, and so there was a real drive to simplify the gist of what was being communicated. These days, we have reached the stage where pupils are allowed to write exam papers in “text speak”, fundamentally debasing what the older generations call the “English Language”.

Crystal suggests that what is really happening is that people are scared of technology, and the impact it could have on language - effectively allowing a new generation to gain control of their language. Well frankly yes, I am horrified at the idea of one day opening a well-respected dictionary, and finding that I can’t read it, let alone understand it!

What do IntoMobile readers make of this? Are people (like me) getting in a fluster for no reason, or is there a genuine dumbing-down of languages (not just English) going on……?

[Via: The Inquirer]

PDAs preferred to Spouses

There have been some fairly shocking stories in the last week or so, what with the tumultuous time that the global economy is going through - but the story that shocked me the most (apart from the one about the 77 year old woman caught with Class A drugs on her) was the one that Simon posted about one third of PDA users that would choose their devices over their spouses!

I mean, come on, devices are multifunctional for sure, but do they really compare with the loved one in your life?! There’s a time when you have to wonder about (a) the sanity and (b) the reality of some of these stats - and I think this is a good case.

Personally I work to the assumption that any device I own should have all it’s “value-add” (i.e. the data in it) copied to a more reliable, and permanently located storage device - be that a PC, hard disk, or other. Ultimately if the device gets lost the only concern is blocking the network access on the SIM account. So the device is just replaceable hardware. But turn that argument to your spouse, and can you say the same?!!

As Simon neatly pointed out, does this point to the state of relationships today - I surely hope not…

Recently I posted on a growing menace in our society - namely that of anti-social ‘people’, who think it’s acceptable to blast out their ‘fave choonz’ from the speaker on their mobile handset, whilst walking/riding/sloping/grunting along in public.

I was surprised to find out that this isn’t just a UK phenomenon, oh no… my post attracted comments from the following global locations:

• South Coast (of the UK)
• West Coast (of the US!)
• Venezuela
• Australia
• Israel

… and I’m sure there are many more.

Just the other day, I was returning home from a day in London, only to spend ten infuriating minutes in the same train carriage with a group of incredibly rude teenagers- behaviour included:

• Verbally abusing female passers-by
• Treating the seats like a climbing frame
• Swearing (every other word)
• Fighting (with each other)
• Shouting along to a rap song that was playing out of one of the perpetrators’ handsets

This dovetails neatly in to my ‘million-dollar question’ for the IntoMobile readers:

What do we do about this growing menace….?

Comments are welcome …. unfortunately those involving the application of physical violence won’t be acceptable. Probably.

Above you can see the ‘word cloud’ generated by a neat little web app called Wordle. Using this app, you can paste a selection of words, or an RSS/URL in to the interface, and generate your very own customisable word cloud - I think this warrants the classification ‘uber-neat’

You can make your very own here.

Yes it’s been some years since we saw the infamous Ghettoblaster being carried about - apart from the occasional group of disenfranchised youths sat on steps listening to one, it’s very rare we see them. Much more common is the generic “boy-racer” who has pimped his Fiesta to have a “sound system” (I believe youngsters are calling it In-Car Enterntainment these days….), and so is blaring out tracks as he crawls by….

…. but now there is a new menace - this one isn’t carrying a 400kg boombox, or “rolling on dubs” (not that you could get 20″ alloys on a Fiesta!), but instead he/she is on foot. And their weapon of choice - you got it - the Mobile!

Given the preponderance of Mobile devices with at least a reasonable speaker housed in them, it is now not uncommon to see a teenager wandering around with a tinny version of some UK Grime star’s latest track echoing out of their phone. The phones are typically carried in the hand - far enough away from the owner’s ears to save them from going deaf, but close enough to the rest of the world to annoy the living hell out of us!

I suppose I shouldn’t complain - a percentage of this music has been downloaded from Operators, service providers and suchlike - however, it’s got to the point where the attitude that comes along with these Mobile-carrying youths has gotten to be a bad one. A really bad one.

First of all there is the selfishness/lack of consideration that others may not want to listen to their “music”, and the secondly the fact when confronted about it, the first two words out of their mouths usually begin with “F” and “O”! I wonder whether in fact I am alone in noticing this, and, whether this is occuring to such an extent in other countries….

… so come on IntoMobile readers - let us know which country you are living in, and what your experiences of this heinous trend are….

[Ghettoblaster image via: pocketcalculatorshow.com]

Any of you that have read my Bio will know that one of the key things I am looking for in new devices, services, or tech in general, is that it makes my life easier/simpler - that could typically (though not exclusively) be defined as saving me time, or to say another way, ’streamlining my life’:

“…he [Ben] now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already crowded life. It’s his opinion that mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it!”

So it was with great interest I was reading the August 2008 UK edition of printed magazine “Mac FORMAT“. Inside (page 10) is a short column from Brad Gibson, where he makes “a case for a return to the simple life”. He is essentially making the same points as myself - whereas you might start using a “solution” with the best intentions, often you can be dragged in to a process which involves incrementally more and more of your time and money (upgrading and installing software, for example) - thus nullifying any gains you might have hoped to make:

“Simple isn’t simple anymore. It’s mind-numbing. And keeping track of different cables, drives, and versions… Give me a break!”

