The Unmentionable Phone 2 and MotoLabs
Again?
My final thoughts on the “JesusPhone.” I showed up at the Apple store on Michigan Avenue a few minutes after it opened, so I got to witness all the crazies lined up and crowding around the doors. I found the presence of Chicago police funny, even if it was justified. I didn’t end up getting my hands on one of the smudged screen until the next day after patiently waiting for one of the many that they had scattered around the store.
The funny thing was listening to all the people call up their friends on the store phones and go “Hey! I’m calling you from an iPhone!” leaving their poor friend’s number on a public phone. The phone I was using had a bunch of numbers left behind, hopefully they won’t be called up while eating dinner.
After using one for a bit, I ended up with the same view as a lot of other people. The touchscreen is neat. The visual and physical design is great. It’s also great for their first try at a phone, but it’s still lacking in the general scheme of things. Still not worth the money. The media coverage of it is a little out of control, and I think I need an iPhone detox week. That probably won’t be likely this week though.
Hello MotoLabs
On a somewhat unrelated note, it was nice to see two stories on experientia regarding MotoLabs since I really dig a lot of the stuff they do there. Their user-centeredness feels a lot more inline with what we are taught at CMU. The first post was a presentation by Crysta Metcalf called Investigating the Sharing Practices of Family & Friends to Inform Communication Technology Innovations, which is directly related to the project our group did for Grad Studio. So it’s nice to see a rigorous study conducted a little more broadly and seeing similar trends show up. It also helps to know that we were working on something relevant during school.
I had the chance to meet with Crysta a couple of times and talk with her about her research and how it fits into CXD and Motorola. I’ve also been able to speak with Frank Bentley who had the other presentation on experientia, which is about ambient motion information on mobile devices. Everyone there has been extremely generous with their time and willing to discuss anything.
I wonder what else the people at MotoLabs will come up with. I’ve enjoyed visiting them every time, but I’m not sure how many times I want to head over to Schaumburg 
