Masters of Media

I have to admit that I do not own the app I'm about to review. In fact, I have never used it. But I want to discuss this app here because I feel that in the long run it may have a huge impact on the way we think about search, data and data sharing. Meet Google Goggles.

Twitter’s official app for Android is notorious for its limited features and overall lack of functionality. Let’s face it – if people had a choice between the official app and using a computer, they’d choose the latter. Or maybe they’d choose another app. So I tried another app: UberSocial, formerly known as Twidroyd.

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Wikipedia, which is founded by Jimmy Wales is a free Internet encyclopedia sites. It’s not reworked by the proofreaders, which namely means no person takes charge in responsible checking whether the contents true or not. Anyone is franchised to add or delete any entries, or edit any content.

There exits a huge difference between the notions of…

Avoidr is a plugin powered by Foursquare which allows users to see check-ins of those they want to avoid. It seems perfect for dodging that awkward moment when you bump into an ex, evading conversations with that annoying or boring acquaintance or helping you elude battles with your arch-nemesis (Useful if you're someone like James Bond!)

Millions of people gathered last August in the main avenues of Madrid to see Benedict XVI in the World Youth Day (WYD), but at the same time his visit was the center of a political controversy concerning its economical costs and the Pope’s remarks on social issues like abortion or gay marriage. The massive protest rallies held…

Have you always wanted to know the constellations? Are you interested in where you can find Mars but can you only find the sun and the moon in the sky? Do you never want to miss out on a meteor shower again? Do you have a telescope and want some help with aligning? Do you have an Android phone? Then…

Mum, what’s that white fluffy thing in the sky?-Well dear, this is where all your memories are stored.-Huh?

Designed with the noble purpose of preventing deadly traffic accidents caused by the distraction of texting while driving, the Phone Guard – Drive Safe application is in fact one new media watchtower for parents and employers to servile teenagers and employees.

This summer, Justin Bieber set out to be the saviour of teenage drivers everywhere by endorsing together with…

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Glympse is a groundbreaking new way to share your location with anyone for a specified period of time using patent-pending GlymseWatch timer.

This app enables you to immediately share your location with friends and allows them to track your movement for a chosen amount of time.

It is supposed to be…

I love to sleep. So much that waking up early on Monday for morning classes is a hard and laborious task. I always set my alarm clock about half an hour early to compensate for the time spent snoozing -another thing that I love to do.

This Monday was a bit different. I woke up about forty minutes earlier than…

I am a photographer. I have an app for that.

Pixlr is a Flash-based image editing application from Autodesk. Autodesk is well known for its industry standard architectural and entertainment software such as AutoCAD and 3D Studio Max. Autodesk now also offers several free Pixlr apps for editing images in the browser; both for desktop and mobile devices. The desktop…

An interview with the GNU founder about copyright on user-generated content in social networks.

No signal?

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Mobility and GPS
Locative media has always been an interesting topic to write about, especially nowadays of the ubiquitous present of smart phones in society. A smart phone is a very rich tool to research because it has so many functions and options; it is connected to the Internet, you…

Edward Said wrote in his book Covering Islam that historically the western mass media have exercised the power of representation over the (in this case) Islamic ‘other’ and suppresses the possible multiplicity of 800 000 000 global Islamic citizens into a few reductive stereotypes (1981). Said argues that voices are mediated and distorted through the western mass media who…

Some do it on a daily basis, some do it on a weekly basis: grocery shopping. The best known and one of the oldest supermarkets in the Netherlands is Albert Heijn. In november 2009 the company introduced Appie (pun intended), a digital grocery shopping assistent right in the palm of your hand. The application is developed by IceMobile. Let’s…

Last week I saw Boom Chicago’s ‘Social Media Circus‘ comedy show. With sketches, improvisation, stand-up, video and music the actors provide a hilarious show “deflating the hype, speaking the truth, attacking the fools and celebrating the heroes”. It is the only theatre show where they will ask the audience to let their mobile phones on (on silence…

I was really excited for my first interview. For my research on luxury brands and new media it seemed very interesting to me to interview a young designer to find out what his opinion about new media is.

Because I am Dutch I wanted to interview a young Dutch designer and I watched the runway shows of the last…

Attraction: Mobile tools
R. Kelly ft. Nas
“Did You Ever Think” (1998)

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The access point of your curiosity is the body, an exciting, new gadget. J. Macgregor Wise describes one perspective of human-technology relations as a received view in which mutually external parties can act upon one another, indulging an…

For many people Facebook has become a integral part of their daily routine, helping them keep in touch with friends, relatives, friends of friends and sometimes people they have never really met in real life, but who they know about only from others (let’s admit it, we all have a few people who, no matter how hard we try, we…

With a rich history in education and ICT as a teacher, involvement in a governmental educational ICT project ‘Teleleren’, the establishing of an ICT institute for business education, being manager at an educative publisher and a management trainer, Jeroen Krouwels is currently co-owner, executive Business Development and senior advisor at PAT Learning Solutions, based in Tilburg. It…