DeepDarkSee

OK, I’m out to win this trip to Seoul, and had some fun writing about “The key features of the phone of the future.” in 200-300 words for the entry!  I decided to go ‘first person’ to try to make it accessible.  Here is what I submitted:

My new phone connects to everything around me, it’s got a great display for viewing information, and lets me use voice commands or a mini keyboard for privacy.  Features I want are immediately available to me from the net, yet within all this, I retain control over my personal information.

I make voice and video calls, but what I really have is a personal technology access point.  By the way, you should check out my screen.  It’s usable as one side of my credit card sized ‘access point’, but a flip of the cover and it folds out to four times that size with a mini keyboard for private texting!

OK, so time to try to walk the talk.  Why should my files, emails, calendar and such be tied to a physical device?  So here’s what I’m doing.

Files:  I’m using Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service along with JungleDisk’s virtual disk software.  What does this mean?  All my stuff gets stored (encrypted) at a service in the internet, but it looks like a local hard drive to any computer I connect it to (and is available via a browser).

Email, Contacts, and Calendar:  I’ve moved my contacts and calendar to GMail, and setup GMail to check all my existing email accounts and consolidate them there.  One interface, access to all the stuff, great search and archive capability.  Privacy?  Well, I pulled some bank account info out of a couple contacts (that shouldn’t have been there anyway).  Beyond that, do I really do anything that secret?  And with a last name like Nassar, maybe completely open is better!  I’ve got it push-syncing to and from my iPhone - good bye Apple Mobile Me.

Basic productivity apps:  Hello Google Docs - word processing, spreadsheets, etc.

Misc notes, links, and encrypted stuff (like bank account info and passwords):  I’m using a service called Evernote, which is great for clipping and storing things, and allows encryption of any data I desire.  Same deal, install the software on any computer I sit down at, and have full access.  It also works on my iphone and the web (but web doesn’t show encrypted info).

I can sit down at any computer and do email/contacts/calendar, and with a quick download/install of JungleDisk and Evernote, I’m pretty much in business.  Because I’m a techie, depending on what is on a computer I’m using, I might need to download and install a text editor, sftp software, or even a development environment - then SVN in the source.

Time will tell, but I’m hopefully in the process of eliminating my tether to a specific computer.  This is pretty cool!

“If you think you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re the fool.” 
“Sell to one customer.  Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.”
“Fail fast.  Fire, aim, repeat.”
and many more great axioms for Web next.0 - at UnstructuredVentures

and the best article I’ve read in a long time on “what’s next on the web” is a review of answers to that question when posted to ReadWriteWeb users.  Well worth a read.

So it’s been a while. Kathryn and I are hitting the gym 3 times a week and share a personal trainer. She’s off for two weeks at a Spanish language immersion school in Peurto Vallarta next week, and Audrey is off to summer camp as a “CIT.” I’m still doing things for Bones in Motion and Rocket Mobile, but have been spending lots of time with Moblyng on their mobile strategy and build-out. We’re doing interesting things with video to mobile phones, and web sites that adapt to different phone browser capabilities. Some secret stuff that should pop out soon too! BiM was a great ride, but it’s really fun to involved with a fresh new start-up.

I’ve also been looking at what I want to do next as a self funded project. Lots of digging around Marine related resources on the web, and pondering iPhone app opportunities. I’m really pleased, as an early iPhone adapter, that I’ve got all the capabilities of the new phone except the faster network and better GPS. Go Apple!

Whether you consider global warming to be a scare, or an impending disaster, it’s an important issue in our lives. I recently came across a short presentation by a high school science teacher that shares some interesting perspective on the global warming issue from a cost/benefit perspective.

I’m asking you to watch the first minute or two of this video clip on YouTube. It’s 10 minutes long total, but all I ask is that you take a couple minutes to see if it has value to you. I think it will.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_anaVcCXg

Spencer

I sent this to a contact at NAVTEQ today after a conversation on mobile and maps earlier in the week at the Moto Developer Summit in San Jose.  I think this is an opportunity waiting to be leveraged, by a map vendor, or mapping web service provider (ESRI, Autodesk, you there?).  I also think that in cases where carriers mandate map providers, this kind of thinking could win contracts.

As a developer, we want to do more with maps on handsets.  We want to pan and zoom, turn layers on and off, add custom layers, and have a responsive UI experience for the user.  I looked hard for some solutions for this 2.5 years ago as we got started, and have kept poking around since.  This solution means vector maps to me, but as Google as shown, it can also be done ‘marginally well’ with tiles on handsets.  We do it like most right right now with single static images or small groups of tiles.

The key issue is that as a single developer, we don’t have the resources to build a great map display engine in our Java and BREW apps.  We also don’t want to run our own map servers (we use ESRI). 

I was (and am) really surprised that no vendor has shown up at the table offering a map display/rendering module for BREW and for JavaME that developer can adopt and use in their apps. This would be VERY leveraging for developers.I think that a company that solves these problems would be very well received.  I could even see the license for the tool require a certain map vendor. 

I could see NAVTEQ doing this, and working with companies like ESRI or AutoDesk to serve  (and enable their leased servers) vector data to the handset display components you provide.  It just seems like a win-win situation all around.  You don’t step on the toes of your content resellers or server vendors, you enable customers, and you lock in NAVTEQ as the map source.

On a related topic, I think the JSR-293 Location API 2.0, the replacement of the JSR-179 JavaME standard for GPS, provides an interesting opportunity for NAVTEQ along these same lines.  The new standard includes a map display component.  NAVTEQ could write a reference implementation of the map component, but even more interestingly, NAVTEQ could build and make available a super charged version of the implementation - not as a reference but as a value add implementation.  It could be the kind of high end vector display capability that would turn peoples heads, and could be locked to NAVTEQ content (through your existing distribution channels).  This could be part of that same “super handset map display component” work effort.

I see these as opportunities to take a leadership position, as well as advantage NAVTEQ in the mobile space.

Great article over at Read/WriteWeb. I’m not sure I’d call it “Web 3.0″, maybe more just good use of what’s been called Web 2.0 for a while.

It’s about combining features from multiple services to create your own site based ecosystem for your specific purpose as a site.

Runner’s World is launching “Wireless Run Tracker” - powered by Bones in Motion. A huge step for our company. We may make it on the map yet!

Take your training to the next level with Wireless Run Tracker. Record your speed, distance, route and caloric burn during your run through the convenience of a GPS enabled cell phone.

• Upload data such as mile splits, speed, distance, and calories burned to your PC
• Real time pace information displayed on your cell phone
• Access hundreds of running routes
• Track your progress online
• Create routes on Google maps
• Blog your results instantly

We’ve been working for a very long time to be one of the first third party LBS (GPS) applications on the Verizon Wireless service. BiM Active is availabe on Verizon phones as of this week! We’re already on Sprint and Nextel.

Why is BiM Active interesting? Check out the recording of a snowboard run below… made with a mobile phone! And the mainstream uses, like running, hiking, cycling, aren’t bad either!

I spent some time experimenting with Google Pages this weekend.  It looks very promising. It’s just what it should be, an easy, if limited, and useful tool for allowing “anyone” to create a web page.  My test page - nothing speical - is here.