Mobile apps

This is a slideshare talk I created for the following publication:

Bellman, S.; Potter, R.F., Treleaven-Hassard, S.; Robinson, J.A.; Varan, D (2011). The Effectiveness of Branded Mobile Phone Apps. Journal of Interactive Marketing 25 191-200.

Mobile devices are playing an increasingly intimate role in everyday life. However, users can be surprised when informed of the data collection and distribution activities of apps they install. We report on two studies of smartphone users in western European countries, in which users were confronted with app behaviors and their reactions assessed. Users felt their personal space had been violated in "creepy" ways. Using Altman's notions of personal space and territoriality, and Nissenbaum's theory of contextual integrity, we account for these emotional reactions and suggest that they point to important underlying issues, even when users continue using apps they find creepy.

Mobile phones and tablets can be considered as the first incarnation of the post-PC era. Their explosive adoption rate has been driven by a number of factors, with the most signifcant influence being applications (apps) and app markets. Individuals and organizations are able to develop and publish apps, and the most popular form of monetization is mobile advertising.
The mobile advertisement (ad) ecosystem has been the target of prior research, but these works typically focused on a small set of apps or are from a user privacy perspective. In this work we make use of a unique, anonymized data set corresponding to one day of traffic for a major European mobile carrier with more than 3 million subscribers. We further take a principled approach to characterize mobile ad traffic along a number of dimensions, such as overall traffic, frequency, as well as possible implications in terms of energy on a mobile device.
Our analysis demonstrates a number of inefficiencies in today’s ad delivery. We discuss the benefits of well-known techniques, such as pre-fetching and caching, to limit the energy and network signalling overhead caused by current systems. A prototype implementation on Android devices demonstrates an improvement of 50% in terms of energy consumption for offline ad-sponsored apps while limiting the amount of ad related traffic.

Background: The prevalence of physical chronic or long-term conditions in adolescents aged 10-24 years is rising. Mobile phone and tablet mobile technologies featuring software program apps are widely used by these adolescents and their healthy peers for social networking or gaming. Apps are also used in health care to support personal condition management and they have considerable potential in this context. There is a growing body of literature on app use in health contexts, thereby making a systematic review of their effectiveness very timely.

The aim of the present study is to improve the understanding regarding the accept‑ ance of tourism apps available for the marketing and tourism destination. For this purpose, the Unifed Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) was adapted to investigate the determinants of users’ behavioral intention for mobile tourism applications according to the quality and user experience of tour‑ ism applications. In order to understand whether the design of and user experience with tourist applications infuence those apps’ use and acceptance, the variable Trust in the Internet operator was added to UTAUT2 as an external variable, as well as App Quality and App User Experience. To investigate the determinants of the users’ behavioral intention, a survey of 552 users was performed, and the data were analyzed using the partial least squares path modeling in Spain and Portugal. The results contribute to a deeper understanding of user needs when they decide whether to download a mobile tourism app and whether to use it at their destination.

The demands of an increasingly knowledge based society and the dramatic advances in mobile phone technology are combining to spur the growth of mobile learning. However, for mobile learning to attain its full potential, it is essential to develop pedagogy and instructional design tailored to the needs of this new learning environment. At present, there is a lack of research on message design for mobile learning. Towards these ends, this paper explores the principles and processes of message design for mobile learning (mLearning), including learning theories, HCI principles, devices, and methodologies. And it presents a number of practical guidelines for designing instructional messages for mobile learning.

The purpose of this research is to understand the main factors that determine users' continuance intention to use social mobile Apps, considering two utilitarian (i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use) variables and a hedonic (i.e., perceived enjoyment) variable. As social mobile Apps may be utilitarian or hedonic, we aim to evaluate possible differences in the significance of the aforementioned antecedent factors in utilitarian Apps (i.e., TripAdvisor) and hedonic Apps (i.e., Instagram). The data were collected from an international sample of users; the Partial Least Squares method was applied to analyze the research model, using SMARTPLS 3.0. To analyze the moderating effects, a multi-group PLS analysis was carried out to compare the differences between the path relationships in the two Apps. The results show that continuance intention to use is explained by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, satisfaction and user experience (control variable), and the impact of utilitarian variables is generally greater for utilitarian Apps, whereas the impact of perceived enjoyment is higher for hedonic Apps. This study contributes to the general body of knowledge about mobile Apps by providing a comprehensive theoretical foundation and practical implications that illuminate the continuance use of social mobile Apps.

There are now few hundred thousand healthcare apps, yet there is a gap in our understanding of the theoretical mechanisms for which, and how, technological features translate into improved healthcare outcomes. In particular, the technological convergence, within mobile health (mHealth) apps, of the processes of mass and interpersonal communication, and human-computer interaction requires greater parsing in the literature. This paper analyzed 85 empirical studies on mHealth apps using the Input-Mechanism-Output model. We found in the literature that, firstly, there is a greater emphasis on technological inputs (87%) of accessibility, usability, usage, and data quality, than health outputs (52%) such as system process efficiencies and individual level behavioral or health outcomes. Secondly, there is little evidence of explanatory mechanisms (19%) of how the effects of mHealth apps are achieved. While we believe that successful apps would require research that incorporates technological inputs, theoretical mechanisms and health outputs, such studies are a rarity (n = 3). There is a minor increase in rigor with randomized control trials (n = 5), and a preponderance of discussion around social influence (n = 8) and gamification (n = 7), albeit in a scattered manner. We discuss the implications of the trend towards socialization and gamification findings in terms of future research, particularly in terms of study design guided by theoretical mechanisms.

