MetaFilter posts tagged with cellphones

Damn, there's too much static.

flatluigi — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:03:58 -0800

No Signal - A montage of cellphones in horror movies. _{(link via waxy, who has an archive of more montages like these here)}

The Present and Future of Mobile Phones

filthy light thief — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:35:50 -0800

Jan Chipchase is employeed by Nokia in the "corporate anthropology" field, but he considers it "design research," as he's not an anthropologist by training. His work covers researching how people modify their phones in China, India, Ghana, and elsewhere, adding features or extending battery life. He also tracks how cellphones are associated with personal identity and how they are playing roles far from urban and suburban centers. In some locations, cell phone numbers are written above doorways for identification, when there is no official map or organization for streets. He also blogs about his experiences, and his most recent post, he covers the rise of "Super Fakes." The term "super fake" is often applied to designer goods and can refer to counterfeit money. But in terms of fashion products, imitation goods are more than an attempt to dupe the unknowing end-user to maximize profit. Chipchase's question, "What happens when a large % of your target market wants your brand cachet but is happy with a decent-enough quality fake?" is about branded technology, but the question can also be applied to knock-off purses. Knock-off electronics have their own following, with some websites devoted to such items. Such sites can do more than detail the successes and feature sets of imitation products, they may also add background details to news stories (the original story didn't detail that MediaTek is only now shifting to legit production, starting in production of knock-offs). Shanzhai, previously.

"Everyone has this strange archiving addiction now. It's like they're trying to pin a butterfly to a corkboard."

The Card Cheat — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:27:12 -0800

Are cellphones ruining concerts? If they're not going off in the middle of a performance, they're constantly strobe-lighting the musicians. Of course, there are plenty of other ways you can ruin a concert.

Digital telepathy?

MythMaker — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:43:52 -0800

Nerve-tapping neckband used in 'telepathic' chat A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a "voiceless" phone call for the first time. Video. The technology has previously been demonstrated for guiding a wheelchair with thoughts. Company website.

"We understand that your data is private and sensitive."

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 15:46:46 -0800

'Thanks to FlexiSpy, I finally figured out my wife was cheating on me with my brother,' he claims. 'My life is so much better.'

Blue Note Records to release ring tones of jazz music

persona non grata — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 19:19:55 -0800

So What?

Can you hear me now?

CunningLinguist — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 05:49:54 -0800

Retrobrick sells those old giant clunky cell phones we still called "car phones." To anyone old enough to remember them, it's a little scary to think they are desirable antiques now. Too bad they aren't as sweet as these photoshop fantasies. For a little history, Martin Cooper's account of making the first cell phone call, 33 years ago, on the streets of NYC (to his rival at Bell Labs.)

The apocalypse is coming

Steven C. Den Beste — Tue, 02 May 2006 14:35:55 -0800

Myspace goes into the cell phone business. For $85/month you can take as many photos as you want with your Myspace-branded camera phone and upload them to your Myspace home page. (Take that, LiveJournal!)

Cellphone shorts

onlyconnect — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:58:10 -0800

Cellfilms. Ithica College in New York is hosting the Cellflix Film Festival, and has asked students between 13 and 20 to submit 30-second movies shot entirely with their cell phones. They have narrowed down the nearly 200 entries they received to 10 finalists that can be found here. (My votes to the shadow puppets and the progression of life.)

The Inconsiderate Cellphone Company

kenneth — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 08:37:32 -0800

Ringtones are a growing concern and not just when people don't shut them off. Jamster is a weekly ringtone subscription that advertises to kids on channels like Nick and MTV. Kids are attracted to crazy frogs like a magnet and are using the service without parental permission. Now Britain is launching a new inquiry into Jamster's business practices. And lawyers in California filed a class action lawsuit against the company. But Jamster isn't just some fly-by-night operation trying to milk as much money from kids as they can before regulators crack down. Jamster is owned by VeriSign.

It's also a fair question whether it's worth paying 3 bucks for a few seconds of a song that sounds like a player piano, when it costs less than a buck to get the whole thing on the web (especially now that that crazy frog is a single). Why can't you just pay the 99 cents or whatever to get the song on your phone?

I'll stick to AskMe, thanks.

