GPS receivers are too expensive. The price point needs to be $100 instead of $300-500. At $100, everyone will buy GPS. Otherwise, they will wait until it is incorporated in every vehicle, computer, and cellphone as it will some day. The GPS manufacturers like Garmin could offset this lower cost by providing location-based advertising. When you get near a Starbucks, for example, the GPS receiver could display a small advertisement alongside your map with a special offer for coffee. It would be like AdSense advertising for presence.
Technology
Tumblelogs with tumblr
Tumblelogs are a good way to annotate and clip items from the Internet. Now, with a service called tumblr you can make a scrapbook like blog of interesting videos, photos, quotes, and links from your journeys around the web. Tumblr automatically pulls down your del.icio.us items and posts those, too, if you’d like to keep everything centralized. Check out the letterneversent tumblelog for an example.
Cool stuff you can do with Google Spreadsheets
I’ve been using Google Docs for a while now. I love the concept of easy online document management and collaboration. I’ve tried to set up wiki-based solutions, content management systems, etc. for collaboration in the past, but Google Docs does exactly what I need it to do. It just works.
The only problem I’ve add is getting anyone else to use it. For some reason, no matter what I do, the people I work with find it too difficult to use. I’ll share a document with a coworker and they’ll never use it or open it. So, I’ve stuck to using it for tasks of my own or for people who work for me.
I use the word processing app, formerly known as Writely, from time to time, but I use Google Spreadsheets the most. I’m always finding new things I can do with it and since it’s online I can access it from any computer.
Here are some of the things I use it for:
- Timesheets: I have a few freelancers I work with on a regular basis. It used to be that they would write down their hours over a few weeks and then submit an invoice at the end of the billing period. Now I just have them add their hours directly into a spreadsheet. It autoformats the various columns, calculates total hours and pay, and allows me to stay on top of our progress on various projects.
- Asset logging: At work we often have to purchase equipment for our centers. I use Google Spreadsheets to keep track of all the various information related to company equipment: serial numbers, assignments, etc.
- Invoice tracking: If you have invoices that need to be paid or invoices that you need to submit to your clients, an online spreadsheet is a good way to keep track of them. Just list the invoices with invoice numbers, amounts, and the date submitted and you’ll have an easier time following up on them.
- Task / change requests: When you work on a project with other people you’ll often need to keep track of change requests or suggested revisions.
What kind of things do you do in spreadsheets?
The network is the computer
Jeremy Allison puts it well:
There are now no interesting non-networked applications. Standalone computers are devices for watching stored video or listening to music, usually on airplanes. People doing offline email are simply working in an extreme case of a network disconnect, a rather large network latency if you will. The Internet has become the real computing environment of the next century and all programming will become network programming. This is a more challenging environment than programmers have been used to, with connection, latency and concurrency problems making our work much more interesting than it used to be on the standalone DOS box. All entertainment and communications such as television, radio and the telephone network will move onto the Internet. Poor Sun Microsystems were twenty years too early with their “the network is the computer” slogan, but they will eventually be proven right.
The phone is the platform
In a few short years, the “smartphone” will be the de facto personal computer: connected, mobile, and fully integrated into Life. Desktops will never go away completely, but 90% of what you do will be done from your phone: email, photography, video, voice, instant messaging, music, gps and mapping, web surfing, etc. All of these things are currently possible with existing products such as the Blackberry and the Palm Treo. The smartphone platform will succeed because it frees you from your desk.
This will lead to a huge shift in business and in life. Already the boundaries are blurring between work and home life. With ready access to the Internet, workers are bringing life into the workplace and the workplace is bringing work into the rest of your life. Rules and custom will adapt to meet this new reality. Ultimately, I believe it will foster a flexibility and connectedness that will be good for both employees and business.
There is a war brewing to see who will ride the wave of society’s shift toward full mobile computing. It will be interesting to see how the landscape changes. In ten years, I think we will always be connected wirelessly through our personal communication device. It will likely still be called a ‘phone’, but it will do everything you need. It will integrate with various systems at work, in the car, at home, and everywhere else. Desktop computers may exist only as specialized devices to amplify computing power or display output. Your personal device will connect to larger screens, full keyboards and specialized input devices, as well as networked cameras, sensors, and storage. But, all your files will exist in one place and your phone will be your tether to the rest of the world.
