what do you mean "you don't have a phone?!"

When I was in Austria I managed to lose my hard-drive in transit along with my mobile phone charger who was in bed with him. Then my spare phone charger didn't make it to NYC. I figured this was a message for me to have some time out and face another challenge. Being phone-less.

Its not often I lose 'stuff' but it does happen to travellers occasionally and I found treating the missing items as the Buddhist monks do their mandalas which they spend so much dedicated time and discipline towards creating before destroying and burning in prayer as beautiful way of letting go of the fact that the edited images, videos, books, music, poetry and films collated from a huge part of my travels have gone. I hope I have as much fun starting again :)

I have however found a lack of mobile connection to be a blessing in disguise and a rather interesting social experiment. I have been based in a very progressive city, New York City and whilst reconnecting with old friends here and making new ones I realise not having a phone has presented a number of challenges yet equally massive perks. And of course, like many periods of time I've had abstaining from anything, I find myself a little subjected to social ridicule and "no waaaays". Nothing new for me I suppose.

Here is how, quite simply, I tackle not having a mobile phone in a major city where so many are addicted to their devices.

• Noting down directions, drawing mini maps, using a diary, wearing a watch, a compass would be cool too (no joke!)
• Pocket subway map
• More time reading books and writing 
• Emails/skype instead of texting/calling

After watching the video above, I must admit that I am happy to have surrendered having a mobile for the last month in the USA.  I'm sure I've done my mind some favours and given myself a greater opportunity to connect with the present while probably spending more time working out which way I need to go.

Plus, I do wonder what the impact of mobile phone signals can have on our electromagnetic field and sense of balance... inner granny moment.

Augmented Flashmob in Amsterdam

Amsterdam residents got together at Dam Square yesterday for the first ever augmented reality flashmob. Darth Vader, The Beatles, Superman and various other awesome characters were in attendance.

Love the concept but its just so bizarre to see it in practice. There's no real interaction between the attendees as they're all engrossed with the interfaces of their mobiles.

This dude summed it up nicely ;)

Wireless communications

Its insane how rapid mobile is evolving. Mobile phones have fast become a phenomenon. They're no longer a medium for making voice calls but a platform to communicate in a ubiquitous world.

They're a tool that keeps you constantly in the present. They wake you up in the morning, facilitate gaming, stream movies, music, connect you to your proverbial social sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. Furthermore, mobile commerce is evolving from early innovation to mainstream adoption.

Current mobile trends:

- Mobile will soon be able to stream movie content (via iPhone)

- iPhone and Android are becoming a platform of choice for developers

- iPad follows closely behind (iPad is mostly attractive to iPhone users)

- 73% of Android users are guys

- 78% of iPod touch users are younger than 25

- iPod touch users love apps and download an average of 12 a month, spending 100 minutes a day using them (37% more apps than iPhone and Android users)

- When it comes to solely paid apps, iPhone users lead the pack (half of them buy at least one app a month)

MOCOM2020 is an open think tank about mobile media worldwide. Their goal is "to develop a visualized vision of the future of mobile media in the year 2020". They also track the latest buzz on mobile communications.

AdMob serve ads for more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications around the world (and stores and analyses the data from every ad request, impression, and click) and offer a snapshot of its data to provide insight into trends in the mobile ecosystem.

Recently they ran a survey to AdMob publishers to understand how they are thinking about cross-platform development. The key takeaway from the survey is that 47% of publishers said they plan on developing on more than one platform in the next 6 months. Among those who plan on developing for another platform, Android was the top choice (caveat Blackberry is not included in the survey).

'In the same vein' they published results of a survey from Appcelerator which measured mobile developer interest on different platforms and found a similar strong interest in Android:

I predict in terms of the breadth of offering and functionality, mobile phone users are going to see their pocket device become increasingly dynamic and depended on in the years to come.

The challenge for brands is how they will facilitate this, using relevant content to work within a world where the primacy of once-virtual communication is transforming as, increasingly, the virtual and the real combine.