Thursday, October 06, 2005
FIRE!
I'm a little hesitant to criticize these folks, since it's a fun idea in concept, and Goldberg is one of our own, but one has to ask about this:
Berkeley Innovation has an answer for the disturbance that can arise when a cell phone goes off unexpectedly during a lecture: make ring tones sound like unobtrusive, ambient noise.
With a $1,000 grant and five free cell phones from Nokia, members of the multidisciplinary student group recorded ring tones that mimic sounds like coughing, snapping binder rings and shuffling papers.
"The coughing one seemed to be the best," said alumnus Bryan Kennedy, a former member of the club. "That one didn't attract any attention."
What exactly does this accomplish? If it doesn't attract any attention, it isn't going to do much good as a ringer. How will the user know, when not in class, that her phone is ringing, instead of some dude nearby coughing? One could, I suppose, change the settings for going into class, but if a user is aware enough to do that, she's aware enough to just turn it off.
. . .
|
. . .
|
