On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC device that supports 3G data connections.

This is a simple ‘classic’ or ‘candybar’ design like the earliest NFC models. Nokia has a [...]

Dagens Næringsliv Norway’s daily business newspaper covered two of the Unge Talenter winners last Friday, including Sniff.

Some quotes:

Vinner Design for alle: Kosehunden og spillet Sniff av Sara Johansson

“FOLSOM HUND. -Jeg tenkte litt på å lage en rotte, men da jeg tok kontakt med Tamtbartun kompetansesenter for blinde for feedback i designprosessen, mente de at det [...]

Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly for overcoming spoken or physical barriers to communication between people of different ages and abilities. It also gets praised for its [...]

The EU is conducting a new online consultancy on privacy, data protection and information security principles in RFID applications.

I am happy to see that in Article 5 they begin to address the invisible nature of RFID readers in public space:

“RFID applications can technically operate without any visible or otherwise perceivable action [...]”

They go further [...]

On the last day of 2007 Dagbladet rounded up the 50 things, places and people they tip for 2008 (50 ting, steder og mennesker vi tror på i 2008).

Sara Johansson is tipped at number 19 with her Sniff project also featured in Making Things Talk.

Tom Igoe’s new book Making things talk arrived today, full of lovely projects and code examples. Tom’s previous book Physical computing has been the definitive reference for all hardware hacking that goes on at AHO and in the Touch project. Making things talk is structured into specific projects, and covers technology as part of practical [...]

The Green Touch installation at DOTT07 in Newcastle that we created with Helsinki-based Thinglink was a great success. There are a few photos of the event from Ulla-Maaria Mutanen. The local newspaper Evening Chronicle wrote a story on the exhibition:

Expect a write-up of the experience soon.

In collaboration with Helsinki-based development project Social Objects we have developed an installation called Green Touch. The exhibition encourage visitors to touch the design objects on display with mobile devices, in order to explore different aspects of their making, production and impact.
Green Touch builds upon Thinglink that socially connects and creates information surrounding products, [...]