I'll catch you with my "cam" phone

Recently, I have been observing the use of mobile phones by several children from 4 to 8 years old. They used different kind of phones, such as Nokia N70, Nokia 5140i, Nokia 6630 and Nokia 6680.

All of those children were very fascinated with camera functions of mobile phones. In the beginning, they thought that it was cool to take a picture with a mobile phone. It seemed for them that interacting with a camera phone was easier and safer than a digital camera. Their parents often warned them when they touched and played with digital cameras. Yet, nobody reprimanded them when playing with mobile phones. They could also use one hand to play with them as well as move easily while trying to catch pictures of their friends. Most of them have already got some interaction with phones, either to make a call, send SMS or just playing with them. None of them have used a mobile phone with a camera.

When they were about to take a picture, they faced difficulties because they did not know what to do/press. Some of those children did not yet read or read fluently. The user interface and interaction on the mobile phones were more complicated than a normal digital camera. Compared to one button to press in taking a picture with the digital camera, there are more steps to do with mobile phones. Those steps include defining buttons to press, scrolling down choosing the right function, defining whether they want to take “image” (photo) or video clip, pressing a button to take the image or video. What the children usually did was coming to me and asking what to press and choose, then they tried to remember the steps by hearts executed the actions and repeated the steps .

I also observed how a very young child used SMS to learn alphabets and numbers by pressing the buttons of the mobile phones. The child could also learn some metaphors from user interface of the mobile phones and their applications. During the process of writing an SMS, the child was suddently confused when they could not erase some words because there was no “C” button on Nokia 5140i, because the child had memorised that by using other phones that a mistake in writing SMS could be erased by pressing the C button.

I learn that it is important to design a consistent user interface and interaction of mobile devices and applications for children. A mobile phone usually has limited numbers and possibilities for physical interactions, yet a physical button could conveys multiple functions instead of one-to-one correlation. Young children may not be able to read, but they interact by memorising a set of procedures. Consistent graphical user interface, metaphor, physical and visual interaction are important in reducing cognitive burden of those children and developing more enjoyable experience when using mobile devices. These aspects are also worth to consider when designing a mobile learning system for this group of users.

Mobile TV: a new future trend

Mobile TV is good news for those who want flexibility of time and place in watching television

Television is undoubtedly a basic need for some people. People can spend hours sitting and staring in front of the television, watching their favourite television programmes: news, football matches, soap operas, you name it. Loyal television audience, the euphemism of television junkies, may well spend more than 8 hours a day watching television. They will raise their eyebrows if you tell them that you do not watch television or do not own one.

For better or worse, there is good news for them: Mobile TV.

Mobile television or Mobile TV is a new way of watching television. You can watch broadcast programmes for information, entertainment and education on your mobile phones by simply subscribing to TV channel packages with your mobile phones.

Responding to the promising market of Mobile TV, several mobile device manufacturers have started to introduce their Mobile TV devices.

Nokia introduced N92 in November 2005 as the first integrated Digital Video Broadcasting for Handheld (DVB-H) mobile device in the Nokia Nseries. Using the mobile device, you can set reminders for your favourite TV programmes and create personal TV channel lists. In addition, the cellular connectivity can also enable you to interact with added-value services, such as voting, blogging, interactive feedback and web services.

Following N92, Nokia later launched N93 as the ultimate mobile device for spontaneous video recording. This device is designed to work with WLAN, 3G (WCDMA 2100 Mhz), EDGE and GSM (900/1800/1900 Mhz) networks to provide broadband Internet access for browsing, uploading content, sending and receiving emails in addition to the Mobile TV over 3G networks.

LG Electronics, one of the early leading global players in Mobile TV from South Korea, which previously worked with Digital Media Broadcasting (DMB) format for the Korean markets, has expanded their market by supporting the DVB-H format as well, through LG-V900 and LG-U900 since early 2006. LG-U900 has a long-life battery that enables people to watch television for more than three hours. In addition, the device also enables high-speed data transmission, various channel services, a high-resolution image and strong mobile broadcasting.

Another important global player from South Korea, Samsung, has shown its authority in Mobile TV by providing diverse handsets that can support any formats, such as Terrestrial DMB (T-DMB) and Satellite DMB (S-DMB) (Asia-Pacific), DVB-H (Europe), and MediaFLO (United States). P900 and P910, which particularly aims to target European market, have successfully been tested during the FIFA World Cup 2006. Only recently, Samsung launches SGH-P930 for the Italian market following the success of the SGH-P920 launch last May. The SGH-P930 combines not only the latest Mobile TV technology, but also HSDPA technology, which enables high-speed data transmission.