I recently came across a mobile phone that someone said is cooler than iPhone (all hail the power of Twitter). Here I am, thinking that iPhone’s cool factor is over-rated, so what can be ‘cooler’ than that? Let me introduce the recently released modu:

(view video here)

Basically, modu is a modular phone that comes with some basic functions (I assume) and if you want to say, have gps, you have to slip it into a jacket with gps function or if you to share photos, you slip the modu into a digital camera. I quote from their website “Slip modu into a variety of stylishly designed modu jackets to create a new look and provide added functionality that will instantly shape and reshape the way you communicate.” and “modu strives to become the standard communications and personalization enabler to any consumer electronics device. ”

But I wonder, how feasible is this? I think they’re striving for world domination in the mobile phone and electronics industry, but how long will it take for all electronic products to be modu compatible? Furthermore, why would I want to keep purchasing jackets and switching around just to have access to different functions? I can easily have a combination of those in ONE phone with the likes of Blackberry, Nokia and iPhone (which I still think is just another phone).

I guess, if you’re looking at progression of technology, the jacket may be a good idea since you only have to purchase the latest jacket and probably upgrade the software in the base phone. It will also probably cost less than a new phone altogether.

What I call cooler than iPhone are the Japanese phones. Japanese phones have features like viewing TV programmes, crime prevention buzzer (which reports automatically to the police station), using your phone as debit or credit cards or swiping your phone at the MRT station to pay for your fare.

Do you know anything that’s cooler than iPhone?

Despite sounding like a word from some science-fiction movie, augmented reality had already been around for quite some time. Just that only recently, we see many new break-through in technology that brings back the novelty of augmented reality.

Now, to begin with, what exactly is augmented reality? It is a form of mixed reality where computer-generated data are blended into the real environment to give real footage in real time. Sound confusing? Take for example that you are wearing a pair of special glasses out shopping. The item you see at the shop is then processed by this tiny microchip and you will be feed with information such as how much that item will cost at another shop, its make and perhaps recommendation of other things you might like via your glasses.

As mentioned previously, this technology has been around for ages but rarely heard of due to the reason that normal consumers such as ourselves would not have find it to be useful in our everyday life. For example, one of the first applications of augmented reality can be found in the fighter jet cockpit where the head-up display (HUD) shows all relevant information for the pilot without him or her having to look in another direction. In the field of medicine, Microvision actually developed a small-mounted display for surgeons that display all essential data of the patient they are operating on.

Why the subject of augmented reality is suddenly brought back to recent news is perhaps due to the new capabilities of mobile phones today in particular the iPhone 3GS. For consumers, how augmented reality can be useful in our daily lives is dependent upon how it can be integrated into the essential gadgets we are already carrying (e.g. Watches, sunglasses, mobile phones). This led to the development of several applications such as Layar, Wikitude and more recently Sekai Camera which is highly regarded to be the killer application for the iPhone.

Nevertheless, augmented reality is starting to be seen everywhere. In advertising such as the Mini Cooper ad (See here ) and perhaps into the future where the example I had stated earlier come into existent. As of present, most developers will probably see the mobile phone industry as the best platform to develop their programs considering that most phones are already equipped with a good camera, GPRS system and Wi-Fi.

*The writer is currently convincing an AR developer to create a program for the mobile phone to warn users of impeding collision with other people for fear that in the future everyone will be walking on the street looking into the screen of their phones.

These days, we display personal information so freely online that stalkers have all the information they need at their fingertips – free of charge.

Let’s use a random, obvious target in this post. 

Today, I went to eat at Killiney Kopitiam and I saw this Ronald McDonald mascot parading around at POMO. There was a huge crowd and some sort of McDonald’s promotion seems to be going on. There was even a performance going on. Halfway through the performance, someone from the crowd shouts “YAY TONY LEE!” and the chant goes on.

I find Ronald MacDonald cute, so I go home and try to google this mysterious guy. I key in “Ronald MacDonald+mascot+POMO+tony lee”.

Facebook seems to be one of the first few items to show up whenever there is a name. If I were to do a search a few days later, I might come up with several blog articles and features on the McDonald event. From Facebook, I can actually see how Tony Lee looks like – he’s from NAFA, he is single, he is 24 years old, he likes to eat McGriddles, and the recent survey he’d taken shows that he has a personality closer to Sasuke in Naruto.

Due to his nature of being an IT student, he has coincidentally subscribed to multiple social networking sites, one of them happens to be www.brightkite.com.

And now… I actually know that at this very moment, he is in the office of Wilkie Edge. That’s about just one street away from where I am now. The people around him is a girl named Susan, a geek called Lim Hui, and oh, he just twittered on facebook “ate laksa. found cockroach in it. YUCKS.”

It is all so very easy for me to hunt down anyone who thinks internet is a safe place to display all your public information. With just a click. Sure enough, there are always options to hide your particulars; softwares to manage your public profile – but as my friend said, nothing is ever private if it’s online. There will always be ways to get around security. And as soon as you think you have outsmarted the system, new programmes will always find new ways to turn the tables on you again.

By the way, Tony Lee is a fictional character. Any resemblance or whatsoever is purely coincidental.