Customer Reviews
Insightful book on how society changes with mobile phone - By: , 27 Apr 2005 
I found the book a thought-provoking & thoroughly enjoyable read. It includes plenty of examples & Rheingold's thoughts on how the mobile phone especially will change society. To me it seems to build on thoughtsin Timo Kopomaa's book Cityin Your Pocket, & now more recent books such as Paul Golding's Next Generation Wireless Applications, or Ahonen & Moore's Communities Dominate Brands seem to then take these concepts from the academic & philosphical views into the more practical. I warmly recommend this book & am certain it will be considered one of the classics of the industry.
A fairly balanced global perspective - By: P. Golding, 27 May 2003 
Rheingold is a widely publicised techno-oracle of our age, having made his mark with his earlier works & ideas on virtual reality. If you’re already familiar with the potential of mobile technology, then this book may disappoint a little, especially if one is looking for something very prescient from the mind of Rheingold. In fact, his book is more about observations, full of vignettes from many encounters with both users & creators of mobile phone technology. The emphasis is on the social arrangements that are facilitated by mobile technology & he offers some useful takes on the influence of cultural context, a refreshing change from a US-centric view that one might otherwise expect.
Rheingold revisits the submersion aspects of VR by digging deeper into the progress madein wearable computing & the greater possibilities that wireless connectivity now offers. The segues from current technology & social practises to what is plausibly possiblein the future are quite believable, the reflection & experience of Rheingold appears to restrain how far he is willing to speculate. Augmented reality is discussed. This appears highly conceivable & Rheingold helps us to understand its new powers thanks to location-finding technologies combined with ubiquitous wireless access.
In the current climate of doomsayers for wide-area wireless (e.g. 3G), this book is worth reading as it reclaims some of the lost ground & puts it backin the camp of the believers, those for whom true ubiquity is an article of faith. By emphasising on the social shaping powers of mobile technology, Rheingold is reinforcing the virtuous circle between ubiquity & utility, although, not wishing to over hype the benefits, Rheingold bravely pricks our sanitised view of technology by cautioning us about some of the negative consequences of pervasive (Invasive) technology.
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