Cell Phones For The Elderly – Brilliant

May 18, 2006 By

Motorola has a new patent for a cell phone for the elderly. Amazingly enough I am in the market for just such a phone. Too bad I need to buy one tomorrow. My dad has been very sick lately and is in a nursing home. For some reason getting phone service there is a big hassle. My mom said it would be easier to just get him a cell phone, so off I went shopping. I have not found what I want yet but did run to this article. 

Most cell phones are designed for young people with fingers well trained to tap out sms messages on tiny keypads. Even the advanced Blackberry's and Palm Treo's have the smallest of keyboards. But older people, especially ones that are ill cannot easily deal with the small buttons.  

This is a great idea as more and more "boomers" become old people. You may not need this kind of cell phone, but your grandma does.

Filed Under: Mobile Computing

Lazy Ramadi

May 16, 2006 By

In true social/citizen media form, one of many videos that take off from the original "Lazy Sunday" skit originally broadcast on Saturday Night Live. NBC has taken down the original video that was posted to YouTube, a decision that almost nobody understands. Here you had one of the most viral videos going and everyone knew it was originated from SNL. If NBC were smart they would produce more short form videos for this kids of viral distribution. This could fuel the fire for SNL, possibly creating some real buzz around it. This one skit has had at least 4 different citizen produced spin-off videos. Think of the community network momentum NBC could build around this show if they collected and published all the fan videos on the SNL website. When people are so turned on by your product that they want to remix, mashup and re-distribute it, that's a good thing. 

The amount of short form video that is out now on the net is exploding. AOL has now jumped into the game as well with AOL UnCut.  YouTube has a new feature that allows you to upload video directly from your cell phone to the service. It's already started, but more and more we will see things like the first video/pictures from a news event being uploaded from citizen journalists to services like YouTube and Flickr direct from their cell phones as it happens. If I were CNN, I would create a service to collect this stuff for myself and I would set up a payment system for video or photos that get used on air. 

Filed Under: Citizen Media

My Yahoo Broken?

May 16, 2006 By

For the past few days my.yahoo.com has been not working for me. The weather does not show correctly and most of the news items say "no new items". I get most of my basic news and info from my yahoo and it's killing me being down like this. Anyone know what's going on?

Filed Under: Web 2.0

Geek Speak – The Dreaded “2.0″

May 16, 2006 By

The newest trend from the tech trenches is to call everything "2.0". It all started with "web 2.0". I think I have heard "Advertising 2.0". More are sure to follow. Look at the categories for this blog, three of them with 2.0. Maybe Second Life should have been called "Life 2.0" instead. When do we cross over into blogging 2.0? podcasting 2.0? Yea, I have a blogging 2.5 app running on a web 3.0 platform. No wonder common folks have a hard time with the net sometimes. I just figured out my cell phone and now you want me to subscribe to an rss…a podcast. I already read a blog, I think.

Filed Under: Web 2.0

Television 2.0

May 16, 2006 By

Steve Rubel agrees with me. Or am I agreeing with Steve. Either way, more and more people are seeing the future as I do with television being transformed into an on-demand, subscription Internet model. You will also have more options a to where you view your TV content. On your standard tv for sure, but now also on your video iPod or other portable video device and the cell phone.

I would like to see the day where all my media content is on a central storage location and I can access it from anywhere at anytime. Video/TV, Radio, Podcasts, Photos, ect. View it from my cell or iPod or grandma's computer. Sounds like Microsoft Media Center. Where are you Apple?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Love For The Scobleizer From A Network Of Friends

May 12, 2006 By

I have been following the dramatic story of Robert Scoble's mother. She has congestive heart failure and has also had a massive stroke. She is in very critical condition in the hospital. I immediately connected with this story as my father has had CHF for quite a while now and also had a stroke about six months ago. He has had an up and down time with his health and last week was admitted to the hospital once again. His kidneys were failing and he was dying. The doctors were able to get is kidneys going again and he is now in ICU and somewhat stable. I don't know what the future hold for him and our family, but we take it day to day.

