Sunday, July 20, 2003

Will quickly move forward this week with some additions to Mindplex.  Stay tuned. 3:24:09 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

Thanks for all the e-mails (there have been a huge number) of support for me as I recover from the outage at UserLand. The good news: lots of great things to come and this new location offers lots of new flexibility. The bad news: a huge number (probably over 30,000, not even counting Google) of inbound links have been broken, as well as nearly 500 RSS subscriptions.  This proves the point: NEVER (under any circumstances) publish a weblog to a domain that you don't control.  I am currently using digital-crocus (they cost a mere ~$15 a year for fast hosting and have a great user interface that allows fast sub-domain creation). 12:44:57 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

Wired.  New Sony PEG-UX50 Clie (Pics:  1,2,3, and 4).  This new Palm O/S PDA sets the standard for desktop organizers.  It includes: Organizer and productivity functionality.  Schedules, etc.  Basically, PC companion functionality that has been standard on PDAs since I got my first one in 1995. Wireless applications.  Web and e-mail.  802.11b and Bluetooth. Multimedia.  The ability to playback video and audio.  Low res camera and audio capture.  Pressures on the PDA market However, the future of PDAs is uncertain given the competitive pressures from alternative products.  In order to stay competitive, Sony bundled as much functionality as it could into a product that costs a whopping $699.  Here's a recap of the alternatives: Laptops and Tablets.  With laptop sales booming (the majorty of PC sales are now laptops), this pricing puts the Clie into direct competition with low-end laptops with much larger screens, full-size keyboards, and much more functionality.  Although Tablets are not yet proven, they offer a form factor and means of usage that competes favorably with PDAs.  Detachable screens are also a player. Storage devices.  New stand-alone storage devices with multimedia capture and playback functionality offer a compelling alternative to standard PDAs.  Although they cost about the same as the new Clie, include much better multimedia capture and playback options, nearly 10 times the storage capacity, and are much simpler to use with a PC (they are merely an additional hard drives when attached to a PC!). Smart cell phones.  These new phones include multimedia, organizer capability, and e-mail on top of the basic phone functionality.  The only thing working against these phones is that they are still difficult to synch up with PCs.  The PDA is the Canary in the Coal Mine Sony's new Clie demonstrates that the future of the PDA is in deep trouble.  The attempt to evolve the PDA into a more versatile product has failed, it will retreat back to the low cost pocket organizer market from which it was spawned (short Palm).  It's failure also points to the difficult future ahead for fully integrated mobile computing systems.  Why?  The future of mobile computing is in components and wireless glue.  Here is what I mean: Components that serve a single purpose.  Portable storage for stand-alone applications, multimedia storage, multimedia play-back, multimedia capture.  Stand-alone LCDs and digital TVs (low cost HDTVs).  Independent input devices including keyboards, trackballs, TV remotes, and more.  Home servers and profile-based computing for PCs. Wireless glue.  These independent components will be held together by high bandwidth wireless glue (both Bluetooth and 802.11x).  Wireless technology will connect screens, input devices, and portable storage to computing resources.  If connected to the Internet, these devices will be able to leverage computing resources remotely (with security and profiles that save preferences and enable access to additional resources).  Absorbtion of consumer electronics.  This componentization and wireless connectivity sets the stage for the inevitable absorbtion of consumer electronics. 11:44:56 AM    Comment_ Trackback []