The study integrated the Theory of Planned Behavior, the
Technology Acceptance Model, and the Uses and Gratification
Theory to predict young American consumers’ mobile apps
attitudes, intent and use. The model was tested by a web survey of 555 American college students in winter, 2011. SEM results show that young American consumers’ attitudes and intent predict their use of mobile applications. Perceived enjoyment, usefulness, ease of use and subjective norm emerge as significant predictors of their mobile apps attitudes. Perceived behavioral control, usefulness, and mobile Internet use predict their intent to use mobile applications. Their use of mobile applications is determined by perceived usefulness, intent to use, mobile Internet use, income and gender. Implications for academia and industry are discussed.

Purpose – Mobile applications, or apps, are an increasingly important part of omnichannel retailing. While the adoption and usage of apps for marketing purposes has grown exponentially over the past few years, there is little academic research in this area. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the mobile phone platform (Android vs Apple iOS), interest in the app and recency of store visit affect consumers’ likelihood to use the apps for purchasing and information-sharing activities. Design/methodology/approach – The paper tests a model by analysing survey data collected from customers of a major US retailer using partial least squares regression.
Findings – The analysis finds that the level of interest in a retail app is positively related to the consumer’s intention to engage in both purchasing and information-sharing activities. In addition, the recency of the consumer’s last visit to the retail store has a moderating effect on both types of activities; the more recent the last visit, the larger the effect-size of interest in the app on intention to share information and make a purchase.
Practical implications – While marketing and advertising managers may have suspected that Apple iOS users are more receptive to retail mobile apps, this study provides empirical support for the proposition. In addition, the moderating effect of recency of visit suggests that in-store promotions may be effective in increasing usage of the retailer’s mobile apps.
Originality/value – This study is among the first in the academic literature to examine predictors of mobile app usage for purchasing and information sharing. It fills a gap in the literature, while at the same time providing actionable information for practitioners.

Instafame is a pioneering study of the impact of social media and digital culture on graffiti and street art. Using 23 million pieces of publicly available data from Instagram, it paints a picture of the global networks of attention and taste that underpin contemporary graffiti and street art.

With over 50 billion downloads and more than 1.3 million apps in Google’s official market, Android has continued to gain popularity amongst smartphone users worldwide. At the same time there has been a rise in malware targeting the platform, with more recent strains employing highly sophisticated detection avoidance techniques. As traditional signature based methods become less potent in detecting unknown malware, alternatives are needed for timely zero-day discovery. Thus this paper proposes an approach that utilizes ensemble learning for Android malware detection. It combines advantages of static analysis with the efficiency and performance of ensemble machine learning to improve Android malware detection accuracy. The machine learning models are built using a large repository of malware samples and benign apps from a leading antivirus vendor. Experimental results and analysis presented shows that the proposed method which uses a large feature space to leverage the power of ensemble learning is capable of 97.3 % to 99% detection accuracy with very low false positive rates.

This paper considers how certain functions of online hook-up devices are participating in the emergence of new forms of sexual relation, new distributions of intimacy and new sexual arrangements. Though not without precedent, online hook-up devices generally act in gay culture as “framing devices”, framing sex as a “no-strings” encounter via their default application. These frames are variously rejected, reconfigured, re-embedded or confounded by participants; they become subject to various forms of overflowing. Understanding this dynamic – its typical forms of connection and estrangement – is pivotal for grasping the emergence of new forms of sexual community and new sexual publics among gay men – and/or “un-community”, as some have put it.  My analysis prompts a series of methodological reflections wrought from the encounter it stages between queer theory and Science and Technology Studies. At a time when marriage and monogamy are increasingly monopolising the public discourse of gay life, digital devices are affording novel ways of arranging sex, intimacy, and sexual community with their own qualities and limitations.

This paper examines the forms of life established through the visual governance of the Australian social security mobile app (application) – the Express Plus Centrelink app. It is argued that the app exceeds established accounts of juridical and administrative power. The app involves a seeing that is not public, a responding that is not writing and a de-materialisation of an institution and its disciplinary apparatus. It is argued that the app creates proto-literate subjects that are required to respond to a real-time sequence of images in a highly structured and circumscribed manner to become complicit in the digitalisation of their life.

