Think tank

I had an idea, but then somebody else got the same idea. So now I have to come up with something new.

The Online Magician

My friend Seth is the coolest. As far as I know, he is the world's first and only online magician.

Conversations at a high-tech dinner table

Dinner is ready. Tom sits down at the dinner table. Paulina gets her computer and sits down right next to him.

T: No, please. Not.
P: Not what?
T: No computers during dinner. Please.
P: Just five minutes? I have to check my emails. I'll die if I don't.
T: Well, OK. Five minutes then.
P: Thanks. You can even count the minutes. I don't need more than 5.
T: Alright.

While Paulina is trying to check her emails on a slow connection, Tom opens up his laptop and starts watching YouTube videos. Paulina looks at him with anger. Tom doesn't notice. After 5 minutes of desperately trying to access her email account Paulina slams her laptop shut and runs into her room, crying. Tom runs after.

T: Honey, what's the problem?
P: Pfff... *sob* *sob*
T: Come on, why are you angry? What did I do wrong? Tell me.
P: Can't you see what you did wrong? Are you blind?! *sob*
T: I have no idea! What is it? Tell me.
P: Pfff...Don't you understand? YOU STOLE MY BANDWIDTH!

****

If there is something - anything - that this example can teach us all. Please let me know.

Projects I love: Plane Tracker

I believe that I have mentioned this project before. The Plane Tracker projects was developed at the Goldsmiths College in London, as a part of their Curious Home project. One of the designers, Dr. Bill Gaver, is going to be one of my three Master of Science thesis readers.

Fantastic e-fabric

If you want to make your own wearable e-textiles, like, say, a blinking dress, a good way to start is by using Leah Buechley's LilyPad set.

Itching together

Jag vet att jag är på gränsen till att hyper-blogga men jag har så många tankar och idéer att dela med mig av. Åsa Ståhl och Kristina Lindströms projekt Syjunta (AKA Stitching together) är sika-häftigt (som vi säger här i Finland). I projektet förevigar de SMS genom att brodera dem på handdukar och tyg - precis som förr. Underbar symbios!

Foto: å plus k (Åsa Ståhl & Kristina Lindström)

The art of being vain

Now, if you want to know what the vain modern world does to us stupid women, listen carefully to this story:

On the main screen of my new Nokia N-something there is a link: 'No cal. entries for today'. This feature has excited me so much that I've been bragging to my friends that my new phone is so incredibly cool that it has its own calorie counter.

-"Loosing weight before the wedding will be an easy task from now on! The Nokia S60s are superior."

Now, what I didn't tell my friends was that the calorie entry link seemed to be broken. It lead me straight to the calendar! I complained to my fiancé who kindly and carefully suggested that the problem might just be that "cal." actually stands for "calendar" rather than "calorie".

Now, how silly is that?!

The love for mobility

Check out this list of wonderfully crazy Asian mobile phone applications, listed on one of my favorite mobile phone blogs, textually.org:

1. The Lie/Love detector

The "Truthful Calls" service uses a voice analysis system by Israeli company Nemesysco that functions as an emotion detector, assessing the level of honesty of the person you're calling.

2. Call yourself in the future

From Web services company CDyne, a Web-based app that allows you to call yourself in the future. Really!

3. Ghost detector

TV show tie-ins are becoming a frequent excuse for mobile apps. Mobile content development company Wiretown (started, appropriately, by two men with TV broadcasting backgrounds) have developed a paranormal detector for cellphones.

4. Car alarm

The "Silent-I" system not only sends an SMS to the car's own

5. Spy phones

An ordinary-looking mobile phone that actually doubles as an eavesdropping device

6. Halal verification service

An SMS-based service in Malaysia that allows Muslims to conform the halal status (which is to say "permissible" under Islamic law) of products.

7. Liquid wallpaper

Technically more of a user-interface feature than an app, but still innovative: the N702iS handset (developed by NEC, NTT DoCoMo and Japanese design company Nendo) comes with sensor-driven wallpaper that makes the screen look like a glass of liquid.

8. Send SMS messages and emoticons to your clothes

Uranium-Jeans has a line of "interactive clothing" that comes with embedded flexible micro screens that display images and scrolling text messages that can either be downloaded from Uranium's Web site or sent by SMS.

9. Camera dictionary

Camera Dictionary is a software app that allows users to scan English words using their camera phones and translate them to Japanese.

10. Mobile breathalyzer

Not sure if you or your driver has had one too many martinis? Use your mobile phone to check his or her alcohol level via a breath analyzer connected to the handset.

And a favortie future ap:

Ghost in the cell

Professor Kim Jong-hwan of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology wants to take the "genie in a bottle" concept and bring it to the mobile phone in the form of a software robot.

The "robot" would be something like a 3D avatar that would adjust itself to the characteristics of the cell phone owner.

Cellfish blog

Jan Chipchase has the coolest job ever. He travels the world to explore how people use technology, innovate, and relate to objects in general. What's even cooler: Nokia pays him to do it. Enjoy his inspiring blog:
Jan Chipchase