Mobile Technology: What's New?

Mega investments are ramping up to drive data traffic and mobile applications. The growing outcome is that ever more advanced and user friendly mobile technology solutions are peeking out of our hardware hoping we'll notice.

The kids and early adapters are all over this stuff and the creaky back brigade (over 40) are now taking a look see, too. Indeed, these solutions make us more productive and efficient and maybe one outcome, not a good one, is we need fewer and fewer full timers in the workforce to meet all our needs.

Have a chat with ex-workers in the auto industry. Technology and its computer based management systems continue to reduce the labor cost in every car and investment means fewer workers! If you're one of those who still think your traditional job is there for you, start planning retirement. There is NO part of the working world that can resist the changes happening now.

The Internet of Things have changed drastically our lifestyle though it is only in its beginning stage. What with artificial intelligence. Your child can now interact with robots and dolls who not only talk to them but document what they want to talk to these dolls and companies outpace each other in writing algorithms to outdo each other. Wearables sensing how you feel? Forget about privacy these days. Learn to manage it so technology works in your favour. So, don't sit in your living room and whine to your friends about all these developments. What I am saying is mobile has really made connection easy that you think your child is safe in her play room with her dolls.

There is no other choice for us but to keep ourselves current in this new technologies especially the ones that we use. More developments are coming as fast as our imagination can picture. So, start thinking of how you can use these to enhance your own life or your own business or give you hints on training you need so you can ride the wave.

Heard of this?

I was fascinated when I first read of this word referring to the fact that it is quite impossible to subdivide an experience but often when we share it we are faced with the limitation of the media available like letters, articles or even phone calls. Now, with digital formats, we are able to share much more and engage those we share with in an interactive dialogue. What a development we have to cherish.

Now, with the Internet of Things, so many possibilities are open to use for connectivity and interaction. So much of our life is also open to constant invasion even by people across other continents and those we have never even heard of before.

Yes, we celebrate the fact that algorithms are now capable of so much and its applications are tremendous in doing analysis not done before because there is just no capacity to crunch so much data. But we have to be vigilant as sometimes, unbeknown to us who don't follow daily all these changes, surprises come.

Facebook, for example, in their Messenger App has an algorithm that can read in your camera roll pictures of your friends and ask you to share it. Of course, only if you want and you can opt out as well from this feature. But, its rationale is that it is helping you share pictures you have taken of your friends which you have probably forgotten to share.

Facebook is not the only one doing this and it is not limited to pictures. So, time to understand and be current about what is happening in the world of the geeks. Big Data is Big.

Every time you do a search or post something on Facebook, you create data. Imagine the zillions of data created by almost 7 billion people in the world and this will continue to increase as fast as your eyes can blink.

IBM Watson touts its capacity to make all these zillions of data more understandable to us, to make sense to us. These new computers can out think many of us. Those of us who are still in the old technology, this is just beyond our imagination. But whether we like it or not, we are in it. Every item we pick out in the grocery store is data added to a fuller understanding of us. There are computers reading us all the time whether we are aware of it or not. The only escape is not to do anything.

Profiling and targeting have now become so focused to your own locality that you can download coupons for your favourite stores trying to make you captives of what they nicely call permission marketing. Group On is in your face now! Still, we can't opt out of this world. My husband has registered his email in our local M&M store in Ontario and enjoys reading the weekly deals seated in his computer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Says it gives him an idea of food price inflation and consumption trends. What can I say?

There's a lot more to know about mobile marketing and it is now time to master this. Learn for the following videos.

This is just the beginning of the new wave

Yes, you have a cell phone right now and a computer and you are starting to use them together. You have also connected your camera to your TV, your computer and your phone so while you are watching your favourite program, you will see on the screen who is calling you or e-mailing you or just wants to chat with you and who has posted on your wall on Facebook. It makes the old answering machine look like steam technology and converges all you communications into one site.

This is just the beginning. Tsunami of new apps is building to integrate all your devices for a much improved communications experience especially in energy management and home management.

Sometimes, this can be a problem for non-techies and change abhor friends. With updates, changes often come and they lose the familiarity of old friends. For oldies, this can mean stress and an awful lot of it as they lose some of their favourite magazines unless they renew settings they are not familiar with.

Seamless connections all over the world

Many networks now promise seamless connection in dozens of countries. It always amazes me when books are downloaded to my Kindle in airports in Shanghai, Bangkok or Singapore. I can use Whispernet to get my e-mails and search the Net. I love skirting the massive hourly costs of hotels for Wi-Fi with the readers 3G.

With roaming options now, it is cheaper for me to buy a phone in the United States or the Philippines and just sign in for roaming options. Or, some phones now have 3 or 4 Sim cards so I can buy Sim cards in each of the countries I frequent and just pay local fees. My sister uses the roaming option so whichever country she happens to be I can easily call her on the same number as it does not carry the expensive rates North American phones charge for international.

You can also use Face time or Skype as we do and now with Skype apps on the smart phone, this gets even easier and more portable. Now, there is Viber and the latest, Nano, which enables phone calls even on 2G. Hey not everyone is crazy enough to run after the latest. I can remember $60 phone calls from Africa and Asia just a few years ago and now they can be free. What can be better than that?

The latest hype

It's here. All you need to carry when you go out is your smart phone. Just wave it to pay your taxi, your lunch, your train or subway ticket, gas and other transactions. We can shop and send money anywhere, anytime. We can access our finances wherever we are.

Changing lives of many

But here is what I admire. These solutions are just not there to make money although there is nothing wrong with that because to make money, the applications are making life better for many people. Mobile Health and Mobile Agriculture and Mobile Banking are changing the possibilities for people.

In Africa, where supply distribution of medicines can mean life and death for so many people, they have used mobiles to monitor the inventory and have saved lives in the process by ensuring supply of medicines . Farmers are now sharing resources through mobile and can get answers to questions that they are able to save their crops. Villagers who had to walk for a full day to do banking can now do it from home.

Farmers in Argentina just can't be left behind. Having enjoyed the good price for their products, the farmers are now participating in the newly launched, Sojabook, so named after soy. So now it is not surprising to see an Argentine farmer with his netbook on one side and his iphone on the other. Through the network, they can exchange tips and find out the best sources for their needs as well as prices for their produce.

Open new futures

So, the work for us is to see how we can tweak these developments to open new futures for millions of people who are now "connected".