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How smartphones make us superhuman

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Editor's note: This story kicks off an in-depth CNN series, "Our Mobile Society," about how smartphones and tablets have changed the way we live.

(CNN) -- Both men lit themselves on fire in protest. But only one of them is credited with starting a revolution.

The difference between the two? Mobile phones recorded Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian fruit vendor, as he set himself ablaze in despair over his economic plight. Those videos kicked off the wave of 2011 Arab Spring demonstrations.

Abdesslem Trimech, the other man, fell into relative obscurity.

The example, cited in the book "The Mobile Wave," highlights just one of the many superpowers that mobile phones -- and to a lesser extent, tablets -- have bestowed upon humanity. In addition to enabling us to video events on a second's notice, potentially altering the course of global politics, these high-tech human "appendages" increasingly have become tools for fighting corruption, buying stuff, bolstering memory, promoting politics, improving education and giving people around the world more access to health care.

 

They've shaken up our social lives, too. Forget letters and phone calls. Texts are the currency of modern conversation -- and mobile Internet searches are the way to solve disputes of fact or trivia. Dating apps search suitors by location, and mobile maps ensure we app-enabled superhumans can't get lost, as long as there's a wireless signal.

Superman could fly. Phones, it seems, help us do everything but.

At a time when new smartphones seem to hit the market every couple of days and our faces increasingly are glued to digital screens, CNN is taking a special look at the myriad ways mobile technology is affecting our lives. The monthlong series is called "Our Mobile Society."

"This is the first time in the entire history of humanity that we've connected in this way," Amber Case, a "cyborg anthropologist," said in a 2010 lecture at TEDWomen. "And it's not that machines are taking over. It's that they're helping us to be more human. They're helping us to connect to each other. The most successful technology gets out of the way and helps us live our lives."

'Like a phantom limb'

Phones are so cherished -- or so depended upon -- that 68% of us sleep with them at our bedside, according to a 5,000-person global survey conducted by Qualcomm and Time, which shares a parent company with CNN. Three-quarters of Americans surveyed said being "constantly connected by technology" is helpful.

Some take that idea to extremes.

Michael Saylor, author of "The Mobile Wave" and CEO of MicroStrategy, said he checks his phone for updates at least once a minute -- "I must look at it 500 times a day, or 1,000 times a day," he said. Almost nothing would make him put his phone down. "If I was with the queen of England and she was addressing me directly and it was a one-on-one conversation, then I would probably discipline myself to not look at my phone, so as to not show disrespect to her."

The phone, otherwise, is just too helpful at keeping Saylor linked, constantly, to his colleagues and friends, who send him a fire hose of instant messages and updates.

For all the potential benefits, however, Case and other observers of mobile culture see negative consequences as well. Being connected digitally to everyone all the time also can lead, somewhat surprisingly, to a sense of isolation and loneliness.

"Teenagers tell me they sleep with their cell phone, and even when it isn't on their person, when it has been banished to the school locker, for instance, they know when their phone is vibrating," MIT professor Sherry Turkle writes in the book "Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other."

"The technology has become like a phantom limb, it is so much a part of them. These young people are among the first to grow up with an expectation of continuous connection: always on, and always on them."

Another young person, age 13, told Turkle she doesn't like to pick up the phone, only text. "Texting offers just the right amount of access, just the right amount of control," the author writes. "She is a modern Goldilocks: for her, texting puts people not too close, not too far, but at just the right distance. The world is now full of modern Goldilockses, people who take comfort in being in touch with a lot of people whom they also keep at bay."

Nearly 6 billion phones

Regardless of the effects, adoption of mobile tech seems to be going only one direction: up. There were nearly 6 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide in 2011, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a branch of the United Nations. There are 7 billion people in the world. Some have multiple mobile contracts, but technology is clearly widespread. And getting smarter.

Saylor, the author and CEO, estimates 5 billion people will have smartphones in the next five years, giving those people access to the mobile Internet and apps. The United States already reached a tipping point this year: The majority of American phone owners now have smartphones.

These phones, such as those running the Apple iOS and Google Android operating systems, offer "more computing power than Apollo 11 when it landed a man on the moon," Nancy Gibbs writes for Time.

"In many parts of the world, more people have access to a mobile device than to a toilet or running water," she writes. "For millions, this is the first phone they've ever had."

Gibbs and other writers cite the astounding speed with which mobile phones have come to dominate our lives in the decades since Martin Cooper, from Motorola, placed the first public cellular telephone call on a brick-size phone in 1973. (He called a competitor at Bell Labs, in case you're curious.)

