Author: WMPoweruser.com

As you know, Steve Jobs was extremely dissatisfied about the leak of iPhone 4G (HD). Gizmodo, which buys device and shares its photos for all of us, probably became the most hated site for Apple ever. See the video below

(via: mobile990.pl)

This post was submitted by rafalplus03.

One of America’s most cherished rights is citizens’ right to privacy, as former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun noted, “the right to be let alone.” Passions are stirred by debates about the right to privacy and it has become a political hot potato in recent years due in part to the domestic wiretapping controversy, identity theft, and data mining on the Internet. Yet these days, a growing swath of America, mostly the young and tech savvy, are not only unconcerned about their privacy, but actively eschew that right. They seem to believe in N.E.I. (Never Enough Information) rather than the more familiar T.M.I. (Too Much Information, for those who were just rescued from a deserted island).

This desire on the part of young people to be an “open book” began in the ancient days of the 20th century (and probably long before) when the dominant form of media was television. Reality-based shows, such as MTV’s Real World and Big Brother, in which the lives of young people were broadcast for all the world to see, were the forbearers of today’s movement to make lives embarrassingly public. The growing wave of social media that caters to N.E.I. has included MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and is now pushing the I-don’t-care-about-privacy envelope with Google Latitude, Foursquare, Blippy, and DailyBooth.

Why the shift from privacy to publicity? What is motivating people to want to share information about themselves that is, at best, of little interest or value to others and, at worst, could be used against them (think drunken Facebook rants and embarrassing photos)? I could argue that it is simply the natural extension of one’s own community (family and friends share everything, right?) afforded us by the long tentacles of the Web and social media. But I’m too cynical of people’s motives and new technology to accept such a positive rationale for this behavior. I see several possible explanations focusing on both the changing world in which we live and how we are feel about said world.

Despite appearances to the contrary, the decline of the nuclear family and the neighborhood, the mass migration caused by job mobility, and loss of national unity due to political polarization has caused many of us to feel more substantially disconnected than ever before. Social media and the ability to share ourselves so completely makes us feel connected with others, however superficial that connection may be.

We live in a time of tremendous ambiguity and flux. The uncertain economy, global instability, and political unrest can cause use to feel powerless. When we share information about ourselves — and believe that others find it worthwhile — we feel valued, important, influential.

It’s pretty easy to feel insignificant in this everyone-else-seems-to-be-rich-and-famous world. When we share information, whether a comment to a blog post, our location, our opinion on amazon, or what we purchase on Blippy, it proves that we exist, that we matter, that we are, literally and metaphorically, a recognizable dot on the map.

This N.E.I. phenomenon could be explained by the rise in narcissism among young people these days fostered by a popular culture of “it’s all about me,” where self-importance, self-promotion, and exhibitionism are the road to being “somebody.” Need I say anything more than Jersey Shore?

We also live in a world that has grown more impersonal as the size of the Web has expanded exponentially. When we share so much about ourselves, we feel a sense of intimacy (however false it may be) despite revealing nothing of real consequence about ourselves.

How about our culture’s obsession with the insignificant and the irrelevant? Perhaps triviata is the new opiate of the masses, preventing us from having to confront the existential vacuum that exists in our souls and the scary world that exists beyond our grasp.

Whatever the explanation for the rise of this N.E.I. movement, there’s always going to be someone out there who really believes in T.M.I. and reminds us that sharing information doesn’t really have anything to do with who we are or our place in the world. Pleaserobme.com (motto: Raising awareness about over-sharing), for example, posted Foursquare location information showing when people are away from their homes. As the site’s name implies, would-be burglars can simply log on and not only have an easy time relieving these N.E.I. believers of their worldly possessions, but also remind them in a very real-world way that they really do exist and they really do mean something to someone.b7,

This post was submitted by drjim.

Doesn’t anyone else see what is so obvious to me? Or has Steve Jobs’s diabolical plan for global domination already reached a point that humans don’t even see what is happening to them?

The whole iPhone (and iPod and iPad) thing is starting to sound like a 1950’s science fiction movie. If you’ve ever watched one of these now-totally-camp movies, the story line goes like this: A mad scientist bent on world domination invents a fanciful machine that turns humans into unthinking zombies over whom he has complete control. Now let’s update that storyline. A mad scientist by the name of Steve Jobs invents a fanciful machine called the iPhone that, according to a recent Stanford University survey, turns users into “junkies” allowing him and his evil empire to take over the world (at least the media world, so far). Now do you see it?

