Tipping Point In US Mobile Phone Usage.

This does not really surprise me seeing as how many feature rich mobile phones and smartphones are out there, but 2009 marked the first year where data usage surpassed voice data usage on cellular networks in the US. I was admittedly late to the game when it comes to smartphones and even text messaging for that matter, but over the last 12 months I've gradually replaced much of the time I would have normally spent in front of my PC with time spent tapping away at my HTC's tiny keyboard. 

Still, even the telephone design industry has taken note. Ross Rubin, a telecommunications analyst with the NPD Group, said cellphones outfitted with numerical keyboards — easiest for quickly dialing a phone number — were no longer in vogue. Touch screens, or quick messaging devices with full “qwerty” keyboards, on the other hand, are. On the newest phones, users must press several buttons or swipe through several screens to get to the application that allows them to make calls."

“Handset design has become far less cheek-friendly,” Mr. Rubin said. Mr. Hesse of Sprint said he expected that within the next couple of years, cellphone users would be charged by the data they used, not by their voice minutes, a prediction echoed by other industry executives.

 More info at the NYTimes

Amazed At The Creative Minds Of Googlers

It's no secret, I'm a Google fanboy and I've been so since my first introduction to the search engine when it was merely a plain white page with a text box and a search button. I often like to ponder the culture that has been fostered within the company and wonder if the creative minds behind many of their great offerings are lured to Google by competent recruiting efforts, the promise of big money, or the opportunity to work with like minded people with wonderfully creative talents? I suspect that it's a little bit of all of the above, and maybe a few more that I've missed. With these thought in mind I bring you "A word is worth 884 pictures"...

Twitter Bug Uncovered Quite By Accident

In a twist of irony, news of a bug that allowed Twitter users to cause other users to unknowingly follow them was quickly spread across the internet via social sites and popular blogs. The NYTimes Bits blog explains the discovery "The bug was first revealed by a Turkish man who wanted to tell his friends on Twitter about a band called “Accept” that he enjoyed listening too. When the man typed “Accept pwns” into the update box on Twitter he noticed that a user by the name of @pwns was now following him on the site."

Twitter had this brief message on it's official blog: "We identified and resolved a bug that permitted a user to “force” other users to follow them. We’re now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place. Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we’re aware and this too should shortly be resolved."

Huh, sounds more like an Easter egg or developer backdoor than a bug...

A Little Star Wars Humor To Start The Week Off Right

That Darth Vader... what a sense of humor! He cracks me up.

Is Skynet Closer Than We Think?

In a Globe and Mail article today entitled One robot, one vote? Neil Reynolds brings attention to the fact that robotics has progressed beyond what most of us are aware and that as the result Asimov's 3 laws of robotics will not suffice, it's not 1942 after all... and the lawyers might be pushing the agenda here, but Reynolds raises some interesting questions. Did you know that South Korea currently has robots patrolling it's border with Kim Jong Il's North Korea? or that the South Korean government is aiming to have a robot in each household by 2020? There has been much press about Japan's aging population and a thriving robotics industry working on machines to assist the elderly, but who will be responsible for decisions made by these machines or for their expensive upkeep? 

"The American Bar Association runs a permanent expert committee on artificial intelligence and robotics. In April, the committee published a number of special reports – on the state of AI in telemedicine, on advanced wiretapping and on military drones. In the May issue of The ABA Journal, the association will publish “Robot Rules” – an analysis of pending U.S. legislation that will, for the first time, assign liability for the actions of robots."

Have a read, it's rather thought provoking.

Android Tablet With Flash! Oh Yeah!

According to this article in Google Watch we are about to see a whole bunch of Android powered tablets... this year! Check out the video:

Oh, and did you hear that Android will support Flash? :)

Facebook Privacy... SNAFU

Facebook has suffered a security bug just as many have questioned the companies new policies and how they relate to privacy concerns. It is being reported that the social networking site suffered from a bug yesterday which allowed users to view the private conversations of friends they were following. “While this breach appears to be relatively small, it’s inopportunely timed,” said Augie Ray, an analyst with Forrester Research. “It threatens to undermine what Facebook hopes to achieve with its network over the next few years, because users have to ask whether it is a platform worthy of their trust.” Fortunately for Facebook they do have 400 million users, the breach was fixed within hours, and most people only use the site to play farmville and will be oblivious to the breach anyway!

Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president for public policy had this to say in response to the problem,

“For a service that has grown as dramatically as we have grown, that now assists with more than 400 million people sharing billions of pieces of content with their friends and the institutions they care about, we think our track record for security and safety is unrivaled,” and “Are we perfect? Of course not.” 

I guess they've never really come out with any "do no evil" mantras, so, all's well... nothing to see here!


Source: NYTimes

More Reasons To Love Chrome

The latest beta version of the Chrome web browser, Google Chrome 5.0.375.29, is breaking speed records according to Google and it's testing. The performance has improved by 30 to 35% and the browser will support HTML 5 features such as geolocation APIs and drag-and-drop. The beta version is available for Linux, Mac and Windows and has integrated Flash support.

Source: computer world

Teat Tweets

Ontario farmer Chris Vandenberg runs a hi-tech dairy farm where the cows are robotically milked and are monitored by RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags attached to their ears. The system allows Vandenberg to maximize milk productivity by denying access to the milking area until a cow is ready for optimal performance. If that weren't cool enough the University of Waterloo's critical media lab has tapped into the system to create Teat Tweet Dairy Diary, a Twitter account from the cows perspective.  

"I just squirted 20.4 kgs of milk out of my teats in 10:28 seconds. What did you do today?" offers Charge Gina (@chargegina) while Montgomery Mae (@montgomerymae)says "My RFID transponder must be dirty. I'll give it a lick and see what happens."

12 cows in all are participating. Got milk? 

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/05/03/tech-twitter-cows.html?ref=rss#ixzz0mugKqLYN

Waiting for Stephen Hawking Documentary... Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid.

"If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans," says Stephen Hawking in "Stephen Hawking's Universe." a documentary film to be broadcast in May on Discovery Channel. "I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach." That's a pleasant thought...

All may not be lost however, Professor Hawking also expects that we'll some day build space ships that will travel through time. Hopefully that happens before the alien's arrive, if they're not already here!

Source: c|net's Chris Matyszczyk - Technically Incorrect blog.


UPDATE: cartoonist proves Hawking to be wrong.