A Wider Net

UMPC Portal published a nice roundup of the Ultra Mobile PC and Mobile Internet Devices at CES 2008.

You may be asking “what do I do with these little things?”. Most people ask that question. That’s why you can’t find them in stores. At least… not in this country.

The rest of the world gets it. They’re great because they’re small, light, easy, and cool. They run familiar things like Vista and Word and Firefox and PowerPoint. And because they can’t quite squeeze all that into your phone. Yet…

What do these devices have in common?

via multiple sources including Engadget and Ubergizmo

Another gadget from CES - this one makes it easy for you to record podcasts on your iPod with “professional” results.
You probably should be thinking about podcasting. You probably need to think about the quality of the content far more than you need to think about cool (but kinda cornball) devices like this:

via Engadget

Network World Magazine calls the Fujitsu U810 “attractive to healthcare professionals” and possibly the “Ultimate Mobile Device”. From what I can see, it’s one the first attractively priced little UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) that’s plenty loaded with possibilities.

Ever since Microsoft unveiled project Origami we have seen a steady flow of UMPC’s that seem like products in search of a market. When Network World’s Keith Shaw commented that the U810 had specific application to healthcare professionals it struck a cord with me. Perhaps they have finally arrived at the right mix of size, weight, functionality, performance, and battery life to meet a specific mass-market need. UMPC’s have been too small for comfort, too power-hungry to last, and too expensive to matter.

I still love the vision of UMPC’s and I wish I had one at my side on a daily basis. There’s only so much you can do with a smartphone or PDA, and only so many places you want to lug your laptop.

If a UMPC can provide reasonable computing on the go, decent web browsing, and decent presentation support, then it’s a clearly exciting thing for any mobile work force - especially sales people, travelers, and healthcare professionals.

The video below details how cool the U810 can be. It’s a teeny laptop. It’s also a teeny tablet PC - for sketching, filling out forms, and giving one-to-one presentations. And if you need an amazing tablet application to inspire you into the possibilities of tablet PC’s, check out this video I found on Robert Scoble’s blog.

I’m even more enamored with the HTC Shift below , a device that has many of the same attributes as the U810 but doesn’t have the great quote in Network World Magazine. A demo video of THAT device is below. I hope to have one of these in my hands very soon and I’ll give you a quick download. Retailers: these devices may be the perfect device to ship to every one of your stores. Clerks can use them around the store for guidance on shelf arrangements and product signage. Then can use it to complete training programs. They can use it to verify the correct price on the website that day. They can even use it to show a customer how a product is supposed to be used. It’s a lot lighter than a laptop, easier to stow, cheaper to replace, and (presumably) harder to break.

So I like the looks of the U810, and I love the looks of the Shift. I guess I’ll have to order two. To go. And don’t bother to wrap them - I’ll eat them here.

The Livescribe, shipping in a few months, is a pen that records your handwriting, records the audio from the room, and synchronizes the two. When reviewing your notes, you can tap on a section of your notes and hear back what was said in the room when you wrote that section. Sweet beautiful context. How many times have you wished you had that context a few days after a grueling stakeholder interview or information download and your notes no longer make sense?

Apparently it can also figure out what you’re doing and help you a bit. If you sketch a math problem, it will solve it and display the answer on it’s little screen. Cooooool.

At $200, every single person I’ve shown this to has said they will buy one - if it does what they say. And they want it now.

Found on Everything USB (yes, I love that blog)

The Kindle electronic book reader features many new exciting advances and a few serious limitations over it’s predecessors and competitors. I think this could be a very exciting device for corporate communications if only….

First, the background - The Kindle, launched today, is a small incredibly light electronic book reader that uses electronic paper instead of a backlit LCD screen to create it’s images. Electronic paper uses very little power and produces a natural looking easy-to-read image. It needs the same kind of lighting that a regular book needs. Sony released an e-book reader this year using electronic paper but the Kindle has three killer features missing from the Sony unit: Wireless book download using Sprint EVDO cellular networks (with no monthly fee), the inclusion of newspapers and blogs, and a small blackberry-like keyboard. You can also transfer your own files to the device for viewing later.