How powerful is this fanciful machine? The research indicated that 44 percent of those surveyed rated themselves as a four or five on a five-point addicted-to-my-iPhone scale. Another 32 percent reported that they were worried that they would eventually become addicted. Here’s a scary stat: 75 percent of respondents said they slept with their phones in their beds. Even more scary is that users felt their iPhones were an extension of themselves and have actually begun to anthropomorphize their phones. Sounds like induced psychotic and delusional behavior to me. That is one powerful device Mr. Jobs and his team of mad scientists have invented!

His plan is as fiendish as it is brilliant, having been years in the making. His release of increasingly more addictive devices, starting with the iPod, then the iPhone, and taking it to a new level with the iPad shows a clear vision and the patience to realize that vision. And Mr. Jobs is an evil genius of great sophistication and nuance, seeing the addictive power of seemingly innocuous little things called apps. The App Store may seem innocent enough selling what appear to be fun and often-times useless applications, but each $.99 purchase and installation of a new app is another nail in the metaphorical coffin of humanity and free will.

This mad scientist has even developed a cadre of Apple uber-zombies, who proudly call themselves Apple Fanboys, who are specially trained to protect the empire whenever it is threatened. This brigade of storm troopers (only a satirical reference to Nazism; no offense intended) has been given special access to this wicked machine through jailbreaking and “unauthorized” apps (wink, wink), giving them super-Apple powers that threaten those as-yet-unaffected survivors daily. These demented guardians of the empire are ever vigilant to attacks from the few remaining humans who have been able to resist drinking the Apple-flavored Kool-Aid. A critical news report, an unsupportive blog post, anything that might question or criticize Jobs or Apple, any sign of resistance or defiance against this new world order is met with swift and ruthless Apple justice.

Going according to Jobs’s wicked blueprint for global supremacy, the population is slowly, but inexorably, falling under his spell. I see it around me every day. First, it was work colleagues and clients. Then, it was acquaintances and a few friends. And now some in my family have gone to the dark side including my mother-in-law who, the horrors, takes care of my children once a week.

What can those of us who haven’t gotten zombified do? Probably nothing given Mr. Jobs’s maniacal mission of world dominion and the Sirens-like allure of Apple products. What hope is there for humanity? Only one perhaps. That the other mad scientist of the technological-industrial complex, Bill Gates, has finally come up with another fanciful technology, Windows Phone 7, that will enable the Microsoft empire (admittedly equally evil) to compete for world domination. How will that help us humans? Well, it seems certain that we’re all headed toward zombieland. At least we can exercise our last vestige of free will by choosing which poison we want to drink before life on Earth as we know it comes to an end.

As for me, to paraphrase a classic Charlton Heston line, I’ll give you my Windows Mobile phone when you take it from my cold, dead hands!

Dr. Jim Taylor is internationally recognized for his work in the psychology of performance in business, parenting, and sport. He is the author of ten books, including Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child, Your Children are Under Attack: How Popular Culture is Destroying Your Kids’ Values, and How You Can Protect Them, The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training, and Applied Sport Psychology: Four Perspectives, the Prime Sport book series, Psychology of Dance, Psychological Approaches for Sports Injury Rehabilitation, and Comprehensive Sports Injury Management.

He has has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, UPN’s Life & Style, ABC’s World News This Weekend, and the major television network affiliates around the U.S..

This post was submitted by drjim.

We all know the power of the Internet for good. It offers a wealth of information, connects people who are miles and cultures apart, and allows news to be disseminated instantly. But I recently learned of a young man whose reputation, and perhaps his life, has been devastated because of information, later proved to be erroneous, that was circulated through email and social media. His story illustrates the dark side of information in the 21st century and confirms our need to ensure that, in our real-time, instant-access world, the information that is spread through cyberspace is both timely and accurate.

Here’s what happened. This young man, I’ll call him Steve, was stopped by police in a small Midwestern town in which he grew up following reports of suspicious behavior (he was taking photos of houses and businesses as part of research for documenting his family tree). A search of the man’s car revealed rope, duct tape, a ski mask, a pair of black gloves, and a hammer in the trunk (the supposed tools of the trade of kidnappers and child molesters). But, as there was no evidence of a crime, Steve was allowed to continue on his way. Nothing that unusual or untoward so far.

