mobile finger-pointing
now i’m in korea.
it started to get really cold here yesterday with some areas reaching -20C. pusan, where my family live and where i am now, is generally one of the warmest cities, so it’s about 3C at the moment. it feels like winter. it feels like korean winter. love it.
i’ve been pretty much offline since i got here. i did bring my laptop but after much trying and screaming, i’ve given up on the whole idea of “let’s get a mac connected to the net” here. korea is pc-chauvinistic to its core; it’s not funny.
so i had to come to a pc bang (pc room) close to my parents’ place. i’ve noticed that many pc bangs have closed down not only in this area but in general, and the existing ones don’t seem to be as popular as before. i wonder what’s happening with the infamous korean pc bang culture. perhaps someone (me?) could write something about this for the special issue of journal of interactive media on gaming in the asia pacific.
anyway, before i go, i’m going to talk briefly about the new “finger-mouse phone” from samsung (SCH-V960/SPH-V9600).
as you can see, there’s a little sensor in the middle of the main navigation panel. This sensor detects the user’s finger movement, and therefore functions as the touchpad/mouse for the phone. smart idea. i’m sure most people agree that so far the mobile interface design in general has been not so user-friendly thanks to the greatly limited navigation capability which forced the user to come back to the main menu (top-level navigation options) to move to a different section and/or use a different function. the mobile touchpad will surely make the mobile phone a lot more userfriendly and fun to play with. another neat function that these phone offer is automatic screen and keypad brightness control, which detects the surrounding environment (how bright/dark it is) and adjusts the brightness of the screen and the keypad. smart stuff.
the next big thing in the mobile world, apparently - according to newspapers - will be the video phone. of course, video phones have been around for a long time, and it’s not a very new concept even in countries like australia ;) but here, i believe, we’re talking about the “end of the voice-talk era.” it will be more than just “exciting” to see and study the transformation of how the mobile phone is socially conceptualised. sure, it has definitely been very exciting so far, but the primordial change from “talking” to “talking and seeing” will be a huge one - probably one of the biggest changes ever in the history of the mobile phone.
anyway, i should go now. hope everyone’s having a fantastic beginning of 2007.
i’m having a pretty stimulating time - technologically and culturally - over here in korea :)
January 4th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
So, it’s goodbye emoticons, hello the unlimited repetoire of human emotions.
Jaz! Brisbane is so cool right now (temperature wise) that I’m not even jealous to learn of your 3C experience ;)
xo
January 8th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
i was waiting for a set of emoticons that could become “the language” for every human being (and some animals like some of those smart pigs and monkeys who can read)… but then it’ll be endless again, not fulfilling its initial promise, i suppose :(
cool summer briz?
unbelievable.
January 8th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Hey Jaz -
Michael and I went to a conference at UQ a while ago - and someone presented a very interesting paper that basically pointed out that internet cafes are what the world’s relatively poor use. As the cost of home PCs drops and as people get wealthier, they start getting home connections.
Which, correct me if I’m wrong, sounds very much like what’s happening in Korea. I bet the folk you see there are either tourists or younger people or less affluent people.
;-)
January 9th, 2007 at 4:48 am
hi jaz, good point about the changing mobile environment. i like the idea of the shift from ‘talking’ to ‘talking and seeing’.
as for pc bangs, maybe busan is a bit different than seoul - pc bangs seem to be doing alright here - there is still a huge gaming and pc bang culture, and i think the ‘ambience’ of it is a big draw. it’s also another inexpensive ‘3rd place’ for young people to go (see florence chee’s work on this) and so a lot of couples, small groups of friends, etc. go there. and in the more trendy/busy parts of seoul, like myeongdong, sinchon, and daehangro, the pc bang seems like an ‘in-between’ place where people waiting for their next social engagement/meetup pause to checkin with their cyworld, play a little kartrider, or kill some monstres.
but i am by no means a regular - i have only been there when the korean internet decides it hates my mac and screws my internet access up. ;)
bottom line, i guess, is just to emphasize that it’s as much about social behavior and habits as it is about income levels and degree of (home or otherwise) access.
of course, there is the whole issue of why koreans don’t access the internet from their handphones, etc. and how the emerging 3.5G/hspda networks will/could change that… but i won’t go there for now. :)
jaz, if ever you’re in seoul - be sure to ping me!
