mTrends - mobile media lifestyle trends - m-trends.org

One of the those things you have to live with when you grow a little older in today’s digital era is that one looses the snappy looks one used to have - this happens for everyone in any era obviously, but it gets tougher confronting yourself everyday in that upper left screen corner of the social networks you visit

Luckily there’s Nathan Muntner from Phophoto.com who does magic with his digital pencils vectorizing your pictures whether those are recent or not. Nathan officially launched his site Phophoto.com in May 2007, providing vector-based graphic renderings of photos. Phophoto offers a unique service by transforming photos into digital art and creating a very personalized avatar.

Phophoto distinguishes themselves from the numerous photo manipulation sites that rely on Photoshop, by instead digitally hand drawing and inking the portraits using vector based software resulting in sharp, detailed graphics that are incredibly scalable and perfect for integration with logos, banners, and animations.

Phophoto creates a new captivating image, so the user can stand out from the crowd in the social and business networks, but an image that is still very much them.

Apparently it works since I got several people asking me who did my new buddypic when I uploaded it to Facebook yesterday. If you like what Nathan did to me, try Phophoto.com, currently only $30 for your Manga Caricature or Vector Portrait!

This week Alberto Tognazzi launched the Movil Film Fest in Spain. Inspired by Bruno Smadja’s Mobile Film Festival in France, on his turn inspired by the Nokia Shorts already introduced by Nokia during the Raindance Film Festival in 2003.

I think this is a great initiative for Spain, especially with its great appetite for film culture and production here, do see “Babel” and “El Laberinto del fauno” if you haven’t had the chance yet to view some of Spain’s latest movie quality.

Thanks to the mobile phone technology now everyone can participate and shoot a 1-minute movie in the search for more exposure or fame. The Movil Film Fest welcomes any type of short film made with a cell phone with a maximum duration of one minute; four awards will be given to the best mobile shorts, in the categories of Best Short, Best Sequence Shot and Best Photography.

Shorts can be uploaded until May 13 in 3gpp or mp4 format to the Movil Film Fest website or send by MMS (check website for all details). The four awards will be judged by several prominent Spanish film industry people at an award event at the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España in Madrid on June 7.

Love it or hate it - do or don’t - but many of us Personalise and Customise our phones - whether it be internalised modification - wallpapers, ringtones, screensavers, or through external modification - stickers, express-clip on covers, mutilation (yes in Tokyo I met a guy who melted his phone “making it individual” and it still works), graffiti tags, mutation (by gluing or sticking extras on to the gadget), to one of the most prevalent forms of individualisation - the strap attached to the phone, “keitai
strapu” - (branded by Chupa Chups!)

…or even leaving the mobile in a “pure state” as it was when the mobile was box fresh - we all express ourselves - the mobile is an expression of our innate need for tribalism or individualism - the mobile is an extension of ourselves - a reflection of our persona…

In today’s global village whether you are on the fashionable streets of Cheongdam-dong/Apgujeong - Seoul, Sibuya/Aoyama - Tokyo, Fashion Street - Mumbai, or Sloane Street - London the mobile phone has become the most personalised gadget ever and has become the defacto device we use to show off our style and cultural identity.

So what’s out there?

What are you all doing with your mobiles to personalise and customise it into something intimate, individual or tribal?

Here are a few examples of what is going on out there on the streets of the global mobile village…whether you call it a mobi., handy, cell phone, handphone, or keitai we are expressing ourselves through this digital
“remote control of life”

EXAMPLES
Sticker-Flashers

Custom covers

Asia Bling Bling

In some circles such as with P.Diddy it’s all about the Bling Bling

Mobile design is advancing further into style and trends - and many of the mobile phone brands have spotted the trend of consumers personalising and customising - the “Fashionista” designs - with an array of styles from urban street to the luxury sector - we have the fashion phones from Vertu, BenQ Siemens (ooops!), Apple, Nokia, LG and Samsung - and at the top end of the mass market we have the Samsung/Bang&Olufsen phone - followed by LGs Chocolate range and their ultimate trend setting latest creation to hit the urban catwalks with the LG Prada - mobile has become style ubiquitous and with it comes the desire to use it as a social device not only in communication but as a symbol - a symbol of who I am - a signal to the culture around…

