I Want

Someday, sooner than later, I'll need to curb my materialism. I want too many things. There has always been a latent part of me that wants a motorcycle. I don't think I'm anywhere closer to fulfilling that desire now than I ever have been, but it is a thing I think about. "If I were to get a motorcycle", I ask myself, "what kind would I get, and why?"

And, more often than not, I answer thusly.

I'd get something classic, timeless, even anachronistic. Anything but new. Modern, maybe, but in the vein of modern art. That's really what I'd want. Form as prominent as function; a ride that's equal parts expression as it is transportation. The above bike meets those requirements, and, not-withstanding their differences, virtually any motorcycle from this blog.

From pipe-dream to commercial reality, I'm well overdue to replace my phone. I'd like to say the G1 was a faithful companion, but it wasn't half the sidekick that my dear old Sidekick was.

My breaking point was a year ago. I'd defended the G1 when it was made fun of. Sure, it didn't always work like it was supposed to, and wasn't as fast or have as many apps as an iPhone. "But come on, people!", I would say, "Does everything have to be an iPhone?" There are plenty of reasons to avoid getting wholly in bed with Apple, but that's neither here nor there. My decicion was deliberate, principled, and I was standing by it.

Then, last summer, probably eight months after I first got the G1, I was getting a girl's number. We didn't have anything in common, and I never even called her, but it just seemed like the proper thing to do at the time. She began reciting the ten digits she'd probably given out more times than she'd ever wanted to. "Hang on", I said. "My phone is... slow sometimes." I was ready to take the number. The G1 was not.

"What kind of phone is that?"

"It's the G1, it's the phone Google came out with. It can do a lot, but it's a new system, and is still slow and buggy."

"Oh... why didn't you just get an iPhone."

At any moment during the previous 8 months, if she or anybody had asked that, I would have spouted off a fruitless tirade about openness in development and the virtues of competition and individual customization. It wouldn't have gotten me her number, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, I didn't do that. There was no tirade. There was a quiet moment of reflection.

Why... didn't I get an iPhone? An iPhone would have worked. This whole time.

If I had gotten an iPhone, I wouldn't be defending my hardware from ridicule. It wouldn't have broken down repeatedly. It wouldn't have force closed half the programs. I wouldn't have had to wait for firmware updates so I could simply use the hardware for what it was designed for. I wouldn't have had to deal with single touch interface, even though the hardware is perfectly capable of multi-touch. I wouldn't have had to buy an adapter on eBay so I could plug headphones into the thing, and then have that adapter malfunction (but not entirely break) just enough so that I'd keep trying to use it, even though it would cause songs to restart and jumble around my playlist for no apparent provocation at all. I wouldn't have had to buy an extended battery pack that turned my new shiny tech into a brick sized Zach Morris style walkie-talkie, just so I could actually use the thing throughout the day and not have it completely die before 3:00 p.m., and then have the backing on that battery break off. I wouldn't have had to buy a MicroSD card with 16GB on it so I could actually use it for some mobile storage, and then have the card get corrupted.

I wouldn't be waiting to get this pretty girl's number.

Why didn't I get an iPhone?

As it has completely broken a couple times, I'm on my 3rd G1. That's not to say it's stopped breaking, it's just that the malfunctions now are more of annoyances; little things that are usually solved with a reboot. But should I have to reboot my phone regularly, daily, mid-day, mid-use? Sometimes it just reboots itself. I think it must be a self-defense mechanism, like a boot camp trainee who curls into a fetal ball when he can't handle his drill sergeant anymore. I wouldn't have thought I was asking too much of the thing. After all, I'm only using it for what it's purportedly designed for, should be up for the job. Man up, soldier. Your momma ain't here to wipe your nose anymore.

I coddled it so when it was new. Made sure it stayed nice, clean, shiny. That was then. The other day, I dropped it from 5 feet up. The screen cracked, and I didn't even care.

Also, since my review of T-Mobile isn't exactly glowing, I think it's time to move on. I've payed an obscene amount of money to them over the past 5 years, for virtually no customer recognition. I thought maybe this would be like a country club; you pay a fortune, but they treat you like royalty. Nope. Every time I've had to deal with T-Mobile, they've politely treated me like an annoyance. That is, they've hardly fixed anything for me ever, but they smiled the whole time. Yup, time to move on.

Enter the Sprint EVO 4G. Nice, isn't it?

It does everything. It even has that fun kickstand and red accents. For further proof, see the spec sheet here.

We'll see. I've hopefully learned my lesson some, and won't order till I hear the announcement on the new iPhone. That'll probably happen in June. We'll see.

