May 26, 2012
Army Wants Flame-Retardant Texting Gloves
According to Wired, a recent request for information from the US Army says that there’s a need for a “capacitive touch screen compatible Army combat glove.” It’s a simple request: a “combat survivable” glove with enough stuff on the fingertips to ensure the “tactile accuracy” of troops mashing the screens on their handsets.
... The Army’s query about what texting gloves are on the market contains one new clue about how soldiers will one day use smartphones. The devices “will reside inside a protective case making the corners of the capacitive touch display difficult to reach,” the Army’s request reads. Prepare for some amazing auto-corrections.
Read more.
Judge: Text Sender Not Liable In Car Crash
A New Jersey woman who sent a text message to her boyfriend cannot be held liable for a car crash he caused while responding to the message, reports 11KKTV.
A lawyer for David and Linda Kubert had argued that text messages from Shannon Colonna to Kyle Best played a role in a 2009 wreck that cost his clients their legs.
On September 21, 2009, the Kuberts were riding their motorcycle in Mine Hill, N.J. A Chevy truck swerved across the center line and hit them head-on.
David Kubert said as the truck approach he could see the driver "steering with his elbows, with his head down. And I could tell he was text messaging."
Both Kuberts were seriously injured when Best crashed into their motorcycle. David Kubert had his left leg torn off above the knee, while Linda Kubert eventually had her left leg amputated.
"This is a senseless crash that didn't have to happen," David Kubert told CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.
But Colonna's lawyer said she had no control over when Best would read and respond to the message.
The case is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.
Read full article.
May 24, 2012
May 23, 2012
How to water a farm with a phone
Many farmers in India have to walk miles to turn on the pumps which irrigates their crops. Spencer Kelly reports on how farmers are using mobile phone technology to help ease their workload.
Watch BBC documentary video.
Wireless carriers seek to "offload" customers
Major carriers are looking to steer customers' wireless traffic to cheaper and more localized networks, such as Wi-Fi hotspots.
[via USA Today]
40% of those connecting to the web in China now do so solely via a mobile phone
The BBC's John Sudworth meets the Chinese entrepreneurs targeting the world's biggest mobile phone market.
But in some ways the real communications revolution has only just begun.
This year, China will overtake America as the world's biggest smartphone market.
And for many Chinese, the smartphone offers them their first personal route to access the internet - by some estimates 40% of those connecting to the web in China now do so solely via a mobile phone.
Read more on how mobile phone app makers in particular, have an extraordinary opportunity. Image credit.
May 22, 2012
Mobile Phones Offer Indian Women a Better Life
In India, researchers are just beginning to study the effects that the explosive growth in the mobile phone market has had on women’s lives. The New York Times reports.
In the state of Gujarat, the mobile phone is central to an innovative scheme that allows rural health care workers to compile information about pregnant women and then text message reminders for checkups and vaccinations.
... Access to a mobile phone can enhance women’s welfare in other ways. In a recent report, Dayoung Lee, a student researcher at Stanford University in California, noted that “mobile phones significantly decrease tolerance for wife beating and husbands’ control issues, and increase women’s autonomy in mobility and economic independence.” Access to outside support and the knowledge that others may intervene serve as a check on domestic violence.
Read full article. Image credit.
Future of mobile phones? Robot can climb out of your pocket and whisper in your ear
This is wild. From mother nature network.
One possible application for the so-called Clothbot involves inspiring a new generation of mobile phones that are capable of autonomously crawling up to your ear whenever the phone rings.
It gives new meaning to the idea of owning a "mobile" phone. And as if having a phone crawl out of your pants isn't creepy enough, researchers also envision the device doubling as a Tamagotchi-like pet, which could roost on your shoulder or follow you around.
Read more.
'Smart calling' app lets you share pictures, video and location during phone call
Bits reports on a company called Sidecar, based in San Francisco, that wants to re-imagine phone calls by turning them into something the company calls “smart calling.” The idea behind the Sidecar app, which is available on Tuesday for Android and iPhone, is that there is demand among users to share pictures, video and location data, all during the context of a phone call.
