As I recently wrote in a piece “Mobile in the 3G Era” for a forthcoming book “Mobile Mania”, the future of mobile is smart-following. This means following what others do. If a trusted and respected friend buys brand X, then his or her followers might buy brand X too. Ditto, what they read, watch, listen, […]

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These past few days have been spent in anxiety. My wife had a major operation. It has been stressful for all of us.
I’m not going to voice my complaints here about the healthcare service in the UK, as I know that with it being “free”, we’re luckier than most. However, I can certainly suggest some […]

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Do you think that these guys (hypertag) should be speaking to these guys (umbrolly)?

Wireless “data vending” is generating interest. Nokia has a product….
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I just watched a recording of Dragons’ Den and saw the pitch for funding an umbrella vending machine. I love it! So here it is….

My mind is spinning with ideas to do with mobiles and wireless and vending!
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We don’t want to be like Paris Hilton do we? I mean, talented actress, maybe, but not victims of mobile-data theft (or so we’re told). To avoid having our camera-phone photos, address books, or whatever else, being stolen, we need protection.
Moreover, we may just want better privacy. If I take pictures of my family and […]

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I’m so incredibly out of touch with the celeb world, that I’m probably at least 10 degrees apart from Paris Hilton, never mind 6. I don’t know who she is, but she entered my world when my Google Alerts told me her phone had been hacked.
In itself, hacking Hilton’s phone is not that interesting. Being […]

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Following on from idea #14, I did a quick search on speech recognition for archived audio files and found HP Lab’s Speechbot. It is currently analysing audio files on the net from various sources with an accuracy as high as 80% (i.e. successful speech recognition).
These kind of accuracies are probably useable, but for analysis of […]

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Hasbro has announced ChatNow, a non-cellular mobile device aimed at kids. My kids already use the Cybiko Xtreme, which is a great device and they think of it as their “Blackberry” like Daddy’s. Its user interface is worth exploring. Things designed for kids are perhaps good for adults too!
It occurs to me that if these […]

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The idea of recording phone calls is not new. Wax cylinder recorders were possible in the early days of telephony. What is new, in the age of cheap and dense memory, is the potential to record everything we ever say. Perhaps we can start with our phone calls.
Recording on the device is one option, as […]

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My Mum keeps a paper address book with all her phone numbers in it. She uses a pen to enter addresses, which, as I posted earlier, is an essential tool missing from most mobile phones. Entering contacts is not easy for people like my Mum, so in effect they are “pen-less”. What use is an […]

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A quick search reveals that these guys (Veepers) are already doing mobile avatars…look’s interesting, though it doesn’t have the real-time element.
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Avatars are machine-representations of humans and they exist in cyberspace. An interesting commercial use is Sitepal, which I find fascinating. You create an avatar who welcomes and assists visitors to your website. Check out their demo - it’s impressive. It might take off, but at a much lower price.
Way back in the early 90’s, I […]

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Seth Godin rightly says RFID is the next big thing, linking us to Xtreme Retailing 23. Included is the incredible Paypass system from Mastercard. But that’s not as extreme as Nokias NFC shell that embeds RFID in the mobile phone. Wave your phone over anything and interact!
Think of using the phone as a Paypass card […]

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In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam told us that Americans do less things socially than ever before. They increasingly spend their lives alone. More time commuting, less time at home with family. More time watching TV, less time with friends. A disturbing trend.
Less well known perhaps is his follow-up book “Better Together“.
Can mobile technology bring people […]

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According to a piece on Wired, there are precious few women running tech companies. Well, I don’t get it. I don’t meet many women that interested in technology, precious few passionate about it. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, or know why it’s so.
That debate aside, is there any benefit in thinking about mobile […]

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