A new survey claims that 18% of workers have been told off for bad manners for inappropriate use of their BlackBerry or mobile phone. For example, answering emails at the dinner table, talking too loudly on the phone in public, or chatting to someone while sitting on the loo. Ew. The survey was commissioned by Yahoo HotJobs, whose managing editor Tom Musbach says poor mobile etiquette is almost as big a problem as dodgy table manners: ”These devices have become like leeches. People get into the habit of answering emails or calls instantaneously, but it may be a good idea to curb that and only answer when absolutely necessary. We’re seeing more and more major lapses in decorum.” Maybe someone should set up a mobile finishing school to nip this kind of behaviour in the bud!
Archive for the 'Culture' Category
Seminal filmmaker, Spike Lee, is going to partner with Nokia for a movie cut entirely from footage shot on mobile phones by everyday people reports Reuters. Spike Lee is calling the project ‘the democratization of film’.
Helmed by Nokia Productions the project will be comprised of three acts, each of which will be set as an “assignment” announced online. After each act assignment has been set, anyone who wants to participate will have four weeks to get their submission in.
The final pieces will be edited and spliced by Lee who has attained major acclaim for films such as Do the Right Thing in 1990, 4 Little Girls and more recently, The 25th Hour.
The film’s theme will be about the way music tells the story of humanity. Though being able to submit footage for the film is already pretty progressive, the truly democratic element will come from the community participation, where Nokia will choose 25 submissions which people will be able to vote for online. Spike Lee will then build the final film out of the three winning submissions for each act.
The final film will premiere later this year in Los Angeles though we are pretty sure it will turn up on the intertubes pretty soon after that too.
It’s not often that we will encourage our readers to read other blogs, but it’s not often that a company blog as refreshing and genuinely interesting as Nokia’s new mildly pretentious sounding Nokia Conversations comes along.
The idea behind the site is that it will feature posts concerning current areas of research, interest and trends that already exist as a dialogue between Nokia employees. The content isn’t necessarily news in the conventional sense but rather an elucidation of Nokia related issues that are both driving and hindering the mobile industry.
The more environmentally aware among you (which considering the state things are in these days is probably quite a few of you) might like to know that for the next while anyway, recycled phones will not be a reality in high street shops.
According to Nokia, mobile phones made almost entirely of recycled components are still several years away so reports Cellular News. That is not to say that Nokia isn’t keen on the idea however. Speaking at a news conference last week, Nokia’s director of environmental affairs, Markus Terho, stated that “green phones” will become a “competitive factor” in the future.
He also went on to point out that going green is good from a business perspective too and that the company experienced savings of $160 between 2006 and 2007 after the company introduced smaller greener packaging for its devices in 2006. Looks like the future is green then, in the mobile industry at least.
The planet is in trouble. The climate is changing, icecaps are melting and the air around us is choking up with pollutants and you, yes YOU, are making it worse every time you plug your mobile into the wall.
What is required is some way of telling you that your mobile is fully charged and you can stop plugging it directly into the still-beating heart of spaceship earth. Somebody caring, somebody conscientious, somebody.. er.. small and furry.
www.mocarbon.com is an initiative from Australian mobile developers Moket that provides an animated Flash background of a squirrel who will helpfully let you know that your ohone needs charging, tell you when it is plugged in and then get all arsey with you if you don’t unplug it again when the battery is full.
Seriously, the little fella goes from the polite “Your phone is now charged. Please unplug your charger” to yelling “DO IT!” while shaking its tiny squirrel fist at you.
There is a selection of other characters too - I quite like the bear. The bear looks like he really, really wants to help but will be forced to cut you if you go against his wishes.
No pricing info available as the parent site is undergoing a refit at the moment, but a list of Flash 1.1 compatible handsets is available here.
If you haven’t come across the Webby Awards before, it is the leading international awards body, honoring the best and brightest of the Internet. The awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences which is a 550 strong group of Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities who select the nominees and winners each year. Indeed, among the judges this year are David Bowie, Matt Groening and Jamie Oliver.