The necessary conditions for this shift:
- Ubiquitous high-speed Internet access: Wifi, EVDO, EDGE, Ultra Wide Band, etc. networks will eventually connect everyone.
- Networked and online storage.
- Mobile apps: web 2.0 stuff like Gmail, Flickr, etc. and specialized apps built for the smartphone.
Some businesses are in better position than others to benefit.
The businesses on offense:
- Smartphone companies, primarily Research in Motion – The maker of the wildly successful Blackberry is in good position. They’re very competitive and have made it easier for developers to develop products for the Blackberry. They’ve also continued to add good features like built-in GPS, camera, and media capabilities. They’re the current 800-lb gorilla and their margins are superior since they build everything in house rather than outsourcing to third parties.
- The cellular carriers: Verizon, Cingular (AT&T), and T-Mobile – Any mobile computing scenario will depend on the carriers. I think more people will move to broadband-over-cellular versus WiFi. A cellular Internet connection is persistent, more secure than WiFi, and personal. No need to find hotspots or worry about someone sniffing your WiFi traffic. It’s ideal for mobile computing and complements the current cellular voice network.
- Microsoft – Windows Mobile is rapidly becoming the default OS for commodity level smartphones like the HTC handsets. This could be the entry point for many consumers.
- Google / Yahoo! – Both Google and Yahoo! have been very supportive of mobile computing. Google has produced several applications especially for smartphones including versions of Google Maps, Google Reader, Gmail, and Google Talk. Any web company who caters to handhelds will stand to benefit.
The businesses on defense:
- GPS device manufacturers – GPS is quickly becoming a commodity product. Soon GPS chips and software will be available on all phones, cameras, video cameras, etc. Grabbing GPS coordinates will just be another basic function, like a temperature reading. Why carry multiple devices when you can have one that integrates into everything else? Companies like Garmin and TomTom are already anticipating this shift and are trying desperately to enter the smartphone market. They are unlikely to be successful.
- Apple – Apple created one of the first truly successful mobile devices, the iPod. The iPod did not succeed because it is the best device ever, it succeeded because Apple was the first serious company to really get behind downloadable music. They sensed the consumer appetite and they bet on it. I remember back in the old days when you had to find a CD player that would play mp3’s. No one really took it seriously even though people had been downloading mp3’s since 1996-1997. Apple saw the potential and moved in before anyone else. This is why they succeeded, not because they make the best products in the world. Everyone else was just asleep at the wheel after the fall of Napster. Apple is extremely vulnerable right now. They have the same problem the GPS companies have in that their bread and butter is quickly becoming just another application. When you can get your music and video on your phone or over the network why would you use Apple? The iPhone is pretty, but I think it will be a marginal success at best. Unlike with mp3 players, the smartphone market is very competitive. Apple had to ‘redefine’ the device to keep from looking like a late arrival, so they added a touch screen. While being a creative interface, it is nothing more than a gimmick. The iPhone is a toy aimed at consumers. At this point, it is not serious.
- Low-end camera makers (point and shoot) – Like with GPS and media capabilities, photography and video are becoming just embedded capabilities. The camera will just be another sensory input on your phone. Already, the high-end smartphones provide 1.5-2 megapixel cameras built-in with flash and zoom. People are becoming accustomed to taking photos and shooting them to friends or across the web.
- Handheld game makers – Most people want basic games. In a mobile setting, these games will be played on smartphones. Already several game companies like Magmic are specializing in developing games for the mobile environment.
- Satellite anything – Satellite radio, satellite internet, satellite television is too expensive to launch and too difficult to upgrade to newer hardware. It’s much easier to just expand network coverage to where 90% of the people are. As soon as cars are connected to the wireless cellular networks with access to the Internet and media, they will replace satellite-based alternatives. Satellite radio is already starting to receive competition from terrestial broadcasters in the form of HD radio. The sound quality of satellite radio is notoriously bad. Add online radio to the mix and they’re doomed. I have a feeling satellite radio subscriber numbers are heavily inflated given that I cancelled my XM radio account over a year ago and yet it still miraculously works. In light of this shift to “connected media”, the recent royalty increases for online broadcasting make sense as barriers against non-commercial players.
In conclusion, any business that is not connected to the central personal communication device (the “phone”) and to the network is vulnerable. It’s very difficult to accurately predict the future, however I believe the trend to mobile computing that started with laptops and iPods will culminate in a fully portable, connected voice, media and data device.
