Living in the 4th Screen

Exploring the use of mobile technology in education and life

Handheld Mobile Computing at the Museum


The NY Times is reporting that the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is handing out iPod Touches loaded with pictures, interviews, and video to its visitors.

Below are some quotes from the article:

Like almost every major art museum in the country, according to communications officers here and in other cities, the San Francisco institution is using mobile multimedia devices — iPods, iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smartphones — to tell the stories of its exhibits in new ways.

“Essentially, we’ve liberated the audio tour,” said Peter Samis, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s associate curator of interpretation. “We’ve developed five hours of content, made it extremely portable and easy to use, and devoted it to rediscovering aspects of our collection and its history. This is not about techno-fetishism. It’s about focusing on artworks in meaningful sound and video.”

When I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, back in December, I saw they gave out handheld devices to use throughout the museum. At the time I remember thinking why don't they just make that information available for my iPhone so I could use that instead. You had to pay to use the handheld devices at the Met. If they made the information available for free for my iPhone it would have been cutting into their profits I assume.

What is your congressman or senator doing? Keep tabs on them via your mobile phone.

Visible Vote is a relatively new service that allows you to interact with your legislators via your mobile phone. You can keep tabs on how they vote on particular bills. The service is free and is available on the Blackberry, Android, and iPhone platforms. It also works on windows and Mac PCs.

From the Visible Vote web page:

Why should your voice be heard only on Election Day? Why not let your position be heard by your representatives each and every time there is a measure to be voted on?

Visible Vote allows you to do just that. It is the first and only application to allow you to cast your virtual vote and then notify your representatives of your position weekly. Visible Vote also monitors how often your Congressmen vote in alignment with you and the people they represent.

Visible Vote is non-partisan and unbiased service that brings greater transparency and accountability to our representative form of government. Discover the most technologically powerful way to advise, communicate and track your legislators today.

If this service works as described it could be a good use of mobile technology. It will be interesting to see what role mobile phones will play in the next major election. More and more politicians are using the Internet and social networking to assist with their campaigns. 

Mercedes-Benz mbraces the iPhone and the Blackberry

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Mercedes-Benz is mbacing the iPhone for it's entire fleet. The new service will be available for all new Mercedes models. The mbrace service integrates the car with a remote control system via your iPhone or Blackberry. There is a special iPhone app that you can get for free by clicking here.

The service allows you to lock/unlock your car from a distance, find it on a map, or contact the closest Mercedes dealer. 


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The system even has "Automatic Collision Notification" which is described as:

In the event your airbags deploy or your seatbelt Emergency Tensioning Devices are activated, Automatic Collision Notification will immediately relay your location to the Mercedes-Benz Emergency Response Center and attempt to establish voice communication between you and an mbrace Customer Specialist. If you request assistance or are unable to respond, the Customer Specialist will notify the appropriate emergency service provider and stay on the line until help arrives.

The mbrace service also features an SOS button that connects you to a mbrace Customer Specialist that has been trained to respond to emergency situations. Other features include stolen vehicle location assistance, automatic alarm notification, roadside assistance connection, and crisis alert.