After a year in the making, Ontario’s ban on gadget use while driving goes into effect today, and includes texting, e-mailing, or otherwise being distracted by handhelds while behind the wheel. For the next three months, the Canadian province will undergo an “education period”, where I presume perps will get let off with a warning, but as of February 1, 2010 (around the same time as B.C.’s law), tickets will be issued for fines up to $500. Many states in the U.S. have passed similar laws, with a potential nationwide ban in the works, and both carriers and manufacturers are throwing in their support. These legal requirements will likely generate a lot of new revenue in handsfree accessories and applications, let alone the obvious benefits of safer roads overall. At theis rate, it’s only a matter of time before no matter where you drive, it’ll be illgal to phone-fiddle on the road.

[via Ministry of Transportation]

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Making Faces allows every iPhone/iPod touch owner the ability to take or import photos and literally put a smile on anyone’s face, lift their eyebrows, pinch their nose and a host of other imaginative treatments, all in real time.  Users can produce new images with a few simple strokes of the GOO brushes and other tools that can, for instance, bulge, pinch or twirl the photo into funnier versions of the original.  Then you click on the Movie icon and can get a real time animation of what’s been done to the image. Users can also share all their GOO’d images via popular social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook using their respective upload applications.

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Okay so this isn’t going to win any awards for productivity, but it might do for relaxation…

Myreef 3D, from raiX UG, is an App that does pretty much what you might think it does – give you an aquarium in your iPhone!

As I said, it’s not a productivity app, it’s one of those ones where you occupy a small wedge of time just watching the fishes, and feeding them (should you so wish). That said, it is relaxing – the graphics are superb, and do animate extremely well – each fish is scientifically correct apparently, based on how it should move in real life!

I suppose you might prop your iPhone up on your desk and get your own mini-aquarium going on, which listening to the iPod current playlist, which can be included as backing music. All in all, as far as chillout apps go, it’s a nice one!

You can get Myreef 3D from the App store, costing £1.79 in the UK.

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Telecom Italia and Movincom, the Italian consortium of companies and service providers for the promotion of mobile retailing, have signed an agreement that will let Telecom Italia’s customers use their mobile phones to purchase a wide range of goods and services via Movincom. Starting in 2010, Telecom Italia will be building in an ad hoc application into its new Sim cards. Using this application, directly from their mobile phones, customers will be able to buy tickets for public transport and trains, pay for parking, purchase ski passes, buy tickets for a night out at the theatre or other events, and book hotel rooms. Payment for these services will make use of methods offered by banks who sign up to the venture.

Using a SAT (SIM Application Toolkit) technology solution developed by Telecom Italia, this mobile commerce solution ensures high standards of security and authenticates the phone number from which each transaction originates. Specific menus integrated directly into the Sim card will guide customers through the process and make it quick and easy to make purchases. Orders placed for goods or services are dispatched by a text message generated automatically by the application. The text message features the purchaser’s cellphone number but no sensitive data about the selected method of payment. The configuration-free service will be available on all mobile phones. It will be possible to update the service at any time, as and when new goods and services are added.

The Movincom Consortium currently has more than 650 operational services on board, a figure that is destined to rise to over 1,500 services in seven different market sectors.

“After becoming an indispensable personal communications tool,” says Oscar Cicchetti, Manager of Telecom Italia’s Domestic Market Operations, “the mobile phone is transitioning into a personal gateway to the internet, content and services, ranging from information to entertainment and professional applications. Leveraging the potential of the latest SIM cards and terminals, mobile phones are poised to become a powerful and secure transactions and identity management tool too. Today’s agreement paves the way for this by offering a broad range of services and a secure, straightforward and intuitive method for making purchases.”

“We know that security and a user-friendly purchase experience are vital to the development of mobile commerce via mobile phones. This agreement with Telecom Italia is a major step in that direction,” says Enrico Sponza, Deputy Chairman of the Movincom Consortium. “Banks will have access to an integrated set of operational processes and be able to fast track their entry into the mobile payment business.”