Of course, falling under the rather large umbrella of the internet these days is the mobile web and the Webby Awards has an entire section with several sub-categories devoted to it. The nominees have just been announced and the winners will be announced on May 6th. Nominees include Cellufun in the ‘GAMES’ category, Yahoo Mobile Web In ‘LISTINGS AND UPDATES’ and Reuters Mobile in ‘NEWS’. The full list of Nominees can be found here.
In keeping with the participatory ethos of the Internet, the Nominees are all eligible to win a People’s Voice Award, which as you might expect is voted for by you, the people. The voting opened yesterday and closes on May 1st so get over to the Webby Awards People’s Voice page and make your voice heard.
Mobile phones are a boon to humanity! A shining beacon of technological progress! Zeitgeist-surfing icons of 21st-century lifestyle! And stuff. But they can also cause you grief. See, the average handset isn’t just capable of making your life easier - it can ruin it too. How? Let me count the ways:
1. Your filthy bedroom camphone snaps find an audience they weren’t intended for. Whether this audience is your cuckolded wife/husband, or the entire readership of the News Of The World, depends on your level of fame.
2. Your Nokia N95’s GPS leads you nearly all the way to your destination, but the phone’s battery conks out just as you reach Birmingham’s famous spaghetti junction. Good luck with that.
3. Be warned, turning up 20 minutes late to a job interview because Tower Bloxx made you miss your tube stop is never an acceptable excuse. Even if you did beat your high score.
Continue reading ‘20 ways your mobile phone can get you in trouble’
Congratulations to Amber James, who’s been crowned as Miss Playboy Mobile 2008 at the CTIA mobile industry show in Las Vegas. The 25-year-old from Seattle won a competition run by Playboy to find a new face for its mobile activities, and for her trouble gets $5,000 of moolah and a photo shoot at the Playboy Mansion. Hey, perhaps she can bump off one of Hugh Hefner’s wives while there, and replace them.
Anyway, that’s her on the right, but expect to be seeing more of her soon (*cough*) on a phone near you. Not least because Playboy is ramping up its mobile ambitions, announcing a new iPhone site called iPlayboy, which includes a bunch of exclusive content, including ‘Battle of the Sexiest’, Playboy Radio, and a sex-related blog called Scout.
The company has also relaunched its Playboy Mobile portal for other mobile phones, with a bunch of free videos funded by advertising. It’s a good time to be doing all this - with the US mobile operators gradually relaxing their walled gardens, millions of Americans will soon have unfettered access to the mobile internet - and chances are adult content of one kind or another will be high on their priorities.
Ok this is a bit spooky. A widowed husband from Lancashire claims to be receiving text messages from his dead wife. Frank Jones who lives in a house which has a history of poltergeist-like disturbances began receiving calls from his home phone on his mobile when he knew nobody was home. Shortly after, he started getting strange text messages containing words that he claims sound like those of his late wife.
There is no number attributed to the texts which makes it all the stranger. According to Jones, his wife, Sadie, always had her mobile on her and was even buried with it when she died of a heart attack.
We can’t help but wonder what network she is on? We can see the advertising slogan now - ‘We even have reception on heaven’.
(Via The Register)
A magazine called Girl Talk is giving away a free pink Nokia 6630 strapped to the front cover of every copy of the April issue and we can’t decide if this is great, or just plain wrong. On the one hand, even though it is ancient by mobile standards, a brand new free Nokia 6630 is not to be sniffed at, even if it is a lurid shade of pink.
On the other hand, it is a little scary to have such a ready example of how throwaway mobile technology really is. The Nokia 6630 was announced in 2004 with a suggested retail price of ‘less than £500’ meaning it took just four years for the expensive flagship device to be reduced to the status of disposable teenage trinket.
So I suppose that means if you want a free N96 all you need to do is subscribe to Girl Talk and keep an eye out in 2012 for the edition that comes with a pink version of the device along with a charm bracelet, heart shaped sticky notes, star shaped sticky notes, pen, pencil, eraser and stick on jewels.
(Via all about symbian)
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