The Two Sides of Mobile’s Present Value

While working on a slide deck earlier today for the upcoming Biola Digital Minsitry Conference, I wandered over to my friend Tomi Ahonen’s blog Communities Dominate Brands. There, I wanted to pull some metrics for the presentation, as well as get caught up on some of the later writings. Of note, the latest one talked a bit in a different tone than some others, where Tomi pointed to the future of mobile as it continues to disrupt various industries and your/our response to it as time marches forward. Insightful as always, I came away with the thought that I’ve had in times prior once I finished reading it: mobile is the present, the future is…

If I Went Android, I’d Probably Have Similar Actions

Android isn’t designed for you. It’s designed for your carrier. It’s open for them first.

Leap Motion, Gestural Input Interfaces, and a Missed Mobile Opportunity

I caught wind of the Leap Motion spatial interface accessory last week. For one reason or another, I left it aside until this morning, when I could look at it and probably better relate to the context of whatever it was they are doing. Having seen the video, I have to say that not only am I impressed, but I think that its the kind of accessory that would (finally) change the design for many computing devices – or at the very least, improve the means in which people can relate to computing devices and information in kiosk-led settings.

Sketchnotes, Bible Study, and an Illustrated Discussion

Last night, while getting ready for a connect and Bible study, I was greeted with a neat tweet from the folks at FiftyThree, makers of an application called Paper that I use for sketchnotes on my iPad. They chose one of the sketchnotes that I did with their app as part of their daily curation listing*. That was pretty cool, and pointed out again to me the power of self-designed notes in this age of rigid digital constructs – or (if you will) how much fun the Bible and other books get when you draw what you hear/read instead of simply writing in text or highlighting.

Carnival of the Mobilists #271 at MobiThinking

Another week, and another Carnival of the Mobilists. Its a packed collection of posts over at MobiThinking this week featuring a more colorful than usual slate.

Icons – iconic or redundant?

In an amusing, thought-provoking and nicely illustrated post that should be compulsory reading for all mobile user-experience/mobile designers, Scott Hanselman on Scott Hanselman’s Computer Zen points out 15 icons – those little pictures commonly found on the mobile devices and PCs, to denote this or that application or function – that hark back to things that don’t mean much anymore. Check out: The Floppy Disk means Save, and 14 other old people Icons that don’t make sense anymore. Bet you can’t resist reading the comments section.
When he looks at the icons on a new mobile handset, it’s not the imagery of the icons that riles Antoine RJ Wright, it’s the pointlessness of the function that it stands for. In the firing line are the icons for battery power, snooze alarm/ignore call, and Web browsers. “He said what?!”… You’ll have to read Antiquated Features of Modern Mobile Phones to find out more.

Grab your drink of choice and check it out (and throw me your thoughts on my contribution).

Behind the Tiles with Windows Phone (Sketchnote)

Last night, I attended the Behind the Tiles with Windows Phone (Charlotte, NC) event. Was neat. Learned a bit more. Played with the Nokia Lumia 900 (didn’t win one). And lost the Smoked by Windows Phone Challenge. And I still enjoyed it all. And honestly, this is probably one of my best sketchnotes of an event yet.

More sketchnotes at: Sketchnotes.AntoineRJWright

Time & Value as the Only Mobile/Tech Indicator that Counts

A month ago, I attended a meeting where a friend was speaking. This was sponsored by a local faith/business association, and so I hoped to also connect with some other businesses in the area I might not have heard of before. I ran into a guy I’ve seen at other events prior and we got to talking about life, tech, and cycling (I biked to that talk). As we were talking about paradigm shifts in our lives, he got onto this meme about time. I can’t quote it verbatim, but I can pretty much summarize what he said in the following:

Commented on LinkedIn Discussion: The Mobile Web Is Dead

This is what happens when I see something interesting on Twitter/LinkedIn and find myself hard-pressed to ignore it. Oh well, let’s fan the flame a bit on this discussion:

The Mobile Web Is Dead -LinkedIn (Developer Evangelists Group)

My comment:

Carnival of the Mobilists (269, 270)

Drat! I knew that I forgot something. Was supposed to submit my post for the Carnival of the Mobilists and forgot. That’s a shame too, given That the past two weeks has seen some excellent entries. I won’t miss the next one. But, until then:

Read No. 269 at Advantix Solutions
Read No. 270 at Volker on Mobile

Antiquated Features of Modern Mobile Phones

On Twitter, I tend to do more than my fair share of complaining about modern mobiles. Everything from the way they are updated, to battery life, to what’s being acclaimed as a “great new feature” makes it through my lens and is honestly asked if it makes that specific mobile, or the entire mobile industry better or worse. After reading some impressions about the newly announced Samsung Galaxy 3 at Mobile Industry Review, I started to go into that mode again, then I thought it would just be better to list them here and see how mobile audiences respond.

Learning by Sketchnote

I’m just wrapping up doing a contracted sketchnote and I just wanted to meander on thoughts for a bit since its been a while since writing. If you will, there’s been a bit of a relearning about myself that’s been happening due to these – and some other images happening around me.

Update on All Books, Spatial Interfaces: Aging and Orientation

I’ve spoken a number of times about my personal project for creating a user interface (UI) for reading the Bible – primarily on my phone – called All Books. This post serves as something of an update to where things are with this project, and some of the aims that have evolved as I have continued to use it and gain some feedback from others.