Given this thinking, my latest consideration is whether in fact Mobile devices are in some cases becoming too advanced for their own good - hence the pic above. Gone are the days when the Nokia 6310 (a voice+text phone) was prevalent (although you’ll see a surprising number of them if you look in the Financial District in London!) - we are now firmly in the days of the iPhone3G - but do the services and apps offered by the device actually make life simpler/easier/streamlined?

Perhaps I would be better off using a ’simple’ voice+text device, and then consider something a lot more powerful for complex tasks I might wish to perform - maybe even a full-blown Laptop…

So I am keen to get the input from IntoMobile readers - what is your setup, what devices do you use, what services do you employ on each of them - and the $1m question - do they actually make your life better, or are you just forcing yourself to believe they do……?

Ben

As of 6pm PST today, my iPhone will be turning exactly 1 year old. Well, actually, seeing as how it took me a good 20 minutes to get inside the Apple store last year, my iPhone’s 12-month birthday will fall on approximately 6:20pm PST.

So, just how has the iPhone lived up to expectations? And, how has the iPhone failed to deliver as a mobile phone? Read on to find out.

Usability and user experience
The one aspect of the iPhone’s appeal that is undisputed is its incredible UI and un-matched user experience. From the way the iPhone flicks through menus to the way I can interact with different applications and webpages, courtesy of multi-touch, the iPhone lacks a competent competitor.

Anyone even vaguely familiar with the mobile space will already know that the iPhone has redefined the way smartphone users should expect to interact with their handsets. Which inevitably means that we’ll be seeing more and more touchscreen offerings from other manufacturers. How long it will take them to refine their respective UIs to Mac OS standards has yet to be seen.

Features
Furthermore, the iPhone’s weakness lies in its feature-set. With a disappointingly lacking Bluetooth stack that doesn’t serve up tunes over A2DP Bluetooth, recessed headphone jack, inability to record video out-of-the-box (but, there are third-party video recording options out there), and lack of MMS, the iPhone failed to deliver as a truly complete mobile phone. Oh, and there’s the sealed battery compartment - but a simple portable battery charger makes a secondary battery pointless (and every mobile enthusiast should have a portable battery charger, if you don’t, get one post haste).

Honestly, the only time I’ve missed not having MMS on the iPhone is when I tried to email a photo (a highly integrated and seamless process, by the way) to one of my friends that has yet to embrace the smartphone revolution. I was able to email it to his mobile phone email, so the photo was still delivered.

But, what I realized was that mobile email will eventually kill off MMS. If not already circling the drain, MMS and it’s pay-per-use model will succumb to email as the delivery method of choice for sending pictures to other mobile phones. If you don’t have a mobile email-capable handset, consider it for your next mobile phone - it’s worth it.

I haven’t missed video recording that much (aside from the random Bugatti Veyron or Cizeta-Moroder V16T that I wish I had recorded rolling through my neighborhood). And since I don’t go around recording video, the third-party video recording solution has proven more than adequate for my needs. Video recording power users will want to go another route - or just keep a video-recording power-phone in your other pocket.

The 2 megapixel camera is decent and gets the job done, but it’s not going to match up to the German optics and high-megapixel sensors in certain other handsets - if image quality is important, again, look elsewhere. And, the headphone jack and Bluetooth disappointments are so far barely acceptable, but I’ve learned to deal with it.

How do I deal with having inferior hardware features? It’s the Mac OS combined with a huge multi-touch display, people!

Durability
Apple is known for products with outstanding build- and materials-quality, so my iPhone’s robustness hasn’t surprised me one bit. I’ve dropped my iPhone countless times and haven’t noticed more than a bit of scuffing and slight denting on impacted corners. The screen is still immaculate.

Reliability
My iPhone has been rock solid in build and reliability since day one. I’ve had friends and family get hit with iPhone dead-screen issues, wobbly headphone jacks, bricked iPhones from botched jailbreak procedures (which is their fault, really). But, all those problems were promptly handled by an Apple store employee - by putting a new iPhone replacement in to their hands.

Aside from hardware problems, my iPhone hasn’t needed to be reset (or rebooted) much. I only reboot it occasionally to ensure speedy operation and zippy multi-tasking. If not for my obsessive need for top-notch performance, I figure I’d only need to reset the iPhone during a firmware update (which is likely what most people do).

Overall
So, has the iPhone met my needs as a wholly contained mobile platform? Almost. I keep a plethora of mobile phones strewn around my “personal space” (read: living room) for this reason. I keep Windows Mobile Standard and Professional handsets (more than I care to list here) around for when I want to try out the latest Windows Mobile offerings. For my Symbian and photo-taking needs, I have my Nokia N80 and Nokia E61. My Palm OS needs are handled by a Palm Centro. I used to rationalize my fashion phones’ existence by telling myself that I’ll use them when I go out to clubs or bars, but the iPhone is far more eye-catching than a Motorola KRZR will ever be.

So, the phone I use almost exclusively is the iPhone. The iPhone’s UI has spoiled me to no end. With multi-touch and Mac OS, the iPhone has redefined what I expect out of a mobile phone. Performance and features used to be what I demanded from a handset, but the iPhone has shifted my perspective. With all high-end handsets soon to offer feature-sets that are on par with the competition, the UI is what will differentiate one handset from another - which I talk about here. That being said, I can’t comfortably use any other handset for prolonged periods without longing for my iPhone - which is why I always keep it in my other pocket.

So, happy birthday, iPhone. Here we come, iPhone 3G!