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Every day we are inundated by propaganda that claims life will be better once we are connected to digital technology. Poverty, famine, and injustice will end, and the economy will be 'green'. All anyone needs is the latest smartphone. In this succinct and lively book, Maxwell and Miller take a critical look at contemporary gadgets and the systems that connect them, shedding light on environmental risks. Contrary to widespread claims, consumer electronics and other digital technologies are made in ways that cause some of the worst environmental disasters of our time - conflict-minerals extraction, fatal and life-threatening occupational hazards, toxic pollution of ecosystems, rising energy consumption linked to increased carbon emissions, and e-waste.

Background: Mobile phones are an essential component of modern life and used by almost everyone. They are increasingly being used in the hospital setting by health care workers and come in contact with various surfaces around the hospital. Thus, they are likely to get contaminated by a variety of organisms. Aim: To investigate the colonisation of microorganisms on students' mobile phones at the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science, Fiji National University. Methods: A sample of 50 swabs were collected from randomly selected individuals' mobiles and cultured on blood agar, MacConkey agar and Sabarauds dextrose agar. Isolation of the organisms was processed according to laboratory standard protocol and each organism was identified. Results: All 50 of the students' mobile phones showed evidence of bacterial colonisation. The most common bacteria isolated was Bacillus species (82%), followed by Acinetobacter lowffii (26%), coagulase-negative staphylococcus (16%), inactive Escherichia coli (12%), Enterobacter agglomerans (10%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii (8% each), Staphylococcus aureus (6%), Klebsiella pneumonia, Klebsiella oxytoca (2%) and Micrococcus species (2%). Conclusions: This study revealed that mobile phones are contaminated by microorganisms and may be a vector in spreading nosocomial or community-acquired infections in a hospital setting. In order to combat this issue, proper handwashing, decontamination and infection control procedures should be practised adequately.

There's a whole lot of moving and shaking going on at BCE Inc. The communications firm announced increased investment in one business and the sale of another. BCE in September said it would purchase the 29 per cent stake Terra Lycos holds in Sympatico Lycos Inc., BCE's Internet arm. BCE, which as a result of the deal now owns 100 per cent of Sympatico Lycos, called the move a \"step towards consolidating our media properties.\" BCE also announced that it would sell its Bell Canada directories business - including the White Pages and Yellow Pages directories - to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and the Teachers' Merchant Bank for $3 billion.

Some simple cellphone principles of etiquette are: 1. Let your voicemail take your calls when you are in meetings, courtrooms, restaurants, or other busy areas. 2. Speak in a conversational tone and don't display anger during a public call. 3. Use discretion when discussing private matters or certain business topics in front of others.

In the opening scenes of In Good Company, released in late 2004, we see a young wireless marketing exec played by Topher Grace pitching his board of directors on the next evolution in mobile technology - a dinosaur-shaped phone for kids. The bit is designed to comically send up the notion that there would even be a market for such a device. But for those in the kids entertainment business, especially in North America, it's no joke. As handset and network capabilities continue to improve and proliferate, it seems like licensors with kid-friendly properties are inking new wireless application deals every week. The category is so hot right now that it was really just a matter of time before someone started looking at the phones themselves. Enter Mattel's My Scene phone and the Firefly from Chicago, Illinois-based Firefly Mobile, both of which are launching in the U.S. this summer. The Firefly phone line doesn't currently offer any licensed models, but licensors with tween properties should still take a look because it approaches the market in a unique and compelling way. Fred Bullock, the company's chief marketing officer, thinks the phone has struck a perfect balance between kids' needs and parental desires. Polling 1,000 parents in 2004, Firefly learned that parents' top two concerns about buying phones for their kids are that they won't be able to control usage spending, and that the excessive functionality of adult phones gives kids too much freedom at too young an age. One of the few phones on the market for four- to eight-year-olds - the MyMo, manufactured by Chemnitz, Germany's IT Plus Plus - had to contend with a strong consumer backlash in the U.K. market earlier this year. After a study released by the country's National Radiological Protection Board recommended that phones not be given to children under eight because of fears about the possible effects of prolonged cell phone use on children's health, distributor Commun8 pulled the phones from shelves to avoid further controversy. But the MyMo is still available in other parts of Europe, and to date, no study has presented any conclusive evidence that cell phones are unsafe.

The report stated that only 12 per cent of mobile phone users in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. intend to use Internet-enabled phones to purchase goods. That's a significant decline from 2000's figures in which an estimated 32 per cent of users said they'd use their phones for such purposes.