Duet Hosting: New Website Design
In 2002 or so, I started a web hosting company, mainly to serve my web design clients and friends and to allow me to start as many websites as I wanted for minimal added cost. I’ve hated the old design for a while now, but haven’t had time to update it. I was messing around last weekend and designed a new website and built it out in a few hours. It was a lot of fun and a relief, in a way.
Some things I’ve done differently versus what I did 3-4 years ago:
- Full CSS/XHTML design
- Scalable design using php includes so I don’t have to change five different pages just to change the footer text
- More spacing. White space is good.
- Randomized testimonials using php
- Google Analytics to go with the rest of my sites, so I can view my site stats all in one place.
- Reskinned the billing login interface, suspended pages template, and new account skeleton pages to match the rest of the site.
I’d like to get some feedback from you. I’ve already received a few good suggestions about the usability of the site, which were really helpful, so look out for those issues especially. When you’re building anything you’re often too close to the project to be objective, so feedback would help fix any glaring problems.
I don’t get Twitter
Twitter is this website where anyone can post what they’re doing right now. You can post to Twitter from your cell phone, computer, email, Wii, etc. It’s like a group MySpace page or something, which I don’t get either. The usual sorts are drinking the kool-aid and posting every time they get a coffee or do something at SXSW. Does anyone really want to know everything I think or do in the course of my daily life? Do you enjoy knowing what all your friends are doing? Maybe I’m the weird one.
It seems like Twitter is MySpace/Facebook/Bebo for the more sociable, blogging nerds. It’s new and it’s social. Those seem to be the important qualities.
One of the problems I have with the web is that novelty-seekers (or, as they proclaim themselves, “early adopters”) tend to talk a lot and often and thus seem to wield a strange influence by creating excitement about new, cool things. Often through sheer volume of activity, the novelty locusts latch onto something good and worthwhile. But, in the case of Twitter, I don’t think so.
In a way, it reminded me of the “cat in ur _____” meme, except twitter will not make you laugh. So, I did this image of cats using twitter, which makes just as much sense as people using it.
See also:
My review of SimulScribe (voicemail transcription service)
Price: $9.99 per month for 40 messages. $.25 each additional message.
I hate listening to voice mail. It’s one of those things that you can’t really just take in at a ‘glance’ because speech is a linear way to deliver information. If you have an email you can speed up your reading by skipping over words or sentences to get a taste for what you’re reading. Luckily, there are now services to transcribe your voicemail and convert to email or text message. I’m trying one right now called SimulScribe.
Set up process
For SimulScribe, the set up is painless. You create an account then you receive an email with instructions based on your mobile provider for enabling selective call forwarding that forwards your calls to SimulScribe if you fail to answer the telephone. This works the exact same way your voicemail normally works. It’s simply rerouted to SimulScribe.
Using the service: Callers
On the caller’s end they receive your voicemail greeting after about six rings. SimulScribe includes a tagline for their service with instructions to speak slowly. The tagline can be removed in the account settings, however removing this tagline adds $.05 to each transcribed message. If I had few missed calls per month, I would probably remove this and pay the extra five cents.
Checking your voicemail
Each account has a voicemail number you can dial to listen to your voicemail as you normally would. On most phones, you can set up your voicemail speed dial key to use this new number, so that your process remains the same. As soon as a message is left, you can listen to it in your voicemail, even if the call has not yet been transcribed. You can also review a record of your voicemail messages at the SimulScribe website.
Receiving the call transcription
Once the call has been transcribed, you will receive a transcription message via SMS (text message) on your cell phone or by email on your mobile device or computer. The email transcript of the message will include an attached .wav file recording for review.
In two tests, I placed a call for 26 seconds and another call for 60 seconds, the limit for a voicemail message. For the 26 second message, the transcript was received within 5 minutes. For the 60 second message, the transcript was received within 15 minutes. This seems too long and the wait could be due to heavy usage, however this system was tested on the weekend, which is generally a slow time for call traffic. For important calls, I might end up calling voicemail, otherwise I’m fine with a delay of 5-10 minutes, especially considering how much quicker it is to read your voicemail than to actually listen to it.
Accuracy
In two tests, the transcription system was pretty accurate. It has trouble with acronyms and seldom used words, but the transcripts are more than enough to convey the meaning and content of the messages. SimulScribe also allows you to have the message re-transcribed by simply replying to the original transcript email.