If you call a plumber to beg him to help you to fix a pipe that’s squirting water, Sidecar lets you use your phone so he can see the problem with his own eyes. In the middle of a phone call with a friend you’re trying to meet for drinks, you can transmit your location so the other party can see where you are on a map.
Of course, a lot of this sharing can be done with other apps, but without Sidecar it “takes about nine clicks” on the phone to accomplish those tasks.
Read more.
Business world gets a new way to monitor employee SMS - by storing them in the cloud
A startup called Uppidy has unveiled a service that backs up SMS services to the cloud, making it easier for individuals, parents, or even your employer to read your text messages.
Read full article in arstechnica.
SIM card to help parents protect children from bullying
Parents will be able to control their child's mobile phone thanks to a SIM card remotely managed from a computer. The BBC reports.
Unlike an app, a child will not be able to switch the service off.
The UK's Family and Parenting Institute said the SIM would help protect children from mobile phone bullying.
To have the service, parents would need to buy a "safety pack" with a SIM card inside, install it into the child's phone and use it on a pay-as-you-go basis, from £2.95 per month.
Read more.
Judge to Decide if Text Sender Liable for Crash
A New Jersey judge is expected to rule this month on an interesting claim that a person can be held liable for sending a text to someone you know is driving, according to ABC News via Bernard Law Group.
Two people on the motorcycle suffered such serious injuries that they needed leg amputations. The couple sued the 19-year-old driver as well as the person who sent the text message.
According to ABCNews, Morris County Superior Court Judge David Rand is expected to make his ruling on May 25 about Colonna’s potential liability in the accident.
Read more.
Electronic nose technology turns tomorrow's smart phones into devices that sniff out disease and terrorist bombs
This video onByteSize Science mentions use of electronic nose technology to turn tomorrow's smart phones into devices that sniff out disease and terrorist bombs.
Related:
-- Saving the World With Cell Phones (2005)
-- Cell phone could warn of gas leaks (2003)
-- Phones that detect dirty bombs (2003)
May 21, 2012
Texting kills 5,000 people every year in the US
Texting and talking on cell phones behind the wheel kills more than 5,000 people every year on US highways. Teen drivers seem to be especially susceptible to distraction, a study says.
Texting raised the risk of a crash by 23 times compared with non-distracted driving, says an environmental report.
[via IBN Live]
Pakistan: Fatwa on Women using cell phone. Punished by acid in face
According to Right Side News, Islamic clerics' have issued a fatwa against Pakistani women, threatening to throw acid on those using a cell phone.
The fatwa was issued in a sermon during a weekly Friday prayer in Kohistan district in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Haleem also threatened that women from secular NGOs who visit Kohistan district may be married off forcibly to local men. In a similar incident, a cleric announced a fatwa in a mosque in Noshki town of Pakistan's Baluchistan province, justifying acid attacks on women who use cell phones.
Image and related article from Sinai Post.
May 20, 2012
Why Cyber Cafes Can Thrive in a Mobile Internet World
With the advent of cheap mobile phones and mobile data plans, there is the belief that mobile phones are pushing cyber cafes out of business. Well according to a Global Impact Study with surveys of public access ICT users in five countries, found that Internet café users do indeed have access to computers and the Internet at their homes, and yet they still visit public cyber cafes. Innovation Africa reports.
As the chart shows below, there are significant percentages in the “other” response, particularly for Chile and Brazil. Some of these “other” reasons include free access, not having to compete with their family members for computer and Internet use at home, software and services provided at the venue, and the convenient location of the venue.
Read full article via @jranck. Image from TNW.
Why some children are always on the phone: It's genetic
Are your children spending too much time talking and texting on their mobile phones? According to new research, it's your fault. Or more specifically, the fault of the genes you passed on to them. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The results, published recently in the journal Twin Research and Human Genetics, showed that the amount of time spent talking or texting is highly inheritable.
The study also suggested smart people use their phones less.