This should be a successful solution all-round, because it does the key thing for service delivery – takes end-to-end control of the user experience, encompassing (in this case) device, network, and service provider(s).

[Via: Telecom Italia]

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Another word of the today from tech dictionary site NetLingo – this time it’s:

beepilepsy

The brief seizure people sometimes suffer when their beepers go off, especially in vibrator mode. Characterized by physical spasms, goofy facial expressions, and stopping speech in mid-sentence.

Ha ha ha! This one made me chuckle, mainly because I’ve seen it SO many times in meetings! Not so much with beepers these days of course, but with phones that people have set to silent, for fear incurring the wrath of their boss! The random body jerks that occur always liven up a dull meeting

You can check out all that is tech-terminology, from the site that is Netlingo, here.

[Via: NetLingo]

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InMobi has released a survey revealing nuances of mobile internet usage patterns in India. The survey was conducted at IIT School of Management and surveyed 205 college-aged consumers.  Although a very specific sample group, the results do offer some insight into India’s youth generation who make up the largest population sector in the country.

According to the survey, fifty-seven percent (57%) of respondents browse the internet on their mobile phones, and close to one-third of respondents who surf the Internet through their mobile phones engage with brands that advertise. Of whose who engaged with the ads, they were most likely to visit the ad’s website (72.5%) but also went so far as to call the company (10%), or buy the product (17.5%).

Survey results also showed that the college-aged consumers are equally interested in almost all genres of mobile advertising, as long as the advertisements have something significant to offer and do not interfere with the mobile browsing experience. Among ads, those most welcomed are fast free coupons, free mobile games with embedded unobtrusive ads, money transfer services, free humorous clips and Bluetooth-based “alerts” for items on sale nearby.

Mobile internet usage broke down in the following way:

India is currently the second largest mobile market in the world after China, and nearly 10 to 12 million mobile subscribers are added monthly in the country. (Source: VitalAnalytics)

The country’s largest cities have the highest mobile Internet usage; however, many small to midsized towns such as Meerut, Aligarh, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Kota, Hassan and Trivandrum generated almost a fourth of the mobile browsing traffic.

Mobile internet browsing is also spread across income groups of those with mobile phones. Specifically, 20% of the respondents who access the Internet on their mobile phones are from the working class demographic, 38% are from the lower middle class and 42% are from the upper middle class. This data shows that mobile Internet usage is not limited to only the upper middle class.

Mobile is clearly becoming a mass medium in India – having extended out from only the most affluent individuals in the very largest metropolitan areas. In addition, Airtel is the clear leader in terms of the percentage of respondents browsing the Internet on their mobile phones. Reliance is the only service provider where less than 50% of the respondents browse the internet, most likely because Reliance phones are not used frequently for value-added services.

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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]

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Too often when I am driving between IntoMobile Towers and other destinations, do I still find people in the UK holding phones to their ears (for those of you that don’t know, that’s illegal over here!). It is absolutely infuriating, because it is so dangerous, and yet people flaunt it on a regular basis. I’m not sure who is more dangerous, the school mom with kids in the back (!), doing her make-up and talking on the motorway, or the businessman in his ‘pimped’ 4×4, not paying any attention to what’s going on in front of him, but shouting furiously in to his work phone….

At any rate, TAKING ONE HAND OFF THE WHEEL, AND DISTRACTING YOUR BRAIN AT THE SAME TIME, AT 80 MPH ON THE MOTORWAY, TURNS YOU IN TO A VERY POORLY GUIDED (BUT VERY HEAVY) MISSILE.

I can’t even reason the logic out as to how people end up still doing this – do they think they need to be caught once to make them aware, is it because they think they are a good enough driver to compensate, or do they just not give a S**T?

Not very often to I get to the point where my blood boils over something, but this is one of those rare occasions – particularly now since I have two kids, transporting them around should be a relatively safe process – except now I get to play Russian Roulette on the roads, and hoping I don’t come across that one runaway vehicle – chances are, if I do, the driver won’t even have time to brake before they hit me as they’ll be too distracted – and that IS going to hurt – maybe even kill.

