Prototype of a Person

Cyberpsychology Digest Volume 4

Journal of CyberPsychology & Behavior, Vol 11, No.4: The current issue of this bimonthly journal offers access to research studies on topics such as public and private self-consciousness on social networking sites, online consumer trust, adolescent behaviour online, interactive movies, product placement in gaming, and cyberbullying.

Psychological Aspects of Cyberspace: Theory, Research, Applications: This blog contains each individual chapter from the newly published book of the same name. Readers are invited to read each chapter and comment or ask questions of the individual writers. Topics covered include privacy and trust online, internet abuse, flow states, cybertheraputic theory and techniques and sexual activities online. It’s wonderful to see an entire book on the topic of Cyberpsychology readily available online and open to discussion. Very much looking forward to reading all of these chapters.

For your eyes only: Custom interfaces make computer clicking faster, easier: University of Washington engineers discuss a new approach to software design. They propose that instead of standard off the shelf user interface designs, that by putting the user through a brief skills test a mathematically-based version of the user interface could be generated that is optimized for the user’s vision and motor abilities. This research is especially important for the disabled, elderly or anyone that has difficulty using a computer mouse.

The Effects of Background Television on the Toy Play Behavior of Very Young Children: This research study found that background television, disrupts very young children’s play behavior even when they pay little overt attention to it and even when tuned to adult themed shows. Background television was found to cause short play episode lengths, which are a marker for poor developmental outcome. These findings are important because play is directly related to healthy cognitive and social development. Related Article: TV Really Might Cause Autism

Internet users refuse to put up with intrusive ads: From 1000+ internet users sampled 59% indicated that they had stopped visiting a website because of irrelevant, annoying and intrusive online ads (including pop-ups that cover web content, loud noises and ads that were difficult to close, minimise or click away from). This study relates back to my own undergraduate research on pop-up advertisements, where I found that the more experienced a user the more likely they are to actively attempt to remove pop-ups from their online experience. Web designers need to start paying attention to research and surveys such as these, or as demonstrated, users will stop visiting certain websites completely.

If anyone has anything they’d like to contribute to the next digest, or related articles for this volume, feel free to drop me a comment or an e-mail - Sinéad.

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4

Turn your Nokia S60 Handset into a Wireless Hotspot

JoikuSpot is a free piece of software that allows you to share your Nokia Series 60 Internet connection with a wifi enabled device. It basically turns your phone into a wireless router and I think this software has huge potential for use with the iPhone, iTouch, Asus Eee PC and Nintendo DS, especially in Ireland.

For Irish consumers (and Apple Fanboys) hungry for mobile internet through Apple’s mobile version of Safari this could finally makes it a reality. JoikuSpot will, in essence, enable you to make any iPhone or iTouch 3G capable, and a 3G connection as we all know is far superior to Edge, which the iPhone currently supports. Infact, why buy an iPhone at all when an iTouch is cheaper, already available in Ireland and much slimmer in size? Pair your iTouch with a s60 nokia connected to either Vodafone or Three and you’ll have mobile internet at high speed with that wonderful Apple interface, and at a fairly reasonably price.

The only caution to heed is the fact that the wifi connection you create using JoikuSpot is actually an unsecure one, meaning anyone else nearby with an iTouch (or other wifi enabled device) could also connect to the internet. Connecting to 3G and wifi at the same time will also drain your battery down quite quickly, so I wouldn’t expect this to work for more than two hours or so (at least on your handset).

Currently the software is in beta and only supports the higher end N-series and E-series handsets, but I’m sure that will change as newer versions emerge.

Update: Rob wrote about this too - “Joikuspot - Euro iPhone Killer?“

Walled Gardens and TrackID

In my previous post on X-Series I wrote that Three were due to launch this product soon but it appears that the launch date has been pushed forward, for reasons that I’m not privileged enough to know. More than likely they’re testing the systems rigorously, rather than doing-a-Microsoft and launching with bugs intact.

However, much to my surprise they’ve removed their “walled garden” (see post) from Internet browsing on all 3 handsets. I’ve tested it and come to the conclusion that it’s not perfect, but it is very useful. Some sites redirect you to a PDA or Mobi version of their site, which is wonderful for legibility. The sites that don’t are squashed into your small screen, Bebo is difficult to navigate but is usable, to a degree. Some sites wont open at all, MySpace is completely inaccessible. Some sites are handset specific, YouTube will open but viewing the streaming video isn’t possible without Macromedia Flash Player, which doesn’t come as standard on most handsets. Overall I’m impressed with being able to type in practically any web address and being able to access it, and it’s reasonably priced.

