Link Love: Mobile Trends

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Emotions and Mobile Phones

Emotions and Mobile Phones

In this somewhat dated article Amparo Lasen demonstrates how mobile phones are affective technologies - that is, objects which mediate the expression and exchange of feelings and emotions.

Mobility is part of the original sense of the notion of emotion as it refers to agitated motion, mental agitation or feelings of mental agitation. Emotions are those mental states called "passions" in the past. An important feature of the affects depicted by the category of passions is the idea that they entail ways of being acted upon, of being moved by other beings, objects, events, and situations. Nowadays people are moved and acted upon by their mobile phones. Mobile phone uses are the result of a shared agency. Competences and performances are distributed between people and devices. People and their mobile phones constitute a particular example of the assemblies between the human and non-human, as described by Bruno Latour. The assembly 'me and my mobile phone' is constituted in situated practices where other actants -groups, individuals, objects and spaces- are involved.

Mobile phones have become affective technologies. That is, objects which mediate the expression, display, experience and communication of feelings and emotions. Users enjoy an affective relationship with their phones and feel attached to them. This is partly due to the intrinsic affective character of human communication, and also because mobile phones are close to the body. They are an extension of the human body at the same time that they extend and augment its abilities. Emotional attachment is enacted in the personalisation of handheld devices and services. Mobile phones are not only an extension of the owner's presence, but they also allow the virtual presence of those linked to us by phone communication. Thus, they become an important element in the building and maintaining of groups and communities.

Great insight into the social factors affecting the shape of mobile devices.

Download the .pdf

Je me figeais

Je me figeais, a short film by Baptiste Sola, is wonderfully abstract, moody and beautiful to watch. His other films L'échange and Requin are great as well and share the same sense of quite minimalism.

Guangzhou Photographer 'ndmsr'

Guangzhou Photographer

Wonderful work from Guanzhou based photographer 'ndmsr.' Great saturation, color and subject matter.

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1337 (Leet) Phone

1337 (Leet) Phone

I dig the old school geek aesthetic of Australian designer Shane Crozier's mobile concept. A combination of the HP 25 calculator, MS DOS and numeric keypads, it eschews all modern UI fun in favour of the simple joys of a dot matrix display and numeric keyboard. His concept features binarry texting, Pong and 2 ringtones. Someone should create a dialer for Android like this.

Shane Crozier

What does it take to come up with a winning mobile phone?

Nokia Design
Jung Younghee

One of the things that I appreciate about Nokia is how they provide access to their leading thinkers and researchers, and the results of their work. They are so successful at sharing insight that I've come to think of them more as a company that does research into mobile, than a company that produces amazing product. A counterpoint is of course Apple, recently repositioned as a mobile products company, who outside of marketing language keeps research that may have informed any design a tightly held secret. You never hear the designers on Apples team talk about their ideas nor outside of Jonathan Ive is it commonly known who they even are.

In a recent interview with Malaysian journalist Iswan Ismail, Nikki Barton, Jung Younghee and Robert Williams, three of Nokia's top designers, described what it takes to come up with a winning mobile phone.

Nikki Barton, head of digital design at Nokia Design Studio:

... good design delivers the goods that are not only pretty to look at, but also work the way people want them to. She says a good design also should let people interact and use their device easily.

At Nokia, the motto is Look, then design ...

"As all the models must be user-friendly, designers often spend hours observing how people all over the world use and interact with their phones. They then bring back their new insights to the studios."

Jung Younghee, research leader at Nokia Research Center:

... her work as a phone designer is mostly about forecasting future trends, focusing on people. "People's behaviour and motivation change slower than technology, but simultaneously guide its development,"

"The challenge is in coming up with better ways of how we can involve people in our design process, which is essential to the quality of what we deliver" ...

"Being connected is still the most important feature, but the definition of what 'being connected' means is changing. The mobile phone has become the digital device that people don't leave home without. They want the phone to suit their lifestyle, whether it be expressing their personal style or customising the ways in which they want to be connected."

