Your Phone as Stalker

Phone spam feels like it’s getting worse. I and my wife have been receiving numerous calls from the local arm of ANZ Bank — a bank I am happy to identify by name because I’ve sought comment from them without reply for nearly a week now. Our mobile phone numbers were probably sold by another … Read more

The Distraction of Phones

Why are we so intrigued by our phones, but not our computers? I now realise why we buy new cellphones. If we didn’t, there would be nothing to do during those times we find ourselves without external distractions, such as taking public transport, sitting in cafes waiting for friends to turn up (or even, if … Read more

Old Habits, or New Uses?

Young hospital worker using her cellphone in a phone booth, Jakarta, April 2007 Either she uses the phone booth out of habit from her pre-cellphone days, or else she’s making use of a privacy feature of old technology — the sound-proofing booth — her new technology doesn’t offer. Tags:  indonesia, privacy, cellphones, technology, booths, soundproofing

Hotel To Guests: Use Skype

It seems that hotels are finally making the best of a bad thing and realising the old days of fleecing their guests with overpriced phone calls are past. In fact, one hotel is suggesting that in fact it is on the customer’s side, if this ad from today’s IHT by Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels is … Read more

The Holes We Slip Through

This interesting tool, tho too nerdy for me, highlights one of the stupid holes that make technology a still frustrating exercise for most of us. You’re heading out the door for a meeting, you have the person’s phone number and pant size (don’t ask) in your computer but not in your phone, and yet there’s … Read more