“I like modern design aesthetics” - the Samsung/Bang&Olufsen Serene

“I am a Fashion whore” - The Devil carries an LG Prada

“I am a Design guru” - Apple iPhone

“I am affluent and super rich” - Vertu’s “signature Cobra”

“I am all bling bling” - Motorola D&G V3i - also now with Fashion icon - Kate Moss as their new “role model” for the Razr range. Hellooooooo Moto

“I am off-the wall and unconventional” - Hulger (formerly Pokia)accessorise the Mobile

The trend-setters and the fashionistas out there are setting the pace in mobile Fashion - mobile has become the “Fashion accessory” with personalisation and customisation at the forefront of the trend. The fashion houses are now carving out a position in the markets as with sunglasses, parfums, the “you name it stick my name on it” approach - now mobiles are becoming the desirable accessory fashion brands want to own - the ultimate brand icon - that the consumer wants to worship!

Personalising the mobile with a “fashionable and trendy” ringtone is a social bonding mechanism (even those more obscure ringtones) - are a mating call - to bond with those around us - this is my ringtone - you like it - we are part of the same tribe! “Social audio branding”

Whether you get “crazy frog” on Jamba - the hottest ringtone in S.Korea/Japan Rain - or seek something more exclusive or obscure by Brian Eno or Ryuichi Sakamoto - ringtones are a social tagging system - like or not you are carrying the modern equivalent of a “brixton briefcase” - you are an urban “ghetto blaster” you are making a statement

just it’s miniaturised…

We make the mobile become an extension of ourselves - the “Brand You”

Whether you hang them round your neck - make it bling bling - strap it to your belt geek stylee (a fashion no-no!) - or simply “slap-out” your mobile on the table at meetings - you are using your mobile to make a “fashion” and “social” statement…

So I am curious: What have you done to your phones out there?

save your comments with examples if you think you are making a statement!

UPDATE 1: the next speculation hype will be whether those smart guys over at BMW Design Works will design a “fashion” mobile/gadget to compliment the luxury lifestyle of the post-modernist mainstream 30something!?

UPDATE 2: the New Zealand Herald has an interesting report: ‘What does your mobile say about you?’

This is Sophia Berglund. Right now she is 25months old and growing so fast in her capabilities in communication - already she can muster small sentences in English, Korean, Japanese and some German! She can even translate! Sophia can create lines, shapes and forms by way of painting her communication…

But what makes me the most excited is seeing her grab technology with an incredible desire to learn and experience - she explores, she examines, pushes, prods, de-constructs the technology in some cases (i.e. she breaks my expensive “toys”)

Part of her 1st and 2nd years were spent in S.Korea where she was born into one of the most advanced mobile “handphone” cultures in the world - literally 5minutes after birth her first ever picture (and video) taken by a mobile/handphone and sent to our friends and relatives, she made her first mobile location based phone call at 5months and at 6months she was surfing mobile internet and watching mobileTV! She had her first “co-location” experience in 2006 when friends “broadcast” the 비 / Bi (Rain)**concert live over their handphone to my handphone - Seoul - to - Jeju…

Sophia is growing up into a digital world. Already she has a real-demo phone given to her by a friend at LGe - which she mimmicks her immediate social circle in making calls and surfing data.