Robert Williams, Design Manager:

"But I have come to realise that you can't depend solely on your experiences. You need to understand people and what makes them tick,"

... good design always keeps the user's needs central. "A good design is something that solves a problem simply" ...

From Phone designs that deliver.

5 Rucksacks

Long taking a backseat to totes, sleeves, messengers and briefcases, the vintage styled rucksack is enjoying a renaissance among style conscious men. Always a practical choice for the outdoors now they are as often seen with a suit as ripped flannel. Which makes sense considering how great these canvas bags with their leather trim look. Now if only I could find one without those annoying roll pin buckles.

Albam Summit Pack

Albam Summit Pack

Crafted in England from a sail canvas and vegetable tanned leather trims. This compact daypack fits a 15" laptop and your daily essentials, Two external pockets provide space for keys, wallet, sunglasses.

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  • March 16, 2010
  • Bags

Trans-Cool TOKYO

Trans-Cool Tokyo

Trans Cool TOKYO focuses on the work of a younger generation of artists that emerged in the 1990s, led by Yoshitomo Nara. The exhibition consists of over 30 works selected from the 4000 piece-collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo divided into 3 broad themes: "... comics, science fiction, robots and the like"; "... artists who seek out new identities within the context of globalization"; and "... artists who base their work on their own personal emotions and events in everyday life".

Backed by the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the exhibition is being shown at the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre (BACC) until March 28th.

Bangkok Art & Culture Centre (BACC)
BTS: National Stadium

3 Nagas, Luang Prabang

3 Nagas, Luang Prabang

Of all the locations I have visited across Asia the place in which I always want to return but never seem to have the opportunity is Luang Prabang. The last time I visited was a number of years ago and I remember the interesting and rich cultural heritage, the architecture, the monks walking at dawn, the temples and the surrounding countryside. What I enjoyed most was the slow pace in which life moved, fresh bread and Lao beer, and games of badminton with children in the countryside. When I visited tourism wasn't quite what it was today and while I stayed in a guesthouse there were a number of excellent upscale properties. These days there are far more including the excellent 3 Nagas pictured above.

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The Digital Disconnect

The Seattle Times argues that while communication and gaming gadgets have convenienced and connected us in ways never before possible, they may also be profoundly hurting our ability to be social, empathic and involved with each other. The signs are everywhere -- from the near collisions on city streets where drivers are too busy texting to pay attention to the virtual relationships on Facebook and the addiction to video games.

The video above shows an interesting change in behavior which mirrors some of the observations in the article.

How would their behavior have been different pre-iPhone? Certainly they would have been texting and accepting calls, but wouldn't they be facing each other and talking?

The Real Time Web is a Beautiful Distraction
The ability to pay attention, focus and strategically disconnect will be a winning discipline of the next generation of business leaders.

Driven to distraction

Mr Pink argues that the answer is to give them more control over their own lives and thus allow them to draw on their deep inner wells of diligence and drive. Software companies such as Atlassian and--of course--Google are giving workers time to pursue their own projects. Even low-tech firms such as Whole Foods and Best Buy are giving people more control over how and with whom they work.

Positive Uses of Social Networking (.pdf)

The digital disconnect: In relentless pursuit of 'connecting,' we miss out on each other

Popweekly: Digest for 03.15.10

Thailand Red Shirt Protester
Pretty "Red-shirt" protester, Bangkok

Protesters Surge Into Bangkok, Urging New Election

Convoys of farmers in pickup trucks and busloads of families wearing the protesters' trademark red shirts blanketed a district of ministries and government offices.

"We are here to announce class warfare, in peace and for democracy," Nattawut Saikua, a charismatic protest leader, said to a roaring crowd not deterred by the scorching sun.

Organizers estimated the crowd at 250,000 people and said more were on the way by road and riverboat. The police estimated the number of protesters at 55,000 but said the number was likely to increase into the night. The protest leaders have vowed to continue their demonstration well into the week if their demands are not met.

