If you are tired of your cell phone, why not donate it to a worthwhile cause? Recently the Red Cross has set up the program “Phones for Haiti”. This program is intended to enhance the countries communications system that has been crippled after the devastating earthquake.
People donate their cell phones by mail. Tags and labels will be mailed after signing up with “Phones for Haiti” at http://www.phonesforhaiti.com/.
Good communication is essential for relief workers. The non-government organization Telecoms Sans Frontier have sent experts to help rebuild the county’s network. Their goal is to get phones into the hands of Haitians’ and aid workers.
Thanks to the effort of these organizations, many Haitians have been able to communicate with relatives outside the country. However, there is stillroom for improvement.
Even before the disaster the country did not have an adequate communications system. In 2008 roughly 33% of the population owned cell phones. The earthquake has crippled all land lines. Thanks to the high rate of illiteracy many people can only access communication through the radio.
Despite the difficulties at hand, companies such as AT&T and Cogeco Cable Inc offering free long distant calls to the country. Ericson has shipped self-contained network capable of handling data from 5000 devices.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know if one of those devices was formerly yours?
To Learn more:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/phones-for-haiti-cell-phone-recycling-program-launched-81549822.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/telecom-aid-bound-for-haiti/article1435578/
I figure I would take a stab at something a bit more technological this time around. Recently Microsoft has unveiled its Project Natal system eliminating the controller as the bridge between the player and game. This will rid you of the need to “touch” being that its completely hands off. Gestures, spoken commands and presented images will become the new method to “game”. For the first time the player's body will be the method of interaction between human and machine.
Now Sony and Nintendo have taken on the task to compete with Microsoft in the battle for motion-sensitive gaming. It will be interesting to see what the future holds. Seems that virtual reality may soon become the present instead of the future. Anyway I just wanted to see what you thought of this new era of gaming.
"The 42-inch and 50-inch PN42A450P TVs use the TriDef 3D tech from DDD Group, which costs $200 for two pairs of 3D glasses and the TriDef 3D software," Says Miller Paul. Everyone is excited to see this what Samsung says to be "the world's first 3D-ready flat-panel HDTV."
We all have used text messaging to simply chat, but have you ever donated money through text messaging? In the recent Haiti tragedy, Red Cross and other relief organizations have raised more than $20 million via text message donation. This makes 10% of the $210 million raised so far!I’d like to bring up some questions regarding social networking for you to ponder. The idea sparked from a discussion we had this evening in my core ID class, where we were launching a project involving live media. We branched off into groups to talk about the domain of live media, and later re-grouped for a great debate regarding its definition. Does it have to be technology based? How live is, well, live? Can calling someone on the phone count as live media? If so, what about a face-to-face conversation?
The same borders could be drawn regarding social networking. If you mention the activity, the first things that pop up are Facebook or Twitter, at least to me. Five years ago, it could have been Friendster or LinkedIn. There are plenty successful and unsuccessful examples that have had internet limelight, and I’m sure we could compile a list of dozens of internet services that could constitute social networking.
However, what happens when you actually begin to really define social networking? What if you look at the established social networking sites, the services they provide and connections they complete, and drop their physical or virtual homes? Where one person tweets about a little wine soiree to their friends, an older, less tech-inclined person might just call their acquaintances that afternoon. These two people achieved the same goal and both had a great night with gossip, hors d’oeuvres and cheap plonk. Does the privacy of a phone booth equate a personal message on Facebook? Is chatting loudly on a cell phone on the street car as impersonal as a wall posting? Boing Boing editor Lisa Katayama questions the same thing. How are audience, anonymity & intimacy considered in your definition of social networking?
The previous evening’s get-together poses a pretty legitimate case for defining social networking being not the website you use, but moreso the action of getting in touch. If you look back through history, this theory holds true to the human’s need for communication. Columnist Sarah Milstein uncovers how near-live communication, as we have with Twitter or status updates, existed even in the early 19th century, where mail was delivered up to 6 times a day. This certainly eliminates the medium being the message, as technology has only simplified the method in which we achieve that communication (check this super badass text messaging service from 1935). Suddenly, we could be talking about smoke signals and carrier pigeons (what was that one site that had a bird as its logo?).
