Comments on: Smart Phones Rule

By: Mandym

Mandym — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:27:41 +0000

I know personally I find myself checking my email, general i-news, and various other items via my iphone… avoiding spending all day and night on my lap top. I think this is a trend that many of us are joining. There is nothing like spending all day on a computer working and then the evening online. Smart phones are the bridge that keeps our communication rolling when we are not at our desks. I agree with the post above, if only we could get reliable service to go with our Swiss army knife of communication.

By: *cat

*cat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:32:39 +0000

It’s definitely an exciting time to be in the mobile phone industry. Lots of new hardware is coming out (even though the US is still way behind Europe and Asia countries) but still an exciting time nontheless. As the features, applications, and user experience become more robust and scalable — there’s really no reason why the cell phone wouldn’t outperform the laptop (though I would say it’s more like 3.5 years away).

I’m just waiting for the flexi-screen and keyboard attachable units so when I’m in class, I can type all my notes into my phone’s notepad system to go with my blackberry instead of watching my laptop burn a hole through the table.

By: lailakaz

lailakaz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:34:35 +0000

In the Emerging Markets in Digital Media class, we have been reading about the many different and innovative ways in which people in the developing countries are using cell phones. From transferring money to getting answers to health-related queries via SMS to Farmers Friend to citizen journalism, the use goes well beyond voice calls. They are doing it all with the simple, cheap versions of the phones. To think what they could do with smartphones

The last reading I did had a case study on research underway to use cell phones to collect environmental data via sensors. The idea is appealing to researchers because the amount of data that could be collected this way (with millions of individual subscribers) is far beyond anything we currently have. However, there are ethical issues involved, such as the issue of individual privacy – tracking data through the cell phones about the environment means also tracking the subscribers’ whereabouts.

By: Sara Niegowski

Sara Niegowski — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:16:40 +0000

This post reminds me of the Pomegranate phone that made a big splash last year: http://www.pomegranatephone.com/. The Pomegranate has amazing features: GPS, web browser, projector, global voice translator, coffee brewer, shaver, and harmonica. Except it turns out that the wonder phone is just a spoof ad for Nova Scotia tourism (until you can get everything you want in one phone, you can get everything you want in one place!). The creators were trying to have fun and draw on our own slightly absurd expectations of what is possible in cell technology (folding knife and pliers?). What I find ironic, though, is that most of these features ARE available now. In fact, the ad creators probably couldn’t have thought of a crazier idea than the true development of cell phones doubling as microscopes. Yesterday on TV I saw Ashton Kutcher selling a camera phone that turns into a projector, and–when combined with an NPR news story this week about a new baby-cry translator iPhone ap–I realized the Nova Scotia folks better watch out. If my phone somehow starts brewing coffee, I guess I will never have to visit Nova Scotia.

In the spirit of the Pomegranate, I’ve come up with my own list of smart phone features that would really come in handy in my own life: foot warmer, ketchup dispenser, in-law GPS tracking system, food calorie scanner/identifier, mechanic BS meter, mascara applicator…

By: Dean Hudson

Dean Hudson — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:03:30 +0000

I think the key advances that have been driving this shift are:

- SDKs for app development
- App distribution models (Android app store, Apple App Strore)
- Fully functional browsers (with complete DOM/CSS/JS support) on mobile platforms.

The last is of particular interest because it’s enabled the development of Web Apps for mobile platforms which allow developers to leverage a single skill set to produce software that runs on the desktop as well. With Google, Microsoft and Amazon providing cloud computing infrastructure, the start up costs for these services are extremely low.

It’s interesting that it’s taken this long for any version of the “thin client” approach to stick. Sun’s 90′s vision of thin Java clients was as prescient as it was premature.

As an aside, I’ve been evaluating the Droid as a development platform and while it’s a pretty great device, there are some strides that still need to be made with regards to user interface.

By: Margery Nabors

Margery Nabors — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:20:17 +0000

I think you have touched on some of the major advancements that have enabled us to consolidate our purse (and car) full of hardware to just once single device, the smartphone. Though I still have a TomTom GPS, an Ipod MP3 player, a flashlight, a hand held video camera, a digital camera, a portable DVD player, a mini hard drive, a TV, and a laptop (etc. etc.), I am using them less and less. Why? Because I can.

That being said, I believe smartphones will fall short of the expected functionality of many of these aforementioned devices. In my opinion, the smartphone will reach a threshold of sophistication. It will never replace an HD video camera (for one, the iPhone doesn’t even have a flash yet), and will never replace a 53″ TV monitor to watch the big game. Yes, expect the smartphone to enable you to consolidate the devices you carry around on a day-to-day basis (if you haven’t already), but don’t expect it to replace many of them. I would posit we can only expect this “one device to do it all..mediocre.”

What’s more, even if the smartphone becomes mediocre at a number of tasks, how willing are you to become dependent and trusting of a single device that on average is lost 12Mx a year?

By: Meg J

Meg J — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:06:17 +0000

I think making phones more rugged is definitely the way to go. I had a LG Vu for about sixth months, and I have to admit the touchscreen was pretty cool… until I had to make a phone call when it was raining. I tried my best to keep the phone dry, but as it was drizzling, it got wet. Two weeks later, it was unresponsive, and all I could do was use the call button; I couldn’t even access my contacts. So when it came time to buy a new phone, I avoided touch-screens at all costs…

By: pluyckx

pluyckx — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:25:28 +0000

You may be on to something. The NYT ran a story yesterday on turning cellphones into microscopes: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/business/08novel.html?em