It took years for mobile-networking technology to develop and for cellular towers to go up. After mobile calls became more commonplace in a few developed countries, manufacturers added keyboards and larger screens, clearing the way for the SMS and mobile e-mail revolutions.

By the 2000s, a host of sensors -- from GPS, which enables mobile mapping, to accelerometers, which helps the phone know if it's being tilted -- were being squeezed into the gadgets. The mother of all smartphones, the Apple iPhone, debuted in 2007 with all these accouterments.

By then, phones had become the warehouse for technological innovation -- the Swiss Army knives of modern living, as many authors have argued. If you include tablets and e-readers in the mix, mobile devices have come to rival desktop computers and laptops for their usefulness in life and business.

"The reason why mobile technology is uniquely interesting to the world right now is because it represents the fifth wave of computing," Saylor said, with smartphones following Internet-enabled computing, desktops, minicomputers and early computer mainframes on the timeline. "And technology really is about what happens to the entire civilization of some several billion people or more when there is useful software running on the person and in the hand of everybody, every minute of the day."

Smartphone superpowers

There are plenty of potential superpowers these always-on mobile gadgets could give us.

One of the more futuristic, as outlined by Google this year, is a sort of digital X-ray, or "Terminator" vision. Using augmented-reality technology, that company and others hope to superimpose a layer of digital information on top of the real world. A person wearing Google's prototype of high-tech glasses, for example, might see data about people they encounter or about deals offered inside restaurants they pass.

Other efforts aim to empower people literally to open doors or pay for coffee with a tap of their phone, and to identify themselves using NFC chips that are built into newer smartphones.

Meanwhile, schools in rural parts of Africa that never had textbooks are incorporating smartphones as an information source with the help of Paul Kim, chief technology officer at Stanford University. "I know they are not only using the technology," Kim said, "but they are getting smarter and smarter every day."

And researchers, including George Whitesides at Harvard University, are trying to use mobile phones to bring medical care to remote corners of the world where people otherwise would have to walk for a day or more to see a doctor or nurse. Whitesides' group has been working on a paper chip that could be touched with a drop of blood and then photographed and text messaged to a clinic that could analyze it and offer a diagnosis.

Suddenly, doctors have the superhuman ability to see patients far afield.

New implementations for smartphones don't always work, of course, Stanford's Kim said.

But over time, there's hope smartphones will be a radical, democratizing force -- particularly as they become more affordable for everyone.

"The Agricultural Revolution took thousands of years to run its course. The Industrial Revolution required a few centuries. The Information Revolution, propelled by mobile technology will likely reshape our world on the order of decades," Saylor writes. "But despite the turbulence ahead, we live at one of the greatest times in history. Software will suffuse the planet, filling in every niche, and exciting opportunities will lie everywhere."

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/10/tech/mobile/our-mobile-society-intro-oms/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Survey: Most cell phone users don't protect mobile privacy

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(CNN) -- What personal information does your mobile phone reveal about you? Do you care?

Many Americans do, according to new research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project that sheds some light on mobile-privacy concerns.

According to Pew's report, 54% of cell phone users in the U.S. have decided not to install an app once they discovered how much of their personal information it would access. (The amount of sensitive info an app can access typically is indicated by the "permissions" the app requests, listed on its information page.)

Also, nearly one-third of mobile app users report uninstalling an app from their phone because they learned it was collecting personal information they didn't wish to share. People from the lowest-income households (earning $30,000 or less per year) and men across all demographics were most likely to report taking this step.

 

But many mobile-privacy concerns stem not from the apps you download, but from what can happen with a device that can divulge so much sensitive information once it's out of your hands -- especially when it's in someone else's hands.

Most cell phone users are somewhat aware of mobile privacy and many take at least some basic measures to protect it.

According to Pew:

• 41% of cell phone owners back up at least the photos, contacts, and other files from their phone.

• 32% have cleared their phone's Web browsing or search history.

• 30% of all cell phone owners (and 60% of smartphone owners) say they back up the entire contents of their phone (apps, data, files, etc.)

• 19% (especially younger phone owners) have turned off their phone's location-tracking feature due to concerns that companies or other people might access that information.

Of course, regardless of whether you turn off location tracking on your phone, your wireless carrier knows (and keeps a record of) where your phone is at all times it's connected to the cell network. Carriers can surrender this information to law enforcement, and it's unclear what else they may be doing with this data.