Objectives. Smart device apps for diabetes have the potential to support patients in their daily disease management. However, uncertainty exists regarding their suitability for empowering patients to improve self-management behaviors. This paper addresses a general research gap regarding theoretically based examinations of empowerment in diabetes research, by examining how diabetes app features correspond with conceptual indicators of empowerment. Methods. We examined features of 121 apps for diabetes self-management available in Singapore, with the second highest proportion of diabetes among developed nations, for psychological empowerment (feeling of empowerment) and for behavioral empowerment (social support). Results. Diabetes apps studied offered a narrow range of features, with limited feature-sets corresponding to indicators of empowerment. Customization as a strategy to improve perceived relevance of diabetes self-management as an indicator of psychological empowerment was especially limited. Moreover, there was a lack of features supporting patients' communication with healthcare professionals and within their private social networks. Conclusions. Mobile apps for diabetes self-management failed to provide relevant features for empowering patients. Specific practical recommendations target improved adoption, sustained usage, and effectiveness of diabetes self-management apps. Diabetes care programs increasingly include advanced mobile-based technological devices. These technologies entered the market aiming to supplement traditional diabetes healthcare and to support self-management by patients (1). Consequently, smart applications on mobile devices for diabetes self-management proliferated, increasing exponentially in app stores (2). Diabetes apps are designed to support self-management activities like blood glucose (BG) and complication monitoring, medication adherence, healthy eating, exercise, and problem-solving (1). With the increased availability of apps targeted at consumers, research began examining their potential for diabetes self-management. Current trends in mHealth, "the use of mobile communications for health information and services" (3, p. 1), focus on effects research (4), contrasting overly optimistic study results on diabetes app use effects (5) with a more critical view toward mHealth effectiveness (6;7). A meta-analysis showed that such interventions "that have statistically significant effects are small and of borderline clinical importance" (4, p. 25). The potential of mHealth for diabetes self-management, including diabetes apps, requires further investigation, especially in theoretical terms. We focus on the concept of empowerment as a fundamental predictor of self-management behaviors (8), particularly in relation to diabetes (9;10), to evaluate the potential of diabetes apps for empowered self-management. Specifically, this study examines how technological features of apps for diabetes self-management correspond with theoretical indicators of (RQ1) psychological and (RQ2) behavioral empowerment. The study first defines two sub-concepts of empowerment for diabetes self-management, then addresses extant gaps regarding empowerment in mHealth research, particularly in relation to diabetes apps. To address research gaps, we examined features of 121 diabetes apps corresponding to indicators of empowerment.

Research across the social sciences testifies to an ongoing relationship between queerness and digital technology. This article tracks how different online spaces for queer men have changed as the internet has developed over the past 30 years. It argues that queer spaces have become increasingly dominated by, and predicated on, internet technology. I review early interpretations of cyberspace as a liberatory space freed from heteronormativity and later more critical assessments of its potential, positioning arguments for and against the internet's status as a protective space. I then evaluate the huge popularity of mobile phone‐based dating and hook‐up apps such as Grindr and Tinder. These platforms have developed from static desktop offerings including
Gaydar and PlanetRomeo, but emphasise a distinctly hybridised socio‐technical experience in partner seeking. Finally, I consider the impact of locative media on more traditional queer concepts of cruising and community, concluding that contemporary apps refigure both structures in distinctive ways reflecting larger changes in sexuality and space studies.

Using a field experiment and experience sampling, we found the first evidence that phone use may undermine the enjoyment people derive from real-world social interactions. In Study 1, we recruited over 300 community members and students to share a meal at a restaurant with friends or family. Participants were randomly assigned to keep their phones on the table or to put their phones away during the meal. When phones were present (vs. absent), participants felt more distracted, which reduced how much they enjoyed spending time with their friends/family. We found consistent results using experience sampling in Study 2; during in-person interactions, participants felt more distracted and reported lower enjoyment if they used their phones than if they did not. This research suggests that despite their ability to connect us to others across the globe, phones may undermine the benefits we derive from interacting with those across the table.

Mobile applications, known as apps, are software systems running on handheld devices, such as smartphones and tablet PCs. The market of apps has rapidly expanded in the past few years into a multi-billion dollar business. Being a new phenomenon, it is unclear whether approaches to maintain and comprehend traditional software systems can be ported to the context of apps.

The growing usage of smartphones in everyday life is deeply (and rapidly) changing the nature of traffic traversing home and enterprise networks, and the Internet. Different tools and middleboxes, such as performance enhancement proxies, network monitors and policy enforcement devices, base their functions on the knowledge of the applications generating the traffic. This requirement is tightly coupled to an accurate traffic classification, being exacerbated by the (daily) expanding set of apps and the moving-target nature of mobile traffic. On the top of that, the increasing adoption of encrypted protocols (such as TLS) makes classification even more challenging, defeating established approaches (e.g., Deep Packet Inspection). To this end, in this paper we aim to improve the performance of classification of mobile apps traffic by proposing a multi-classification (viz. fusion) approach, intelligently-combining outputs from state-of-the-art classifiers proposed for mobile and encrypted traffic classification. Under this framework, four classes of different combiners (differing in whether they accept soft or hard classifiers' outputs, the training requirements, and the learning philosophy) are taken into account and compared. The present approach enjoys modularity, as any classifier may be readily plugged-in/out to improve performance further. Finally, based on a dataset of (true) users' activity collected by a mobile solutions provider, our results demonstrate that classification performance can be improved according to all considered metrics, up to +9.5% (recall score) with respect to the best state-of-the-art classifier. The proposed system is also capitalized to validate a novel pre-processing of traffic traces, here developed, and assess performance sensitivity to traffic object (temporal) segmentation, before actual classification.

The purpose of this research is to explore the factors that influence a consumer before installing a mobile application. A research model is created based on perceived risk, trust, perceived benefit, and intent to install. Seven antecedents of trust and risk include perceived security, perceived reputation, application characteristics, familiarity, desensitization, consumer disposition to trust, and consumer disposition to risk. Partial least squares (PLS) is used to test the research model. Only significant antecedents are retained and a new research model is created, which includes the antecedents of perceived security and familiarity. Results show that consumers that perceive more security have greater trust and reduced perceived risk. Furthermore, consumers that feel more familiar with finding, purchasing, downloading, and installing applications have greater trust and reduced perceived risk. More than half (R 2 =.505) of the variability in the intention to install an app is explained.