CunningLinguist — Fri, 27 May 2005 04:45:52 -0800

AskGod.com Forget Jeeves. For $25 a month, you can soon call a googling "angel" from your mobile phone with questions. According to the press release (pdf): "Soon, with the coming of Ask God, the prayers of all the data-starved will be answered and the prophecy of information on-demand will be fulfilled." In a country caught in the grips of religious mania, is this smart marketing or tone deaf? And with the web increasingly on our phones already, who's going to pay for this?

Art for your phone.

grapefruitmoon — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 05:31:21 -0800

Cell phone art is here. Not to be confused with art by or about cellphones, Wooster Collective is offering art for your cellphone. The project is designed to raise money for young artists, "in much the same way that a songwriter can earn money from radio play."

Mobile Porn Ban?

analogue — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 10:44:33 -0800

Will mobile phone porn be banned before reaching the mainstream? Startup Companies as well as established veterans alike have been itching to make a buck from the mobile market. Will they ever get the chance? Not in Israel.

mobile mobile phone

13twelve — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 09:41:10 -0800

Keitai Vyuun! - but is it really the best invention ever? I say "no".

The Portable Cellphone Booth

johnj — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 08:31:51 -0800

The Portable Cellphone Booth (imbedded .mov)

Mobile-phone radiation damages lab DNA

spock — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 12:50:57 -0800

Mobile-phone radiation damages lab DNA . Sure to be controversial and certainly not the last word, but it raises some interesting points of conversation. Government surveillance becomes much easier with wireless communications and there is a huge corporate financial investment in the infrastructure. Could we really trust the government(s) to tell us if this particular technology was harmful? And at what point would you give serious consideration to giving up a technology that had proved to be such an intrinsic part of your life? Are you addicted beyond the point of no return?
Other media carrying the story via Google News.

Cell Phones

Gooney — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 13:23:12 -0800

Cell Phone users beware Dec 15th 2004 is the deadline According to the National Do Not Call List, you have until Dec. 15th 2004 to get on the national "Do not call list" for cell phones. They said that you need to call 1-888-382-1222 from the cell phone that you wish to have put on the "do not call list" to be put on the list. They also said you can do it online. Registering only takes a minute, is in effect for 5 years and will possibly save you money (definitely frustration)! Make sure you register now!

Drunk? Horny? No Booty Call for You!

fenriq — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 14:43:12 -0800

The Anti-Booty Call Cell Phone
Because good judgment, heavy intoxication and raging libidos rarely go hand in hand, a new phone from Virgin will allow you to selectively "turn off" phone numbers you might be likely to dial while in a drunken and horny stupor. Thus saving you the embarrassment of calling your ex and instead sending you over to her place because you think her phone's busted.

On second thought, maybe this phone isn't such a great idea.

Blowup bears and cell phones?

gwint — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 06:46:08 -0800

What do you get when you cross Big Urban Games (see also here) with sema codes? I'm not sure, but it seems to look like this. (via gizmodo)

Just Keeping Track

DrDoberman — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 05:45:56 -0800

The Army are tagging honey bees to find UXBs. Now technology lets you silently locate mobile phones in the UK. Now you don't need to be 007 or Austin Powers to track someone. Is tagging offenders the soft option? How could someone already be watching you?

Do they have tap roots?

falconred — Sat, 25 Sep 2004 08:58:32 -0800

FraudFrond: There are over 32,000 cell phone towers in the U.S. disguised as fake trees, how many can you find? [via]

landline, schmandline.

whatnot — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 07:24:04 -0800

Hold the phone. You probably already know that many Americans are ditching their land lines in favor of cell phones:

It is part of a generational shift to wireless, says Leap's chief executive, Harvey White. "Our demographic is younger, and when people start a household today they simply never bother to get a land line."

But were you aware that pollsters don't call cell phones? Media saturation, changes in communications technology, and missed demographics (americans abroad, for example) seem to make polls increasingly irrelevant. (first link via e-v.com)

Escape-A-Date!

braun_richard — Wed, 04 Aug 2004 11:31:41 -0800

Stuck on a horrible date? Cingular Wireless to the rescue!

Damn Right

ursus_comiter — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 09:47:02 -0800

Who's the teenage supersleuth with the superpowered cell phone who catches all the crooks? Ketai Deka.

Duff Calling

adrober — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 14:01:48 -0800

Sure it looks just like just another promotional site for a movie, but then you realize that you can send phone messages from Hillary Duff. And sure, that seems lame at first but these are personalized messages that involve names and characteristics like "braces" or "big head." It really CAN be very amusing.