Popwuping

The Atlantic reports that people with iPhones or Android (they are being diplomatic here) phones may download a lot of apps, but they tend to use very few of them after a while. The readily affordable nature of apps and Apples lack of a free trial mean that few apps tend to stand the test of time.

Faster data networks and fancier phones have steered more Americans to embrace the apps software craze born of our fondness for the computer-in-my-pocket. But like other shopping experiences done impulsively, the appeal of instantly downloading the latest apps — prompted by recommendations from neighbors, cousins, blogs and news stories — loses its luster quickly, industry data show. (USA Today)

For American adults, mobile phones are nearly a universal part of daily life. A report last summer from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found that 83 percent of adults have some kind of cell phone, and over a third of Americans now have smart phones. An overview of the study showed how important mobile technology has become — 40 percent of those surveyed found cell phones were an important tool in an “emergency” situation (a car breakdown, for example). “Mobile phones have become a near-ubiquitous tool,” Pew concluded.
Among smartphone owners, nine out of 10 say they use them for text messaging or picture taking. A chart in the New York Times recently reported that, overall, the top app category in 2011 was weather (it was an especially turbulent year) followed by navigation tools, finance, sports, games, Facebook, and Twitter. The pervasiveness of the phones and the significant increase in smartphone use leads logically to the belief that apps must be increasingly important also.
While true, that turns out to be more complicated than you might expect.

Get It and Forget It: Smartphone Users’ Fickle Taste for Their Apps

Afraid of the dark? Not with a Galaxy Note by your side. Samsung’s full-figured phone filled in for my nightstand lamp and ensured the sun never set in my apartment. And I could swear I’m slightly tanner.

The Samsung Galaxy was released in the US this past weekend and as funny as the review is, it’s also just about spot on. It’s so big it’s going to create a whole new category of “it’s so big jokes … .” I spent some time with one a couple weeks ago here in Taiwan and the device is just about impossible to use as a true mobile device. One handed use, if your hand is big enough, enables all kinds of errors and unless you carry it in your purse (or bag) it’s impossible to carry. I like using a capacitive stylus on the iPad for some tasks but the one that is included feels like I’m using a Palm pilot again.
Are there any Android handsets that don’t use the try it and see if it sticks approach?
Samsung’s super-sized Galaxy Note changed my life

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said that women in the country demand mobile phones, not toilets. “Sanitation is a much more difficult issue (than telecommunication). Now we are talking of behavioural changes, and women demand mobile phones. They are not demanding toilets. That is the mindset we have.” The Hindustan Times writes:

Ramesh said that India is a land of paradoxes, as the country accounts for almost 60% of those relieving themselves in the open across the globe – at a time when it has 700 million mobile phones. “(There is) 60% of open defecation in a country which has 700 million mobile phones. ….We build toilets but the toilets are not used.”
Explaining that sanitation was a difficult issue, Ramesh said the coming months would see the evidence of changes – with respect to funding and management – in areas of drinking water and sanitation.

India: Women want mobiles, not toilets Via textually.

Jason Farman writes a wonderful conclusion and short history of the repeated calls for time away from our mobile devices, so that we reconnect with the people and places immediately around us. It is important to set aside your iPhone at the dinner table or when you have the opportunity to visit face-to-face, but is this not more an issue of etiquette or common sense? Digital devices are a complement to our lives; the negative framing ignores the enormous potential for creating connections between people and places.

For advocates of the Digital Sabbath, the cellphone is the perfect symbol of the always-on lifestyle that leads to disconnection and distraction. It epitomizes the information overload that accompanies being tethered to digital media. Advocates of Digital Sabbaths note that if you are nose-deep in your smartphone, you are not connecting with the people and places around you in a meaningful way.
Ultimately, the Digital Sabbath is a way to fix lifestyles that have prioritized disconnection and distraction and seeks to replace these skewed priorities with sustained attention on the tangible relationships with those around us.

Beyond developing a deeper connection with places, using cellphones to foster deep connection with the people in our lives is a common, everyday practice. While it may come as a surprise to some, this is epitomized in the ways that teens are currently using their cellphones. Mobile media scholar Rich Ling’s studies of teen cellphone use found that as texting increased among teens, internal group cohesion also increased. Though realtime voice conversations have dropped dramatically – a shift cemented in 2009 when, for the first time, cellphones were used more for data transfer than for voice communication – the significant increase in texting among teens has led to a stronger bond among small groups of peers.
Advocates of the Digital Sabbath have the opportunity to put forth an important message about practices that can transform the pace of everyday life, practices that can offer new perspectives on things taken for granted as well as offering people insights on the social norms that are often disrupted by the intrusion of mobile devices. We absolutely need breaks and distance from our routines to gain a new points of view and hopefully understand why it might come as a shock to your partner when you answer a work call at the dinner table. Yet, by conflating mobile media with a lack of meaningful connection and a distracted mind, they do a disservice to the wide range of ways we use our devices, many of which develop deep and meaningful relationships to the spaces we move through and the people we connect with.

The Myth of the Disconnected Life