Despite mobile applications being at the frontier of mobile computation technologies, security issues pose a threat to their adoption and diffusion. Recent studies suggest that security violations could be mitigated through improved security behaviors and attitudes, not just through better technologies. Existing literature on behavioral security suggests that one of the main predictors of users' perceptions of security is their perceived privacy concerns. Using communication privacy management theory (CPM), this study examines the effects of privacy-related perceptions, such as privacy risk and the effectiveness of privacy policies, on the security perceptions of mobile app users. To empirically test the proposed theoretical model, two survey studies were conducted using mobile apps requesting less sensitive information (n = 487) and more sensitive information (n = 559). The findings show that the perceived privacy risk negatively influences the perceived security of the mobile apps; the perceived effectiveness of a privacy policy positively influences user perceptions of mobile app security; and perceived privacy awareness moderates the effect of perceived privacy risk on the perceived security of mobile apps. The results also suggest that users have different privacy-security perceptions based on the information sensitivity of the mobile apps. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Background The impact of social support on diabetes management and health outcomes has been investigated comprehensively, with recent studies examining social support delivered via digital technologies. This paper argues that social support has an impact on the use of diabetes technologies. Specifically, we postulate differences between the impact of healthcare professional versus non-professional (family/friends) support on mobile app use for diabetes self-management.
Methods This research employed a triangulation of methods including exploratory semi-structured face-to-face interviews (N= 21, Study 1) and an online survey (N= 65, Study 2) with adult type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients. Thematic analysis (Study 1) was used to explore the relevance of social support (by professionals versus non-professionals) for diabetes app use. Binary logistic regression (Study 2) was applied to compare healthcare decision-making, healthcare-patient communication, and the support by the personal patient network as predictors of diabetes app use, complemented by other predictors from self-management and technology adoption theory.
Results The interviews (Study 1) demonstrated that (technology-supported) shared decision-making and supportive communication by healthcare professionals depended on the medical specialty of attending physicians. The personal patient network was perceived as either facilitating or hindering the use of mHealth for self-management. Binary logistic regression (Study 2) showed that the specialty of the physician significantly predicted the use of diabetes apps, with supervision by diabetes specialists increasing the likelihood of app use (as opposed to general practitioners). In addition, specialist care positively related to a higher chance of shared decision-making and better physician-patient communication. The support by the personal patient network predicted diabetes app use in the opposite direction, with lower family/friend support increasing the likelihood of app use.
Conclusion The results emphasize the relevance of support by healthcare professionals and by the patient network for diabetes app use and disclose differences from existing literature. In particular, we found that the use of diabetes apps may increase in the absence of social support by family or friends (e.g., compensation for lack of support), and that use of diabetes apps may decrease when support is high (e.g., no perceived need to use technology). Implications for practice are discussed.

Mobile applications (mobile Apps) have changed the ecosystem of the business world. The rapid progression in the market for smart devices and mobile Apps has brought about a revolution with regard to the mobile Apps' economy. The major revenue stream of this economy is the sale of mobile Apps, with such sales being expected to increase dramatically every year. However, in spite of this, a considerable number of mobile Apps fail to capture consumers' attention. Additionally, in developing countries such as Jordan, there is lack of research into understanding and determining the major factors that influence consumers' decisions to purchase mobile Apps. Accordingly, the main objective of this study is to identify the key factors that Jordanian consumers consider in determining whether or not to purchase mobile Apps for their smartphones. To achieve this objective, a mixed-methods approach is adopted. An exploratory study involving a qualitative methods approach (interviews with consumers) is first conducted in order to determine the factors that influence consumers' purchase behavior decisions. Then, a confirmatory study that employs a quantitative approach (a survey questionnaire) is undertaken to test the proposed model, the building of which is based on the findings of the exploratory study. The results indicate that seven factors are recognized as being pre-eminent when it comes to decisions to purchase mobile Apps. These factors include the price value of the App, App performance, App enjoyment, App trialability, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) about the App, App technical reliability and App usefulness. While this study advances our understanding of the main factors that influence mobile Apps purchase, it also reveals useful implications for mobile Apps publishers and developers, in order to promote and increase the sales of Apps.

Pervasive sensing has opened up new opportunities for measuring our feelings and understanding our behavior by monitoring our affective states while mobile.
This review paper surveys pervasive affect sensing by examining and considering three major elements of affective pervasive systems, namely ‘‘sensing,’’ ‘‘analysis,’’ and
‘‘application.’’ Sensing investigates the different sensing modalities that are used in existing real-time affective applications, analysis explores different approaches to emotion recognition and visualization based on different types of collected data, and application investigates different leading areas of affective applications. For each of the three aspects, the paper includes an extensive survey of the literature and finally outlines some of challenges and future research opportunities of affective sensing in the context of pervasive computing.

Purpose-This commentary puts forth a conceptual framework, referred to as the COG (Consumer, Organization, Government) Framework of Unintended Digital Technology Service Failures, that specifies consumer, organizational, and governmental shortcomings that result in digital technologies failing in terms of negatively affecting consumer, communal, national, and/or global welfare. Design/methodology/approach-Conceptualization and literature review. Findings-The framework shows that three drivers explain why commercial digital technologies often fail. The first driver highlights misuse or criminal intent from individuals. The second involves organizations failing to prevent or to address technology failures. The third pertains to failures that stem from governmental institutions. Research limitations/implications-The authors encourage researchers to build on their framework by putting forth research questions. To prevent or lessen opportunities for digital technologies to result in service failures, the authors also offer practitioners a "digital technology service failure audit." This audit shows how digital technology creators and managers can anticipate and address consumer, organizational, and governmental factors that often cause digital service technologies failures. Societal implications-Despite the absence of industry-specific regulations and the existence of some regulatory immunities, digital technology providers have an ethical duty, and may be obligated under applicable tort law principles, to take steps to prevent unintended harm to consumers before launching their service technologies. Originality/value-This work reveals that digital technologies represent new and different threats to vulnerable consumers, who often rely on, but do not fully understand, these technologies in their everyday living. The framework helps consumers, organizations, and government agencies identify and remedy current and potential instances of harmful digital technologies.