However, the medium in which social networking is carried certainly does have a large effect on how we behave socially. How many phone numbers do you know off by heart? How do you check if your friend Bruce’s birthday is the 15th of June or July 15th? Do you accept her friend request? This is all another notch in the medium’s battle over the message.
I’ll let my ramblings end there. I want to hear your definition of social networking. Let’s hear one statement and some supporting context/examples/cases that strengthen where you think social networking begins and ends. Does it influence our greater human behavior? How do clever devices affect this activity?
Love,
Ansis Kalnins
While the applications for the I Phone remain a successful commodity, the phone is also inspiring programmers with artistic aspirations. Ge Wang is a technology student at Stanford University. This past year he created the Ocarina an I Phone application released by Smule.
Named after an ancient folk instrument, this application is the first that turns the IPod into a new kind of instrument. The Ocarnia is sensitive to touch, movement, and breath. It also allows people to communicate with other users and share the music they have created with others worldwide.
Last December Ge Wang conducted the first orchestra performance of the Ocarina with the Stanford Mobile Pone Orchestra. The musicians improvised by wearing special gloves to operate the phone.
So far the Ocarina has been downloaded by over 600 000 people. While even Wang admits that it can never replace real instruments the program is significant for its ability to create music in an entirely new way.
According to technophiles, experts, and that whispering voice in your head, 2010 will be the year that augmented reality makes a breakthrough. In case you don't know, "augmented reality" is the title given to a smart, gizmo-specific type of software that takes a live camera feed from the real world and superimposes stuff on to it in real time.
The emergence of more powerful, media-centric cellphones is accelerating humanity toward this vision of “augmented reality,” where data from the network overlays your view of the real world. Already, developers are creating augmented reality applications and games for a variety of smartphones, so your phone’s screen shows the real world overlaid with additional information such as the location of subway entrances, the price of houses, or Twitter messages that have been posted nearby. And publishers, moviemakers and toymakers have embraced a version of the technology to enhance their products and advertising campaigns.
Given the cost of creating decent augmented-reality technology, early attempts have focused on two areas. One, augmented reality for your computer is prominently appearing in attention-grabbing, big-budget advertisements. And a few consumer applications of the technology are just beginning to surface in smartphones.
A recent example of augmented reality appearing in attention grabbing advertisements was for the film District 9 On the movie’s official website was a “training simulator” game, which asked computer users to print a postcard containing the District 9 logo and hold it in front of a webcam. The postcard contains a marker; when the game detects that marker in the webcam video, it overlays a 3-D hologram of a District 9 character on the computer screen. From there, players can click buttons to fire a gun, jump up and down or throw a human against a wall in the game.
It was also used in a recent Issue of Esquire, an entire issue containing augmented reality fashion features, ads and Robert Downey Jr. introducing the magazine to you, fancy.
The most recent augmented reality application I’ve come across is one that allows you to interact not with objects but with humans. Swedish software and design company The Astonishing Tribe are currently developing Augmented ID, an augmented reality concept for mobile phones. This utilizes facial recognition software (supplied by Polar Rose) to visualize the digital identities of those around you.
By simply aiming your mobile device at someone, you would be able to access that individual’s pre-selected information through floating icons that would appear around their image. These could contain anything from a phone number and email address to links to their favorite content or social networking platforms.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to augmented reality. What augmented reality applications have you interacted with or are familiar with?
Speaking about location based games last week reminded me about an interesting project I heard about a few years ago and only recently experienced. The Murmur project began in Toronto as a sort of interactive oral documentary of the City. Throughout different areas of the city there are green signs in the shape of ears placed usually on street corners with a phone number written on them. If you call the number you are able to listen to residents tell stories about the significance of different neighborhoods and historic sites. You experience the history of a location unfolding before you. Check it out.
