Lazy boys (and girls)
Seth Porges has written an interesting article hypothesizing that the greatest threat to Web 2.0 is (drum roll please) human laziness. After the novelty wears off, most people find it just not worthwhile to keep their Web content updated. We’d bet that someone will eventually respond to this, perhaps by taking advantage of multifunctional devices, to create easier ways to add content on the fly, and that these new ease-of-use strategies will be particularly useful for individuals with disabilities.
CrunchGear: The Futurist: Will human laziness burst the Web 2.0 bubble?
Armani phone has look, feel
The fine tactile qualities of Armani products, now available in a phone! This Samsung mobile vibrates when you hover over an icon on its touchscreen; haptic feedback suits blind users. Are we seeing the end of the inaccessible touchscreen, or just another unredeemed promise?
Bored game
Bugstepper is a game that collects both objective (e.g., visual tracking) and subjective information about how much fun the player is having, with the aim of eventually creating games whose pace can be stepped up to alleviate boredom–or, we hope, slowed down to accommodate cognitive or dexterity needs.
Gizmodo: Bugstepper for Kids Heralds Computer Games that Gauge Boredom
Kannuu dig it?
Kannuu is a new input strategy for text entry; press a letter and you are presented with up to four text strings for completing the desired word, or at least saving several keystrokes for people with dexterity disabilities and providing spelling assistance for people with various cognitive disabilities. Similar word prediction capabilities have been available as part of assistive technologies for some time. It’s good to see it as a mainstream option, even if, as the article points out, it’s not as useful for proper names and other unusual words.
Feline, canine, phone line
Put your cell phone in this plush kitty or puppy and watch its tail wag when a call comes in. If you find this gadget as nauseating as we do, remember that a visual alert may be useful to users with hearing loss. We’d rather have the dog — cats only swish their tails when they’re angry.
You can’t hear me now
First there was a study linking repetitive stress injury to over-texting, and now it turns out that using your cell phone more than 60 minutes per day, especially without a headset, can damage the ability to hear high frequency sounds–like consonants. In response, we’re now back to using to semaphores, Aldis lamps, and smoke signals.
Daily India.com: Long term mobile use may damage high frequency hearing ability
Light refreshment
Winter, at least where we live, means always having to say “The power just went out.” Enter the Power Failure Light, which sits innocently charging on your lamp most of the time. During an outage, it kicks in and gives you a bright light for up to 8 hours. Useful to most of us; invaluable to seniors and people with low vision.
Gizmodo: Power Failure Light keeps things bright during a power outage