Is anybody reading this? I wouldn't. If you've gotten this far, really reading, I don't know whether to be impressed or startled. If you've read this far, and are still reading, I want you to go to the comments, Now, and leave the two word comment, "octopus foots". Go ahead, do it.

G1-UP

I never did post a review of the G1. 

I've gone through several stages with that phone. I bought it in a fevered hurry, as though it were going to dissolve in front of my with nothing comprable ever appearing again. 

I waited anxiously. 

I got it early and it rarely left my hand for the next while, a couple weeks, maybe.

But then the honeymoon began to ebb, and my satisfaction waned.

The battery dies much too fast. It's frequently unresponsive. The asymmetry when it's open bothers me. The GPS only works under perfecct conditions. The original design had more appealing textures.

Even Android it's as much a Dream is it was made out to be. Applications quit all the time. There is still some streamlining on the UI that needs to happen. And while it has broad ability in it's functions, the whole experience seems disjointed.

That is why I want to sup-up my phone the same way some people do their cars. I've already started. 

I bought a 16 GB MicroSD card that came in the mail the other day. It's the size of the fingernail of my index finger. This may be the first time since I watched the Men in Black trailer from a floppy disk in 7th grade that the capacity of personal tech has amazed me. 

The next step will be to get a headphone adapter, something that should have been included in the original package. After that is the extended battery. It'll make the whole thing larger, but it'll be worth it to not have my phone die early evening every day. Then some colorware options. Possibly an invisible shield. And after that, the worlds smallest bluetooth headset. If I really wanted to be superfluous, I'd get a Redfly addition. I know they aren't popular, but I think I'd actually get some utility out of something like this. Finally, if I'm really intent on going completely overboard and spending a small fortune on a phone that will be obsolete in 2 years, I'll get it waterproofed.

There are more options, I'm sure, but it would take some serious hackery to get any further than that on the hardware. As it is, I've already set out for myself quit the financial obstacle.

We'll see. Maybe over time I'll realize all this.

UPDATE: I just stumbled upon this hysterical accessory. The absurdity is a selling point in my eyes. I might get it. Might.

Countdown

5 days.

I'm capturing video for the Morning Market Call, the daily
financialwebcast from the Graduate Finance Association. I keep thinking
how it'll be great to have essentially a fully connected computer around
all the time. Even when I'm capturing video at a workstation, I can
still do whatever I need to on the G1.

I bought a 500GB external hard drive last night. It's amazing how much
memory declines in price annually. I heard it's %40, every year. I
backed up everything on my home computer and wiped it clean, reinstalled
Windows, the latest version of Office, and MS Expression. It's a
creative suite that Microsoft is pushing these days. Thank goodness for
the company story, all that software would have set me back quite a bit
if I hadn't been working on the MS campus when I bought them.

Samsung recently released a 16GB memory card that will work perfectly
with the G1. My hope is that soon, I'll be able to do whatever I want,
whenever I want to, thanks to all the tech crammed into that phone and
the cleanup I've been doing on my home PC.

As an aside, I really enjoy Microsoft's new ads. They're some of the
first from them that I think are actually effective.

There are still plenty of things I'd like to have, though. A nice
scanner, for instance. I'd like to get my camera fixed, or better yet,
get a DSLR. And have you seen the new MacBooks? I've worked with both
Windows and Mac machines, and at this point, while they are different,
I'm not sure I have a clear preference. They each have their strengths.
The reason I'd want a Mac is for video editing. Nothing compares to
Final Cut, plain and simple. I've been using Final Cut and Avid
variously for almost two years now, and Final Cut is simply superior. A
tech savy person could sit down with Final Cut, and in ten minutes, they
would know %80 to %90 of what they need to know to work with it. I took
a class on how to use Avid, have used it for many projects, and it still
borders on unusable. It's so ridiculously criptic, it's as though there
was no consideration put into the end user experience.

Really, though, what does any of this matter? I'll come up with
something more meaningful and/or entertaining in future posts. My
apologies for this one.

-Sent from Austin's phone.

Zero Lag

I love my G1. Really I do. I guess I haven't written a full review of it yet, so maybe you don't know that. I really like it.

But it's not perfect. There is always room for improvement.

I like having a camera on me at all times. I just love recording things, be that pictures or video or audio. The camera is lacking on the G1. It's tremendously slow, and almost inoperable in low light.

Luckily things are getting better.

Watch this video. Don't worry that you don't understand most of what he is saying, just understand that this is a cameraphone that works just as fast if not faster than a normal point and shoot.

I want that.

G1

Oh, you'd like to try out my new phone? I don't have it yet (it'll show up on the 22nd) but you can still give it a test drive.

Just click here.