There is an age verification system in place, for 3pay (pay-as-you-go) customers. You do have to be able to prove you are over 18 to access these features, which is understandable, as I did (for research purposes only of course) access pornography online with total ease. The only other downside (is age verification a downside?) is the fact that it’s not quite X-Series speeds, but it’s certainly not so slow that it will irritate.

In the post on X-Series I also mentioned my interest in getting a Nokia N73, but something else caught my eye. Infact, one genius feature completely won me over and I got a Sony Ericsson W850i. It comes bundled with TrackID, an incredible and extremely user-centered piece of software that records audio from the microphone (or built-in radio), takes a musical fingerprint and then connects to the Internet comparing the fingerprint to the Gracenote database. The software then tells you the artist name and song title, and seeing as it’s on a Three handset, you also have the option to download the song from the 3MusicStore - if it’s available, the Gracenote database has 2.5 million songs fingerprinted, 3MusicStore is only just approaching the 1million mark.

This software is something so wonderfully usable by myself and many others, Jen tried it in the Cinema and it picked up 90% of the songs she queried. I used it to find and download a song (that my brother was obsessed with) that featured in a Scrubs episode. TrackID has turned me from a hardcore Nokia user to a Sony Ericsson lover. The w850i is fantastic, I thought I’d be lost without symbian, but I’ve easily adapted and come to love the SE interface. As a music lover this is definitely the perfect phone for me.

Holiday Time

I spent 4 days last week training for my new sales position in 3 Ireland and now I’m on one week paid holiday, fantastic, especially considering I only started working for them on the 23rd of October. I’m currently waiting for the store to open on Henry Street, I had considered being placed in the Grafton Street store but I know there will be a greater opportunity to sell in their flagship store when it eventually does open. Unfortunately 3 are rather secretive about anything that goes on internally so I wont be able to post any information about the new store or the company, so for now, I’ll simply have to direct you towards their media centre.

What I can tell you, is that I’m really excited about being involved, once more, in the roll-out of a new breed of retail environment. When I first started working for 3G in their first Eircom Broadband Studio it was a challenging and rewarding experience and of course it was fun to be surrounded by top of the range technology. Just like the O2 Experience Stores, the Broadband Studios are an example of how hands-on demonstrations of new technologies, and by giving customers a venue in which to interact with a new product, increases their likelihood of actually purchasing. This is exactly what the 3Stores will be about - trying before buying. From a personal perspective, I find that I’m much more likely to want to buy a new piece of electronics if I can first try it, feel it’s weight in my hand, and see what it can actually do for me. There’s nothing worse than being confronted with a plastic dummy or a picture in a brochure, even reading a reviewers opinion of a product is nothing in comparison to actually interacting with it.

Speaking of new technology, I’ve been using the new Firefox 2 for the last week and although at first I was a little put off by how similar it looks to the Apple browser Safari, I’ve actually found that two of its new features are very beneficial to me.

Spell Checking - as you type. This is the feature on OpenOffice.org (the free office suite) that converted me from a Microsoft Office user to an OpenOffice Writer. Anything you type within your browser is checked for spelling mistakes as you type them, it completely erases (no pun intended!) the need for any kind of “check spelling” options that most web-based e-mail services offer. It’s certainly made writing this blog post a lot easier, usually I would be writing this in OpenOffice first and then copying and pasting it (because, yes, I admit it, I’m really bad speller).

Search Suggestions - again, as you type. Whatever search engine you prefer, that lovely little search box built into Firefox dynamically updates a drop-down list of suggested search terms. Not only does this speed up your search, it also may suggest searches to you that you hadn’t even thought of. Thus opening you up to even more information or even, narrowing it down for you further, so you can find exactly what it is you’re looking for.

Firefox 2 is wonderful piece of new software that I applaud for it’s user friendly design, it’s almost endless possibilities in the ability to customise and thus improving your own efficiency as a user, and it’s completeness - features that every new version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer lacks. There is a definite need in the software market for development that is geared towards the user experience.

Hopefully the new MsC in Cyberpsychology in IADT will have some focus on user experience research as a way to improve software and hardware development. It’s a course that I shall be considering over the next couple of months as I research my options for next year (or later). On Monday evening, the 6th of November, IADT will be host to a Cyberpsychology seminar entitled “Cyberpsychology: An Emerging Discipline” and will be hosted by my thesis supervisor Dr.Grainne Kirwan. If anyone is interested in attending please contact IADT with your information in advance so you can be formally invited.