But typically, most people don't think clearly or consistently about mobile privacy. That's why, at the mobile technology workshops I often run, one of my favorite exercises is this: I simply tell participants to take out their cell phone, look at it, and consider how much important and sensitive information is on that device, how much they depend on it.

Then I say: Hand over your cell phone to the person sitting next to you.

I let them sit there a bit, watching them grow visibly anxious. About 30 seconds later I ask them them how they feel. "Nervous" is a common response. So are "exposed," "weird" and "scared."

"OK, hand back those phones," I say. "Now you see -- these aren't just gadgets, they're part of your life. They're part of you."

According to Pew, nearly a third of cell owners have lost their phones or had them stolen. Owners of smartphones and more basic phones are equally likely to say their phone has been lost or stolen, the survey says.

When your phone is lost or stolen, it can help if you don't totally lose access to everything you had on the device. About 60% of smartphone owners told Pew that they back up the contents of their phone.

Still, having a phone go missing doesn't necessarily make cell phone users more cautious. Pew noted: "Cell owners who have actually experienced a lost or stolen phone are no more likely than average to back up the contents of their phone."

Routinely protecting your phone with a passcode or pattern is an easy way to prevent unauthorized access to your phone. Many mobile security services also offer location tracking for lost phones, and give you the option of remotely locking or wiping data from a lost or stolen phone.

Cell phone snooping is also a concern. Pew reports that 12% of all U.S. cell phone owners "have had another person access the contents of their phone in a way that made them feel their privacy was invaded." Smartphone owners and younger owners (age 18-24) of any kind of cell phone are twice as likely to have had this experience.

Of people who told Pew that someone accessed the contents of their phone without their permission, nearly 60% are "much more likely than average to conduct regular backups," compared to just 39% of those whose phones have not been snooped. At least, not as far as they know.

Pew's results came from a nationwide survey of 2,254 adults conducted in March and April.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of Amy Gahran.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/05/tech/mobile/pew-mobile-privacy-gahran/index.html?hpt=hp_bn5

Smartphone Satellite Uplink for Global Trekkers

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Today's smartphones provide a level of social connection far beyond what we imagined just a few years ago. But when you go beyond the reach of the grid, your smartphone has no way to keep you in touch with friends, family, and emergency personnel. The normal answer to this problem would be a dedicated satellite phone that costs thousands of dollars. But now, thanks to SPOT Connect, you can take a satellite uplink device with you anywhere, in you pocket, and pair it with your current smartphone.

Yup, it's true: for $169 suggested retail and a $99 annual subscription fee, you get a Spot unit that fits in the palm of your hand, which along with a downloadable app for your phone gets you connected to a global satellite network that lets you send messages and GPS coordinates from virtually anywhere on the planet. Update Twitter and Facebook. Send email and text messages. Request non-emergency help from professional service providers. And in the case of a critical emergency, send an SOS message requesting emergency assistance.

You’re limited to 41 characters at a time for custom messages, and you can save a 120 character pre-defined message. Not a whole lot, but should be enough for quick updates. More important than alerting your friends as to where you are in the Mongolian desert or how far up the Amazon you are without a paddle is your ability to transmit your coordinates to the GEOS International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC) in case of a genuine emergency.

For bush pilots, explorers and even suburbanites on vacation in remote locations, this technology can literally save your life. With GPS accuracy of 10 meters (32 feet), waterproof dependability of up to one meter for up to 30 minutes and compatibility with iPhone and Android phones, we think it's a no brainer for outdoorsy types.

How to Create Temporary "Burner" Numbers for iPhone

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If you're an iPhone user who occasionally has the need for privacy or anonymity when making calls, you can now turn to a new app called Burner thats lets you create temporary phone numbers that can be disposed of at will.

The development team at Ad Hoc Labs says the app is ideal for dating, Craigslist, short-term projects, side businesses, bands, Facebook marketing posts and any other endeavor for which you'd like to give out a phone number on a non-permanent basis.

You can create one or several numbers at the same time, each of which acts as a separate line within your iPhone that can be used for voice and SMS messaging. Outgoing calls will show your temporary Burner number on the recipient's caller ID while incoming calls will either redirect to your main mobile number or go straight to voicemail, at your preference.

Each number comes equipped with a “Burn” button so that it can be destroyed when you’re done with it. 