January 11th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Hey Lucy :D what conference was that? i seem to miss out on UQ stuff for some reason… I should stay more attentive to what’s happening there. The Korean PC Bang culture has been pretty unique. I’m not quite sure how things are in China in this realm, but it’s one of the most popular hang-out places for young ones (students - from kids to uni students), unemployeds, and many others. Many come as a group just to hang out and play online games together (kind of like lan-parties but not as structured, I suppose… it’s sort of like you hang out with your friends and someone suggests “hey, wanna go to a PC bang?” or you meet people there or something..) Very social, which appears reasonable considering the lack of places for youth to play (hang - as Hanna has pointed out in reference to Florance Chee) and time (school -> hakwons (cram schools) -> study room -> then you come home at midnight or something like that). So you go to PC bangs, where you can physically and virtually hang with your frinds, play games, eat.
I’ve also seen a documentary recently about PC rooms in Japan. Some of them function as a little “sleeping cubes” - each room has a broadband connected pc, a bed-convertable-chair, and also a TV; i suppose this one’s way more fun than those “capsule hotels” where you can only sleep in a capsule (unless you’re really into capsules of different sorts ;) ).
January 11th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Hi Hanna! Will definitely call you when I get to Seoul. My sister’s wedding’s on this weekend, and there are so many things going on down here, so I find it impossible to go up to Seoul at the moment :( For example, I’ve been helping my mum cook all morning for Jesa. I smell like oil - like a giant oil monster! I’ll probably go up late Jan/early Feb. Hope you’ll have some time to see me then!
I think PC Bangs are doing ok down here as well. I just feel that the rate at which they were growing before appears to have decreased somewhat. It’s the winter holidays as well, so I expected them to be a bit more crowded and lively. And some of them have closed down, so I’m trying to see what’s going on. I’ve explored almost all of them around my neighbourhood, and also checked out a few in businer shopping suburbs, but haven’t spoken to the people working there or anything. I intend to soon - everything will just have to wait until after my sister’s wedding :)
My previous study on Cyworld showed that the main reason why people didn’t want to go online via their mobile phones was the cost - especially when there are so many cheap and/or free broadband connections available everywhere… it would be crazy to use their mobiles and pay…! Finally Koreans will have an option to have a “communication bundles” which combines telephone, mobile, internet, IPTV etc soon. And mobile data services are about to be cheaper (by 30%), so I assume the mobile-net take up will start its interesting momentum particualarly with DMB and WiBro etc :)
January 17th, 2007 at 1:55 am
hi jaz,
ah, crazy weddings! hope it went smoothly…
another reason for mobile internet (non)usage is also the fact that korean telcos and mobile providers are totally invested in hsdpa, so mobile internet (wap) would quash that. so, hsdpa is what gets offered at the more affordable rate, thereby killing any consumer interest in shelling out for mobile internet. oh those self-interested telcos…
February 6th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
that’s right. good point. i’m really keen to play with the now readily and cheaply available WiBro connections. No doubt it will open up spaces for the already saturated broadband market in korea! :D
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:13 pm
[…] using my australian mobile phone’s proving to be exorbitant, and i’m going to be here for a while, so i’ve decided to get a korean mobile phone… yes! very excited. currently it’s very cheap to get a phone if one’s prepared to subscribe to KTF or LGT. SKT, once the most popular, has been losing popularity for a while, especially since the launch of KTF’s new 3G+ service, Show (but largely because the concurrent ‘free phone offers’ for those who’s bringing their numbers over to KTF; LGT offer the same kind of deals, but people don’t seem to have much respect for this company that started with PCS phone services). i’ve previously talked - briefly - about how video call was painted to be the next big thing in Korea, and yes, Show’s mainly about that. however, as i’ve found out by talking to my friends here, it’s still considered to be ‘too expensive’ and thus ‘not worth it’ - as a video phone user (of a few years), i’m not surprised. i never really liked and rarely used the feature. let us be private multitaskers as we are and desire to be, perhaps ;) […]
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