Masters of Media

In the advent of the “Let’s Talk iPhone” event, people were already looking for tutorials  in order to sync and back up all of the various apps they have gathered from the moment they “went apple,” to ensure a smooth transfer to whatever new product Apple might have to offer. Everyone was of course…

Introduction

We are all witnessing, in the last few years, a new wave of secular thought permeating different spheres of society. As the mediatic discussion of religious fundamentalism is on the rise, its dialectic opposite also gains momentum, as corroborated by a never before seen torrent of atheist/agnostic rhetoric in movies, TV shows, best-selling books,…

The administrator is the boss. He is the ruler of his community. He has the power to alter his site, remove content or ban specific users. Basically one could consider him as the autocrat, the despot of the community. Internet, or more specific Web 2.0 applications, allows each user to create their own digital empire and being the autocratic ruler.…

We all use apps for practical reasons; checking e-mail, messaging, checking train departure times and much more. These apps are down-to-earth practical; they don’t bring tears to my eyes or amaze me with flashy images or unbelievable content. But they could, right?

Technologies are still seen as ‘cold’ and don’t offer us the same emotional experience as older media do.…

Their timing is quite unfortunate. With Steve Jobs passing away, it’s hard to get through on Facebook and Twitter, so I thought I’d help them out a bit and shamelessly promote Bits of Freedom on the MoM blog.

Bits of Freedom (BoF) is the Dutch digital rights organization, focusing on privacy and communicatios freedom in the digital age. BoF…

Yesterday, on the 5th of October 2011, the world lost a great visionary –Apple’s co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs. He also worked as the chief executive of Pixar. His creative vision did not only make Apple one of the most successful companies in the world, but changed the way people perceive personal computers, listen to music and use…

Whether by design or by default, the current generation whose lives are playing out in social networks, in the blogosphere and throughout the Internet are leaving traces of their lives online. Controversy was anticipated as guardians and future employers gained access to the user content, but another demographic may stimulate more acute repercussions. As this generation procreates, their offspring will get online too and, ultimately, have access to the unedited version of their parents' online conduct.

“There is nothing the beautiful world finds as intolerable as explanations. I, too, find it terrible when somebody begins to explain, for when worst comes to worst I understand everything myself.” (Hegel, 1808)

In this post I want to try and point towards a possible alternative to the research methods of ‘data visualization,’ increasingly conceived as being the…

According to Metareporter, a student blog for BA-student Media en Culture about new media in newspapers, a lot of articles in Dutch traditional media are about new media subjects. The top 3 tags that are being used are:  Twitter, Facebook and social media1.  This was exactly a year ago as well when I wrote by BA-thesis. These new media…

Foursquare is known as LBM (Location Based Marketing) and uses the GPS ability of smart phones to search for restaurants and other interesting locations nearby. With an account anyone can claim locations and leave specials or tips for people visiting this locations. In March of this year there were announced Foursquare had around 8 million users. However for…

Mobile applications are no longer just for fun an (financial) benefits. They can even help in saving a life. Think of Amber Alert, a Dutch warning system for missing children, Slown Down , an app that slows down your music when you’re driving too fast or The FireDepartment app, for citizens to help…

Repudo, the fysical location bound message service, explained and reviewed. The app proves to be easy to use, original and playful, but still comes with some minor issues such as limited compatibility.

Facebook faces more and more scrutiny over its user privacy issues, but do people willingly trade privacy as a commodity for using Social Network Services (SNSs)? Would they prefer to pay a certain fee in order to prevent surveillance activities and data mining processes, if they had this opportunity?

There have been extensive debates over the new Facebook features announced…

Are you tired of all those fines in your mailbox because your speed was too high? Are you again surprised by another sneaky hidden speed camera? Those times could belong to the past since the app Flitsers.mobi released in August this year.

Since January 2004, it is forbidden using a radar detector on any motor vehicle in The Netherlands. Radar…

In an event of ongoing demonstrations called ‘Occupy Wall Street’, people in the United States are demonstrating against the effects of the latest economic crises, corporate domination and negative capitalist effects in general. The idea of the protests came from Adbusters magazine in mid 2011. Since the demonstrations have started out on September 17th in New York City, but have…

…is a new (not yet released) augmented reality app for Android and iPhone by the makers of Layar. It enables users to attach (’stick’) texts and images to ‘real-life’ objects, whether it is a book, a pack of cigarettes, or a thing specific to a certain location, like the national monument on the Dam in…

One of my friends who is a hysterical fan of Apple spent almost a whole scorching afternoon for the campaigning of getting a extremely new-launched iPhone 4 in Sun Litun Apple Store, Beijing. The moment he got his “precious” he burst into tears, he told me which exaggerated a little but still made sense to people like…

Unfortunately we’re all familiar with the situation in which you’re a few minutes late for a meeting or appointment. On your way to this meeting it’s likely you try to catch up with the time. While you’re on your bike, in your care or literally running towards your destiny you realize you’re really gonna be too late and have to…

Since Facebook has gained such worldwide success, it was long overdue for gay people to have their own social network. Joel Simkhai made their wish come true and created Grindr. I have to admit, I first found out about it from my best friend, who is a dedicated user of this platform, but most of the information I will…

I’ve got an iPhone 3G (yes that’s a really old one, and it is really slow as well!). Maybe that’s the main reason that I don’t use apps very often nowadays, except for some built-in apps and a Dutch news app. But there are some wonderful apps on my phone. When I was scanning trough my phone in search for…