A great case-in-point for using a temporary "burner" number was recently illustrated when a fellow from Portland, Oregon named Jake Gillum had his $2500 customized Fuji road racer bike stolen and subsequently discovered it for sale on the Seattle Craigslist site. Not wanting to use his own phone, with its Portland area code, to contact the alleged thief and set up a sting he instead used a burner number with a Seattle area code. It was a smart move--he saved the $20 or more that buying a Tracphone would have run and he fooled the culprit into thinking he was a Seattle buyer.

The app made recently made its debut on the App Store, and for $1.99 and includes enough credits to create one short-duration Burner line -- one that will last for a week and be good for 20 minutes of talk time or 20 SMS messages, whichever is exhausted first.

Cell Phones for Kids Going Back to School--Pro and Con

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Any parent will tell you that his worst nightmare is not knowing where his child is. Scary scenarios flash through one's mind: Is my child ok? Has she been kidnapped? In an accident?

And, it's even worse for big city parents. Buses, subways, traffic, potential predators--the list is never ending.

That's why a cellphone is such a wonderful tool. They allow for instant communication with your child by voice or text message. Cell phones can turn an emergency into a relatively easily handled and controlled event. They can give you instant peace of mind. 

On the other hand, there are concerns about cell phones in the classroom. Small size and sometimes inaudible, high-pitched ring tones make cell phones easy to hide and use. It is a proven fact that adults over 30 cannot hear some of the high-pitched ring tones teens use deliberately for that reason. Cell phones can also be used to cheat, to call the wrong people and to bully classmates. The issue of "sexting," the sending of salacious or obscene pictures that can be easily taken with cell phone cameras has also been an issue nationwide. For these reasons many teachers and administrators want cell phones banned from school. The sensible approach, however,  is to create a set of rules and policies regarding cell phone use and enforce them.

Depending on the age of your offspring, there are a few general guidelines that make a lot of sense and keep things simple. First, for younger children, an Internet-enabled smartphone is probably not necessary and saves both money and concerns over unauthorized surfing. An older, simpler phone may still allow parents to use a PIN number to enter and save only the numbers that they want their child to use, limiting calls to parents, grandparents and perhaps other trusted adults. Phones with GPS are considered ideal for making sure an errant kid can be found in a pinch.

Looking for a phone for your precious offspring? By clicking here you can always visit MobileKarma.Com where you can choose from a wide selection of pre-owned, throughly tested and reconditioned devices at significant savings. Models can be purchased for activation with your current carrier or un-locked for activation on pre-paid or monthly plans from a variety of carriers.

We're Talking Mobile Ultrasounds, Baby!

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Pregnant and desirous of micro-managing about your baby's health? If you have $8000 to spare, along with a Toshiba Windows smartphone, you too can take mobile ultrasound images of your little one while on the run, wherever you are.

Accurate and inexpensive diagnostics at point-of-care is critical to reducing healthcare costs while also improving outcomes. Ultrasound imaging is safe, effective and can save lives, however more than 70 percent of the world’s population does not have access to ultrasound because it is expensive and not portable enough.

Mobisante has built the world’s first smartphone-based ultrasound imaging system, the MobiUS™ SP1. This award winning system, cleared by the Food & Drug Administration, brings ultrasound imaging within reach of health care professionals everywhere, helping lay people and professionals alike to practice better medicine and reduce costs.

MobiUS fuses the power and wireless connectivity of a smartphone with the Internet into a game-changing diagnostic solution that is personal and accessible. This patent-pending technology is easy to use and allows doctors, midwives, emergency technicians, and yes, well-heeled tech-savvy moms, to share information with remote providers.

Dr. Sailesh Chutani, CEO and co-Founder of Mobisante, was previously an executive at Microsoft. Before founding Mobisante in 2007, Chutani created Microsoft’s mHealth initiative in 2006, but the group was not called that because the term was not yet widely used. As part of his responsibilities at Microsoft, Chutani managed $100 million of investments in emerging markets for the company.

The mobile ultrasound imaging system will cost between $7,000 and $8,000 in full, which includes a Toshiba Windows Mobile-powered smartphone, an ultrasound probe and the company’s software. Mobisante hopes to halve the cost of the system over time, but the pricing is still much lower than the tens of thousands or in some cases more than $100,000 other ultrasound systems cost today.

This device is good for more than just fetal imaging: analysis is also possible for abdominal, cardiac, pelvic, pediatric, mucoskeletal, and peripheral vessel imaging. The smartphone-based ultrasound system can leverage both cellular and WiFi to send images for diagnosis, second opinion, or to a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) for storage.

