Thursday, September 12, 2002
Xentex Flip-pad Voyager (Designtechnica) This is gratuitous sharing of a laptop design that neither pushes the envolope of computing nor re-invents our ideas about information. Sometimes, you just want to look at something cool.
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Can O2 Start a Revolution? (TheFeature) Finally! If in answer to my comments yesterday about building transaction mechanisms into the system - today I ran news that mmo2 (formerly known as BT's wireless business) has launched a revenue-sharing model with content providers to their WAP or SMS networks. With a formalized and easy to set-up mechanism for publishing services and making money off of them, there will finally be an incentive to outside companies to offer compelling services on your mobile phone. It took a couple years for anyone outside Japan to adapt to the DoCoMo model so often talked about.. but look for rapid adoption across other carriers if o2 sees any uptake from this.
Tuesday, September 10, 2002
Wireless News: IBM Sends Smart Laundry Machines to College Does the cliche world of internet home applicances actually have a viable market? Of course. Build the transaction fees into the network from the start, and you've got a business plan for a working product. Why has content had such a problem on the web? The internet was not built with any easy mechanism to pay for looking at web pages. Contrast that with Docomo's model, in which the infrastructure was built with payment schemes.
LG and Whirlpool have built internet washers, but with functionality to send messges to your washer, or remotely start it -- Ugh. With no transaction basis built into the system there is no business incentive for the company to embark on a potential disruptive technology. IBM and Merloni's Ariston division have the right idea.
Samsonite Launches First Intelligent BlueTooth Business Case This is a noteable event not because of the product, but the company who is bringng it to market. What does Samsonite know about consumer electronics? Nothing. And that's the refreshing point.
The likely long term driver for the consumer side of embedded computing is not wireless handset makers like Nokia, who would rather make more complicated devices, or from consumer electronics companies intent on building dumbed-down desktops, but furniture, lighting, luggage, and other product companies that are attracted to becoming a part of the embedded computing world because they desire a simple functionality - like some added security in the case of Samsonite.
Disenchanted: Ah, the ambience A little commentary on ambient information and Ambient Devices in particular. Can't help but appreciate the thoughts on Ambient Devices. The issue of "contextualization" is a valid one - except that many of our information inputs are currently not contextualized (the Dell PCs sold to Fidelity are not in the shape of a big wallet). Eventually niche opportunities will beget more specific and context-specific designs -- we would all like that. In the meantime more general applications and designs will likely establish a marketplace.
Monday, September 09, 2002
Ray Ozzie's Manifesto Bob and Dan are dead-on: The browser has served us well. It has provided a means by which we can have universal access to applications, transactions, and published information. But in the meantime, the PC has become a powerhouse: cpu, gpu, storage, price. The Great Conversion to notebook computers is well under way, and it's now clear that the most wildly successful wireless mobile productivity device won't be the 3G phone, or even the BlackBerry, but the ubiquitous and inexpensive WiFi notebook. In a shape and size to suit every need.
For a while, we were seduced into thinking that we should optimize costs by reducing the PC to being a dumb terminal, or by stopping the upgrade cycle, or by reverting to a simpler, generic OS. But as we by necessity deal with more and more PCs in our lives, and as we use them in more and more locations, and as we've come to terms with the fact that we can't imagine doing our jobs without them in the course of our work with others, it has become clearer that the most critical thing to optimize is our time. And in order to do that, we need more appropriate technology, not just simpler tech.
It's finally dawned on many of us that our software has fallen behind our infrastructure, and that we need significant upgrades to our systems and application software that bring them into an era of ubiquitous computing and communications. We need to prepare for, and to embrace a whole new generation of system and application software that leverages our computers and networks specifically and tangibly to increase our interpersonal productivity and agility. To enable us to spin more plates; or to keep them up in the air in a more measured manner.
Software that embraces mobility, synchronization, security, and manageability as transparent core attributes. Software that recognizes "people" as being just as important as "documents". Software that recognizes transparent peer communications as being equal in importance to server communications. Software with a new model that synchronizes applications and activities, not just data or documents. We need to use multiple devices as seamlessly as we use one device; we need to be able to use them collaboratively as intuitively as we've used them alone.
Servers and browsers are like two peas in a pod, and the Web has largely run its course. In terms of the value that we can get from our own personal computers and the Internet, however, we're still at the dawn of a new era. An era in which software matters, and architecture matters
For a while, we were seduced into thinking that we should optimize costs by reducing the PC to being a dumb terminal, or by stopping the upgrade cycle, or by reverting to a simpler, generic OS. But as we by necessity deal with more and more PCs in our lives, and as we use them in more and more locations, and as we've come to terms with the fact that we can't imagine doing our jobs without them in the course of our work with others, it has become clearer that the most critical thing to optimize is our time. And in order to do that, we need more appropriate technology, not just simpler tech.
It's finally dawned on many of us that our software has fallen behind our infrastructure, and that we need significant upgrades to our systems and application software that bring them into an era of ubiquitous computing and communications. We need to prepare for, and to embrace a whole new generation of system and application software that leverages our computers and networks specifically and tangibly to increase our interpersonal productivity and agility. To enable us to spin more plates; or to keep them up in the air in a more measured manner.
Software that embraces mobility, synchronization, security, and manageability as transparent core attributes. Software that recognizes "people" as being just as important as "documents". Software that recognizes transparent peer communications as being equal in importance to server communications. Software with a new model that synchronizes applications and activities, not just data or documents. We need to use multiple devices as seamlessly as we use one device; we need to be able to use them collaboratively as intuitively as we've used them alone.
Servers and browsers are like two peas in a pod, and the Web has largely run its course. In terms of the value that we can get from our own personal computers and the Internet, however, we're still at the dawn of a new era. An era in which software matters, and architecture matters
Wednesday, September 04, 2002
Alliance aims at interoperability for wireless gadgets - Seriously, even as a technologist I'm not past keeping straight MMC, CompactFlash, SmartMedia, SD, plus whatever new format was just about to come out. Add in that only some of these devices are I/O compatible (meaning that some PDAs can take a bluetooth/modem/etc card in a CompactFlash slot, and others it can only be used for storage). Often this distiction is not designated on the packaging or press material.
Any push for standards should be lauded. Although capitalism and free markets are to be applauded, GSM in Europe should have taught us all that innovation is at its highest when governments step into to set a few of the underlying rules of the game.
(Not surprisingly there is no Sony in the list, by far the worst perpetrator in the non-standard wars (see Beta, MemoryStick, et al).)