PLEASE PEOPLE – GET A HEADSET, A CAR KIT, OR DON’T TAKE THE CALL – IT’S NOT WORTH IT.

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I’ve written before on Dr. Jim’s blog posts, because they always provide lively and stimulating commentary on various tech-related areas – recently culminating in a great piece he wrote on social networking (see my post on his post here).

Now Dr. Jim has turned his attention to Web Ads. Quite apart from listing an impressive array, he also delves in to the area of intrusion that some of these Ads crossover over in to.

Of course from a Mobile perspective, Advertising has been touted as the next big thing for a very long time – whereas the reality is that massive volumes of lo-value transactions are needed in order to generate any significant Ad revenue – but with Mobile becoming so capable that they can display even fairly complex Webpages, more and more of the Web Ads we know and love on the PC, might be coming to a Mobile device near you soon!

Find Dr. Jim’s original article here – well worth a read.

[Via: Fuzemobility.com]

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What, more devices that are racking up multiple Mobile phone functions? Bring it on please….!

The Mintpad is one of those crossover devices that aims to do a lot of things – it’s been in the market a little while, but I’m never one to discount a device out of hand for that reason – we all miss gems now and again. The device is running Win CE 5 Pro, which again might not seem like a great reason to check it out, but let’s persist…

First of all, it does look very cool – certainly there’s no hint of Win CE poking through, as has been the case with less successful UI overlays delivered by other device manufacturers. Secondly, it’s quite diminutive, packing a lot in to a very small frame – and third, it claims to have very good audio indeed!

Here’s the specs:

I guess what  a lot of you might be thinking is yeah, but I can get most of this in an iPod Touch – yes, that’s probably true, and the Touch is smaller too – but not everyone wants one of those, so it’s nice to be able to see the alternatives from time to time – of which this is one.

If you want one, hope on over to Advanced MP3 Players, who are selling both 4GB and 20GB variants of the device.

[Via: Advanced MP3 Players]

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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]

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A recent survey of Ontarians has revealed that a wooping 90% are in favour of upcoming legislation that will ban texting while driving across the province. Over 20% already have necessary hands-free hardware, but that leaves a significant opportunity for accessories (be they Bluetooth or wired headsets and speakerphones) to fill a mandated demand. Sadly, 8% admitted they will be ignoring the ban, but hopefully legal and social pressures will squeeze that minority even lower.  Here are a few other interesting stats on people’s attitudes regarding texting while driving:

• 62 per cent of men strongly agree with the legislation and 25 per cent moderately agree compared to 76 and 16 per cent of women respectively.
• Compliance is lowest amongst those aged 18 to 34 with 14 per cent saying they will likely continue to use their hand-held communication device regardless of the law.
• The highest level of support was among respondents aged 55 plus with 94 per cent indicating that they will comply and only three per cent planning to ignore the ban.
• Regionally, Northern Ontario has the highest level of compliance with 98 per cent planning on complying with the law and no longer using their hand-held device while driving compared to 82 per cent in Eastern Ontario.
• 85 per cent of men are aware of the ban compared to 79 per cent of women.

[via Sony Ericsson]

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Can I have a portable one of these please? Oh, and can you put the screen and remote inside the box please?

Okay, so Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s Rock ‘n’ Roll announcement was very nice, and had some good updates and new products. Particularly the new little Nano with video capture – very cheeky, and perfect for the ‘gimme now’ generation…!

But Apple’s announcement disappointed a lot of people on many levels – that in itself doesn’t matter so much you can bet one or another announcement over the next six months will hoover up all the requests that people are making  – but in the meanwhile people will continue to ask for stuff – inlcuding me!

I’m not Kerr-azy with the scope of my requirements – in fact, I have only one requirement – I want a portable Apple TV please.

Now this portable device should surpass the features found in the current Apple TV, but also be thin/light enough to be portable (and useful) – and don’t tell me it ain’t possible, people thought the iPhone couldn’t be done until Apple rolled it out!

