unplugged

On Friday, March 23, the sun set at 7:25 p.m., and as the giant yellow ball in the sky went down somewhere behind the clouds of San Francisco, so did the power on my electronic devices. The screens of my smartphone, laptop, and TV were as dark as the nighttime sky.

Keeping to my word, I was going 24 hours without tech for the National Day of Unplugging. Created by the nonprofit organization Reboot and now in its third year, the National Day of Unplugging encourages people to take a break from information and technology overload and use the time to reconnect with friends and family, go outside, focus on their health, give back, meditate, or take part in other non-tech-centric activities.

Reboot doesn't define what "unplugging" means; instead, it's up to the individual to decide. For me, it meant turning off the electronics I use most, which are my smartphone, laptop, and TV. Working with and covering tech five days a week, I thought it would be nice respite, but as I hit the power button on my devices Friday night, I was surprised at how anxious I felt about being without my gadgets -- more specifically, my phone -- for 24 hours.

What if my friends changed our dinner plans for Saturday night? What if something came up (like the most horrendous haircut of all time?) and I had to bail? Worst of all, what if there was some kind of emergency?

It's amazing where your imagination can take you if you let it, but I tried to put those fears aside. Plus, my competitive side was determined not to let a puny iPhone or 37-inch TV take me down, and thus, I embarked on my tech detox. … Read more

Not to sound like an old lady, but back in my day, when I wanted to hang out with friends, I'd call them up on a landline phone. Dinners out never involved a group of four or five people looking down at their phones or checking into a social network, and if I had a paper to write for school, I'd go to the library and do the research using -- gasp -- books!

Of course, today, that's all changed with the rise of the Internet and devices like smartphones and tablets. There's no doubt technology has enriched our lives in so many ways, but it's also created a culture in which we're often more consumed with our gadgets and the digital world than we are with real people and the outside world. So what would you do if you didn't have access to any of your gadgets? Care to find out? … Read more

In case you haven't heard, tonight is the start of the second annual "National Day of Unplugging"--a grassroots effort to get people to shut off our precious mobile devices, if only for a day. The 2-year-old project encourages all of us iPhone addicts and CrackBerry enthusiasts to turn off our cell phones for 24 hours in an effort to reconnect with the world.

And yes, for those who need it, there's an app for that. In a new twist this year, the backers of the event have created iPhone, Android, and Web apps that can both remind users to shut off their device as well as alert social media connections of why they will be offline. The apps were created by a team from Washington, D.C.-based Revolution Messaging. The Web app can even be sent to a device via text message by texting REBOOT to 738674.

Among those backing the project this year is Courtney Holt, who until recently was head of MySpace Music.

"You can't always do it, but I think it is something worth trying," Holt told Mobilized. Holt said he would have liked to take part last year but that the event conflicted with duties related to South By Southwest conference, which was taking place at the same time.

I teased him that perhaps it was easier for him to unplug this year since he is between gigs. He assured me that he is still plenty busy, but said he couldn't really talk about what he is up to. That said, he said he is looking forward to taking part this year and hopes others in his social circle will do the same. … Read more

Bare. Fidgety. Lonely. Plagued by the deafening silence. The clock ticking ever so slowly. Singing songs in the shower to give the impression of listening to music.

These are just some of the observations made over the past week by first-year students participating in the global media experiment "Unplugged" at Bournemouth University in the U.K. No, they were not held in solitary confinement for weeks on end, nor were they coming down from drugs. They were simply offline--for a single day.

"Unplugged" is a research project at schools across five continents--North America, South America, Asia, … Read more

Rock Band has gone portable, kind of: MTV Games, Harmonix and EA have officially shipped Rock Band Unplugged to stores, meaning you'll finally have a new UMD game for your dust-gathering PSP. Although the game won't go on sale until June 9, we thought we'd give you an idea of what to look forward to just in case you find someplace putting this on the shelves a little early.

With 41 tracks on disc and a full World Tour mode, the band creation and unlockable wardrobe/swag are everything you remember from the console versions. But what, you may ask, has been done about all those plastic drums, guitars, and whatnot? Does it come with fancy mini-instruments that interface with the PSP?

How can Rock Band be portable?… Read more

For those karaoke aficionados who want to break out of their nerdsome image, there's hope from the land where it all began. CMtech has released a new digital player that resembles LG's Chocolate, with touch-sensitive buttons and a sleek profile that's less than half an inch thick while weighing about 1.6 ounces.

The K7 has a TV-out connection, FM radio and storage up to 4GB, Akihabara News says. Or it can just be used as an MP3 player if you've strained your vocal chords the night before doing Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a … Read more