MetaFilter posts tagged with mobilephone

Don't be micro-bored

divabat — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:13:40 -0800

Ever spend a few moments during the day idly mucking about with your cellphone? You're part of a new trend known as micro-boredom - which now presents "a significant opportunity for a publisher to exploit readership and advertising consumption". Get away from the bombardment of advertising and find some sacred space, or just turn off the phone.

Social Networking, Mobile Phones, and Crisis Communication

divabat — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 23:12:12 -0800

Can social networking be used to effect positive social change? Ushahidi (meaning "testimony" in Swahili) is one such project that harnesses mobile technology to empower local citizens to report on crucial and crisis situations in their area. Started as a mashup of user-generated reports and Google Maps on the post-election crisis in Kenya, it has now been deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa. They are currently working together with other organisations, such as Kiwanja, which uses mobile technology to assist NGO communications and outreach, mobile programming education, and gorilla conservation. Currently they're collaborating on prototyping the "ultimate activist tool". MobileActive is a dedicated blog that tracks such technology in international development and advocates for the use of mobile technology in crisis situations and disaster relief. (This post is a collaboration between divabat and infini.)

Molly Walker Need Not Apply

chuckdarwin — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:42:39 -0800

WIRED: A ~~cell~~ mobile phone helped police find the body of missing student Kelly Nolan. "The average citizen is not aware that they are carrying a location-tracking device in their pocket..."

Video the Vote

gsb — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 04:38:14 -0800

Video the Vote. "Starting this election... people like you and I... will document problems as they occur. We'll play them online, spread word through blogs and partner websites, doing our part to make sure the full story of our elections is told." via Rushkoff.

Is it really time to upgrade your mobile phone?

nthdegx — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 11:37:40 -0800

Dead Ringers: the Science Museum asks us the question "should we upgrade our mobile phone?" "No" and "no" say the Times and the Observer, but we still do: on average every 18 months. What's the problem? Well it isn't just the lead, arsenic, beryllium and brominated fire-retardant cases (pollutants all) disappearing into our land fills (which are not covered by the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive [WEEE] in Europe). Coltan also goes into our phones. It occurs mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and as such our demand for upgrades has been contributing to a war (despite mobile phone companies' claims to the contrary, coltan is not regulated like timber). If we must upgrade, we can at least recycle or hack our old phones.

UK campaign for cheaper SMS messages

SharQ — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 06:21:28 -0800

In the UK, people are sending 100 million SMS messages with their mobile phone every day, at prices that are far higher than you would expect. Now, some people have started an online campaign to try and influence the mobile phone operators to drop their prices. (more SMS statistics)

Please leave a hazelnut after the tone

NinjaPirate — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 03:15:55 -0800

Do you suffer from mobile telephone calls at inopportune times? Could you use a cute PA to take calls for you while gaming, or asleep? A dissertation project from MIT by HCI specialist Stefan Marti may have your solution: Cellular Squirrel.

Of course you will always want to talk to people who are thinking the same things as you, so Cellular Squirrel waves and moves about rather than making a sound. His oddly bulbous figure makes use of "socially strong non-verbal cues like gaze, posture, and gestures, to alert and interact with the user" rather than intrusive alerts in order to minimise user stress and social disruption.

Cellular intermediaries also come in two other flavours: "a parrot and a cute bunny"

Hang up and drive

carter — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 09:56:32 -0800

The use of a mobile phone up to 10 minutes before a crash is associated with a fourfold increased likelihood of crashing according to a forthcoming article in the British Medical Journal. There is no safety advantage in 'hands-free' devices. The authors interviewed 456 drivers in hospital ERs in Perth, and then accessed, with consent, their phone records. The authors had wanted to carry out the study in the United States, but the phone companies would not release customer billing records, even with a customer's consent. [Article pdf free for the next few days, but BMJ will charge for it after next week I think.]

Wikipedia anywhere

Mwongozi — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 08:57:57 -0800

Wapedia is Wikipedia for your WAP phone or PDA. Alternatively, why not just download the whole thing and carry it with you?

Moblogs in the dutch rain

sebas — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 07:10:41 -0800

Loglands. Ongoing mobile phone cam coverage from the ~~rainy mud~~ Lowlands Festival taking place this weekend.

seanyboy — Tue, 17 Sep 2002 08:31:17 -0800

Shazam! The Media have been talking about it for a while, but this Music Identification Service for British (nyt) mobile phones is finally here. For 50p, you can place your mobile phone next to any machine playing groovy unidentifiable music, and within a minute, it'll text and tell you what's playing. So far, I've worked out that it's great at identifying Sheryl Crow and Bush tracks, but it's not so good at identifying traditional Greek folk music.

quietfish — Wed, 04 Sep 2002 12:09:11 -0800

As if verbal and physical threats in the schoolyard aren't enough. Give a bully a mobile phone and voila, another way of torturing another kid. But which is worse? Being picked on to your face or being bombarded with nasty text messages? It seems that kids have a pretty rough go of it nowadays. It makes me glad I'm almost a grown up.

benjh — Sun, 28 Jul 2002 14:32:06 -0800

This past week (Sir) Richard Branson (otherwise known as "That Nutty Billionaire"), showed that corporate disclosure is a good thing, as he stripped bare, except for a muscle suit, to launch the U.S.'s first Virtual Phone carrier, Virgin Mobile.

Blake — Sun, 24 Mar 2002 09:09:25 -0800

Study: Mobile Phone Users Worse Than Drunk Drivers
It took mobile users half-a-second longer to react than normal, and one-third of a second longer than when they had been drinking.
They were also less able to maintain a constant speed and found it harder to keep a safe distance from the car in front. Participants in the study stated that they found it easier to drive drunk than when using a cell phone.
Here's the fun quote:
"Eventually," said Dominic Burch, road safety campaign manager at Direct Line, "we would like to see the use of mobile phones when driving, both hand-held and hands-free, become as socially unacceptable as drink driving."
Nice graphic Here that explains the time/distance it takes to stop. That fraction of a second = +46 feet stopping time over normal, and +33 over being drunk. More Here and The Full Report[PDF].

snowgoon — Mon, 15 Oct 2001 03:47:26 -0800

Sacrifice your mobile? Not sure if the US of A is gripped by the text epidemic sweeping Europe, but this sounds a bit different. What messages would you send? (Clean ones please!)

Fofer — Wed, 29 Aug 2001 03:55:32 -0800

This weekend's DialTones is yet another fascinating "found sound" performance. (Let's just hope Andras Schiff's not in attendance.)

thc — Fri, 27 Oct 2000 15:16:34 -0800

While I originally thought that this was a joke, in the 11/14 print version of Business2.com mentions that they will be shipping and receiving "the goods" via WAP enabled phones. Aww jeah!