Purpose: There is a current need for innovation in research on the fear of crime to move on from general and static representations and instead approach it as a dynamic phenomenon experienced in everyday life, in order to inform or evaluate situational interventions. Methods: This paper presents a novel approach to fear of crime research using the framework of routine activities theory and environmental criminology to present it as a specific event characterized by spatial, temporal, and personal variables. We suggest and illustrate a new experience sampling approach to data collection, captured via a mobile phone application. Results: By studying the fear of crime in the environment where it occurs, and focusing on a micro scale geography with the additional dimension of time, new insight into fear of crime can be attained. Results from a data collection pilot demonstrate significant spatio-temporal variation in individuals' fear of crime levels and hence illustrate the viability of such approaches. Conclusions: We argue that this new insight can lead to the development of situational interventions which target fear of crime hotspots as they move about in place and time, allowing limited resources to be allocated more efficiently to enhance perceptions of safety. 2

The proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers has recently been extended to include a growing ecosystem of increasingly sophisticated chemistry software packages, commonly known as apps. The capabilities that these apps can offer to the practicing chemist are approaching those of conventional desktop-based software, but apps tend to be focused on a relatively small range of tasks. To overcome this, chemistry apps must be able to seamlessly transfer data to other apps, and through the network to other devices, as well as to other platforms, such as desktops and servers, using documented file formats and protocols whenever possible.
This article describes the development and state of the art with regard to chemistry-aware apps that make use of facile data interchange, and some of the scenarios in which these apps can be inserted into a chemical information workflow to increase productivity. A selection of contemporary apps is used to demonstrate their relevance to pharmaceutical research. Mobile apps represent a novel approach for delivery of cheminformatics tools to chemists and other scientists, and indications suggest that mobile devices represent a disruptive technology for drug discovery, as they have been to many other industries.

The objective of this study is to identify the determinants such as usefulness and ease of use as well as the behavioral outcomes of mobile app usage intention among Generation Z consumers. Three mobile app categories, entertainment, communication and networking, are included in the study. The results of the study confirmed that perceived ease of use plays an important role in determining the intention to use the app while perceived privacy, perceived security, perceived design and perceived compatibility are the factors which shape both perceived ease of use and usefulness depending on the mobile app category. Higher usage intention is found to be effective in generating willingness to pay in all mobile app categories. In contrast to the entertainment category, increasing usage intention is also found to lead increasing intention to engage into the WoM activity in communication and networking categories. Based on these findings, some practical implications are provided.

Background: The main German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) have implemented digital contact tracing apps to assist the authorities with COVID-19 containment strategies. Low user rates for these apps can affect contact tracing and, thus, its usefulness in controlling the spread of the novel coronavirus. Objective: This study aimed to assess the early perceptions of people living in the German-speaking countries and compare them with the frames portrayed in the newspapers during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We conducted qualitative interviews with 159 participants of the SolPan project. Of those, 110 participants discussed contact tracing apps and were included in this study. We analyzed articles regarding contact tracing apps from 12 newspapers in the German-speaking countries. Results: Study participants perceived and newspaper coverage in all German-speaking countries framed contact tracing apps as governmental surveillance tools and embedded them in a broader context of technological surveillance. Participants identified trust in authorities, respect of individual privacy, voluntariness, and temporary use of contact tracing apps as prerequisites for democratic compatibility. Newspapers commonly referenced the use of such apps in Asian countries, emphasizing the differences in privacy regulation among these countries. Conclusions: The uptake of digital contact tracing apps in German-speaking countries may be undermined due to privacy risks that are not compensated by potential benefits and are rooted in a deeper skepticism towards digital tools. When authorities plan to implement new digital tools and practices in the future, they should be very transparent and proactive in communicating their objectives and the role of the technology-and how it differs from other, possibly similar, tools. It is also important to publicly address ethical, legal, and social issues related to such technologies prior to their launch.

The paradigm of developing mobile apps has shifted from native apps that store data on mobile devices to mobile cloud computing (MCC) apps that send data to the cloud. Transferring users' data to the cloud provides several benefits, such as larger storage capacity and simultaneous access by multiple devices and users. However, storing data in the cloud also raises privacy concerns as users do not have direct control over their data. This study reports a privacy costbenefit analysis including the moderating effects of dispositional traits (i.e. two personality meta-traits: stability and plasticity) and the behaviour-based trait (i.e. use experience) to understand information disclosure behaviour. The empirical study is based on a scenario-based survey (n = 807) from a diverse sample of MCC apps users. The results support the moderating effects of personality meta-traits; stability and plasticity differentially moderate the effects of perceived privacy risk and perceived value of data transfer to the cloud on information disclosure behaviour. Contradictory to prior research, prior use experience does not moderate the effects of the cost-benefit perceptions. The implications of research and practice are discussed.

