Kevin Werbach notes Wi-Fi sales stun spectrum experts: at an Apsen Institute conference, Kevin says that he stunned the audience, a savvy group of lobbyists, economists, laywers, and politicians, by noting Wi-Fi card sales are 1.5 million units per month. It's fun to see how the perception of change filters through the folks who think they control it.

3:40:33 PM    comment   

1)  A home server.   This PC is always on and lives in a closet.  It serves multiple users that connect to it using mobile wireless screens and keyboards.  Everyone in the house has a profile.   It controls all the devices in the home (consumer electronics to standard household items).  It is the point of aggregation for content subscriptions and serves as a hub for mobile devices operated by household members that connect to it from outside the home.  This server will slowly suck in the functionality of TVs, TiVos, and most consumer electronics. 

2) An extremely mobile PC ala OQO.  This PC will be attached to a single individual.  It will have almost as much capacity as a standard PC (it won't be dumbed down).  This mobile PC will have terabytes of storage and 10 GHz processors.  It will have extensive battery life (20 plus hours).  It can and will connect with services provided by the home server (personal data and content -- also webservice enabled syncrhonization).  It can be plugged into keyboards, display devices, and laptop shells.  A simple touchscreen will allow access to data will disconnected from richer input/output devices (output will be enhanced by video enabled glasses -- which are rapidly dropping price)  It will connect to wireless networks.  This device will slowly begin to suck in the functionality of cameras (both still and video), phones, and GPS devices.  Over time, this device will act as a means of interacting with "smart" environments that include embedded information (it will bridge the APIs for these environments and personalize the delivery of the embedded information). [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
3:34:08 PM    comment   

The solution is to subscribe to a location and preload everything you will need via an inexpensive P2P network.  Say I am going to Washington DC.  I want to preload the area (sites, places to eat, etc.).  To do that, I connect my mobile device to a broadband connection, interact with the webservice that provides me with the data and the names of the files I would be interested in (based on my preferences), and the PC downloads the files I need via a P2P network overnight. 

So, when I visit Washington, I can stand outside and play video clips by various historians telling me about the site I am standing in front of.  I can also pull up facts on the site.  The same would apply to places I may want to eat (a two minute promo clip by the restaurant, a set of reviews by independent experts and individuals, a menu, pricing, and discounts/promos).  The problem with PDAs and phones is that they 1) don't have enough visual real-estate (new PDAs do have bigger screens, phones do not), 2) aren't smart enough to run webservices and manage data, and 3) can't store all the content I need to make the experience compelling.  An OQO with a 1 Ghz processor, 10 Gb of storage, and a 4-inch touch screen can.

3:33:07 PM    comment   

>>> Microsoft Corp. is sticking to its belief that the PC will remain at the forefront of technology for years to come and that it will serve as the hub for a range of devices for homes and offices.<<<  Sure, but Jim doesn't understand that it will be webapps and webservices that will invigorate the PC platform and not Windows native apps bundled into the O/S.

>>>I have seen an ultra-mobile PC running Windows XP, and this will be a breathtaking step forward. It is the size of a Pocket PC with all the power of Windows XP.<<<  He must have seen OQO too. 

>>>We're making deep, deep investments in Longhorn. So what we plan on showing at our [Professional Developers Conference] later this year will be a set of new managed APIs that will let them have access to the new graphics architecture. Today, most machines ship with 3-D,
3 APIs that will let them have access to the new graphics architecture. Today, most machines ship with 3-D,f PCs.  Sounds similar to my conclusions.  Since Allchin is the guy calling the shots at Microsoft and the person behind the retreat from .Net, this is important.

>>> Microsoft Corp. is sticking to its belief that the PC will remain at the forefront of technology for years to come and that it will serve as the hub for a range of devices for homes and offices.<<<  Sure, but Jim doesn't understand that it will be webapps and webservices that will invigorate the PC platform and not Windows native apps bundled into the O/S.

>>>I have seen an ultra-mobile PC running Windows XP, and this will be a breathtaking step forward. It is the size of a Pocket PC with all the power of Windows XP.<<<  He must have seen OQO too. 

>>>We're making deep, deep investments in Longhorn. So what we plan on showing at our [Professional Developers Conference] later this year will be a s
3:31:31 PM    comment   

"Joel's .NET Strategy Why bother moving to .NET at all? Simply put, it's because .NET appears so far to be one of the most brilliant and productive development environments ever created." [John Barnhart's Weblog]

I have to admit, the environment is great.   I still haven't reached a comfort level with the black box nature of some of it, my concern is really one of performance (and that should come with time).  I disagree with Joel on the libraries to some extent -- while there is an enormous amount in the libraries I've all too often had to fall back to using interop with COM (UPnP, WMP, IE component for instance).  In terms of Java vs C#, syntactically they are so close I don't even have to do much of a "mind shift" to use one or the other.

2:47:48 PM    comment   

The start of many things to come: "Toshiba Corporation today unveiled a new concept in data storage with the announcement of a compact, lightweight Bluetooth^TM-enabled mobile storage device able to hold up to 5GB of data. The Bluetooth^TM Pocket Server opens the way to wireless data transmission across a wide range of digital products and is expected to promote the development of wireless mobile networks." [/.]

2:46:52 PM    comment