Hardware. Software. Eyeware.

To anybody viewing this through facebook, you'll need to go to the original post to see the videos.

I've been saying for years that electronics will migrate from the desktop, to the laptop, to the pocket, to the glasses, to the body. Sorry, I'm jumping ahead, let me explain.

Technological progress seems pretty fast today, right? If it seems faster than when you were a kid, that's because it is. The rate of progress is increasing; progress is accelerating. The classic example of this is Moore's Law.


Moore's Law states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. But there are other examples of technological acceleration. Flash memory declines in price by %40 annually, which is why four years ago, I was excited to get a 64KB flash drive, and next year I'll likely be able to buy a 64GB drive for not all that much more. That's a thousand times the capacity, folks. If you want to see some numbers and trends that will really blow your mind, check out what Ray Kurtzweil said at TED. To call him a genuine genius prodigy is an understatement. He was smarter as a teenager than I may ever be as an adult.



So we see devices getting smaller and cheaper at a consistent, predictable rate. We see devices converging, so that your phone isn't just a phone anymore, it's a camera, multimedia player, and web-enabled device.

What am I getting at? Remember what I first said, all too eagerly. Electronics (if it's easier, think "my computer") will get smaller, migrating from the desktop, to the laptop, to the pocket, to the glasses, to the body.

NOTE: Really I've skipped steps, glossing over the mainframe computer that took up a whole building, and other predecessors.

We've already seen the first two steps (desktop to laptop), we're in the midst of the third (see my recent posts on the T-Mobile G1), and soon it will move from the pocket to the glasses.

The primary form of data input for humans is visual. If we were more like dogs, maybe we'd communicate with smell. But we're not, we're visual creatures. Our devices will move from the pocket (essentially a storage area) to the front of the eye, where a device needs to be anyway for it to be usable.

If this isn't making much sense, watch this video. It may help.



Now imagine the following scenario.

Twenty years down the line, you've just got your new EyeWare^© brand specs. On campus, you run into somebody you haven't seen since freshman year. "What was her name" you think, "I had such a crush on her!" Luckily, you have your Visual ID program turned on. The EyeWare, ostensibly a plain pair of glasses (indistinguishable if you'd like), kick in. The cameras on either side of the lenses find the subject. The retinal scanners sense that you are looking at her. She is identified against a ID database of students who voluntary submitted their facial and vocal ID. Think "student directory" born of the 21^st century. Her name appears just under her head in your field of vision. This has all happened within a single second. Before anyone has time to pause, you say "Hey, Jane! Haven't seen you since we took stats together!"

That, to be honest is the simplest scenario. There are literally countless applications for information overlay on your vision, not to mention the audio that would also come with it. This could all fall under the heading of augmented reality, a nascent field of interface and display study. I've mentioned it before. If you want to ride the wave of the next big thing, this probably isn't it. It's more like the next, next, next big thing. But it will be big, as big as any consumer device can be. They'll be as common as cell phones and iPods today. It's going to make our early attempts at headwear convergence seem silly. Who am I kidding? Those already look ridiculous. There are a few noble successes, though. Johnny Lee did a simple, elegant, awesome hack on the Nintendo Wii. The world could use a few more minds like Johnny. They had him over at TED, too.

Next step? To the body. Images projected directly onto your retina, or further, wired into the brain. And if you can send images, then why not any and every sensation? Maybe science could even invent a few new ones.

Sound uncomfortable? Ya, I'm right there with you. As much as I love robotics (you know I do) I'm not sure I'm willing to go all out and become one.

Get ready, folks. The future is about to get right up in your face.

NOTE: My phone has one of (if not the first) widely available augmented reality program around, Wikitude. Check it out.

Countdown

2 days.

I'm excited for the feature-packed handset and platform, but the G1
doesn't have everything. All the reviews say the GPS is so lousy, it may
as well not be there.

And while it may be unnecessary, I want the my handset to be sensor
laden, with features like this phone.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/31/sonims-rugged-lm801-phone-will-probably-outlast-you/

True, I don't NEED an altimeter, barometer, laser pointer, FM radio,
thermometer and magnetic compass, by why not? Each of those devices have
been shrunk to the size of a pea or smaller, and are probably $10 to
include, so why not put them in?

And when is the world of cell-phone enthusiasts going to get somebody to
build the hot-rod of mobile devices? When do we get our own Ben Heck
like the console gaming people have, or a Mr. Jalopy like the garage
tinkerers have? Why are cell phones so hard?

I want somebody to make a modular platform that allows the end user to
roll-their-own cell-phone. Think "Little Bits", only designed to come
together into a handset.

