In just another sign of the times, New Zealand’s Transport Ministry has clarified terms on a new ban on mobile phones while driving. Starting in November, the use of mobile phones while behind the wheel will be strictly prohibited, along with the use of any GPS navigation systems from a mobile device. If you enjoy using your GPS-enabled cellphone to help you navigate… Looks like you’re going to be out of luck shortly, at least in New Zealand.

Before anyone gets up in a tizzy, here are some important points to consider:

• You can use a mobile phone while driving as long as its held in a cradle… and you can only use it to make, receive or end a call.
• Use of GPS navigation on any mobile phone in any way is prohibited.
• Navigation systems with no mobile phone functionality will remain ‘all good’ for use.
• Reading or composing of email and texts will be banned.

With November fast approaching, folks in New Zealand will no doubt have to adjust their mobile phone habits while behind the wheel. My suggestion? Put your phone in silent mode, and leave it out-of-reach. When driving you should be driving. Nothing else.

[Via: Stuff.co.nz]

Reading other people’s rants is like ringing a person’s doorbell and having them answer in their underwear. You know that little bit extra about them that you didn’t before your eyes saw those Hello Kitty boxers. With that said, Adam Frucci from Gizmodo blows it out of the fucking water with this rant about AT&T’s femtocell launch.

Read the whole thing and drop him a comment telling him how much he kicks ass.

I like this word from NetLingo, my fave tech-language site…

internesia

The inability to remember which Web site a piece of information came from or which bookmark might get you back there

Wowzer,how many times has this happened to me?! It’s worse with Mobile browsing too, because until recently it wasn’t possible to open multiple browsers windows. The recent crop of smartphones seems to have solved that, but still, how often do you still find that you’ve missed a site, and/or info you wanted to save? If the answer is not at all, perhaps you have ‘Bookmark OCD’

[Via: NetLingo]

It’s been a little while since I did a NetLingo Word of the Day, but here’s the latest one:

A Web site that serves as a starting point to other destinations or activities on the Web. Initially thought of as a home base with links to other sites in the same subject area, portals now attempt to provide all of a user’s Internet needs, in one location. Pioneered by Yahoo!, portals aggregate other people’s content. MSN and AOL are also popular Web portals.

For example, portals commonly provide services such as e-mail, online chat rooms, games, shopping, searching, content, newsfeeds, travel information, stock quotes, horoscopes, weather, and so on. Portals grew out of the technology inherent with the Internet and are an excellent example of how to take advantage of “user loyalty” via sticky content.

Additional definitions include these: A personal portal is a site on the Web that typically provides personalized capabilities to its visitors, providing a pathway to other content (such as Invesor’s Business Daily). It is designed to use distributed applications, different numbers and types of middleware and hardware to provide services from a number of different sources. Business portals are designed to share collaboration in workplaces (for example SharePoint). A business-driven requirement of portals is that the content be able to work on multiple platforms such as personal computers, PDAs, and cell phones.

Of course, we all know and love the word ‘portal’ from those simply spiffing Operator Portals that some clever bods at the Mobile Networks dreamed up years and years ago. It’s scary to think how much they invested, and let’s think now – did they ever release figures on how much return they have made from them? Nahhh, ‘course not

[Via: NetLingo]

For some reason I’m not surprised at all to hear about this one. Apparently, at a Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) gathering at Safeco Field in Seattle, things went down… It was all light-hearted so I hear, but still, it went down.

When Steve Ballmer took the stage at Safeco, he noticed a member of the Windows group attempting to snap his picture on an iPhone. Steve quickly grabbed the phone, made a few ‘funny comments’, placed the iPhone on the ground and then began to pretend jumping on it… Of course, no damage was done to the iPhone, but some damage may have been done to the employee. In fact, later on during the presentation Ballmer made sure to note ‘he hadn’t forgotten’ about the iPhone toting employee. Ominous.

I know deep down at heart Ballmer was joking here (at least I hope so), but this attitude is highly counter-productive. Embrace the competition. Run with it. And focus on building a Windows Mobile device that everybody and their dog will want to use. Can I get a seconder?

Note: The picture taken above is apparently from said employees iPhone. Can’t say for sure if it’s the real deal or not. Kind of reminds me of Telly Savalas pushing the Diner’s Club card.

[Engadget via TechFlash]

Tomorrow I’m going to celebrate my first month without Facebook. I’ve been using the service since it originally came out and was only offered to University students. I stuck with it when they added the news feed feature that at first was heavily controversial, yet today is looked upon as one of the key reasons why the site is successful. I even stayed with the service when they decided to open up the network to anyone with a valid email address.