Fertility tracking applications are technologies that collect sensitive information about their users i.e. reproductive potential. For many, these apps are an affordable solution when trying to conceive or managing their pregnancy. However, intimate data are not only collected but also shared beyond users knowledge or consent. In this paper, we explore the privacy risks that can originate from the mismanagement, misuse, and misappropriation of intimate data, which are entwined in individual life events and in public health issues such as abortion and (in)fertility. We look at differential vulnerabilities to enquire data’s vulnerability and that of ‘data subjects’. We introduce the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and how it addresses fertility data. We evaluate the privacy of 30 top ‘fertility apps’ through their privacy notices and tracking practices. Lastly, we discuss the regulations and fertility data as critical to the future design of tracking technologies and privacy rights.

Organizations increasingly use gamification to engage with, and influence, con-sumers' attitudes and behaviors. In this article, we present findings from a longitudinal , mixed-method research design that (1) examined the extent to which game design elements created by a third-party app lead to increased attitudinal loyalty toward core service providers and (2) sought to explain the underlying processes that invoke attitudinal change. Behavioral data collected from app users indicated that knowledge-focused affordances positively influenced consumer loyalty and explained 11.3% of the variance in attitudinal change. Follow-up interviews revealed that Rewards, Competition, Sense of Achievement, and Gaining Knowledge were representative of consumers' motives for using the app, and Engagement and Identity explained how using the gamified application influenced users' attitudinal loyalty toward the core service. Overall, we contribute to knowledge about how gamified affordances can be used to add value to consumer experiences, both in relation to the gamified consumption experiences, and the focal brand that is serviced by a third-party app. K E Y W O R D S engagement, gamification, loyalty, mobile application

Mobile Traffic Classification (TC) has become nowadays the enabler for valuable profiling information, other than being the workhorse for service differentiation or blocking. Nonetheless, a main hindrance in the design of accurate classifiers is the adoption of encrypted protocols, compromising the effectiveness of deep packet inspection. Also, the evolving nature of mobile network traffic makes solutions with Machine Learning (ML), based on manually-and expert-originated features, unable to keep its pace. These limitations clear the way to Deep Learning (DL) as a viable strategy to design traffic classifiers based on automatically-extracted features, reflecting the complex patterns distilled from the multifaceted traffic nature, implicitly carrying information in "multi-modal" fashion. Multi-modality in TC allows to inspect the traffic from complementary views, thus providing an effective solution to the mobile scenario. Accordingly, a novel multimodal DL framework for encrypted TC is proposed, named MIMETIC, able to capitalize traffic data heterogeneity (by learning both intra-and inter-modality dependences), overcome performance limitations of existing (myopic) single-modality DL-based TC proposals, and support the challenging mobile scenario. Using three (human-generated) datasets of mobile encrypted traffic, we demonstrate performance improvement of MIMETIC over (a) single-modality DL-based counterparts, (b) state-of-the-art ML-based (mobile) traffic classifiers, and (c) classifier fusion techniques.

We present a revisitation analysis of smartphone use to investigate the question: do smartphones induce usage habits? We analysed three months of application launch logs from 165 users in naturalistic settings. Our analysis reveals distinct clusters of applications and users which share similar revisitation patterns. However, we show that much of smartphone usage on a macro-level is very similar to web browsing on desktops, and thus argue that smartphone usage is driven by innate service needs rather than technology characteristics. On the other hand, on a micro-level we identify unique characteristics in smartphone usage, and we present a rudimentary model that accounts for 92% in the variability of our smartphone use.

Despite growing interest from both patients and healthcare providers, there is little clinical guidance on how mobile apps should be utilized to add value to patient care. We categorize apps according to their functionality (e.g. preventative behavior change, digital self-management of a specific condition, diagnostic) and discuss evidence for effectiveness from published systematic reviews and meta-analyses and the relevance to patient care. We discuss the limitations of the current literature describing clinical outcomes from mHealth apps, what FDA clearance means now (510(k)/de novo FDA clearance) and in the future. We discuss data security and privacy as a major concern for patients when using mHealth apps. Patients are often not involved in the development of mobile health guidelines, and professionals' views regarding high-quality health apps may not reflect patients' views. We discuss efforts to develop guidelines for the development of safe and effective mHealth apps in the US and elsewhere and the role of independent app reviews sites in identifying mHealth apps for patient care. There are only a small number of clinical scenarios where published evidence suggests that mHealth apps may improve patient outcomes.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and applications (apps) for tourists are key tools for the sustainability of World Cultural Heritage Sites (WCHS). Their integration into tourism marketing strategies poses challenges regarding the satisfaction of the expectations of the target stakeholders, particularly senior tourists, people aged 60 and over. This paper adopts an exploratory and descriptive approach that combines qualitative techniques (focus groups), to study the use senior citizens make of ICT and tourism apps, with quantitative ones. In this sense, content analysis has been performed on a sample of tourism apps. The results reveal that ICT are essential tools for senior tourists and positively influence tourists' final perception of the travel experience. The analysis of these mobile apps shows that they meet the expectations of senior tourists, who constitute a relevant generation for cultural tourism and are of special interest for the sustainability of WCHS. The configuration and development of these tools must be adapted to this generation, which we call Generation W.

