You'll be able to wave your smart phone at a product in a store and buy it if this article in the New York Times is to be believed.
Of course, the notion that people will be willing to turn their phones into a delivery device for retail marketing based on their every GPS move, called "aggressive merchandising" in the article, is a complete absurdity.
This however sounds more promising:
Many big retailers have already created cellphone applications that do more than just dole out coupons. Target, for one, has an application that can identify which store aisle sells nightgowns.
We don't do nightgowns (at least not yet) but it's the same idea for say, books on English Literature or the Life Sciences. Our wares can just as easily be exposed.
In any case, the more general point is how powerful the potential is for a device that's both networked and capable of real-time audio/video.
Enough already with the fetishism about eReaders! It's the market for Smartphones and Netbooks that's advancing in leaps and bounds.
Shipments of netbooks have gone up 103% (Engadget) and while they're nowhere close to equaling sales of more traditional laptops, both of these devices are about to be left in the dust by smartphone sales (InformationWeek).
The question from a library perspective is how to accommodate a clear consumer preference for devices like this. That's where the focus should be. That's why when faced with two distribution methods, one relying on a netbook/smartphone or one relying on a library-issued ebook, it probably would make sense to choose the former.
I liked the article in BusinessWeek on the 'Real-Time Web'. It being BusinessWeek, they naturally devoted a significant portion to speculation on how to make money from this emerging trend and I had to laugh at the illusive precision of there being "at least $5 billion to be made on the real-time Web". What, just $5 billion?
Anyway, to give them their due, they correctly identify the trend:
In just the past couple of years, several developments have come together to make the Web more of a real-time experience: ubiquitous high-speed Internet connections; a growing number of mobile devices such as the iPhone with full Web browsers; and new Web technologies that enable instant transmission of messages and data. That mix has made always-on, real-time communications easy and addictive.
Okay, that sounds pretty 'real-time' to me. What I can't understand though is the focus, bordering on fixation, on Twitter in this and other articles. I mean, here it is, we've got an emerging technology that's giving us real-time group communication both in text, voice and video and the most impressive thing they can think of is a text stream limited to 140 characters?
You can't be serious. Off the top of my head, the number of possibilities include:
Switch from traditional telephones to more computer- and network-based audio
Conference calls on steroids -- now with video
More ways to interact remotely at meetings and conferences -- routine live blogging and group chat are just the beginning
Greater use of video chat -- for no better reason than there being a video camera on everyone's laptop
Remote mentoring including real-time online editing of student research papers
Easier and more dynamic ways to collect and organize research
And yes, I've seen the video introducing Google's ambitious Wave Project. It's nice but I'm most optimistic about initiatives that build on past successes and move forward by incremental steps. The kind of technology we've become familiar with as hallmarks of Web 2.0 (YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, etc.) has prepared us well for this next step.
I find it amusing that there's so much buzz (some of it manufactured?) about the Amazon Kindle. The real revolution is all around us (which is what you'd expect for a revolution): it's people using smart-phones or netbooks to text each other, send email and photos, and otherwise access the Internet.
Now we have a report by the Pew Research Center which reflects pretty much what anyone taking a train or bus home can observe every day:
Cast a glance at any coffee shop, train station or airport boarding gate, and it is easy to see that mobile access to the internet is taking root in our society. Open laptops or furrowed brows staring at palm-sized screens are evidence of how routinely information is exchanged on wireless networks.
The report goes on to look at the roll that "mobile internet access" plays in various user groups. It concludes that the tech bar "has risen":
In the past, having tech gear such as broadband at home generally placed people on the cutting edge; that is no longer the case in this edition of the typology. Our new study shows that mobile connectivity is the new centerpiece of high-tech life.
UPDATE (1/5/09): Not to make this sound like the GadgetBlog but HP just came out with an update to its top of the line model, the HP Mini 2140. Faster chip, bigger lcd panel -- Hoo Baby!
Net Advocate and UMICH Don Susan Crawford has been named a "FCC Review Team Lead" by the incoming Obama-Biden Administration. Maybe the 'Net has a future after all...
Aaron Schmidt rightfully quotes himself with pride from an article in the Chicago Tribune:
"There's a lot of dead wood in libraries, and I think there's a lot of administrations that are kind of just biding their time for retirement and don’t feel like putting forth a lot of effort," he said. "I think there’s a general culture of resistance to change. That needs to go away."
He's right of course but I think the problem is a bit more complicated.
I'm working on a neat new utility which will be ready to unleash on the world in a couple of days.
It's a combination of a couple of things that I hope people will find useful. All I can say at the moment is that it's library-related and that it came to me as I was thinking about the next 'Website of the Month' piece.
Being the neurotic perfectionist I am, I repeatedly go over the thing, thinking about how to improve it. That adds extra to the amount of time it's taking me.
In any case, I'll try to have it finished either this week or next.
Enough already with the fetishism about eReaders! It's the market for Smartphones and Netbooks that's advancing in leaps and bounds.