Two shortcomings hamstring the device in my opinion - lack of support for all book formats and standards, and lack of support of RSS feeds for free. I track 100 RSS feeds (mostly from blogs) and while this device could have been an interesting way to read them, most of the blogs I read are not even available on the device and they cost around $1 a month per feed.

I have sent an inquiry to Amazon to see if there is a way for corporate communications folks to be able to transmit documents to a sales force or other employee segment privately, and bill the company for each download rather than the recipient. If this were possible, a $400 (or less in quantity, presumably) wireless device that can pull in the latest sales sheets corporate information while in the field would be a pretty compelling offer.

For more information about authoring content for the device, see the Amazon Digital Text Platform page.

P.S. The whole idea behind these things is to make your life easier and slaughter less trees… not to over-technify the world, but I will admit that the trees vs. plastics devices in the landfills argument still applies.

I apologize - I’m a little late to the party with any mention of Google Android and the Open Social initiative that seems to be smashing Facebook with a book in the face. Honestly, things have been very very busy and I’m still digesting the big news from Google this past week.

Here are some of the recent happenings that I need to write more about, and a quick idea of what they’re all about:

Surface: Last Friday we were given a private showing of Microsoft’s Surface product. WOW. This is the most natural human-computer experience I have yet to encounter. I love this and can’t wait to offer it to customers for a variety of applications.

Google Android: This is a mobile operating system (sort of) and not the Google Phone everyone was waiting for. It has tremendous potential but was honestly a bit of a let-down. We have a while to go before the potential is realized, but it does appear Google is out to fragment another industry and keep it open (and keep it hooked on search). It may be the best thing to happen to the US mobile phone market ever, but I doubt Verizon is going to let it happen casually, since they will be less able to control the sale of overpriced ringtones and wallpapers.

Open Social - probably the biggest Google announcement - has immediate application. This initiative will (in theory) allow developers to make “widgets” or “applications” that work on any social network that supports the Open Social initiative. It will also allow users to share their data across all those social networks, making it easier to maintain just one “page” and “friends list”, etc. Social Network startup and emerging juggernaut Ning has already rolled out support for the platform, and almost 20 companies are on board immediately. Except Facebook. They’re clearly left out for a reason. Google seems to want people to stop flocking to Facebook and return to an open internet (where they still need Google and their advertisers). Open Social will be very important to marketers. More to come.

Today, I’m visiting Mobile Internet World and I may have a tidbit or two to discuss regarding the future of web marketing to handhelds.

Oh, I also recently visited Communispace in Watertown, MA - they have a truly remarkeable approach to building and maintaining highly focused and vibrant social communities for market research, brainstorming, and many other applications.

Catch you later.

I highlight a lot of USB drives. Perhaps too many. But they’re fun, practical, and now that you can launch applications from some of them, they’re a viable means of distributing easy-to-launch applications.

If you happen to work at a company whose name or product rhymes with, or has anything to do with, “chicken”, or “foot” then this one may be for you. There’s a bunch of fun jokes with this, starting with “open laptop, insert foot” and ending with “helping you get a leg up in 2008″.

Originally spotted at Whazatt Goes Chicken Huntin’

Computerworld writes glowingly about the iTouch - listing a dozen or so very compelling reasons why it makes a great business tool. While I agree that carrying this slick gadget around in your pocket makes for one slick elevator demo, the lack of an editable calendar and missing GPS for getting directions to your meeting seriously clobbers it’s usefulness in business, in my opinion. But read for yourself - if you plan to carry a phone with GPS and don’t care about calendar, then it may be perfect for you.

The winners of the annual EIBTM Worldwide Technology Watch were announced last week. SpotMe 2, a handheld networking and communication tool, won top honors. The runners-up included nTAG, eTouches, Jambo Networks, and Jot Event Messaging Systems.

Shown below: The SpotMe 2

Complete details at MeetingsNet.