Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Little blue box lets puts any music streaming online: This is inginuity. It's tiny, virtually zero interface, and takes an antiquated technology (headphones) and turns into the cutting edge (wireless over Bluetooth). This unusual little gadget from Swiss company Smartdata called the ZukeroV3 is basically a Bluetooth dongle which plugs into a stereo, connects to a compatible cellphone over Bluetooth, and then uses the phone's GPRS data connection to stream audio over the Internet. Very creative. (thanks Gizmodo)
Microsoft Monitor: Sweet SPOT: First review of a Microsoft SPOT watch, albeit from a somewhat biased Microsoft beta tester. "There was clearly a lot of thought put into the design of the functions. The watch makes no attempt to view or edit Excel files, you can't even store your contacts on it. But that kind of contextual responsibility is one of the things that make this design work."
Big problems still seem to be the required $59 a year to get it to do anything other than tell time, and the recharging time of a couple of days. The first issue could take years for people to just expect to pay monthly/yearly for a watch, the second is that you've got yet another charger to carry around when you hit the road.
Big problems still seem to be the required $59 a year to get it to do anything other than tell time, and the recharging time of a couple of days. The first issue could take years for people to just expect to pay monthly/yearly for a watch, the second is that you've got yet another charger to carry around when you hit the road.
Friday, December 12, 2003
The Guts of a New Machine.: The iPod became an instant classic by combining high design and powerful technology. But as Apple has learned before, that formula alone doesn't keep you on top. By Rob Walker. [New York Times: Technology] - thanks Mobilog
Thursday, December 11, 2003
How Dean Could Win . . .by William Kristol: One of the leading voices in Republican media talks a little about the shift that candidates make from a primary season to a the general election, and where Bush is vulnerable. An interesting thought process on seeing both sides of an issue from a partisan person pulling the blinders off. All sides should try and do that more often, on everything from isreali/palestinian issues to microsoft-v-open source.
Monday, December 08, 2003
Peggy Thoeny is doing some interesting research on the uniting Light & Food over at Ivrea. After all, we do not only taste with our mouths but with all our senses.
Interesting point is that the look of food greatly changes our taste of the food, so by using light you may be able to actually alter the taste of food. Some impact this might have is a very ambient way to influence overeaters, and even the slightest improvement there could have incredible impact on the healthcare market. It will be interesting to see where his studies lead.
There is also a great set of references, quotes, and pictures inspired by light and food. Proud to see Ambient included.
Entrepreneurs Who Don't Want Venture Capital. "It seems like every few months a story just like this one show up somewhere about entrepreneurs (usually ones who have gone through the process before) are starting new companies without venture capital. The reporter (like in most of these articles) tries to make it out like this is a big conflict between those who "know better" and the venture capitalists. The truth seems quite different - and the story isn't supported by any of the actual quotes.
Certainly there are entrepreneurs who get screwed by VCs, and there are many who go into the process the first time without realizing what they're giving up when they accept VC cash. However, the truth is that many businesses (and certain entrepreneurs) aren't right for VC money. Understanding what VCs are looking for, and what the process is like is important for anyone raising money. Then the entrepreneur can make the right decision about the best way to move forward. Sometimes that's with VC cash and sometimes it isn't. Everyone quoted in the article seems to understand that, but that's not as interesting a story for the paper. What would be better is if the press stopped making the implicit assumption that to do a startup you need to raise venture money - and that the companies that raise more money are the automatic powerhouses." (From Techdirt)
Certainly there are entrepreneurs who get screwed by VCs, and there are many who go into the process the first time without realizing what they're giving up when they accept VC cash. However, the truth is that many businesses (and certain entrepreneurs) aren't right for VC money. Understanding what VCs are looking for, and what the process is like is important for anyone raising money. Then the entrepreneur can make the right decision about the best way to move forward. Sometimes that's with VC cash and sometimes it isn't. Everyone quoted in the article seems to understand that, but that's not as interesting a story for the paper. What would be better is if the press stopped making the implicit assumption that to do a startup you need to raise venture money - and that the companies that raise more money are the automatic powerhouses." (From Techdirt)
Friday, December 05, 2003
The Promise and Pitfalls of Social Networking: Stowe Boyd offers an eloquent rundown of the current state of social networking software. Personally I've found LinkedIn at times incredibly helpful, and also frustrating. And with it's reliance on such active participation it currently holds real value only for those who are focused on nuturing and growing their networks. Stowe offers a take on what the major pitfall as dozens of these new social software players launch.
"Like the world of instant messaging, the lack of interoperability between social networks has led to a fragmented and non-uniform market for social capital exploitation. It's just too much work to upload your contacts into all the various mass-market social networking solutions, and actively participating in more than one or two of them would require too much care and feeding.
We are stuck at the Beta-versus-VHS fork in the road, where some company (or a few at the most) will break out of the pack with a winning business model, and establish a de facto standard for social networking, either as a monopoly (like Office) or through interface and protocol standards (like POP3 and SMTP). "
The one point he doesn't seem to get to is that there already is a defacto standard that all of the best software latches on to, Outlook. And that poses a scary future in which just as soon as LinkedIn, Spoke, or another company starts realizing potential - a competing software will prop up from the very backbone they rely on.
"Like the world of instant messaging, the lack of interoperability between social networks has led to a fragmented and non-uniform market for social capital exploitation. It's just too much work to upload your contacts into all the various mass-market social networking solutions, and actively participating in more than one or two of them would require too much care and feeding.
We are stuck at the Beta-versus-VHS fork in the road, where some company (or a few at the most) will break out of the pack with a winning business model, and establish a de facto standard for social networking, either as a monopoly (like Office) or through interface and protocol standards (like POP3 and SMTP). "
The one point he doesn't seem to get to is that there already is a defacto standard that all of the best software latches on to, Outlook. And that poses a scary future in which just as soon as LinkedIn, Spoke, or another company starts realizing potential - a competing software will prop up from the very backbone they rely on.
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Ambient Social Software Matt Webb explains his idea of a social software application that allows for Glancing. It's in a pretty nascent stage but still is a perfect example of how making information glanceable changes your interaction with that information. Matt's impetus was similar to the design ideas that led to Ben developing ambient social interaction with the Ambient Frames (see the Ambient Gallery for info on the Frame prototypes). Matt says, "I was thinking about this about three months ago... We already have quite a lot of social software, but it's all fairly blatant. What's the smallest scale of social interaction that can take place online?"
He also points us at a fascinating tidbit about a new text messaging trend among Japanese kids -- sending an empty text message to someone as a way of communicating "hi, just checking in, send me a message if you'd like to". Think of it perhaps as a disconnected wink -- a form of communication which is nearly empty of information in the conventional sense, but rich (and perhaps rife) with meaning in a social context. Could a wink be one of the most densely packed and efficient mode of communication humans have yet found?
He also points us at a fascinating tidbit about a new text messaging trend among Japanese kids -- sending an empty text message to someone as a way of communicating "hi, just checking in, send me a message if you'd like to". Think of it perhaps as a disconnected wink -- a form of communication which is nearly empty of information in the conventional sense, but rich (and perhaps rife) with meaning in a social context. Could a wink be one of the most densely packed and efficient mode of communication humans have yet found?
