Imagine having the option or choice to check Google Maps for a location while out walking around on the roads, all integrated with a satellite location device so it can give you directions on the fly; check your emails; email some photos to a blog/album (hey, some people do regularly blog you know :); subscribe to your favorite podcasts and have them downloaded in the background; use Skype to call anywhere worldwide for a few cents a minute.
Yeah, I'm sure the Americans out there will be saying: iPhone. Afraid not, I had this all running on my phone on a first generation 3G (high-speed) mobile phone last year on my mobile operators network.
It's funny, I actually wrote this last week but due to various reasons had some other priorities and delayed in posting this as I wasn't happy anyway with how it was written. And then, as it always happen, I see two articles up on Ars Technia here and here regarding Google's latest stats and thoughts towards the mobile world.
Firstly, where did I use them? Most was on a Nokia 6680 (Nokia's first 3G phone that was offered in Ireland) and the only additional add-on required was a GPS module that worked via bluetooth (i.e. how your headset connects). Where was I using all these services?
Mapping services were used to find my way around London. Flying into a different airport, route directions on the fly was a gift
Gmail checks while traveling in China last year
Photo posts while in China
Podcasts: well, I only tried this out - I haven't really gotten into them yet ;)
Skype: the only one that didn't work on the Nokia (it still doesn't) and involved Windows Mobile. But perfect calls (most of the time)
Most of them I'm sure some people would consider as useful. There's a myriad of other possibilities of course that I'm sure I'm not mentioning (status update services like Twitter and Jaiku for example). Anyway back to my point, these are all possibilities for quite a while and there are only two people currently able to even considering trying most of those services: iPhone users (USA only at present) and Three mobile phone users in Europe (although a very limited percentage of the mobile population still). Mainly it's come down to the incumbent telcos not showing any willingness to offer these services at a sensible price. Whether it's a lack of ideas in how to make cash from these new services (i.e. does it become just a pipe to the internet - like your typical ISP for broadband in the home).
I'm starting to wonder if the iPhone is going to change this, along with Google's big pushes to get all it's services working on mobile devices. With almost a million iPhones already sold and no sign of abatement, and now recent rumors that they've managed to persuade some of the European telcos into a revenue sharing agreement. I can only imagine that this is just a rumor! Talk about shooting themselves in the foot if this is the case.
But considering I know how much my bill was for running these services at 2006 mobile rates (think several hundred Euros), I can only look forward to what is starting to happen.
The other article covers Google's current thinking regarding buying it's own frequency spectrum in the States. How's that for trying to scare the telcos. If Google took it's 'free' attitude to mobile phone networks and paid for them with advertisements, what happens to everyone else......
Showing posts with label social networks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social networks. Show all posts
Friday, August 24, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
My issue with Social Networks
The more I use social networks, the more impressed I am with it's usefulness for catching up with old friends and keeping a link to everyone I know. With the lifestyle I live at present (i.e. traveling), it's been fantastic for putting me in touch with some old friends I'd been wondering about. Obviously I'm sure there's a few people I didn't care to meet again ;)
But......I'm an email junkie. Been on it for over 10 years now and no intention of changing it. But now suddenly I find that as lots of people jump onto the Bebo/Facebook/MySpace bandwagon, they're using the 'comment' field and 'message' (email really) that's locked into the networks own systems. Which means I get a notification to my Gmail account to tell me that 'I've a new email from xyz' so I have to click on a link, sign in and then read their emails. Anyone else see the flaw in this?
O.k., I could just turn off all notifications but then again, I'm fairly sure I'd miss most of the messages as while Gmail just does email, the networking sites do their best to be jack-of-all-trades meaning that it's not always as clear what's new or updated.
so, anyone else wish there was some way to sort this out. Obviously, the nice way would be to allow integration (which I've blogged about before), but I can't really see this happening just yet as communication is the site's life-blood. All ideas are welcome.
