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Blackberry Break Ups

Blackberry Break Ups

In a fresh testament to how deep our affective relationships are with mobile phones, last week’s Blackberry out(r)age revealed users “breaking up” with their beloved Blackberrys on Twitter. Amongst all the (by now stale) joke tweets about the Blackberry...

Love in the Time of Call-era: Rap music videos and the infectious relationship between humans and mobile phones

Attraction: Mobile tools R. Kelly ft. Nas “Did You Ever Think” (1998) The access point of your curiosity is the body, an exciting, new gadget. J. Macgregor Wise describes one perspective of human-technology relations as a received view in...
App review: Open Signal Maps

App review: Open Signal Maps

No signal? Mobility and GPS Locative media has always been an interesting topic to write about, especially nowadays of the ubiquitous present of smart phones in society. A smart phone is a very rich tool to research because it has...
Appapa: When Geolocation Becomes a Tool for Political Activism

Appapa: When Geolocation Becomes a Tool for Political Activism

Millions of people gathered last August in the main avenues of Madrid to see Benedict XVI in the World Youth Day (WYD), but at the same time his visit was the center of a political controversy concerning its economical...
UberSocial App Review – Mobile Tweeting

UberSocial App Review – Mobile Tweeting

Twitter’s official app for Android is notorious for its limited features and overall lack of functionality. Let’s face it – if people had a choice between the official app and using a computer, they’d choose the latter. Or maybe...
Prey – an open source anti theft solution for Mac, PCs & Phones [Review]

Prey – an open source anti theft solution for Mac, PCs & Phones [Review]

Prey is a program that should help you feel more relaxed when using your brand new macbook pro in public. It lets you keep track of your phone or laptop if it is lost or stolen. For the...
Blendr. It Won’t Work – How About “Straight” Grindr?

Blendr. It Won’t Work – How About “Straight” Grindr?

Blendr is a geosocial networking application allowing users to connect with nearby people based on common interests. Created by the same developers as the "hook-up" app Grindr, the focus Blendr has on meeting people through common interests and platonic...

App Review: Wikitude

With the introduction of AR (augmented reality) software and its implementation into mobile devices there has been a considerable rise in apps that use such geo-location and AR features. One of these apps is ‘Wikitude‘ developed by the Austrian...

App Review : Foodspotting

When you are in a unknown neighborhood and it is time to eat, it can be hard some times to find a good place to grab a bite. Thinking of that the developers of Foodspotting created an easy way...
Mobile Tweeting – recognising usage frequency, tendencies and social interaction differences

Mobile Tweeting – recognising usage frequency, tendencies and social interaction differences

The Question Academic research on Twitter has been rife since it hit off in 2006, with significant focus on two topics in particular- that of privacy and identity. Much that has been written by scholars of Twitter has generally...
App Review: Waze, a social GPS

App Review: Waze, a social GPS

As the fever of Geolocation apps continues, Waze seems to stand out with integration in different media and personal communication among their users. Waze is a GPS application available for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows Mobile that blended...

The Affective Turn of Mobile Phones

For anyone interested in affect, mobile phones or both, my masters thesis (completed this year) is available for download.
Weibo Revolution

Weibo Revolution

As China is famous for their copied and rip-off products there is no difference in the digital sphere. Services and platforms that we have learned to love, resent or can’t go without also exist within the borders of China...

The HK iPhone 4 hunt

Arriving in Hong Kong felt a little weird for me, as frequent mainland visitor with Chinese origin. It was a like coming home, but this time home was a bit off. Now after a couple of days I realize...

Intimacy: Version 4.0

Plenty has been written about our loss of social cohesion due to the Internet (see James Katz) and how mobile phone technology has contributed to blunting our social competencies (see Hans Geser). Like it or not we are...
Augmented reality: the first steps to a society of control?

Augmented reality: the first steps to a society of control?

Layla van Daalen, Chris Hoogeveen, Hanneke Mertens Every aspect of the world has an extra layer of information. It may not always be obvious, but these extra layers are most certainly present. Marc Tuters and Kazys Varnelis describe these...
Apple Is Chasing The Largests.

Apple Is Chasing The Largests.

Apple Inc. is becoming on of the most powerfull sellers and producers of smart phones. According to DC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker Apple, that came up on October 28, 2010, has went up and joined three the biggest phones producers,...
Blood in our mobiles

Blood in our mobiles

Corporate social responsibility has had a great impact on businesses the last decade. In light of this awareness, the Dutch television station VARA aired an episode last week of ‘Uitgesproken’ - an in-depth news program - that was about...
The Future

The Future

Characteristics of the digital era are: images written directly to our retinas // ubiquitous high bandwidth connection to the Internet at all times // electronics so tiny it's embedded in the environment, our clothing, our eyeglasses // full immersion...
Educate Me in 140 Characters or Less

Educate Me in 140 Characters or Less

When packing your bag for school, make sure you have your lunch, books, and favorite Twitter client. The social network is making great strides as an academic tool, as more and more educators realize the benefit of fast, transparent...
The Dark Side of Twitter

The Dark Side of Twitter

Amongst many for and against internet as a public sphere Paparachisi (2002) comes up with very important characteristic, I would like to focus on here. Namely, the potential of the internet to bring people from diverse backgrounds together, which...
Living In AppLand

Living In AppLand

Chris Anderson headlined his latest feature in Wired magazine: The Web is Dead, Long Live the Internet. He maintains that with the ubiquitous iPhone comes app addiction; so while most of us spend the whole day on the internet...