Brands are a critical part of the ongoing experimentation that underpins the development of mobile social media platforms like Instagram. Instagram had no dedicated advertising or analytics tools until 2014 so, in the absence of such devices, brands have developed uses of the platform that engage with the productive ability of cultural intermediaries and consumers to create and circulate images of their bodies, everyday lives and cultural practices. This article examines the Instagram activities of the global vodka brand Smirnoff and the fashion retailer General Pants. Each brand engages with cultural intermediaries and builds themed activations at cultural events to orchestrate the production of images. Following Wissinger’s (2007a) study of fashion models, we conceptualize Instagram as an image machine that captures and calibrates attention. Instagram expands the terrain upon which brands operate by dispersing the work of creating and engaging with images into consumers’ everyday lives. The efforts made by brands to experiment with mobile media demonstrate the need to critically examine how participatory, discursive and algorithmic modes of control are interrelated.

This study investigated how messaging app Line’s character sticker use may contribute to the perception of intimate experience and enhance relationship satisfaction in both positive and negative emotion situations. A 2 (situation valence: positive emotion and negative emotion) × 3 (response style: text, sticker, and text and sticker) × 3 (scenario: career, romance, and education) mixed design, with situation valence and response style between-subjects variables and scenario a within-subjects variable, was employed. The results revealed the combination of a text and sticker response to a partner’s disclosure can produce the highest level of intimate experience, followed by text- and sticker-only responses. It further suggests that the cartoon-like Line sticker may better convey positive than negative emotions because the detailed illustration is more similar to real-life nonverbal behavior expressing humor and happiness and that may facilitate imagined closeness between communication partners when moving through space. The hyperpersonal affordance of text-based messages to foster relationship may be further distinguished between the cognitive and the affective levels in the messaging app context.

The purpose of this study was to examine individual differences in the effectiveness of learning objects in secondary school classrooms. Specifically, gender, age, grade, subject area, and computer comfort (self-efficacy) were examined in 850 students. Effectiveness was measured in terms of student attitude (learning, quality, and engagement) and student performance. No gender differences were observed between males and females with respect to student attitudes or performance. Age was significantly correlated with student attitudes and performance, however correlation coefficients were small. Grade 12 students were more positive about learning objects and performed better than grade 9 and 10 students. Science students had significantly more positive attitudes and performed better than mathematics students. Finally, students who were more comfortable about computers, appreciated learning objects more than their less confident peers, however performance was unaffected.

Mobile technologies provide radical opportunities in the domain of Assistive Technologies (AT) for persons with disabilities and the elderly by facilitating them to access multimedia content and improve their social interaction. The search for mobile AT applications that meet specific user needs is not an easy task for the disabled users, their facilitators, and rehabilitation professionals, as the mobile app stores do not include a category for AT or a classification by disability. In this work, we first provide an analysis of the disabled users' needs along with the required mobile software adaptations in order to fulfill them. Then, we introduce a methodological approach for the design and development of web-based inventories which make the search and selection of AT apps simpler and efficient. This methodology has to main parts, first it is based on experts in an AT lab thoroughly testing each application, and second, the creation of a consistent and well-documented presentation of the information for each app. Finally, we present the mATHENA repository of free AT apps for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), which has been created by following the suggested methodology for creating AT app inventories. Currently, mATHENA includes 420 free mobile AT applications , carefully selected from a total of 1100. The features of mATHENA are compared with the functionality and social interaction services of six other inventories for AT applications.

In the past five years, there have been significant changes concerning the material and design properties of digital books, with an impact on children's enjoyment and learning from reading on screen. Despite the rapid advances in technology, research on children's digital books is disjointed. This is because of no consistent approach to the study of interactivity, an undertheorized relationship between print and digital books, and a binary design focused on either learning or playful engagement with digital books. Drawing on the discourse reminiscent of digital game designers, some developers, scholars and professionals celebrate interactivity in digital books as a possibility to motivate and engage children in reading, while a body of experimental research documents the negative impact of interactivity on children's story comprehension and vocabulary learning. This article presents an integrative framework based on a comprehensive literature review and a content review of the hundred most popular children's digital interactive books. The framework offers 1, methodological guidance and a definition of interactivity based on five key categories; 2, theoretical guidance based on the third space theory and 3, innovative design and evaluation models based on a 'method assemblage'. As such, the integrative framework provides new tools and perspectives to advance the field of children's digital books.

Information communication technology (ICT) is becoming a pivotal element in the twenty-first century, and while there has been substantial work conducted to understand ICT use by older adults, there is a paucity of knowledge relating to ICT use and behavior by Millennials. The Technology 4 Young Adults (T4YA) study opens the discussion to the barriers and enablers of ICT by Millennials in their day-today activities. Eight participants aged 18-33 years were recruited, and open-ended questions were posed to the focus groups participants. A total of three focus groups were conducted, two focus groups were conducted in Pontefract (West Yorkshire, England) and one focus group was conducted in Swansea (West Glamorgan, Wales); all focus groups were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Primary themes included: hardware, privacy issues/concerns, confidence, usability/functionality, day-today activities, and content/sharing of information. Day-today activities were undertaken primarily on smartphones, such as online banking and shopping, while privacy and trust concerns was a conversation thread throughout the discussions. Further work is needed with larger sample sizes, taking a multi-methods approach to extract quantitative data to underpin qualitative data analysis and frameworks. This exploratory study intersects at the fields of social sciences and human-computer interaction.

