...more recent posts
Why isn't the current (voice) phone system considered a danger to national security? Clearly it fails in any large enough crisis. If the telcos would accelerate their switch to an IP based network (which is going to happen anyway) they could solve the problem by scaling back services in times of huge demand (most likely during some major crisis.) Instead of millions of simultaneous voice calls bringing the whole system to a complete stop, the telcos could just drop voice service during such peak times and people would have to use SMS. Not as good as voice maybe, but infinitely better than nothing (which is what most people had in NYC on 9/11.)
Shouldn't they really do this?
Quicksilver is a launcher application for Mac OS X (10.3). Similar to the hugely popular Launchbar, except Quicksilver is free. A little hard to explain, but if you are the type of Mac user who knows and uses all the keyboard shortcuts (I guess this means "power user" but I hate that phrase) you really should give it a look. Amazingly elegant.
My Treo 600 has been out geeked. Okay, this isn't a phone, so it's not really a fair comparison. But Sharp's new Zaurus SL-6000L is the new definitive high end wireless (802.11b) PDA for people who get excited by remote terminal session and reg ex. Slide out thumbboard. Big screen. Runs linux. Case closed.
Well, assuming you can drop $699 on a PDA and you don't mind getting laughed at by all the cool kids with their iPods...
Bluetooth headset shrinks to 5 grams. Paired with your bluetooth phone you can talk without taking the phone out of your pocket (in other words, it's just like plugging in a traditional headset to a cellphone, except with bluetooth there is no cord.) Still a ways to go, but that's a big improvement over the previous bulky bluetooth headsets.
Google launches unbelievably cool free email service on April 1st, and nobody can figure out if it's a joke or not.
The press release reads like a joke, except it's not really particularly funny. And all the wires picked it up as true, so it seems like there might be some SEC regulations that were violated if it is a joke. But I'm really not sure. I definitely want it, but it does seem too good to be true. 1 Gig of free web based email storage integrated with Google's search engine. Who wouldn't switch to this? But how can they give away a gigabyte of storage?
Please be true, please be true...
Cebit wrap up with lots of pictures. This one passage caught my eye:
What is interesting is that voice over IP is becoming just something to add on to broadband. Several ISPs or pure-play VoIP operators were busy signing up people to flat rate telephony. There was also the faint rumblings of voice over WLAN for consumers. In fact, VoIP/WLAN could be sold and designed just like cordless phones: a base station that plugs into the wall (in reality an ADSL router and wireless node) and a cordless (wi-fi) handset. Looking further, video over IP (and video over WLAN) are becoming a not-too-distant commercial reality.The emphasis is mine, and this sounds like exactly what I was asking for here.
Joi Ito: Full-Time Intimate Community.
NEC's resonate wear: "Near-Future Ubiquitous Networking Devices Visualized by Designers."
They aren't going to make any of these designs, but a few of them had some nice ideas. I really like the P-ISM.
Holy cow. Did you know you can cmd-drag background windows in OS X? I can actually imagine that being useful. Looks cool too.
Three blurry long range spy photos of the new unreleased Danger Hiptop: 1, 2, and 3. Although it's hard to be sure from these shots, it looks like the snap around swivel screen has been replaced by a non snap around slide up screen. This is obviously not as cool, since spinning the old one open with a resounding thwock was really excellent. On the other hand, it looks like this lets them make the unit a little less thick which, I will agree, was necessary.
For me it will all be about the camera. And my gut tells me this one is still going to be VGA qualty (although I'm guessing they at least got it *inside* the unit this time.)
