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Saturday, March 23, 2002 |
"Welcome to the age of 'digital ubiquity.' Soon consumers will have digital devices pressed against their ears, jangling in their pockets, carried in their bags, and littered about their homes. At least that's the view presented by one analyst speaking at Jupiter Media Metrix's Media Forum in New York earlier this week, who argued that the lack of new, compelling PC applications will turn the spotlight on digital devices.
'Over the next few months we will see devices with any combination of features, such as digital cameras and MP3 players,' said Jupiter Research Director Michael Gartenberg. Eventually, most people won't carry more than three devices, Gartenberg said, and the kind of devices they carry will be dependent on what users want....
Gartenberg foresees a future where consumers will have multiple information devices boasting Web and application services with both wireless and wired connectivity....
'What's the killer app of digital ubiquity?' he asked. 'The ubiquity itself.' " [IDG InfoWorld]
Or not, if the CBDTPA is passed.
10:04:19 PM Permanent link here
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"Electronic Commerce Conducted via mobile devices such as phones and PDAs will take off over the next few years to become a $25 billion market worldwide by 2006, according to a study released by Frost & Sullivan.
By that time, mobile electronic commerce (m-commerce) will account for 15 percent of the world's online commerce, according to a summary of the study.
According to Frost & Sullivan, several different market sectors will make up m-commerce, including: automated point-of-sale payments such as vending machines, parking meters and ticket machines; attended point-of-sale payments including shop counters, and taxis; mobile-accessed Internet payments such as merchant WAP sites; mobile-assisted Internet payments, for instance fixed Internet sites using phone instead of credit card; and peer-to-peer payments between individuals.
Of these, mobile-assisted Internet payments will account for 39 percent of m-commerce spending and peer-to-peer payments between individuals will account for 34 percent, the company said." [IDG InfoWorld]
9:51:27 PM Permanent link here
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"The total number of Internet users will be more than 1.1 billion by the end of 2005, according to the study by Computer Industry Almanac. The number of users will reach almost 1.5 billion worldwide by 2007, with almost 59 percent of those users having wireless access.
In the U.S., Internet penetration will increase from about 149 million in 2001 to 236 million in 2007. However, only about 46.3 percent of U.S. users having wireless access by the end of 2007, the study claims. The highest level of wireless access will be in Western Europe, where 67 percent of those with Net access will have wireless access, according to the report." [allNetDevices Wireless News]
9:43:58 PM Permanent link here
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A couple of great links about the new Star Wars movie, just for Bruce. :-)
Star Wars Episode Two: Attack of the Clones Early Cut Review (complete with spoilers) from Harry Knowles' Ain't It Cool News
"How do I explain the success of ATTACK OF THE CLONES? First, I must say that this film makes THE PHANTOM MENACE a better film. In fact, I would have to say that not only does it do that, but suddenly you will realize with horror, exactly why Jar Jar Binks is in the series at all. Upon first viewing, in less than ideal circumstances, I must say that I feel that this is by far the most entertaining Star Wars film to date. It may not have that innocent sense of wonder for the first film. It doesn’t have that sense of intimacy that EMPIRE STRIKES BACK had, or that film’s desperation. However, it also doesn’t have the trivial frivolity of JEDI or MENACE. ATTACK OF THE CLONES is a turning point in the saga. The point of no return. "
Attack of the Clones - A Different (New) Look by Seth Gunderson
"But did anyone think to pull those trailers and their bits of footage together? I did. And I came up with some rough ideas of how scenes might pan out." [via Loebrich.org]
2:05:34 PM Permanent link here
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"To start working toward an answer, I compared three eCommerce sites: Borders.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Amazon.com....
Because it is the homepage that carries the most responsibility for guiding customers, I examined the homepages of all three sites from a number of years, using screenshots from the Web Archive4....
I looked at criteria such as the type and size of layout, the type and amount of navigation, the amount of images and text, and functionality specific to the industry....
Conclusions:
- All three sites use very long screens to display content on their homepages.
- All three sites evolved to use three-column layouts.
- Amazon has consistently placed more links above the fold.
- Through the years, the density of links on Borders.com was half of that on Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
- Amazon communicates using images and links rather than text descriptions.
- All sites eventually included navigation targeted at specific audiences.
- Invitations to subscribe to an email newsletter were offered inconsistently.
Many design elements on these websites are reminiscent of physical store layout, an approach to web design we should investigate further. Like physical stores, those designs should only change gradually to keep visitors buying." [Boxes and Arrows, via bOing bOing]
This article is part of the inaugural collection at Boxes and Arrows, a new online journal about information architecture in the digital environment. Definitely one to follow, although I wish they were syndicating their content.
What I'd like to see next is a study of how web-based library catalogs are changing to emulate the above design conventions and how systems like III's Millennium, SIRSI's iBistro, and epixtech's iPac are faring. Obviously we don't want all aspects of Amazon's site, but surely we can examine it for what could be applicable in our online world. Is there anything here we should emulate for library web sites in general?
See Steve Coffman for other thoughts on Amazon and library catalogs (right or wrong).
11:45:19 AM Permanent link here
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"A follow up to Electronic Games Flashback, you can play the games again on your PC or Pocket PC using the LEDhead Classic Electronic Handheld Game Simulator. I just downloaded it and can play Football and other games on it. Awesome!
It took me a little bit to get the hang of it again... advice: use your keyboard not your mouse to play the football game." [meryl's notes]
Obviously Meryl doesn't understand that I need to get some work done today, or else she would have waited to post this link! Too bad someone isn't porting these to the Palm platform.
10:53:11 AM Permanent link here
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"RalfM writes '2.56 terabits of data per second in new transmission record by Bell Labs, Lucent's research arm.' So this thing could transmit my entire mp3 collection in under a half second." [Slashdot]
I suppose the entertainment industry will go after Bell Labs now because faster transmission speeds might aid pirates in distributing their MP3 collections.
10:41:29 AM Permanent link here
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The folks at MeFi are reacting to the VKB Virtual Keyboard that projects the keys onto a surface. They're proposing some interesting uses of the technology in other areas.
- "One of the best parts about it is instant keyboards changes; switching to Dvorak would no longer require prying off all of one's keys and moving them about, not to mention switching to other languages."
- "If they could make a mode that would toggle the keyboard LEDs to a barcode reader, that'd truly rock."
- "Mark my words, the most awe inspiring byproduct of this: the virtual piano keyboard."
- "i want a tiny computer that projects the keyboard out one side and the video out the other, in color. that would be great, someone start working on that :) "
- "Okay- I'm going to geek out a bit here... This could revolutionise gaming interfaces. Forget hitting "T" to target, needing to learn weird keyboard shortcuts every time you pick up a new game. Currently, the disparity between the controls on screen and on desk is high. This technology could eradicate that. For example, in a space sim, just project the cockpit button layout on the desk."
One thing most people haven't noted about the VKB product is that it can also project a mousepad.
So what could this mean for libraries? I like the idea of changing languages on the spot for any patron at any PC. Maybe this could be used with tablet PCs or PDAs for instant, mobile training labs. The "tiny computer that projects the keyboard out one side adn the video out the other" would be particularly well-suited for this. With something like that, you could stand up a piece of 17" posterboard and project onto it as the monitor. Talk about portable!
On a side note, most people are pleasantly surprised when they first see the pictures of this because they didn't know someone was working on this type of technology. The same will hold true for ebooks. Someday, someone will come out of nowhere with a device or technology that will make them better. That's why I say we shouldn't write off ebooks as a bad technology. It's only bad right now.
10:16:17 AM Permanent link here
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© Copyright 2004 Jenny Levine.
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