Dr Geoffrey Miller, from the psychology department at the University of New Mexico, the lead author of the paper, says the study is one of the first to look at the link between genes and consumer behaviour. "One of the big misconceptions that almost everybody has is that you can only have genes for things that evolved in the past,'' Dr Miller said. ''That was one of the things we wanted to demonstrate in an in-your-face way: that even with a technology that's only been around for a couple of decades, you can still have these latent genetic influences that will shape people's personality traits, their interests, their styles of social interaction. ''Then those traits will play out in how they use a new technology.''
Read full article. Study: The Heritability and Genetic Correlates of Mobile Phone Use: A Twin Study of Consumer Behavior
May 19, 2012
MIT researchers create do-it-yourself mobile phone
MIT Researchers create a do-it-yourself mobile phone.
In their own words:
[via GMA News]
May 18, 2012
Smart Rickshaw Network: winner of world bank competition
India’s Aadhar Bhalinge is the winner of m2Work, a World Bank-sponsored online challenge seeking the best ideas for spurring the job-creation potential of mobile phones.
The competition organized by Nokia and infoDev, a World Bank innovation and technology entrepreneurship program, drew a total of 939 ideas, 96% of which came from developing and emerging economies.
Bhalinge convinced the high-level jury of World Bank, Nokia, UKaid, and other private sector representatives of the development impact, novelty, and feasibility of his “Smart Rickshaw Network” to take home the US$ 20,000 grand prize. His tool would crowdsource maps at a very low cost in developing nations by employing fleets of rickshaw drivers to feed live traffic updates into a subscription service.
[via WorldBank press release. More here.]
Chinese 3G users top 150 million but most still on 2G
China now boasts over one billion mobile phone users, and just 370m mobile internet users, highlighting the vast number that are still on 2G or basic, non-internet connected devices.
[via The Register]
May 17, 2012
Met Police set up 16 kiosks in London to extract suspects' mobile phone data
UK's Metropolitan Police has implemented a system to extract mobile phone data from suspects held in custody, reports the BBC.
The technology is being used in 16 London boroughs, and could potentially be used by police across the UK.
Campaign group Privacy International described the move as a "possible breach of human rights law".
Until now, officers had to send mobiles off for forensic examination in order to gather and store data, a process which took several weeks.
Under the new system, content will be extracted using purpose built terminals in police stations.
It will allow officers to connect a suspect's mobile and produce a print out of data from the device, as well as saving digital records of the content.
Read full article.
Related articles on cell phones and forensics blogged by textually over the years.
Mayo Clinic launches first free app specifically directed at patients
Mayo Clinic has 14 apps for the iPad and 15 on the iPhone. Until Monday, none of the free mobile medical apps were specifically meant for patients. The three free ones were mainly for doctors, alumni and people interested in medical research). MedCity News reports.
Dr. Sidna Tulledge-Scheitel of Mayo said that the app is meant to empower patients and “aligns with Mayo’s mission of trying to make our services accessible and affordable.”
She noted that patients can view lab results in real time as they become available and can check blood work results, for instance, before they meet with the doctor.
“That can help patients to fully engage in the conversation,” she said.
Even after patients go home, they can use their iPad or iPhone to log in and view clinic notes if they want to review what the doctor said during an appointment. They can also send secure messages to their care team, although Currently that service only available for certain areas within Mayo – transplant, obstetrics and primary care.
Read full article.
May 16, 2012
Australian passengers flouting mobile phone ban in the skies
Australian passengers are repeatedly ignoring safety bans on mobile phones and using their devices mid-flight, the national air safety investigator has found, reports News.com.au.
The ATSB investigation stemmed from a passenger complaint made through its confidential reporting scheme, REPCON, about others texting and using the internet on their mobiles during flights from Sydney to Melbourne.
Concern was raised that cabin crew may not be taking the safety matter seriously and had failed to adequately warn passengers to turn off electrical devices or put them in flight mode.
The airline responded, saying the “hundreds of reports that come through each year” from their staff showed cabin crew and members of the public took the issue seriously.
Shocker: Texting ups truthfulness, new study suggests
Text messaging is a surprisingly good way to get candid responses to sensitive questions, according to a new study to be presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.
