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Archive for the ‘Mobile phones’ Category

‘Disruptive’ technologies for 2011

18 Jan

A ‘disruptive’ technology is one where it suddenly changes the way people do things. For example, for hundreds of years people used a slide rule to calculate, then seemingly overnight in the 1970′s the electronic calculator appeared. Everyone went Wow! and just threw away their old slide rules.

 

A whole industry had to change their ways or disappear. Same thing happened with electronic watches.

The leading technology research firm IDC are prediciting 3 disruptive technologies for 2011.

Going mainstream will be:

  • Web connected TV
  • Mobile devices
  • The ‘cloud’

Mobile devices (smartphones and tablets)

It is predicted that 2011 will be the year when there will be more mobile devices sold than PCs for connecting to the Internet.It will be the end of the PC centred computing experience.And driving this change is the rise of the ‘Apps’. For the first time there will be over a million apps out there compared to only 10′s of thousands of PC applications.

There are over 2 billion people connecting to the Internet now and more than half of them do so through mobile devices.

Web connected televisions.

It is predicted that over half of TVs over 40 inches will have a network connection. And at the other end, many companies are springing up to provide content – the programs – Google TV, Apple TV, Roku and so on.
So entertainment and leisure will shift from terrestial to internet based delivery. A whole industry will begin to change the way it does things and new companies will emerge that threaten the old status quo.

The cloud

This is where companies off-load their expensive IT infrastructure and instead choose to let a cloud company host their applications and data. Over 80% of new software will be cloud based and by 2014 over a third of all software spending will be done for delivery through the cloud.
All the major IT companies are preparing the ground – IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, VMWare, Google. Think of how this will change the IT departments in large companies – no more data centres or hundreds of IT support staff needed to look after things. So the cloud is a technology that changes the way we do things.

Disruptive technologies

 
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Posted in Applications & software, Entertainment, Impact of ICT, Mobile phones, New technology, Social effects of ICT

 

Dot. The world’s smallest stop-motion animation.

06 Jan

For anyone about to start a unit on stop motion animation then this video clip of the world’s smallest animation would be worth showing to students to fire their imagination. 

 There is also a ‘making of’ which is well worth a look as it shows the months of work and the lengths that the team went to in order to create the animation.

The amazing thing for me is that the whole thing was shot using a Nokia N8 mobile phone camera.

Here is the animation (you will need access to YouTube in order to view it):

Nokia N8 – Dot – The making of

 
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Posted in Animation, Mobile phones

 

Standard phone charger due in early 2011

31 Dec

 

If your household is anything like mine, you probably have at a drawer full of mobile phone and gadget chargers.  And I bet a fair number of them are for a phone you no longer own.  I’m not sure why I have this urge to keep out of date chargers but in the back of my mind I think that I might need them again in the future.

Thank goodness that the 14 major mobile phone companies have agreed to sign up to a new standard connection for mobile phones, these include Samsung, Apple and Nokia.

You can expect to see new mobiles that use the agreed standard micro-USB jack for sale early in 2011.  Once we upgrade our phones we will be able to clear out space in that drawer.

Read the full news story here

 
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Posted in Mobile phones, Standards

 

Little green men in space test Google’s new phone

25 Dec

Some of us firmly believe in extra terrestrial life whilst others remain skeptical, but it is now official, little green men have been confirmed in the Earth’s outer atmosphere. Well, little green men of the plastic variety that is.

Google launched the tiny green aliens each with their own Google Nexus S phone and they were carried aloft into the Earth’s atmosphere by weather balloons.

Google said the purpose of the experiment was to enable them to collect data about the sensors in the Nexus S phone and to test how the GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer worked under such conditions.

The weather balloons went over 100,000 feet up into the air and the phone’s GPS kept track of it all the way up to 60,000 ft above the Earth.

So, for anyone thinking of applying to be one of the first space tourists, rest assured that this phone has been tested and will work for most of your flight into space.

This story could be linked into a lesson about communication, GPS, sensors or mobile phones

Read the full story here

 
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Posted in Communication, GPS, Mobile phones, Sensors

 

Lack of iPhone programmers

26 Oct

With the explosion of ‘apps’ for the iPhone, Cirencester College has recognised that there is a huge demand for iPhone programmers in this country.

iphone

To that end they are putting together BTEC, IT and A level modules to show students how to build apps and games.

This is an example of how education organisations need to keep a constant eye on the IT industry to ensure that young people learn the most relevant skills at the time.

Full story here

 
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Posted in Education, Mobile phones, New technology, Software

 

Sony reveals plans for a 16m pixel camera phone

08 Oct

Sony have proclaimed the world’s first 16 Megapixel camera sensor to be launched in a product in 2011. This will allow a mobile phone to shoot 1080p HD video for the first time.

Technology just keeps on marching on it seems. However is there a point at which adding more features gives you less and less advantage. Do we need HD video on a mobile phone? Will the memory now have to increase to cope with the larger file size?  Will file transfers be that much slower? Internet uploads are still slow, so will this make it even slower to upload video to online sites such as YouTube?

An useful article to discuss the relevance of new technology in gadgets that may be already ‘good enough’.

Mind you, I will probably be in the queue to get one!

 
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Posted in Digital images, Mobile phones, New technology

 

Ryanair allows mobile phone use

20 Feb

mobile_air

For a long time we have been warned about the risk of mobile phone signals interfering with onboard equipment and navigation bearing displays.  However, it appears that new technology has been developed which can weaken the signal from phones and prevent these risks.

As a result, Ryanair is the first carrier that is going to allow its passengers to make and receive mobile calls and texts whilst in flight.  This will come as good news to many passengers who need to remain in contact with others at all times.  However, it might not be so welcome for others who prefer a peaceful flight.

Read the full news story here

Suggestions for use in class and questions for students (subscription only)

 
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Posted in Communication, Mobile phones, Satellite phones

 

Italy police warn of Skype threat

15 Feb

skype

In the past many crimes might have been planned down the local pub, but there was always the risk of the conversation being overheard by the wrong person.  Then came the mobile phone which provided an easy method to contact accomplices any time, any place.  But the police made this a less than desirable method of communication with the abiltiy to wire tap calls and obtain complete transcripts from phone companies.

Never let it be said that criminals aren’t able to adapt to new technology.  It seems that many are now using Skype to contact one another over the internet, because as yet, all calls remain encrypted and inaccessible to the police.

Read the full news story here

Questions for students (subscription only)

 
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Posted in Communication, Crime, Internet, Mobile phones, Police

 

Mobiles connect across the waves

04 Feb

ship
We are all used to being able to make calls from our mobile phones from anywhere at any time.  However, for some people, this just isn’t possible.  There are very few mobile base stations in the Sahara desert, in the Antarctic, in the jungle or in the middle of the oceans.

So, what do you do if you are in the middle of nowhere and you need to contact someone?  Well up until now, the only way has been by using a satellite phone.  But these have many disadvantages, first of all, how many of us own satellite phones?  Probably very few, which means they are generally pretty expensive to purchase.  Secondly, they are much larger and heavier than conventional mobiles.

For people who are separated from their families for months on end such as crews serving on military ships, the development of a new system by Blue Ocean Wireless will enable them to send and receive calls from their mobiles will be very welcome.

Small base stations, developed by ip.access, called a ‘picocell’ will be installed around the ship to provide coverage from the main accommodation areas.  The base station will convert the call into a signal which can then be transmitted over the satellite network.

Read the full news story here

Suggestions for use in class and questions for students (subscription only)

 
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Posted in Mobile phones, Satellite phones