What is amazing is the huge outpouring of love and compassion for Robert and his family as expressed in his blog comments. Robert, being one of the most popular tech bloggers, has thousands of people reading his blog daily. But we rarely get a look into his personal life. This is a business and tech blog after all. But when this kind of crisis comes, business shuts down and everything is focused on family.

Many people commenting on Scoble's blog know him personally and have met him. Others, like me, don't know him from adam. It's just a blog we read. But somehow, regardless of the blog subject matter, if you read a blog long enough, you do get the feeling that you know the person. And a community of regular readers and commenters appears.  

The same thing happened when popular podcaster Derek from Skepticality was struck with a severe brain ailment and spend many weeks in ICU. Podcasters and listeners rallied around and followed almost daily updates from his co-host Swoopy. They poured in their well wishes and prayers. It was a beautiful things to see and it's happening again for Robert. With all the attention being paid on the Internet being a dangerous place for kids, here is a shining example that it can also be a wonderfully beautiful place full of love and hope. A blessing for at least two families. 

Filed Under: Blogging, Podcast, Social Networks

On-line Gaming For PS/3

May 11, 2006 By

Sony gave a sneak peak into their on-line gaming plans this week. Called "Launch Pad", the service will allow users to connect with a variety of Sony on-line games like EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies. but at $24.99 a month, that's much more expensive than Microsoft X-Box Live on-line service. I don't understand that pricing, looks way over priced to me.

Filed Under: Social Networks

Please, No More Widgets/Gadgets/Ect

May 10, 2006 By

Google announced this week a new version of it's desktop search app that now includes desktop gadgets. This is the same technology first made popular by Konfabulator, now owned by Yahoo. Apple does the same with their desktop widgets. Now Google, a day late and a dollar short. Google's gadgets are fine, but not anything better than what Yahoo and Apple already have. And Google's stuff only runs on a PC. At least Yahoo goes cross platform. How many gizmos do you need on your desktop anyway? I'm getting a little sick of these things. The only one that really helps me is the Gmail widget that can check multiple Gmail accounts at once. That's cool.

Filed Under: Web 2.0

Microsoft Anywhere Gaming – A Good Idea

May 10, 2006 By

Microsoft announced their anywhere gaming initiative at this years E3 conference. This is a very cool idea that extends the on-line components of the Xbox 360 game console to the PC itself as well as cell phones. I do wonder which cell phones. Only the ones running Windows mobile? More and more the biggest and most popular games are those with on-line features. As with so many other aspects of computing, gaming is becoming more social. There are entire gaming communities. How far we are come from Pong and Pac Man.

Filed Under: Mobile Computing, Social Networks

Beware The M.H.P.

May 7, 2006 By

Here is a scary article about disabling your remote control during a commercial when viewing programs on a DVR like a Tivo. Phillips Electronics has filed for a patent on this technology although they quickly add "the notion of temporarily crippling the remote control to protect advertising is already out there and did not originate with his company". Hey don't blame us, we didn't think of it, we're just going to put ourselves in a position to profit from it. There is also a fun tid bit in this article from the former head of TBS.

Four years ago, Jamie Kellner, then head of the Turner Broadcasting System, remarked in an interview in CableWorld magazine that viewers who used DVR's to fast-forward past commercials were committing "theft," then a moment later described it as "stealing the programming." He did allow trips to the bathroom as a noncriminal exemption.

Rather than thinking up stupid technologies that restrict and control how we view television, the industry needs to think about how they make the jump to the next realm of advertising as clearly advertising on TV is dead as we know it. There is no saving it. Much like the RIAA and digital music, the genie is out of the bottle. Stop crying over your old dead business model and move on to the next. Paid for digital downloads looks promising and I am glad to see ABC being so aggressive in this arena. Imagine, no Cable or Satellite bill. Pay everything a la carte via digital download.

Filed Under: Marketing
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