I'm sure this is little better than gibberish to most of you. But
believe me, it's a good idea, for everybody involved. Even a good
business idea. Maybe that's how I'll make my fortune.

-Sent from Austin's phone.

Personal Android

They're having the press conference right now announcing the Android powered G1. I'm watching the streaming video of the event.

There were early reports that it wouldn't be available to markets that didn't offer 3G. I was about to really lose my cool. Those fears have thankfully been put to rest.

I will be purchasing one presently, or as soon as I can.

UPDATE: This is what I am excited about. Click here.

I'm geeking out bad. I've never experienced this level of techno-lust. I want one of these so bad it's killing me.

It's weird, I know. You don't have to understand. I don't really understand it.

Android Invasion

I've been looking forward to the release of the Android phone for a long time. My Sidekick is hanging on by a thread, and I'm ready for it's successor. So far, it looks like Andy Rubin won't disappoint. He founded Danger, maker of the Sidekick series, and now he's heading the next big thing.


Engadget keeps getting info leak in about the first device to host the platform, the G1, the Dream Phone, it's gotten a few monikers amongst the handset following crowd. It's made by HTC, whom I've mentioned before. I've wanted to invest in them before, and just found out that you can buy shares on the London Stock Exchange (four at a time). If I ever save any money, maybe I'll try.

Anyway, the phone looks sweet. It's an open platform, which is something I really value. It doesn't look now like it'll have bleeding edge hardware specs, but oh well, I've been using a three year old phone.

The features I've decided I value in a phone are:

Form factor - It makes a difference to me whether it's a flip-phone, a candybar, a slider, a swivel, or any other permutation on phone form. I tend to really gravitate toward the "quickdraw" phones, like the Samsung P735 I used to have, or the current Sidekick.
Camera - I love taking pictures (and video) from my phone. Love it. I like being able to record whatever is happening around me. Maybe it's the broadcast journalist in me, but I'd chose to have a camera on me at all times, and the advent of cell-phone-cams make that perfectly feasable. The better the camera, the happier I'll be.
Data Connectivity - I use my phone for mostly non-telephone things. I use text, email, chat, the Web, note taking, scheduling, you name it. Connection to the one machine is important.
User Interface - This is part of where Android will make a big difference. Because it's open, the skin and controls can be customized, and because it's Google, it probably won't need much customization anyway.
Expandable Memory - As the cost of memory declines (about %40 per year), I should be able to load in a new card and carry %40 more a year from now for the same price. Most smartphones today have some form of expandable memory, theres just no reason not to.
Openness - An open platform is A) SO much more flexible than a closed platform B) Cheaper for the consumer (I don't have to go into the Apple store to get new software), and C) Inclined toward innovation, expanding the abilities of the end user.

So far, it's looking like this HTC phone will meet ALL of my requests. I really don't think you know how excited I am.

My time spent reading

We all have 24 hours in a day. That's it. No more, no less. I really should be spending my time figuring out how to preserve as much of it as I can.

Frequently, though, I spend that time reading. Books include the Omnivore's Dilemna, I am half-way through it. I read the screenplay to Being John Malkovich. Lunatic, that wonderful Charlie Kauffman. And I read a lot of blogs. Technology and society and politics and art and film. It takes in a broad swath of what we call culture.

Here is a sampling.

I, like everybody else who bought one, am disappointed with the lack of progression with the G1. A girl asked me recently when my phone was slow in taking numbers, why I would buy anything but the iPhone. In the past, I would have defended my phone. Not anymore. I'm just praying it'll handle the load of newer tech.

I know the clamour has died down, but I still think WolframAlpha will do some amazing things. You'll see.

I don't know what this is all about, but I'm excited for it.


Someday, the cameras on our phones will take gigapixel snapshots.

This may be the best wedding announcement I've ever seen.

I like to download music from the web, but I like to do it legally.

I have a very hard time trusting the methods, motivations, and integrity of government institutions anymore.

I'm really glad I found blogger.

I hope to someday build something of inherent value rather than chatter and hype.

Effective multimedia is all about production, the deliberate, careful synthesis of disparate many layered elements. That goes for movies, music, anything.


I've been proclaiming the advent of augmented reality for years, and now it looks like we might be gearing up for a rise in it's visibility. Bruce Sterling, whom I've mentioned before, says so. I'm afraid this might just be the Peak of Inflated Expectations of the Hype Cycle, though.


Right up there with Bruce Sterling is Kevin Kelly in my opinion. The man is a genius.

Telecoms are the biggest racket in the world. American's are paying through the nose, and Apple is making a killing. I hope to some day make enough money to turn that industry on it's head.

Serious Play

This may be a bit fragmented. Forgive me.