Wow! Yes but today we question what is next - we talk of ubiquotous computing, mobile internet, mobile2.0, mobileTV, mobileGaming, mobileAdvertising, mobileMarketing, Location Based Services, Bluetooth, Proximity Marketing, smartphones, convergence, m-YouTube, moblogs, iMode, 3G, 3.5G, CDMA, FOMA, RFID, Flash-Lite, SVGt, mobile-Image recognition, mobileCameras, mobileVideo, Vlogs, iPhone (iPhone aka LG Prada), mobile UI, touch-screens, thumb-tribes, handy, handphone, keitai - blah blah blah and all of this jargon and often mind boggling marketing “psycho-babble” has made me think - where is it all going - how much “smarter” will the next generation of “phones” like my SonyEricsson P990i become - how much more can we cram into one single device!?

How many more times can my P990i crash - a victim of its own “smartness” - Yet I put up with it as when my P990 is alert and working it blows my mind with all of its functions and how they are symbiotic* to my daily needs - I can Wi-Fi (well not in Germany they lock their Wi-Fi connections), Google movie reviews before entering the cinema, take videos and pictures and Flickr them, I can use Googlemaps when lost or curious, watch movies, RSS Feed news and blogs, email, VoIP, Messenger, listen to music, video call whilst on business trips, bemuse my wife, and entertain my colleagues like I am a mobile guru! Seriously though what is next?

So - I think “convergence” will continue as a trend for maybe the next 2-3 years - not only in hardware but in software and services that we can ever expand the phones capabilities - with it computing power, battery power and size! Multi-media will play a big role - motion graphics - advanced touch-screens (iPhone aka LG Prada)
smart phones that know what you use and like and build a UI around your user preferences - broader personalisation with iTunes music and video, enhanced imaging and editing functions, more Bluetooth functions in urban locations, free ubiquitous Wi-Fi - oh I could go on with a list of endless options I could do with…

Sophia in 28years time will be 30 and the date will be 2035 - what do you the mocom (mobile community) think will be next and what will “mobile” have become - we all see attempts at mobile technology in clothing, e-paper (with Wi-Fi connectivity), cyborg like integration of receivers/chips into our bodies, organic and nano-technology - but really I would love to hear your thoughts!

* BTW thanks to Bear in the Big Blue House
on Disney Playhouse for re-introducing me to this brilliant word “symbiotic” Children’s TV is great!

**비 / BMW Meets Truth**
and www.bmwmeetstruth.com

I would like to introduce you to Andrew Berglund, another regular guest blogger next to Yasmine Abbas and Martin Sauter who joined me here a couple of weeks ago. More great contributors will be joining M-Trends soon, if you would like to become one of them, drop me a line. If you have any ideas, comments and feedback on the contributions made or presented here, let me know; we’re covering different opinions on various topics in a ubiquitous mobility era, written from different locations, by people who are always on the move… If there are any subjects you would like to have covered here, feel free to suggest.

Andrew will cover the “creative” side of mobile society and the culture that surrounds it. In his contributions he will report on new trends that IHO push boundaries within the digital realm. Check his profile at his very - as he calls it - “un-web2.0 and un-mobile friendly” website. Just recently he left Interone as the Executive Creative Director - Worldwide working mainly on BMW (Global - EU, Asia, North America markets) and Unilever (Europe) digital media communications. As of April 1st he will have moved to Framfab and LBi as Head of Strategy & Innovation - an exciting remit to push boundaries of newer / emerging interactive medias such as mobile and social networks. Andrew has extensive experience in mobile development, concept, and creative communication strategies within the European and Asia markets - with the majority of his mobile work in S.Korea and Japan for clients such as NTT DoCoMo, MTV, Samsung, and LG (Cyon)

I know Andrew for a couple of years now and admire his work, his original views and valuable opinion, needless to say I am looking forward to his contributions!

Excellent interview from Régine Debatty with Cati Vaucelle at we make money not art. Asking Cati whether she’s a researcher, artist, designer, or something inbetween… Cati answers:

I am a knowledge shopper. I studied philosophy and fine arts, applied computer science, psychology, and computational linguistics starting in Paris with a B.S. in mathematics and economics. (…)

Some kind of digital bricoleur, Cati works together with m-trends.org contributor Yasmine Abbas exploring the design of a touch-sensitive dress for massage and sensory therapy.