Here’s where things start to get out of hand. After the stop, the local police contacted the police department of Steve’s current town of residence and that town’s police mistakenly told them that he was a suspect in a 2002 local child abduction/molestation case. Despite the fact that this information was wrong and Steve had no criminal record beyond a few traffic violations, one of the police officers passed this information, that included his name and photo, on to administrators at the local schools via an email. In response, school officials copied parts of the officer’s email into a notice that was sent to parents. From there, the high-performance engine of social media took over. Out of genuine concern I’m sure, someone posted the notice that included Steve’s identity and the unfounded allegations on Facebook and the misinformation went viral.

There are several unsettling aspects of this unfortunate use of social media. First, as I have noted in a previous blog post, the speed and ease of spreading information online can preclude people from taking the time to think deliberately about issues and decisions before acting on them. The result? A lot of poor judgments and bad decisions with the associated collateral damage.

Second, as we know from media events from the recent past, once information makes it into cyberspace, regardless of its veracity, it will remain there and can haunt people in perpetuity.

Third, research has shown that information that makes it to the Web continues to be believed even when later information is posted that demonstrates it to be false. So, no matter how hard people who are sullied by misinformation or downright lies try to clear their name, there is no way to remove that harmful cyber footprint.

Would much of this sad tale have happened without social media? Of course. Bad things happening to good people and people making poor decisions didn’t start with the public launch of the Web in 1994. But, to paraphrase the Oscar-winning film, The Hurt Locker, the blast area wasn’t nearly as large nor the damage as extensive.

There have been more egregious examples of how social media can be used as weapons, for example, the growing problem of cyberbullying through mean-spirited web sites and texting as tragically exemplified by the suicide of Megan Meier in 2006. But Steve’s story demonstrates how the reputation and perhaps life of an innocent person can be summarily ruined as a result of an equally innocent, yet misconstrued, occurrence, poor due diligence and decision making on the part of people who should know better, and, ultimately, the power of social media.

Note: Some of the information included in this post was obtained from a local newspaper article reporting on the story. Ordinarily, I would include a link to the article, but to protect Steve from further attention, I am not doing so.

Dr. Jim Taylor is internationally recognized for his work in the psychology of performance in business, parenting, and sport. He is the author of ten books, including Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child, Your Children are Under Attack: How Popular Culture is Destroying Your Kids’ Values, and How You Can Protect Them, The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training, and Applied Sport Psychology: Four Perspectives, the Prime Sport book series, Psychology of Dance, Psychological Approaches for Sports Injury Rehabilitation, and Comprehensive Sports Injury Management.

He has has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, UPN’s Life & Style, ABC’s World News This Weekend, and the major television network affiliates around the U.S..

This post was submitted by drjim.

This is a user-submitted article. Read more user-submitted articles on Page 2.

Owners of a HD2, here is my personal concept of what I imagine the HTC HD3 will be like.

Your comments are welcome.

More after the break.

More concepts at nak-design.over-blog.fr

Submitted by Psikopathe

This post was submitted by Psikopathe.

In his insightful 2008 article in the Atlantic, Nicolas Carr asks, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" He goes on to explore how new technology has altered our reading habits and, more unsettlingly, how we process information and think. It is a cerebral piece that meets the high intellectual standards we expect of that august magazine.

I, however, would like to bring his lofty discussion of the impact of new technology on our lives down to the muckier level of human dysfunction. I would suggest that not only is the latest technology making us stupider, but it is also making us just plain idiots!

Of course, we have been prone to idiocy throughout history, long before the latest technological advancements. Whether a mild act of embarrassing idiocy, such as putting one’s foot in one’s mouth with an untoward comment, or an act of career-ending idiocy, such as bad mouthing the boss around the water cooler, idiots abounded, but the "blast area" was limited by the still unsophisticated means of communicating the idiocy to the world.

There also used to be time to avoid acts of idiocy. For example, while writing that angry and insult-laden letter to the girl who just rejected you, putting it into an envelope, addressing it, placing it in the mailbox, and waiting for the mail carrier to arrive, you had ample time to reconsider the suitability of that particular course of action. Due to the slowness of communication in those primitive days, we had the opportunity to, for example, calm down, reflect on our situation, consider the consequences, change our minds, prevent impulsive behavior, and avoid embarrassment, disgrace, or criminal charges.