"This is sort of surprising," says Conrad, "since many people thought that texting would decrease the likelihood of disclosing sensitive information because it creates a persistent, visual record of questions and answers that others might see on your phone and in the cloud."
With text, the researchers also found that people were less likely to engage in 'satisficing' – a survey industry term referring to the common practice of giving good enough, easy answers, like rounding to multiples of 10 in numerical responses, for example. "We believe people give more precise answers via texting because there's just not the time pressure in a largely asynchronous mode like text that there is in phone interviews," says Conrad. "As a result, respondents are able to take longer to arrive at more accurate answers.
Via Phys.org.
Nielsen: US smartphones have an average of 41 apps installed, up from 32 last year
The growing ubiquity of smartphones in the US is helping to drive the surge in app downloads, but as Nielsen reports the average number of apps per device has also increased significantly over the past year, reports TheNextWeb.
Interestingly, however, in the past twelve months the average number of apps per smartphone has risen to 41 from 32, representing a 28% rise.
Read more.
Related: - It's not just Instagram. The 'app economy' is taking off
May 15, 2012
USPS bans international shipping of smartphones starting Thursday
According to PhoneArena, Wednesday will be the last day that the U.S. Postal Service will accept smartphones for international shipping.
While the USPS did not explicitly state the reason behind the ban, it is believed to be related to the possibility of lithium ion batteries catching on fire if they are not correctly installed in a device, or have a full charge.
Read full article.
May 14, 2012
Are Smart Phones Spreading Faster than Any Technology in Human History?
Today's technology scene seems overheated to some. Apple is the most valuable company on earth. Software apps are reaching tens of millions of users within weeks. Major technology names like Research in Motion and Nokia are being undone by rapid changes to their markets. Underlying these developments: the unprecedented speed at which mobile computers are spreading. MIT Technology Review reports via @mobileactive.org.
And some interesting stats:
... Smart phones, after a relatively fast start, have outpaced nearly any comparable technology in the leap to mainstream use.
It took landline telephones about 45 years to get from 5 percent to 50 percent penetration among U.S. households, and mobile phones took around seven years to reach a similar proportion of consumers.
Smart phones have gone from 5 percent to 40 percent in about four years, despite a recession. In the comparison shown, the only technology that moved as quickly to the U.S. mainstream was television between 1950 and 1953.
A new SMS-based monitoring system aims to cut Africa’s childbirth mortality rates
With recent statistics showing Kenya’s maternal mortality ratio at 488 per 100,000 live births, a new monitoring system for expectant mothers is set to ease the number of deaths during childbirth. TheNextWeb reports.
... Reproductive Health Advisor for Aphia Plus, Kamili Dr. Ruth Jahonga said the pilot project has ensured that pregnant women in the area are registered by health providers who call or send SMS messages to find out about their conditions.
The system is a plus to both the mothers and the health experts, as it will not only reduce the number of deaths but it will help them curb the causes of it, says Dr. Jahonga.
Read full article. via @jranck. Image credit.
Despite dangers U.S. teens text and drive - poll
Virtually all teenagers agree that texting while driving is dangerous but nearly half admit they have done it anyway, according to a new nationwide survey released on Monday. Reuters reports.
The poll, conducted by an independent research firm for AT&T, was the second survey in a week to show teens agree that text messaging while driving was dangerous, even as many admit to doing it.
Consumer Reports said last week its survey showed that while eight in 10 said they knew the risks, some 29 percent of drivers aged 16 to 21 had text messaged while driving in the past month.
... Compounding the issue was the finding of what teens thought constituted texting while driving.
"The findings indicate reading a text is somehow (seen as) less dangerous than typing a text," said Andrea Brands, AT&T's director of consumer safety and education.
Read more.
Cell Phones allowed on Virgin flights
According to the Scotsman, passengers on Sir Richard Branson’s airline, Virgin Atlantic, will be able to make and receive phone calls while in the air.
By the end of 2012, nearly 20 aircraft will provide the service.
Read full article.
May 13, 2012
27% of emails are opened on mobile devices: stats
New stats show that more than a quarter of emails are opened on phones and tablets. eConsultancy reports.
Read more. via Paul Swansen+