The research focuses on the material - how the structure and the embedded components of the garment participate in pushing its function to become an envelope or cocoon for one’s well-being. Touch·Sensitive is a haptic apparel that allows massage therapy to be diffused, customized and controlled by people on the move. It provides individuals with a sensory and alerting cocoon.(…)

Can’t wait to get one of these!

I asked: “Blade Runner?” [Ridley Scott, Blade Runner, 1982 (the Director’s cut!)]
_ “Sci-fi” section!
_ “Sci-fi? Really?”… [I think: “Weird!”]
Because I feel awkward to borrow the movie [it is a must have after all… but I am a nomad so I don’t like carrying things] I say:
_ “I have seen it five times [true!]; I am showing it in my class on digital culture and mobilities… Cyborgs, you know…”
_ “Do you think they are among us already?”
_ “I think so!” [That is why I find it weird it is classified… sci-fi!?]

I have been for a long time interested in cyborgs for that I feel the cellphone is a prosthetic, embodied, we can’t deal without it, it is part of us. Because we are hybrids, flesh-machine or flesh-network, identity is blurred, a mix. Hybrids always live in between, in a third space, denied or absorbed, embrace one, the other or both cultures, often long for recognition. I find it powerful that in the movie the doubt on Rick Deckard’s identity subsists, though many clues suggest that he is a replicant:

In the script:

_ “3”
_ “4”… “Didn’t you know she is a replicant?” [The number of replicants left to kill]

_ “How long have you lived for?”
_ “Four years! … More than you!”

_ “This test of yours, have you taken that test yourself?”
_ “…” [No answer]

_ “She doesn’t know, right?” [That she, Rachael, is a replicant]

_ “It is quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it?” [Said twice in the movie]

_ “It is too bad that you won’t live… But then again, who does?”

Visually:

Deckard’s dream of the unicorn (it is the only dream of the movie, hence stands as important) which is singularly brought to mind again by the paper unicorn that the shady Gaff produces and leaves in front of Deckard’s apartment (seen as both Deckard and Rachael run away)… As if he knew it all…

But why does he know it all?

Is he a replicant?

Aren’t we all?

Hommage à l’Abbé Pierre…

Sometimes the guilt is too big… When such a great man leaves us, how can we not assess the world we build and the fights we choose? There are certainly more important things in life than owning the latest gadget! But here, to some, the battle seems unequal… To who is always in transit, forced to be mobile or not, that gadget is a fetish, a transitional object, an anchor, and a life jacket. It is home.

Not everyone has the strength and the conviction of l’Abbé Pierre to do what he has done for over half a century: he, who worked for the homeless, candidly used the media to raise our awareness about what our society shamelessly produces. The actions, the revolts, the fights of this man bring to mind the art project of Michael Rakowitz: paraSITE. “paraSITE proposes the appropriation of the exterior ventilation systems on existing architecture as a means for providing temporary shelter for homeless people.” Surely I can’t innocently compare the work of a lifetime to a one or more-time art project. But it says one thing: EVERYONE has a role to play and has to play a role in the advancement of humanity.

Which means that the mobilists should not give up on technologies! It only means that they shall SHARE the advancements that our societies produce, constantly assess the superfluous from the necessary, and participate in building a knowledge society that everyone can benefit from. I do mean that we need to be consciously mobile, mobile-aware… aware for example that some reproduce in parallel life the same territorial division than in real life (beware… behind the avatar there is a human!).

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization offers an “Observatory Portal Monitoring the Development of the Information Society towards Knowledge Societies” that you, reader, might want to consult!

