Posts Tagged ‘Smartphone’

Don’t Touch That Phone! Important Rules of Cell Phone Etiquette

June 18, 2012

Don’t Touch That Phone! Important Rules of Cell Phone EtiquetteSomewhere in history, a proper gentleman or gentlewoman is speaking on the telephone for the first time in their life and is appalled. What, no eye contact? How can you carry on a true conversation without the benefit of body language? How do we expect our tone of voice to carry through these tinny contraptions and be accurately understood when they arrive at the other end? Those complaints are most certainly outdated and old fashioned, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still some lingering, post-1800s complications associated with our preferred method of long distance conversation, the phone. And to make matters more interesting, now many of us text just as much as we actually speak out loud, on the phone. To keep your own lines of communication clear, I’ve compiled some helpful tips for cell phone etiquette, from when to speak to what to say. (more…)

Nokia Pushes the Limits of Smartphone Camera Tech

March 2, 2012

Nokia Smarthphone photo brought to you by Octa, makers of stands for iPadHow many megapixels are too many to fit into your pants pocket? The correct answer, of course, is “there’s no such thing as too many megapixels!” (more…)

Update Your Mobile Technology: Smartphones and Computers

February 14, 2012

iphone holder

Without an iPad, an iPhone, or even a sufficiently smart phone, I was getting left behind. Literally. (more…)

Chrome Away from Home: New Android Browser

February 9, 2012

Google Chrome for AndroidGoogle Chrome for Android A beta version of Google’s popular Chrome web browser is finally available for Android-powered phones and tablets. However, before you rush on over to the Android Marketplace, there’s something you should know. This new mobile Chrome is great, but you probably can’t use it yet. (more…)

An Emergent Syntax of Stuff

August 17, 2011
This image of a table full of outdated cell phones is brought to you by Octa, creators of the Whale Kit iPad stand.

(Photo Courtesy of Dave Patten)

In the 2006 comedy Idiocracy, Mike Judge depicts the Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505. That falling mass is almost certainly full of original iPads, first generation iPods, and antiquated iPhones, along with device-specific chargers and trashed FM transmitters. Technological advances have their costs. More pernicious than the stylized movie threats of new weapons or rampaging dinosaur clones, we face a not-so-subtle and advancing threat: the exponential growth of stuff.

This is the environmental impact of planned obsolescence, or the design practice of deliberately providing a product with a limited useful life.  Items are created with intentional shortcomings to force users to make ancillary purchases.  It’s no surprise that the sale of consumer electronics accessories represents $10 billion in annual revenue.  Most consumers plan to use their accessories for a few years, but when the form factor, or geometry of a product, shifts from generation to generation—common among smartphones—accessory purchases may become more regular.  Think of all those dead dongles: DisplayPorts replaced by Mini DisplayPorts, FireWire replaced by Thunderbolt. (more…)