On a side note, I saw an interesting quote from a prominent Web 2.0 blogger who commented that he saw social networking sites as telcos (i.e. they provide the network to communicate but are nothing more fancy) and couldn't really see the fad behind them. Interesting ideas, and if I can find the blog post again, I'll publish the link here. the joys of not having a permanent internet connection ;)
But......I'm an email junkie. Been on it for over 10 years now and no intention of changing it. But now suddenly I find that as lots of people jump onto the Bebo/Facebook/MySpace bandwagon, they're using the 'comment' field and 'message' (email really) that's locked into the networks own systems. Which means I get a notification to my Gmail account to tell me that 'I've a new email from xyz' so I have to click on a link, sign in and then read their emails. Anyone else see the flaw in this?
O.k., I could just turn off all notifications but then again, I'm fairly sure I'd miss most of the messages as while Gmail just does email, the networking sites do their best to be jack-of-all-trades meaning that it's not always as clear what's new or updated.
so, anyone else wish there was some way to sort this out. Obviously, the nice way would be to allow integration (which I've blogged about before), but I can't really see this happening just yet as communication is the site's life-blood. All ideas are welcome.
On a side note, I saw an interesting quote from a prominent Web 2.0 blogger who commented that he saw social networking sites as telcos (i.e. they provide the network to communicate but are nothing more fancy) and couldn't really see the fad behind them. Interesting ideas, and if I can find the blog post again, I'll publish the link here. the joys of not having a permanent internet connection ;)
Friday, August 10, 2007
Social Networks
I thought I'd start off this new blog on the current fad or phenomenon of the internet: Social Networks.
As I slowly get pulled into their use, I find myself fighting against what I see is their inherent problem: their 'walled garden' approach. I find it extremely awkward and frustrating at the limitation of how I'm completely locked into their network with no visible hope (at present) of being able to extract my information if I decide to move.
With accounts on Bebo (for my Irish friends - it being the most popular in Ireland), MySpace (friends in the States - most popular there), Facebook (currently seems to be making a rapid ascent through the field and drawing all and sundry to it's site), and LinkedIn (work networking), it's a frustrating experience.
In fairness, LinkedIn is a slightly different type of networking so I'll exclude that from this post. Although, as I write, that doesn't make complete sense either as it's still social networking!
Facebook is probably my shining light at present as they've (slightly) opened up access to embed other information in them. With most of my photos already on Picassa and Flickr, I've been able to access and publish these photos to Facebook without having to re-upload them to Facebook also (through their external application modules). Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and a more open framework amongst the networking sites.
Having said that, with Facebook now the primary competition for all the sites (as Rupert Murdoch said recently, "everyone is going to Facebook"), it'll be interesting to see whether the other sites follow suit.
Since writing this, I've also found a link through Lifehacker for a Wired article with the same complaints. Interestingly, the writer doesn't seem completely aware of the more open approach of Facebook....
On a side note, the closest I've seen from Google in this space is their latest addition to Blogger where you can search through your own profile for people of similar interests. It's a long way from what the competition is offering but it'll be interesting to see if this is a push of theirs into this space.
As I slowly get pulled into their use, I find myself fighting against what I see is their inherent problem: their 'walled garden' approach. I find it extremely awkward and frustrating at the limitation of how I'm completely locked into their network with no visible hope (at present) of being able to extract my information if I decide to move.
With accounts on Bebo (for my Irish friends - it being the most popular in Ireland), MySpace (friends in the States - most popular there), Facebook (currently seems to be making a rapid ascent through the field and drawing all and sundry to it's site), and LinkedIn (work networking), it's a frustrating experience.
In fairness, LinkedIn is a slightly different type of networking so I'll exclude that from this post. Although, as I write, that doesn't make complete sense either as it's still social networking!
Facebook is probably my shining light at present as they've (slightly) opened up access to embed other information in them. With most of my photos already on Picassa and Flickr, I've been able to access and publish these photos to Facebook without having to re-upload them to Facebook also (through their external application modules). Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and a more open framework amongst the networking sites.
Having said that, with Facebook now the primary competition for all the sites (as Rupert Murdoch said recently, "everyone is going to Facebook"), it'll be interesting to see whether the other sites follow suit.
Since writing this, I've also found a link through Lifehacker for a Wired article with the same complaints. Interestingly, the writer doesn't seem completely aware of the more open approach of Facebook....
On a side note, the closest I've seen from Google in this space is their latest addition to Blogger where you can search through your own profile for people of similar interests. It's a long way from what the competition is offering but it'll be interesting to see if this is a push of theirs into this space.
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