I have been writing and reporting for quite some time now on the convergence of networks, the introduction of hybrid devices and media becoming accessible on mobile devices, lately all connecting easily to the web. With game devices such as the PSP accessing the Internet over wifi and the introduction of the iPhone, we now embrace the era of ubiquitous mobility and nomadic computing. This will have a far-reaching impact on the way we access products/services, and the way we communicate with humans and machines. It will change our mobile lifestyle and the way we consume media and advertising.

m-trends.org started as a personal opinion blog on mobile media lifestyle trends and continues doing this with a framed focus, critical opinions and analytical thinking going beyond the hype. To create a broader view and opinion, I invited Yasmine Abbas and Martin Sauter, two personalities I highly respect for their opinion and work, to join me and write regularly at m-trends.org on subjects that are in the air, things we have in common or like to discuss and write about, to start conversations on topics, each from his own perspective and experience.

Yasmine Abbas, is a French DPLG architect, holds a Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS 2001) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Doctor of Design (DDes 2006) from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. At Harvard she focused on how neo-nomads, digitally geared people on the move, reclaim a sense of belonging to places in the age of multiple mobilities and digital technologies. She does that too: research and problem solving to design environments, products and services that work for people and drive business results! Yasmine will bring her design/cultural/social context and sensibility to m-trends.org. I interviewed her earlier this year in the Women in Mobile series. Do checkout Yasmine’s personal blog neo-nomad.

Martin Sauter has a special twist on Web 2.0. His professional focus is on mobile network technology and services and he consults mobile network operators for Nortel, one of the major network infrastructure vendors for 2G and 3G networks. His quality time activities include his mobile network blog and book writing. His latest book, “Communication Systems for the Mobile Information Society“, discusses the how’s and why’s of GSM, GPRS, UMTS, Wifi, WiMAX and Bluetooth. On the academic side, Martin holds a Dipl. Ing. (FH) degree from the University of Applied Sciences in Ravensburg, Germany and when not busy travelling enjoys lecturing and discussing today’s and tomorrows mobile networks. This is also the area that Martin is going to cover at m-trends.org. Check Martin’s Mobile Technology Page, his personal blog about his thoughts on the evolution of GSM, UMTS, WLAN, Bluetooth, and WiMAX.

A French girl living in the Boston, US, a German living in Paris, France and a Belgian living in Barcelona, Spain, this looks like other kinds of hybrids: different opinions on various topics in a ubiquitous mobility era with views from different angles, written from different locations, by people who are always on the move… This will definately create more value to m-trends.org; if there are any subjects you would like to have covered here, please suggest or contact me by email.

Expect some diverse and interesting subjects covered soon here, I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we do, initiating this kind of projects together.

Vodafone’s receiver #17 is out and it’s another interesting issue with various great contributions. This online-only magazine is a neutral space where pioneer thinkers challenge you to discuss exciting, future-oriented aspects of communications technologies.

This receiver issue is a truly playful one. While the urge to play is a human universal, gaming cultures differ widely across different societies – that goes for the games people enjoy as well as how they enjoy them. You can play with interactive media alone or to socialise, to compete or to relax, at home or in the street. What is play and what’s in a game? Here are nine answers.

It was good to read the contribution of Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey, Games in spite of themselves on Tale of Tales, the design studio they run together in Belgium and their latest game concept development The Endless Forest:

Many games that call themselves multiplayer are in fact glorified single player games. Most of the activities (gathering objects and exterminating monsters) are single player activities at their core. Sometimes the designers make the tasks so huge that practical reasons force the players to collaborate, but the tasks and the motivation remain egocentric. The common exception seems to be games in which players directly confront each other. Instead of killing monsters, they kill each other. With The Endless Forest, we try not only to offer players less aggressive activities to engage in, but also non-competitive forms of playing together.

Michael and me have been pioneering together the early days of the internet in Belgium end of ‘94, early ‘95… waw time flies! Michael still kept some traces of that period here and here; for fans, you can check out his impressive entire portfolio. Michael is a truely original and great designer and artist and his work since he met Auriea has been always amazing and inspiring, together they won the Webby Award Prize for Excellence in Online Art in 2000.

This makes me curious about how they would conceptualize a great mobile game, do check them out!