The Apple TV has (oddly) turned out to be the device that Apple hasn’t focused on – for reasons unknown to many. But it has the potential to be something great, if it were re-packaged as a Mobile device. That Mobile device could even take the form factor of the Apple Tablet that many are talking about, but it would need to have some key features:

• HD Video playback – 1080p please
• Nice big screen
• HDMI out
• Video Capture – perhpaps not 1080p, but passable
• Multiple Connectivity options – so that streaming is an option
• Nice big rack of solid-state storage – 32GB+ please
• Other secondary features – touch keypad anyone?

I suppose in some respects I might be making a case for an Apple Tablet, but then again I wouldn’t want the Tablet primarily as a device that you could email/browse on. Instead I primarily want a multimedia hub that I can take with me, and plug in to a TV anywhere.

So will Apple give me one? Well I’d bet on an HD iPhone within the next year, so maybe that will do most of what Apple TV does – only time, as they say, will tell!

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Have you ever had one (or more) of those occasions where someone else has been thinking exactly the same thing as you, and then written/said it at the same time? Well I can’t say it’s me in this instance, but instead our very our Stefan, and Dr. Jim Taylor (who I’ve mentioned before – see here) – in this case, they are both talking about how technology has somehow cheapened or distilled real relationships in to nearly worthless ones and zeros.

We cover a lot of news at IntoMobile, but my suggestion is that you take the time out to read both articles, since they are well-written by intelligent people (Stefan, you can give me that $10 later )

I’ve included a paragraph from each below, so you can get a feel for things:

Stefan says:

Before social networks, and trust me, there was a time before social networks, building arelationship with someone actually required some investment of your time. I remember, as a kid, calling my friends after school on a land line phone and seeing who was free to play basketball. I remember having to make a choice about who to tell about my date last night with the girl in our chemistry class. I remember that my best friend, by process of elimination, was the guy who I spent the most time with and revealed all my deepest secrets, fears, and desires to, and he would do the same. Back then my relationships with people involved contacting them to arrange a lunch or handball game at the local park, and then catching up. Today, thanks to technology and our need as a species to be as efficient as possible, we all tell Facebook, Twitter, and our blogs what’s new with our lives, and expect the people we care about to read/watch/listen to the media we produce.

Dr. Jim says:

I see life as connecting with the world directly rather than through a conduit of computer and communication technology. Life is moving something other than my fingers, and experiencing the world with all of my senses, not just with my eyes and ears. It is about connecting with others in a substantial way. Life is about caring deeply about things that directly impact my world. What makes life life for me is its inherent imperfection and untidiness, its intermittent chaos and uncertainty, its occasional blood, sweat, and tears. Can we find that with this kind of technology? I’m not so sure.

Link to Stefan’s article here. Link to Dr. Jim’s article here. Read ‘em both, they’re very good.

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While BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) has become something of a standard issue for many enterprises, it’s gradually turning into an HR headache as the threat of employees demanding overtime on mobile devices looms. Keeping time sheets for personal/business mobile use is a bit impractical – some companies simply institute mandatory BlackBerry blackouts in order to save themselves the hassle. A UK employment law firm, Peninsula, has conducted a study of some 600 BlackBerry-toting employees, revealing they’re spending an average of 15 more hours a week as a result of the little digital ball-and-chain, and concluded that employers should promote a healthy work-life balance to avoid burnout.

“Bosses should encourage staff not to work from home unless necessary. Inform staff that they should limit working from home. If they are happy to work away then ensure they agree to opt out of the maximum working week and have this signed. Limit the extent to which employees are using their devices when they choose to do so; unrested employees will be less productive during the working day.”