No one today can deny the usefulness of what Facebook has to offer. Unlike MySpace, which was originally used by bands to promote their material, but then evolved into a place where people tried to collect friends like a 10 year old tries to collect Pokémon, Facebook is all about building a network of people you actually know and providing an easy way to keep up with what they’re doing. For me, Facebook even replaced my phone book. It didn’t matter what mobile device I was using, I would just go to Facebook’s mobile site, login, search for my friend’s profile, and then call/text them. This feature was so handy that I didn’t even bother remembering my own phone number and would often go to Facebook just to copy and paste my digits.

Somewhere, somehow, Facebook started evolving into something that wasn’t very desirable. You knew MySpace was going downhill when you logged on one day and saw that you had a friend request from a bottle of Pepsi, or a can of Axe deodorant. With Facebook, it was logging on one day and seeing your mom, and your mom’s friends, trying to become your friend that may have signaled something weird was happening. For others it was the Facebook applications that sprang out of nowhere and quickly turned people’s profiles back into the hideous malformed websites that we all used to remember as MySpace profiles. For me, it was the realization that I was interacting with all my friends in a highly efficient manner that made it just as easy to see what my best friend was doing, as someone who I don’t even talk to, yet accepted their friend request anyway as a gesture of good will.

Read the full article »

This may sound just a bit strange, but the truth is always stranger than fiction…Always.

A survey by the Chicago Dental Society has found that 4 out of 5 dentists have reported problems with texting patients. Crazy. I know when I’m in the dentist’s chair I’m doing only what the dentist wants me to do… Usually that involves a lot of ‘open your mouth’ and ’spit’. Simple instructions, and out of courtesy to the doctor working in my friggin’ mouth… I turn my phone off!

Of the dentists that said their patients are texting while receiving treatment, 46% of those said this nasty habit prevents them from providing top-quality care.

When I go to get my teeth cleaned, I want it done right. I think I can hold off for half an hour while I go through the process… Surely the rest of the world can hold off answering a call, texting or twittering for a few minutes while the dentist does his business? Turn your device off and let the dentist do his/her job. Deal? Deal.

[Via: Cellular-News]

Photo credit: Jim Dwyer

Your cellphone can do a lot of things. Most of them can take pictures. Most can download music and play them through headphones. Some of them can even tell you exactly where on Planet Earth you are currently standing. Some, apparently, have the power to turn on your Maytag oven!

Due to some kind of strange electromagnetic interference issue – the same kind that causes some speakers to buzz annoyingly when a call comes in – Andrei Melnikov’s cellphone can reportedly turn on his Maytag oven. At least that’s what Consumer Reports’ engineers say is possible. Melnikov was tipped off to his oven’s cellular sensitivity when he found his meat thermometer on fire.

Melnikov’s biggest concern over his “magical” Magic Chef? “Not for the material things,” he said. “I have three chinchillas.”

This particular electronic oven, a Maytag Magic Chef (Model CGR1425ADW), interprets the cellphone interference as a command to turn on the broiler – to the highest temperature, nonetheless. Strangely, Melnikov’s handset triggered other Maytag Magic Chef ovens in his building, but had no affect on GE ovens.

Maytag has offered to replace Melnikov’s oven at no cost, and will take the oven back to their lab for testing. Maytag insists that all Maytag appliances meet the Underwriters Laboratory and the American National Standards Institute’s safety standards.

If that oven in your kitchen is a Maytag, especially a Magic Chef, you might want to see if your cellphone triggers the oven to turn on. You might even get a free oven from Maytag!

Head on over to the NYT site to see a video of the oven in action.

[NYT via: PhoneDog]

The car thing was pushing it a little, but I still got a chuckle out of it.

[via AdamThinks]

It’s now been a few weeks since I downloaded both the free and premium versions of Groovemaker for iPhone (see here), and what a fun time I’ve been having!

I think I’ve created a strange new activity for myself (get your minds out of the gutter!) in those 10-15 min periods in a day where I am able to have a quick relax. Whereas before I might have been browsing some news or doing a bit of mobile email, now I find myself drawn to just doing a quick off-the-cuff mix in Groovemaker!

Being able to create on-the-fly, metamorphosing, continuous tracks, that seamlessly slide in and out new layers of music is a really fun experience, and for anyone that has an eye for music (and specifically the house, club, dance, and hip hop genres), this App is worth it’s weight in gold.

I could genuinely see this being quite an addictive activity to fill in time say when you are travelling (as a passenger obviously, not as a driver!), have a little down-time, are relaxing after work (like I try and do), or wherever you’ve got a timeslot where you feel the need to be creative!

If there is a defined genre of ‘casual gaming, then this App demonstrates something called ‘casual productivity’, where (unlike gaming) you have something to show for what you’ve been doing for that time period. To re-iterate, it’s an excellent App, the free version of it is superb also (unlike lots of ‘Lite’ versions), and if you have an iPhone you should download it and give it a go. Now

Check out IK Multimedias Groovemaker on the App Store – search ‘Groovemaker’.