emconsteroids

Nowadays, everybody has understood the power of the Internet. Most people also under stand the convenience and the power of mobile. So needless to say that it is clear that the internet on a mobile device is even more powerful.

However currently there are a few things which have to be sorted out until the Mobile Internet will unleash its full potential.

1. Battery life of the devices has to be better
2. The speed of the download has to improve
3. The screens have to become bigger
4. The input devices need to be more effective
5. Manufacturers and software suppliers need to agree on and stick to standards

In the meantime, there are three different approaches which are being taken in order to get the internet on the mobile devices.:

1.) UK Mobile Operator Vodafone has launched the much discussed Internet on your Mobile campaign in 2007. The idea was that any HTML based website will be re-rendered for mobile devices via a Vodafone Proxy Server. Google took a similar approach: Any site which you search in the Google Mobile search will be re-rendered via a Google Proxy. The advantage of this system is all existing internet content will be available on mobile device immediately. In theory. We’re not discussing how it looks and how well it works. There is no control over design, functionality and anything related to the aesthetics of the page.

2.) Nokia, Apple and some other device manufacturers have taken the approach of getting browsers as we know them on mobile devices. The idea is that you can then use the mobile device to access any internet site as if it was on a computer. This also works only in a very limited way. The screen size for example is a major issue as well as the input devices (no mouse, no QWERTY keyboard). Also are most internet sites completely unaware of context such as location, the handset’s capabilities or connection speed.

3.) The third approach is the approach mobile specific agencies and technology providers are taking. In the long term, this solution is the only sustainable way of marrying up mobile devices and Internet. Mobile internet pages should be created and designed specifically for the devices which are being used to access them. This starts with the detection of the device, the rendering and access to the device’s features such as telephone calling, messaging via click, location, billing, small screen optimized user interface or even making use of Bluetooth or the built in camera. There is no question that the Web as we know it an the Mobile Internet will converge. One day, the stationery computer in the office will just be one of many devices with which you can access a (web-)site. If you want to deliver top quality Mobile Internet at the moment, you need a device database of around 1800 devices and you have to render the page according to those devices. The stationery computer could just be the 1801st device. But until that time comes, we have to keep making mobile sites better and better. Until the borders between them and the web as we know it are completely blurred out. The iPhone with its Web Apps has certainly led in this direction and continued with native Apps even though the latter will never be working cross device in the same way a (web-mobile-converged) Internet page would.

Helvetica - the documentary film by Gary Huswit is now available for download in iTunes.

I got myself a limited edition of the movie on DVD last year and saw the movie a couple of times already. Even though it is not exceptionally exciting, it has a few interesting passages. Towards the end of the movie however it’s slightly too long stretched. If you enjoy beautiful fonts though, this is a movie for you. Even just looking at the images makes your heart jump higher … because let’s be honest: Helvetica is the most beautiful typeface ever designed.

What I find striking about the movie being on iTunes are two things:

1.) Distribution has become dirt cheap. Whereas before, you had to produce DVDs including all sorts of material such as DVD packaging, cover design, DVD design and merchandising, nowadays you simply upload it to what is to become the universal gate for software. This is good for the producers, the consumers and above all: Apple. This however is a worry to media distribution companies such as Universal, Sony, Warner and the such.

2.) The second thing that strikes me about this is what I’ve just done can be done easily: recommending or linking to it. This for sure will drive sales as a sale is basically less than 5 clicks or 5 seconds away from here. I find it wrong that I can generate value for all those guys mentioned above (the consumers, the producers and Apple) without seeing a single penny.

Something has to be invented here. I’m working on it. Stay tuned!

I’ve written about Net Neutrality earlier on a more academic angle. The below video also gives you the more popular view on what the issue is all about:

Spread the word! Net Neutrality is where all our innovation bases on.

The Economist’s “The World in 2008” gives some interesting insight into what may or may not happen in 2008:

• To watch: Texting for cash. Mobile banking is taking off in places such as Kenya and the Philippines. This allows low-income workers to use their mobile phones to make and receive small payments at neighbourhood kiosks, eliminating the need to visit a bank.
• To watch: Bragging blogs. More than 90% of marketing departments will launch a “social media” campaign, such as a blog, in 2008, according to Lewis PR, a United States-based global agency. By 2009 two-thirds of marketers will set aside up to 25% of their budgets for online social media.
• NOT to watch: IPTV. The success of internet protocol television—watching your favourite shows over broadband connections—is not likely to take off for some years, mainly because of competition from cable and satellite operators.

Source: http://www.economist.com/theworldin/forecasts/industry.cfm?d=2008

Also interesting: The Economist’s take on “Technology in 2008“

Will in an international society where new materials such as plastic compounds and sophisticated carbon structures change the way aircrafts can be built at a low cost and high quantity change the way we travel?

We don’t know. Anyways, this Eclipse 500 is with no doubt the personal transportation vehicle of my dreams. Should I ever have a spare 1.5m U$, I’d most definitely go for this one.

approximeeting pp. Getting together with one or more people by first arranging an approximate time or place and then firming up the details later on, usually via cell phone.
—approximeet v.

Source Wordspy

I talked about how we will consume news in the future before. However, this is the first post of a now newly created series of entries in my blog called “How we will do stuff in the future”. To start off, I would like to point to a very common problem in humankind: Navigation. I believe, the way we put ourselves into local context will change profoundly in the future. We will be able to track any information about ourselves in the current position and in the nearby surrounding. Searching for the word “Restaurant” in the middle of Oxford Street in London will give you completely different result than querying the same word on top of the Himalaya. Mapping is therefore key. Mapping not only of physical objects but also about meta information of physical objects. Your mobile device will be able to query these information in real time (e.g. traffic information) and this will have an impact on how and which way you choose to travel.

In fact, at the moment, we are already pretty close to such an infrastructure. We have GPS technology to pinpoint our location, we have satellite images and street maps of almost every relevant place in the world. Furthermore, we have the world wide web that contains information about most of the places in the world.

So all we have to do now is connecting the dots to the big picture.

Below, you see two different images of the same thing:

Piz Muragl KMZ

With a wirelessly connected device such as a mobile phone you can easily have both images at the same time: Standing on the spot and looking at the scenery while downloading the same scenery to your mobile device. Including all necessary information such as street names, directions, traffic or weather information.

All this will become even more interesting, as soon as you are not only down- but also uploading information and connecting to peers in your imminent or not-so-imminent surrounding!