Play is important. Also, "failure" is important.
Students should be allowed, even prompted, to try things that probably won't work. If you're so afraid to fail, you'll never try anything except what's easy and/or has been done before.

Don't think I'm suggesting this at the expense of work. I understand work, I know it's value. I think most people do. Value becomes apparent when environments aren't artificially constructed. Work shouldn't be so severely divided from play. In an ideal situation, they aren't always that different.



And, as mentioned above, kids (and adults) should be encouraged to play constructively, in an open-ended fashion. They should be given toys without an absolute clear procedure. They'll figure out what to do with their toys, don't worry. You could give them toys like some of the ones these guys have.



These two aren't the most amazing orators, but they've got some good stuff to show.

You should check out the Art Center Design Conference "Serious Play". Worth a bit of your time.

And now, something completely different.

I was excited yesterday to constructively use one of the applications on my phone. I was at D.I., and they played a song I really like, had heard before, but didn't know the artist or song. The lyrics were indecipherable, except for "la la la". That's not really going to help in a Google search. So I pulled out the G1, and fired up Shazam.

Shazam listens to a song for about ten or fifteen seconds, analyzes it, compares it against a database, and tells you the song, album, artist, and gives you the option to watch the video on or download from Amazon. It was fantastic, technology making my life better. Couple that with Compare Everywhere and mobile access to things like eBay, craigslist, or KSL Classifieds, and I'm a smarter, better informed consumer.

P.S. The song was "La la la" by The Bird and the Bee. To listen, click here.

UPDATE: Countdown

ONE DAY LEFT!

MY PACKAGE IS GETTING HERE EARLY!



I've heard rumors that some G1 packages are showing up to us pre-orders early. So I check the comments on Engadget to see how we find out if ours is coming before the expected arrival date. Sho'nuff, UPS says mine will show up TOMORROW!

Couldn't be more stoked.

Dreamy

I stopped recording my dreams, so I don't remember them as well as I used to. But I appreciate how often I seem to show up in other peoples' dreams.

Got this message from a friend earlier today.

Had another weird dream about you. We were at graduation and your G1 turned into a Transformer. And then we were on a roller coaster.

Well, that about sums it up. That's the perfect day.

Copy Right

xkcd is sometimes really funny. It is also sometimes over my head. But I really like this one. Straightforward, and so very true.



There are things wrong with the state of copyright law today. Technology has changed some of the fundamental ways media and creativity are created and shared. It has outpaced the law, and now the laws mean very different things than they did. Many of the assumptions copyright laws are based on no longer hold true.

Ask Larry Lessig. He has some very interesting things to say on the topic.

The laws are antagonistic to the empowered user, and the user is circumstantially inclined to become a criminal. They are pushed that direction by media rights holders who hold to antiquated practices, demanding that consumers do the same.

Just ask Cory Doctorow. He knows.

My personal philosophy is this: When science and technology advance such to empower the holder, we are obliged to deal with the facts. We can't wish ourselves back, we can't say "I wish we'd never invented the H-Bomb" or, "If only we'd never done any research into cloning" or, in this case, "If only the people couldn't copy music and video". Guess what? They can. And when somebody artificially cripples that ability, people will be upset. I am.

I bought In His Own Voice: Ronald Reagan's Radio Addresses over the summer. I made the mistake of buying and downloading from iTunes, and the files are "protected". I bought it with the express purpose of listening while I was jogging. Then, after purchasing, I realized that I wouldn't be able to listen to it away from my computer because I didn't' have an iPod. I had an MP3 player, but not an iPod.

I bought it. I should be able to listen to it whenever I want, on whatever I want, for whatever reason. But I can't. They cut it off at the knees so I can't run with it.

Needless to say, I'm very glad the G1 will come with a direct link to the DRM-free Amazon store.

Getting in Touch

You'll have a review of the G1 very shortly. I've been using it nonstop since I picked it up a couple nights ago.

Until then, here is a video to feed your need for technology and interface design. I'll just say now that I want one.

Interactive Mirror from Alpay Kasal on Vimeo.

This and That

This is the only phone I want more than the G1. Too bad it doesn't really exist.

I think This is fascinating and could drive the future of technology. It reminds me of This. My roommate Dan asked if they ever turn into anything big and special. "Ya, have you ever seen lawnmower man?" That would have been an hysterical joke if he'd ever seen the movie.

Inside jokes aren't so fun when you're the only one on the inside.

Android Video

I finally got the Cupcake update for my G1. This is the first video I've taken with my phone. Also, I can upload it directly to YouTube immediately after taking the video.

Lookout, world. I'm coming atcha' with a camera.