In four years of political turmoil here, the divisions in Thai society have been complex and manifold. But on Sunday, protesters and their leaders portrayed the demonstration as a struggle of the poor and disaffected against a government supported and controlled by the elite.

Questions remain as TSA rolls out body imagers

Under existing protocols, full-body scans are optional at airport checkpoints. Travelers who decline the scans are funneled to a location where they may be given a pat-down and subjected to other tests, such as swabs that can detect minute traces of explosives on hands or luggage.

The TSA said most passengers prefer a body scan to a pat-down. But others have objected to the body scans, calling them electronic strip searches.

Rossides testified that the machines will not significantly slow the passenger screening process, saying it will be done at the same time as the carry-on baggage screening.

The agency has spent years testing whole body imagers. Plans to deploy them this year were given added urgency after the arrest of a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who was accused of attempted to detonate an explosive sewn into his underwear aboard a flight December 25.

Media heavyweights spar over charging for news online

I see this purely as a means to prop up unprofitable paper operations. I might pay for specialized delivery -- designed for the iPhone or iPad -- but why would I pay for access to content already surrounded by a bevy of advertising. That is payment enough.

With The New York Times and Rupert Murdoch poised to start charging for newspapers online, media heavyweights sparred on Thursday over whether readers will pay for news on the Web.

The Times plans to require payment for full access to NYTimes.com in early 2011 and Murdoch, who already charges for The Wall Street Journal online, has pledged to begin charging Web readers of his other News Corp. newspapers.

Keynote speakers and panelists at the Bloomberg BusinessWeek Media Summit here differed sharply on whether Internet users would be ready to shell out money for what they have become accustomed to getting for free.

Michael Wolff, founder of news aggregator website Newser and the author of a book on Murdoch, said any attempt to make readers pay online is doomed to fail.

"We're in a moment of destruction, transformation beyond all imagination," Wolff said.

"Newspapers are going out of business, every big city newspaper will be out of business or will be owned by a rich man hobbyist within the foreseeable future," he said.

Danah Boyd: How Technology Makes A Mess Of Privacy and Publicity

Today at SXSWi, keynote speaker Danah Boyd took the stage to talk about privacy and publicity, and how they intertwine online. Boyd is a Social Media Researcher at Microsoft Research New England, and has studied this space extensively for years. It was a compelling talk that challenged the notion that personal information is on a binary spectrum of public or private. To help underscore her points, she recalled and discussed a number of major privacy blunders from Facebook and Google. You can find my notes from the presentation below.

Boyd says that privacy is not dead, but that a big part of our notion of privacy relates to maintaining control over our content, and that when we don't have control, we feel that our privacy has been violated. This has happened a few times recently.

Apple's Spat With Google Is Getting Personal

The author seems to be siding with Google.

In the last six months, Apple and Google have jousted over acquisitions, patents, directors, advisers and iPhone applications. Mr. Jobs and Mr. Schmidt have taken shots at each other's companies in the media and in private exchanges with employees.

This month, Apple sued HTC, the Taiwanese maker of mobile phones that run Google's Android operating system, contending that HTC had violated iPhone patents. The move was widely seen as the beginning of a legal assault by Apple on Google itself, as well as an attempt to slow Google's plans to extend its dominion to mobile devices.

Apple believes that devices like smartphones and tablets should have tightly controlled, proprietary standards and that customers should take advantage of services on those gadgets with applications downloaded from Apple's own App Store.

Tokyo/Glow

A branded short film for The Generic Man by Industry Films and Citizen Jones. From their description:

Written and directed by Jonathan Bensimon and produced by Jonas Bell Pasht, Tokyo/Glow follows the nighttime journey of an illuminated man from a crosswalk sign as he embarks on an adventure through the streets of Tokyo. Shot on location throughout Tokyo using thousands of individual digital stills, the short film features original music by indie rock band Kidstreet, who recently signed with Nettwerk Records and will be releasing their debut album worldwide in 2010.

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