Since the early 2010s, there has been a proliferation of new platforms for children’s stories (e.g., storyapps or ibooks), but not necessarily greater diversity of story content or children’s greater interest in reading. This paper argues for a new approach to address the apparent paradox of a wider availability of children’s literature combined with children’s eroded reading interest. The issue is suggested to be addressed by considering the agency and aesthetic dimensions which lie at the heart of personalisation theory (Cordova & Lepper, 1996; Oulasvirta & Blom, 2008). Translating agency into reading practice means establishing children’s early authoring, which can result in an eclectic approach to content and increased reading motivation, as long as children’s aesthetic choices are fully supported. However, it is also argued that early authoring should not be conflated with achieving an overly child-centred literature which would ignore the reciprocity dimension of community and society relations. Digital book-making is suggested to offer original concepts which might provide an alternative approach for future work in the area of early authoring.

Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Special Issue on CALL No.2 July, 2015     
                                                                                                                                                                  Pp. 6 – 21



Mobile ELT: East and South of the Red Sea
David B. Kent
Graduate School of TESOL-MALL, Woosong University
Daejeon. South Korea



Abstract
An exploration of the educational value behind mobile, or cellular, phone utilization in English Language Teaching (ELT), and the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory behind effective instructional use of such technology is presented. A number of hindrances associated with learning using these devices are uncovered, as are methods of engaging students at the pedagogical level. This establishes a grounded means of employing mobiles as a language learning platform, and results in support for the foundation of a multi-regional synopsis of mobile phone use in ELT. Several pedagogically significant points regarding the employment of mobile devices with learners across eastern Asia, India, the Middle East, and Africa then emerge in analysis. In particular, the considerations necessary for effective future implementation of mobile learning technologies in Afro-Asian contexts. What ultimately arises is the notion that although the concept of m-learning is still largely embryonic it is becoming increasingly embraced, as mobiles are viewed as an enabling technology that can deliver essential learning opportunities. The article closes by outlining several significant areas of pertinence to next-step research.
Keywords: digital pedagogy, ELT, m-learning, mobile phones, SLA

This review integrates literature on cross-disciplinary quantitative and qualitative studies related to children’s reading on screen published between January 2016 and September 2017, with a focus on the researchers’ epistemological perspectives on knowledge and learning.  Johri’s (2011) framework of socio-material assemblages, which synthesises epistemological dualities, is used to examine the ways in which researchers conceptualise children’s learning with digital books.  The review shows that extant empirical studies map directly onto the social part of Johri’s framework (examination of child and adult variables and behavioural characteristics) and on the material aspects of children’s digital books (examination of the book’s content and features). Only theoretical studies pay equal attention to social and material aspects in their conceptualisation of children’s reading on screen.  Overall, it is recommended that in addition to cross-disciplinary and multiple methods, researchers consider socio-material assemblages to advance the field. A socio-material perspective could address time and space shifts in children’s reading on screen and might provide the springboard for future epistemological developments within the field.

The decision to use a particular social media application for news is affected by many factors, but less is understood is how a platform’s technological features promote or impede people’s social media news use. A structural equation model derived from the Unified Theory Acceptance and Use of Technology and Task-Technology Fit models were applied to investigate what social and technological perceptional factors explain people’s news use behaviors within the context of WeChat. Results showed an application’s technological features (i.e., technology characteristics and task-technology fit) played a significant role in predicting multiple social media news use behaviors. We put forth a theoretical model that predicts social media news use based on the results.

Background
Despite the benefits offered by an abundance of health applications promoted on app marketplaces (e.g., Google Play Store), the wide adoption of mobile health and e-health apps is yet to come.
Objective
This study aims to investigate the current landscape of smartphone apps that focus on improving and sustaining health and wellbeing. Understanding the categories that popular apps focus on and the relevant features provided to users, which lead to higher user scores
and downloads will offer insights to enable higher adoption in the general populace. This study on 1,000 mobile health applications aims to shed light on the reasons why particular apps are liked and adopted while many are not.
Methods
User-generated data (i.e. review scores) and company-generated data (i.e. app descriptions) were collected from app marketplaces and manually coded and categorized by two researchers. For analysis, Artificial Neural Networks, Random Forest and Naïve Bayes Artificial
Intelligence algorithms were used.
Results
The analysis led to features that attracted more download behaviour and higher user scores. The findings suggest that apps that mention a privacy policy or provide videos in description lead to higher user scores, whereas free apps with in-app purchase possibilities, social networking
and sharing features and feedback mechanisms lead to higher number of downloads. Moreover, differences in user scores and the total number of downloads are detected in distinct subcategories of mobile health apps.
Conclusion
This study contributes to the current knowledge of m-health application use by reviewing mobile health applications using content analysis and machine learning algorithms. The content analysis adds significant value by providing classification, keywords and factors that influence download behaviour and user scores in an m-health context.

With high-paced growth in biometrics, and its easy availability to capture various biometric features, it is emerging as one of the most valuable technologies for multifactor authentication to verify a user’s identity, for data security. Organizations encourage their members to use biometrics, but they are hesitant to use them due to perceived security risks. Because of its low usage rate, many medium and small segment organizations find it unfeasible to deploy robust biometric systems. We propose a server-specific add-on biometric security layer model (MoLaBSS) to enhance confidence in the usage of biometrics. We tested this model via a biometric mobile app, and the survey showed a favorable response of 80%. The innovative mobile app was tested for its usability and got a score of more than 71%. For test tool reliability, we examined the equal error rate (EER) of the app and got a reasonably low score of 6%. The results show good potential of this framework to enhance users’ confidence level in the usage of biometrics. Higher usage rates may make deployment of biometrics more cost-effective for many organizations to decrease their information security risk.