Technology has made it easier to be idiots because it discourages thinking and deliberation, and promotes acting on our most base impulses, emotions, and needs, for example, anger, sadness, lust, or need for approval. We can be idiots more quickly, be caught in our idiotic acts more easily, and be more publicly humiliated before a far broader audience than ever before. Returning to my rejection example, that entire process of rejection (by a text message perhaps) and reaction can now occur in a matter of seconds and with fewer than 140 characters. Being an idiot has never been more efficient.

My first awareness of when technology could help us be idiots was the Seinfeld episode (season 3, episode 4) in which George (as archetypical an idiot as has ever existed) left an angry rant on his girlfriend’s answering machine while she was away on a trip and the show was devoted to the idiotic lengths to which he went to prevent her from hearing the message. George being George, his first act of idiocy led to a veritable cascade of further idiocy and self-immolation.

There have been plenty of old-technology acts of idiocy such as former President Bush’s, "He’s a Major League a@#hole" remark. The actor Alec Baldwin definitely lost out on father-of-the-year honors when a verbally abusive voicemail left for his daughter was made public.

But these example was from the primitive days before Life 2.0. With the emergence of the Web, email, mobile phones with cameras, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, gossip web sites, and online sleuths, we have newer, faster, and more creative ways to be idiots, plus we now leave digital fingerprints all over our acts of idiocy. And there is an entire army of technophiles ready, willing, and able to immortalize our idiocy for all the world to see.

Let’s consider some well-known acts of high-tech idiocy in recent years. There was the supermodel Kate Moss caught on camera snorting cocaine and, in a similar vein, the Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps photographed taking a bong hit with a camera phone. How about the South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford leaving a stream of emails poignantly memorializing his love affair with his Argentine "soul mate." And there’s former Senator George Allen’s "macaca" and Congressman Joe Wilson’s "You lie!" moments immortalized on YouTube. Of course, no list of acts of idiocy would be complete without Tiger Woods’s digital trail of serial infidelity. What do each of these examples of idiotic acts in this high-tech era have in common? Opportunity, ease, speed, reach, and irreversibility. Welcome to the new age of idiocy.

I know I’ve left many worthy candidates off my list, so feel free to add your own.

Dr. Jim Taylor is internationally recognized for his work in the psychology of performance in business, parenting, and sport. He is the author of ten books, including Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child, Your Children are Under Attack: How Popular Culture is Destroying Your Kids’ Values, and How You Can Protect Them, The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training, and Applied Sport Psychology: Four Perspectives, the Prime Sport book series, Psychology of Dance, Psychological Approaches for Sports Injury Rehabilitation, and Comprehensive Sports Injury Management.

He has has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, UPN’s Life & Style, ABC’s World News This Weekend, and the major television network affiliates around the U.S..

This post was submitted by drjim.

From time to time we show concept devices that are the pure products for the imagination of talented designers (and I am not talking about the HTC Trophy pic ).

Below is the latest design by Nak Phone Design, who is is hoping to become a professional designer and is asking for your comment below.

This concept appears to be a 3rd party shell for a device like the HD2, which brings features such a a large keyboard or game keys to today’s hardkey-short devices, and connects via bluetooth.  In my opinion, if cheap enough, I would be all over the concept.

What do you think?  Let us know below.

This post was submitted by Psikopathe.

The Web, the Internet, and all of the new media that has sprung from them, have been a boon to the information age, making information available at our fingertips instantaneously. The sheer volume of information now accessible on line is staggering. As of a few weeks ago, there were more than 21 billion pages on the Web. Information continues to become more available to more people in less time; from web sites to email to RSS feeds to Twitter, we have input at an unprecedented rate and volume. Ironically, as the frequency of information grows, the length of messages shrinks (e.g., Twitter’s 140-character limit. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; think of haiku). And, amazingly, the vast majority of this information is free.

For all its benefits, an unfortunate consequence of this torrent of information is that our “mental inbox” becomes overloaded. With our minds spilling over with information, our primary motivation is to empty it as quickly as possible. We typically use two “information survival” strategies when the inbox fills up. We output as quickly as possible without sufficient thought to either the incoming or outgoing messages. The obvious downside to this approach is that your input lacks thorough consideration and evaluation and your output lacks quality. Or, we are so overwhelmed by emails and text messages that we simply delete large swathes of messages without even looking at them. The obvious downside here is that important messages may be missed.