In one of the tests, I read from the Gettysburg Address (Bliss copy version. Lincoln had several versions.):
Hi Chris,
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated (Call ended with SimulScribe ‘Goodbye’ message)
This was the transcribed result:
Hi Chris. (phonetic ‘Four score’) and seven years ago. Our fathers is brought forth on this continent and (phonetic ‘new nation’) conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war. Testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here, gave their lives,that that nation might live is altogether fitting a proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. We cannot concentrate. We cannot hollow this ground. The brave man, living in dead and struggled here have (phonetic ‘concentrated’) it. Far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but I can’t what they did here. It is for us to living rather to be dedicated…
As someone who has a tendency to mumble over certain words and blend words together, the result is very good. Attached is a recording of my call.
Integration with home or office phone systems
To transcribe your home calls, contact your phone service provider and ask if “Call Forward No Answer” is available on your line. This feature is available on 80%-90% of landline phones in the US. If the feature is available, set up “Call Forward No Answer” to your SimulScribe number.
If your office phone system can send voicemail as an attached recording via email (approximately 50% of office phone systems have this feature including ours), have the email sent directly from the office phone system to “insert SimulScribe number”@my.simulscribe.com. SimulScribe will then transcribe the message and send it to the locations that you have specified in your user profile.
Conclusion
SimulScribe is very cool. If you hate voicemail, or have a lot of meetings at work where you can’t talk on the phone, it’s perfect. They have a free week trial if you want to test it out.
How to open .wav voicemail attachments on the Blackberry
My voice mail at work is set up so when I get a message it’s sent to my email as an attachment. When I get back to my desk I just play the file on my computer to hear the message. No need to navigate the voice mail system via the telephone. It’s easy.
The only problem with this is if I’m on my Blackberry I can’t just open the .wav file from the email and listen to the message, although I can open other attachments. Wav files just don’t work that way in Blackberry OS 4.1. The Blackberry 8800 will have this ability supposedly, but the 8700 does not. Since I’d much rather open the recorded file on the handheld than call my corporate voice mail, this is not fun.
Ironically, you can play .wav files from the web browser. So, we can use a workaround. If you want to be able to get your voice mail .wav files to play on the Blackberry do the following:
- Create an Outlook rule or email filter to automatically forward the email from your voice mail system to your Gmail account.
- Go into your Blackberry Browser options and set the Emulation to “Microsoft IE”. You have to do this to get the normal Gmail interface, otherwise Gmail will try to serve you the mobile version of Gmail.
- Now when you receive a voice mail notification on your Blackberry, open up the browser and log in to your web mail.
- Open the notification message and use the link to download the attachment. It should start playing in the media player as soon as it downloads completely.
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Blackberry 8800: Duh… make two different models
The Blackberry is the best smartphone currently available. Period. If you’ve ever used a Treo, Motorola Q, and a Blackberry, you know this. There’s no point in even debating it. That being said, there are a few things that have been missing from the Blackberry that everyone else has, like a built-in camera, for example. There’s a reason for this, however. Since Blackberry is the dominant platform among big business and government they’ve been reluctant to include anything that could compromise security or even create this perception…like a built-in camera or removable storage.
One of the biggest selling points for the Blackberry is that it’s an integrated hardware-software solution. In other words, Research in Motion develops both the hardware and the software, rather than just making the device you could run Windows Mobile on a la the Motorola Q. This makes the Blackberry very stable and usable. Another cool thing about the Blackberry from the standpoint of large organizations is that they can be remotely wiped (like if you lost it) and each functional piece of the device can be locked down by the admin. In some organizations, you might disable web browsing or copy/pasting, for example. Even though each piece can be locked down, Blackberry couldn’t just release an enterprise-level version that came ONLY with a camera as they did with the prosumer-targeted Pearl. This could potentially alienate large, security-conscious customers who want mobile email, but don’t want anyone taking photos and leaking stuff they shouldn’t. So, with the Blackberry 8800 slated for Spring 2007 release they came up with the perfect solution: make two models of the same device. One with a camera, one without. Genius!
This makes me very glad since I want both a camera and the full-qwerty keyboard available on the 8800. And as someone who owns a few shares of RIMM, I also don’t want them to drive off large government contracts.
As an aside, I have to say that RIMM’s management has really been doing a great job. They’re crushing the competition and releasing great products.