Modern technologies not only provide a variety of communication modes (e.g., texting, cell phone conversation, and online instant messaging), but also detailed electronic traces of these communications between individuals. These electronic traces indicate that the interactions occur in temporal bursts. Here, we study intercall duration of communications of the 100,000 most active cell phone users of a Chinese mobile phone operator. We confirm that the intercall durations follow a power-law distribution with an exponential cutoff at the population level but find differences when focusing on individual users. We apply statistical tests at the individual level and find that the intercall durations follow a power-law distribution for only 3,460 individuals (3.46%). The intercall durations for the majority (73.34%) follow a Weibull distribution. We quantify individual users using three measures: out-degree, percentage of outgoing calls, and communication diversity. We find that the cell phone users with a power-law duration distribution fall into three anomalous clusters: robot-based callers, telecom fraud, and telephone sales. This information is of interest to both academics and practitioners, mobile telecom operators in particular. In contrast, the individual users with a Weibull duration distribution form the fourth cluster of ordinary cell phone users. We also discover more information about the calling patterns of these four clusters (e.g., the probability that a user will call the c ᵣ-th most contact and the probability distribution of burst sizes). Our findings may enable a more detailed analysis of the huge body of data contained in the logs of massive users.

BackgroundPedestrians are commonly involved in vehicle collisions that result in injuries and fatalities. Pedestrian distraction has become an emerging safety issue as more pedestrians use their mobile phones while walking and crossing the street.ObjectivesThe purpose of this research synthesis and meta-analysis is to determine the extent to which cell phone conversation, text messaging or browsing, and listening to music affect a number of common pedestrian behavioural measures.MethodsA keyword search was developed with a subject librarian that used MeSH terms from selected databases including PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, Medline and TRID. Supplemental searches were also conducted with Google Scholar and Mendeley.Effect size codingThirty-three studies met inclusion criteria and were subjected to data extraction. Statistical information (ie, M, SD, SE, 95% CI, OR, F, t) was extracted to generate standardised mean difference effect sizes (ie, Cohen’s d) and r effect sizes.ResultsFourteen experimental studies were ultimately included in an N-weighted meta-analysis (k=81 effect sizes), and eight observational studies were included in a qualitative overview. Both mobile phone conversation and text messaging increased rates of hits and close calls. Texting decreased rates of looking left and right prior to and/or during street crossing. As might be expected, text messaging was generally found to have the most detrimental effect on multiple behavioural measures.LimitationsA variety of study quality issues limit the interpretation and generalisation of the results, which are described, as are future study measurement and methods improvements.

As digital health services advance, digital health equity has become a significant concern. However, people with disability and older adults still face health management limitations, particularly in the COVID-19 pandemic. An essential area of investigation is proposing a patient-centered design strategy that uses patient-generated health data (PGHD) to facilitate optimal communication with caregivers and health care service providers. This study aims to conceptualize, develop, and validate a digitally integrated health care service platform for people with disability, caregivers, and health care professionals, using Internet of Things devices and PGHD to contribute to improving digital health equity. The methodology consists of 5 stages. First, a collaborative review of the previous app, Daily Healthcare 1.0, was conducted with individuals with disabilities, caregivers, and health care professionals. Secondly, user needs were identified via personas, scenarios, and user interface sketches to shape a user-centered service design. The third stage created an enhanced app that integrated these specifications. In the fourth stage, heuristic evaluations by clinical and app experts paved the way for Daily Healthcare 2.0, now featuring Internet of Things device integration. Conclusively, in the fifth stage, an extensive 2-month usability evaluation was executed with user groups comprising individuals with disabilities using the app and their caregivers. Among the participants, \"disability welfare information and related institutional linkage\" was the highest priority. Three of the 14 user interface sketches the participants created were related to \"providing educational content.\" The 11 heuristic evaluation experts identified \"focusing on a single task\" as a crucial issue and advocated redesigning the home menu to simplify it and integrate detailed menus. Subsequently, the app Daily Healthcare 2.0 was developed, incorporating wearable devices for collecting PGHD and connecting individuals with disabilities, caregivers, and health care professionals. After the 2-month usability evaluation with 27 participants, all participants showed an increase in eHealth literacy, particularly those who used the caregiver app. Relatively older users demonstrated improved scores in health IT usability and smartphone self-efficacy. All users' satisfaction and willingness to recommend increased, although their willingness to pay decreased. In this study, we underscore the significance of incorporating the distinct needs of individuals with disabilities, caregivers, and health care professionals from the design phase of a digital health care service, highlighting its potential to advance digital health equity. Our findings also elucidate the potential benefits of fostering partnerships between health consumers and providers, thereby attenuating the vulnerability of marginalized groups, even amid crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Emphasizing this imperative, we advocate for sustained endeavors to bolster the digital literacy of individuals with disabilities and champion collaborative cocreation, aiming to uphold the collective ethos of health and digital health equity.