In 2010, Obama will have a miserable year, NATO may lose in Afghanistan, the UK gets a regime change, China needs to chill, India's factories will overtake its farms, Europe risks becoming an irrelevant museum, the stimulus will need an exit strategy, the G20 will see a challenge from the "G2", African football will unite Korea, conflict over natural resources will grow, Sarkozy will be unloved and unrivalled, the kids will come together to solve the world's problems (because their elders are unable), technology will grow ever more ubiquitous, we'll all charge our phones via USB, MBAs will be uncool, the Space Shuttle will be put to rest, and Somalia will be the worst country in the world. And so the Tens begin.

The Economist: The World in 2010. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Nov 14, 2009 - 60 comments

'Thanks to FlexiSpy, I finally figured out my wife was cheating on me with my brother,' he claims. 'My life is so much better.'
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Sep 3, 2006 - 27 comments

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?
posted by CunningLinguist on May 27, 2005 - 87 comments

Keitai Vyuun! - but is it really the best invention ever? I say "no".
posted by 13twelve on Feb 22, 2005 - 8 comments

Fused space. Exploring the impact mediascapes - the mobile phone and wireless networks - will have on the ways we inhabit localities.
posted by yoga on Sep 15, 2004 - 0 comments

Sky Ear will be a one-night event in which a glowing "cloud" of mobile phones and helium balloons is released into the air so that people can dial into the cloud and listen to the sounds of the sky. The cloud will be made of one thousand large helium balloons each responding to the electromagnetic environment (created by distant storms, mobile phones, police and ambulance radios, television broadcasts, etc.) with coloured blue, red and yellow lights.
posted by schoolgirl report on Apr 9, 2004 - 22 comments

Neoroscience and wireless communication An apparently non-hysterical warning from scientist Leif Salford, who cautions that by using hand-held cellular devices we're conducting "the largest human biological experiment ever."

According to the Independent (UK) article, it's been proven that microwave radiation opens 'the blood-brain barrier, allowing a protein called albumin to pass into the brain.' Lund's latest work 'goes a step further, showing the process is linked to serious brain damage.'

That in turn causes ... uh, what was I writing about? I forget.

Sorry. Seriously, is there anyone in the room competent to comment on the validity of this warning? (Via Gizmodo)
posted by mojohand on Sep 14, 2003 - 15 comments

We've seen some cool mobile phones before, but looking at the current North American cell phone offerings, I'm sorely disappointed. AT&T seems to have the latest/greatest phones, but their service is by far the worst. T-mobile has the Sony Ericsson t68. But none of these phones can compare to some of those picture snapping Japanese Jskies and i-modes, and cool European Nokias. How hard is it to bring these technologies to the North American GSM network?
posted by mad on Aug 13, 2002 - 38 comments

An astonishingly obvious advance in interface design Your mobile phone's keyboard has been rendered obsolete by this inspired rethinking of buttons and the spaces between them. The manifacturer's home page is here
posted by hmgovt on May 20, 2002 - 40 comments

As much as I enjoyed the Blair Witch Project, one had to wonder why those silly kids didn't have a single mobile phone among them. A number of standard plot devices are becoming obsolete as a result of current technologies, while filmmakers are finding new ways to incorporate technology into their stories.
posted by tranquileye on Jul 27, 2001 - 20 comments

Postal Savings is great. Nothing beats having a cash machine on every corner. Except maybe having a cashless Coke machine on every corner.
posted by dfowler on Apr 26, 2001 - 17 comments

Industry Canada proposes jamming cell phones in restaurants, theatres, libraries and other public spaces. They're seeking public comment. Got any? While you're thinking, you can read the press release.
posted by argybarg on Mar 12, 2001 - 45 comments

WAP usability report - Cheap! only 18 bucks, Jakob cares about you, otherwise he would have charged you 80k.
Quick run-down : 70% of the users answered no when asked whether they would like to have a WAP phone within one year; even the simplest tasks take much too much time to provide any satisfaction to users; even after spending a week using a WAP phone, user performance remained appallingly low;
posted by tiaka on Dec 8, 2000 - 6 comments

Filipinos, in their fight against Philippine President Joseph Estrada, have turned to their cell phones. (Real Audio from NPR) Activists are using the technology to organize rallies with thousands of people in days or hours instead of weeks. They are sending 30 million cell phone text messages a day, more than all of Europe combined. Cheap and difficult to censor. I wonder if this will catch on in China?
posted by quirked on Dec 4, 2000 - 1 comment