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Factory Sealed iPhone On Block for $10,000

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As we anticipate the anytime soon announcement of the iPhone 5, just five short years after the very first iPhone broke onto the market and made history, we were wowed by the eBay listing of an example of this icon at a sure record price.

The vast majority of electronics lose virtually all their value after just a few years, but Apple products seem to be the exception. We've heard of pristine examples of the first Mac computer, dating to the late 70s, commanding in the six figure range. PCs are another story. But bear in mind, the original iPhone was the very first time in history that we had a usable version of the Internet that we could carry around in our pockets…plus thousands of songs, a built-in camera, a clock, a calculator and an amazing high-tech glass facade that spoke volumes about inspired industrial design.

To refresh your memory: Jobs unveiled the iPhone to the public on January 9, 2007, at the Macworld 2007 convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The iPhone went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007, while hundreds of customers lined up outside the stores nationwide. The passionate reaction to the launch of the iPhone resulted in sections of the media christening it the 'Jesus phone'. The original iPhone was made available in the UK, France, and Germany in November 2007, and Ireland and Austria in the spring of 2008.

Development of what was to become the iPhone began in 2004, when Apple began to gather a team of 1000 employees to work on the highly confidential "Project Purple". Apple CEO Steve Jobs steered the original focus away from a tablet, like the iPad, and towards a phone. Apple created the device during a secretive collaboration with AT&T Mobility—Cingular Wireless at the time—at an estimated development cost of US$150 million over thirty months.

Apple sold 6.1 million original iPhone units over five quarters. Recorded sales have been growing steadily thereafter, and by the end of fiscal year 2010, a total of 73.5 million iPhones were sold and each successive edition of the iPhone has gone on to sell as many or more than all previous editions combined, an exponential success story unparalleled in the history of personal electronics.

Ford Sync: Mobile Health Care

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You hop in your car, punch in the GPS for coordinates to the nearest burger and rib shack, and a voice comes through the speakers:

"Bob, have you checked your blood glucose level lately? And did you remember to take your anti-histamine this morning?"

What's this?!? Is my automobile channeling my doctor or something?

Nothing of the sort. You're just driving a new Ford product with advanced Sync technology that is leveraging existing smartphone apps with on-board sensors to check your blood sugar, monitor pollen reports with geo-location and give you a current reading on UV levels so that you can take appropriate measures to limit your sun exposure.

It's true, and it's available now--at least some of it. This past May the automaker announced the Allergy Alert smartphone app that aggregates information from Pollen.com is now compatible with Ford’s Sync AppLink feature, allowing drivers to hear specific allergen conditions in an area as well as the risk index for asthma, flu/cough/cold and ultraviolet rays. For now it only works with the Allergy Alert app on iOS devices. With the free app loaded on an iPhone or iPad that’s connected to the car, a driver can use voice commands to have info from the app read to them as well as having it shown on the dashboard’s infotainment display.

Ford researchers also revealed a series of in-car health research projects that merge medical device connectivity, cloud-based health supervision and the integration of mobile apps that include glucose monitoring and diabetes management in addition to allergy alerts. Partners in the venture include such health heavyweights as Medtronic and WellDoc to, as Ford calls it, “manage chronic illness on the go.”

Ford’s efforts into tying together the car, the cloud and health and wellness technology would appear to have benefits for everyone on the road. If you’re diabetic, for example, and you go hypoglycemic or have low blood sugar, the conditions that you experience are confusion, light headedness and blurry vision. Those are problems if you’re just sitting at your desk. but they’re really a problem if you're operating a vehicle at the time – not only for you but for others on the road with you.

So, what's next…automatic heart monitoring and a dash-mouinted defibrillator? We wouldn't be a bit surprised. 

"Sync, cancel the burgers," you command. "Map me a course to the nearest vegan restaurant, will you?"

Photos of Early iPad Prototype Emerge

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The nasty courtroom battle over technology between Apple and Samsung has brought to light some interesting photos.  They show the earliest known prototype of what we now recognize as the iPad... but these photos come from way back in 2004! 

Before Apple came up with the catchy "iPad" moniker, this prototype was known simply as "035".

The fascinating photos were found among court documents that were confidential until a recent legal action exposed them.

The device shown is clunkier than the first iPad, which was introduced in 2010, but the simple design, black edges, smooth corners, and the Apple logo are all there. It's clearly just a prototype, since these images were produced far before the company created what would become today's iOS — but as the conflict with Samsung has to do with hardware design, they are certainly important documents.