Monthly Archives: August 2006

Hullo Changes the Game

Interesting new step forward for the phone, with a “personal call manager” service called “hullo”. The significance? It brings to an end certain restrictions on what a phone is and what it can do: we’re now much more likely to be moving about when we talk, but until Hullo we were still tethered to a… Read More »

The Autorespond Trap

I’ve written before about the general dodginess of “away notification emails” automatically set up to respond to incoming emails. Such messages usually go along the lines of: I will be out of the office from 12/08/2006 to 13/08/2006 hunting gazelle in the Liposuction Basin. For urgent matters, pl contact Ms Elbowgrinder/ Mr Headstrong at Tel… Read More »

Let Your Fingers Do the Remembering

Maybe I’ve missed something, but why isn’t more work dedicated to understanding the link between passwords and memory? Given that we’re supposed to remember our passwords (as opposed to writing them down on Post-it notes and sticking them somewhere prominent) why don’t we look more closely at the process whereby we remember stuff — and… Read More »

A Communicator Killer?

I tend to think of the Nokia Communicator (aka The Brick) as a somewhat retrograde device, popular to folk who haven’t quite caught up with the shape of things to come (aka The Smartphone). But Indonesians and Germans don’t agree (link to a podcast I did on the subject for the BBC), using the Communicator… Read More »