Three (OK, Four) Cool Stories
Three cool stories about what I see as converging technologies:
- Networked Video gets a Chip. ViXS is ready to deliver its XCode processor for delivering broadcast quality video at a full 30 frames per second over wireless LANs.
- Samsung Looks for Middle Ground in Handheld Market. With the size of a PDA but the face of a notebook, Samsung is hoping its new NEXiO will appeal to mobile professionals that want more out of their handheld devices.
[Both from  allNetDevices Wireless News, 9/26/2002; 12:43:56 AM.]
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Labels shoot selves in foot by focusing on stopping P2P. A new KPMG study concludes that the RIAA and its member companies are hurting themselves by focusing on cracking down on P2P sharing instead of figuring out ways to earn a living with it. Link Discuss (Thanks, Michael!) [ Boing Boing Blog, 9/25/2002; 12:01:23 PM]
So, we are now at a point where your wireless handheld could have an embedded chip that decodes all availalbe MPEG streams, and, should labels wise up, this could be streamed to you wirelessly. Oh, combine this with
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Can Libraries Circulate Videos To PDAs Now?.
"Despite the imbalanced nature of several panels, the conference was still well worth attending, with some terrifically sharp questions from the audience and some combative give and take on panels such as the State of the Industry roundtable, where Intertainer CEO Jonathan Taplin said his startup was willing to take on the Hollywood studios in court, after the studios had cut the number of movies available to his company from 1,500 titles to 15. The verbal shot across the bow, as it turned out, was accompanied by court papers, which were being filed the very same moment in federal court, alleging that the studios had violated antitrust laws by forming their own cartel, Movielink. (The San Jose Merc has the story today here.)" [JD's New Media Musings][http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/"> The Shifted Librarian, 9/26/2002; 12:43:51 AM.]
Now we have the opportunity for your local library to stream a file to you, wirelessly, wherever you are in the range of their WiFi network*. Imagine if you could "check out" public domain recordings that are streamed to you, allowing you to listen to music, read books that are from Project Gutenberg, watch movies, or access the internet, all from your home, and all because instead of a library card, you've got a NEXiO that the library lends out to users, allowing them to get all kinds of information that they have on hand.
Instead of giving kids full blown laptops, give them NEXiOs (or OQOs) and then they have something small enough to be carried easily, but so useful that they will not soon forget it. Get the school or library to use a P2P network like a customized version of The Circle for file sharing, or better yet Frontier so that the kids can upload/download their homework, check their grades via a Flash based digital dash, and keep an eye on their schedules (Userland, have you considered this market?) Parents can keep track of their kids performance, as well as keeping an eye on their schedule from wherever they might be.
Now imagine that the library/school/town has an IMbot that retrieves information for you, just the basics for now (Library hours, is a particular title available), but later it could be programmed to do an information request interview (Forgive me Jenny, for forgetting the proper term) to help you get the info you need, either from home, on the road, or via the NEXiO.
So how do labels fit into all of this? They should be using local libraries as a means of distributing music files, either as a donation to the libraries, or by helping to convert their existing music banks to MP3 in order to share the music with local users. By providing the hardware and training to do so, they would then help the communities to get a leg up technology wise, and get some local good will going.
*I've been reading about WiFi networks that are getting a 20km range through a combination of directional antenna arrays and masts. A new use for the town clock tower, water tower, or co-locate with a hidden cellular tower? regardless, this would more than cover most towns, if not some smaller cities.
8:21:10 AM 
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