Information overload isn’t the only problem with this deluge of data that comes to those of us who are connected 24/7. Such large and never-ending quantities of input interfere with our ability to “innerput,” a word I created to denote our thought processes in response to input, including insights, synthesis, judgments, and decisions. With so much information coming in and the need to get information out, innerput suffers; there is neither the time nor the energy to adequately process all of the information.

Information is only a tool; it’s value lies in how we use it. And information has limited value, either as input or output, without innerput. Only through innerput does information become meaningful, only then can it morph from simple data to knowledge and wisdom. And that only comes when there is time for innerput; stopping in the middle of this flood of information to think about, wrestle with, challenge, and build on the information that arrives at our technological doorstep.

Dangers of input and output without innerput can be seen daily. Unfounded rumors that aren’t investigated adequately before they are posted spread across the Internet and are accepted and remain as “truth” even when they are definitively debunked later. Information without context limits its value to readers by restricting our understanding and its meaning to us. One-sided stories without the balance of another perspective create the illusion of accuracy and correctness. And all of this input doesn’t just describe phenomena that are happening in the world, it also impacts those very events because we make judgments about and decide on how we will respond based on these limited data.

For individuals, input without innerput has serious consequences. It means staying on the surface of information rather than diving deep into its meaning and implications. The absence of innerput prevents us from taking real ownership of the information and integrating it into our knowledge base. It also keeps us from transforming the input from cold and lifeless data into a power plant of insight, creativity, innovation, and action.

At a societal level, the consequences of too much input and not enough innerput are significant and sometimes dire. Input without innerput is often used as a weapon by extremists of every ilk against the forces of reason, moderation, and civil discourse. We see it in totalitarian regimes, fundamentalist causes, and ideological warfare. Drowning people in biased information is a common strategy used to prevent people from thinking deliberately and critically about the input to which they are exposed. In a torrent of information, the best way to survive is simply to accept it rather than resist it. The deadly combination of a tidal wave of input and the absence of innerput makes people more vulnerable to misinformation and undue influence.

So how can we swim against the tide of information overload and find the time for innerput? The answer to this question is really quite simple, but nonetheless far from easy. The power to control the amount of input we allow in, foster innerput, and ensure the quality of the output we produce is in our individual hands. Too often, I see people becoming slaves to technology rather than being its master; I see people being information junkies who just crave the input regardless of its value.

You control the flow of information in several ways. First, ask yourself what purpose all of this input serves and whether the typical information you receive each day really brings something of value to the table. You’ll likely realize that you’re inputting a great deal of information simply out of habit or perhaps a concern that you will miss out on something really important if you limit your input. Ask yourself: Do you really need to follow people on Twitter or Facebook or check your IMs every two minutes? Hopefully, this exercise will put your input load into perspective and show you that much of your input is unnecessary.
Next, choose the input you deem most important and jettison that which doesn’t clear that self-determined threshold. When you commit to input filtering and limits, you will establish new and healthier input habits.

With your input load reduced and your new understanding of the importance of innerput (you already knew it intuitively; I just needed to bring it into your consciousness), you now have the time to devote innerput to the input that you really value. The result? Less feeling of drowning in information, less stress, more time, more cogent thinking, and better quality output.

Dr. Jim Taylor is internationally recognized for his work in the psychology of performance in business, parenting, and sport. He has been a consultant to and has provided individual and group training to executives and businesses throughtout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, including the Young Presidents’ Organization

Dr. Taylor is the author of ten books, including Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child, Your Children are Under Attack: How Popular Culture is Destroying Your Kids’ Values, and How You Can Protect Them, The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training, and Applied Sport Psychology: Four Perspectives, the Prime Sport book series, Psychology of Dance, Psychological Approaches for Sports Injury Rehabilitation, and Comprehensive Sports Injury Management.

He has has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, UPN’s Life & Style, ABC’s World News This Weekend, and the major television network affiliates around the U.S.. He has participated in many radio shows. His research and writings have as been the subject of syndicated sports columns that have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country. Jim has been a columnist for The Denver Post , and has been interviewed for articles that have appeared in The New York Daily News, The Los Angeles Times, The London Times, The Chicago Tribune, U.S. News & World Report, The Christian Science Monitor, The London Telegraph, The Miami Herald, The Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, The Baltimore Sun, The Denver Post, Skiing, Outside, and many other newspapers and magazines.

This post was submitted by drjim.