mobile trends with megan fox: cil2008

Mobile trends:
megan fox from simmons college (woot!)

be proactive in the role of libraries as partners in new mobile world.

3 times the no. of mobile phones than PCs
half the worlds populations in phones
phone are going to outsell tvs in the next year
cell phones are hard to give up, as compared to tvs or landlines

lots of stats about the mobile market: 90% of iphone users surf the web, most of which never used their mobile device to surf the web.
iphone can access more info all the time, how does this shape their views of information deliver and where libs are?

lib patrons use:
flip phone, ipods, gaming devices, mini laptops
more devices have sliding keyboards and larger screens
(she's talking about the ipod touch and iphone and how cool it is, how interactive it is, taps, slides, rotate... it is the latest dance craze!)
apple is innovating mobile devices

review of lots of different mobile devices and tools:
samsung instinct, verizon voyager, samsung glyde,
mini notebooks:
$$ UMPC- ultra mobile personal computer
ulcp- ultra low cost pc (300-400, stripped down)
mid- mobile internet devices

android - google phone
cool new features for iphones: etch a sketch
gesture interactions: tip it to go down, tip it to go back up (dance moves!)
visual access- camera phone to photo UPC to get more info
cosmogirl- turn page to 17 snap the red hat, where can you get it? (bloomies!)

facial recognition- for those tweens who love to snap photos
devices that read aloud to you-- visual impaired will read the currency, read the menu to you, or directory in a building
location interactions (read something about this in the local paper, for folks with alzhemier's... good for the man who was lost in MPOW)
friend finder: isn't that like twitter?


applications: access content delivered over the web
ppl want fast answers, don't want to type a lot. want quick answers, right now
round point, volantis, .mobi site galore:
.mobi style guides to be used on a mobile devices

there are some programs that will transcode (wink, squeezer, google) to translate to a mobile device (we should be doing this) will do a good enough job, but not flawless.
one challenge: won't be perfect--

opera mini, teasharp (?)- mobile browser, integrated rss
skyfox, netfront - small picture preview and allowing users to scroll in and out of content

directory listings:
find.mobi
usa.gov has mobile site!
MLB has a mobile site!!


reference content to be mobilized:
oxford uni press (dic and thes.), better homes and garden mobile recipes, world almanac

press reader: newspaper direct 60 days worth of newspapers world wide, duplicates of covers

health and med vendors: pubmed for handhelds

Britannica mobile, la times, cbs, fox, bbc all for the iphone

ebooks:
audible air (amazon just bought - $)
japan - writing books entirily on a cell phone, through text messages. 10 top selling works of fiction, 5 started as a cell phone book. love stories written in short sentences. little character development and plot. swoon.

(note to MPOW get a mobi domain)

what does a library need to have on the go:
what will a mobile user want:
lib hours, contact info, directions, events

some vendors are making the opacs mopacs

content is very much multimedia now-- how to stream on a mobile device

tv on the mobile: mobi tv, location 3 tv, over 25 different tv channels, tivo to go (!!)
companies will transcode AV for the mobile device

overdrive, media mall: libs can make audio content available for download onto devices

mobile search: using them to get answers (ready ref content)
geo questions: where is X in relation to me now?
chunks of information that are answers-- not lists of websites, ex bball scores

sms/texting: to google, to yahoo, to live, diet.com (info about food)
4info: big into sports
IM to a friend, text to a friend: simmons catalog has a new button that says: send a text, users have the call number in their phone (note to gary!)
buy things from amazon, financial data is being sent via text (huge in japan!)

key for communicating with library users, have users text info to a lib number, and have it be delivered through email. how to integrate into library services.

google gears: allows info to be downloaded onto the phone, locally onto the device when a connection is not available.

but wait, there is more!

• projectors on cell phone
• eink
• $300 glasses available in airports, my view, looks like sunglasses, plug into ipod, can do all sorts of visual things, projects up to 80 inches. somewhat affordable.
• contact lenses, the number is projected to the lenses or text message (yikes!)
• Dscribe: digital fountain pen. write a message, sends it to phone via bluetooth, and then sms to recipient
• a tool that will talk thoughts and digitize then (far out! helpful for ppl who lost the ability to speak)
• blood tattoo (seen on lifehacker? )

surface computing: back into the hands, touching, gesturing, moving