The 15-hour figure, however, may help some enterprises organize their workforce accordingly as a rule of thumb – if it’s understood that your boss is taking into account 15 hours spent on mobile, then you’ll be obliged to be available when out of the office. That expectation of constant availability is implicit in some environments, although only semi-legal if you’re not getting paid for it. Keep in mind that the study was also conducted in the UK, where standard practices for businesses may differ; I’m tempted to think in North America, we spend a lot more (read: way too much) time on BlackBerrys, and probably have a larger figure over here. In any case, smart companies should have a policy to properly compensate for mobile activity, and studies like this could help solidify one if it’s not already in place.

[via Telegraph]

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Wow, here’s a contentious one.

Dr Jim Taylor, writing as the Tech Shrink, has written an open letter to Steve Jobs, asking him if the core of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) (joke, geddit?) is rotten. He makes a number of points relating to both the way in which the company is run, and the lack of openness in many respects.

It’s certainly one of those posts that you can see dividing the haters and the fanboys, if those are indeed the correct labels for the detractors and supporters, respectively – and it’s not one of those arguments I’d want to get involved in!

At the end of the day, your Tech, and the way you use it, should be there to make your life more efficient, effective, and enjoyable – and as I’ve said before, if it ain’t doing that, then you need to ask yourself why you continue to use it. It’s the same logic I used when I moved from PC to Mac, and my perspective is that it’s made my life much simpler – however, that could be seen as taking a side (which I’m not), so I’ll let you read the full article and decide for yourselves.

If nothing else, it’s well-written, and deserves a read – you can find it here.

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I’ve posted before about the writings of Dr. Jim Taylor, who covers the area of ‘Psychology of UI’ – given there’s a huge crossover in to Mobile, his work is of real interest to me, and that’s the case again on his latest communication to me.

He has written a blog post on Computerworld.com, talking about the psychological effect on some people when Twitter suffered a cyberattack recently – including the fact that in some case, for some people, they felt lost without that tool to help them!

Now given that a lot of people Tweet via a mobile app or via text, I thought this was really interesting- if you combine a mobile device, the ability to text, and updating your Twitter feed, you have the potentially for people to become incredibly reliant on their devices, perhaps to a psychological detriment.

Anyway, I am not going to spoil the post, because I think it’s a really good read – so click here to check it out, but be sure to come back and let us know what you think in the comments!

[Dr. Jim Taylor via: Computerworld]

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It’s been a while since I posted a NetLingo definition up – but seeing as this one is mobile-specific, I thought it a pertinent one! I guess a lot of you might know the term, and it’s not one that perhaps trips off the tongue that simply:

mobisode

A media industry term to describe a broadcast television episode made especially for viewing on a mobile device. These video snippets are brought to you by a wireless provider and are available on a variety of topics.

Interesting combination of ‘mobile’ and ‘episode‘ there – again, not sure it’s the most elegant term – but as I did spend a good while working on delivering mobile content such as this (back in my Operator days) then I’m more than familiar with the term – and if you weren’t before, you are now (also)!

If you fancy checking out the house of tech-speak that is NetLingo, click here.

[Via: NetLingo]

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Research from Monach University on heavy mobile users aged 11 to 14 revealed quicker results, but more inaccuracies in IQ-style tests. These results are a product of mobile usage cultivating bad habits on impressionable minds, but there are no doubt other digital lifestyle factors (instant messaging on desktop, for example) to which frequent cell phone users might also be prone. The most immediate casualty in these kinds of developmental changes are obviously the handling of words, as truncated, frequently-used versions quickly replace real English, but these tests sounded well-rounded – an overall tendency towards speed over accuracy is a little startling, and should be a wake-up call for parents with text-crazy kids. For more info and the free abstract of the research, take a look at the Bioelectricalmagnetics Journal over here.

[via Gizmodo]

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Orange has announced that the Welsh language will be supported on the Samsung S5600 in September. What makes this all the more interesting is that there are about 600k welsh speakers, so clearly Samsung has something on it’s mind in terms of targeting its market, and converting those users. Apparently the phone will hold 44k welsh words….

… and in related news, there is also going to be a Welsh iPhone App, which will basically be a Welsh phrasebook – good I suppose if you are going to be visiting Wales, although I’m pretty sure the locals speak perfectly good English too

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

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