Life Without a Mobile Phone?

I depend on my iPhone as much as the next person -- perhaps even more so.

While smartphones are enabling more and more people to access email and YouTube videos on-the-go, shop online while waiting in line and even check an account balance to ensure it's not overdrawn, Ericcson is confident that phones will soon be able to do much more.

Reported in an article on ZDNet this week, Ericsson's vice president of systems architecture, Håkan Djuphammar, recently predicted:

"A year from now, basically every new phone sold will have [near field communication]. It's a two-way, bio-directional RFID communication link that makes this device work as a tag or reader."

What does that mean? In basic terms, phones will become your go-to for even more basic tasks as we look forward into 2010 and beyond.

Keys? Check.

Credit card number? Check

Concert ticket? Check.

According to the article, "Djuphammar said credit card companies could make use of mobile user location data and IP mapping to ascertain whether a transaction is taking place in the vicinity of the official card holder, thereby judging whether the transaction is likely to be genuine or not."

While this may seem like a win-win for all parties involved, I'm still a bit wearisome about the potential havoc a lost phone may wreak on a customer. With such valuable information all stored in one small device, restrictions must be put in place to secure such data in the instance a phone is lost or stolen.

What's life without a mobile phone? Not sure I want to find out, particularly if Djuphammar's prediction becomes reality.

Smokers, Cell Phone Users, Foot Drivers Beware!

Traffic cameras in the UK are now being used to fine drivers who are caught engaging in prohibited or dangerous behavior…you know things like driving with your feet.

Cell Phone Surveillance

Researchers in Switzerland have announced software to take your cell phone in an entirely new direction. In addition to texting, playing music, watching videos, and surfing the Web, you will now also be able to create your own ad-hoc wireless mesh intelligent video surveillance network...all with the same device you use to call your mother. Their software package is called Facet.

When a Facet-enabled phone detects an object entering or leaving its field of view it communicates the information to adjacent phones via Bluetooth. In this way, the message can be passed to the whole network. The system can collectively analyze data. Each phone determines how far it is away from its nearest neighbor, based on how long it takes a person to walk between phones.

I think I’ll wait for the iPhone edition.