A Mobile with an Active Skin

Thinking a bit more on this idea that a mobile is more effective and personal when the physical state of the device can be altered, I had this thought that I tweeted but wanted to expand further:

Wonder: is there tech that makes the ink on my SkinIt skin change based on radio wave changes (i.e., text comes in skin changes color)?

Version 2.0

Some days ago, I finally wrapped up a redesign of my landing page/business card. For as neat a project this has been to learn about CSS3, HTML5, and such, its become a mess in terms of its focus and I wanted to redesign it and get back to some of the core. Therefore its simple Version 2.0. A bit more than a landing page, a bit more than a single-pane business card, and a lot more focused.

Carnival of Mobilists No. 246 at Mobileslate

Always a great time of the month for the Carnival of the Mobilists. For the close of the winter season, Mobileslate plays host to this month’s gathering of post from around the web. My piece on platforms and ecosystems was included (of which I am grateful), but there’s plenty of others both new and old to the CotM scene to enjoy. It might take a few hours, but #246 makes for some great reading.

The Dangerous Thoughts Pushed Out A Bit

I keep this side of thinking purposely in the back of my head. I think about it, but am always hesitant to let it out. Always. And yet after reading You Are Not A Gadget, I am impressed to consider it further. Mobile will eventually mean wearable computing and augmented reality. That will morph into virtual reality and cybernetics. At some point, when mobiles can act like chameleons, others will see this too. But will we be too far into it to have prepared for it’s implications? Will we be too far towards it that to go away from it would be revising the religion of the Luddite?

Thoughts on Redesigning My Nokia BH-214 Headset

I can’t speak for many people, but I have had a pretty solid love affair with Bluetooth headsets. And not all of them, boom mic iterations make me think of my mom’s career with Bell/Verizon. I like those headsets that have pushed the envelope a bit. And maybe that’s why I am one part content towards my Nokia BH-214s. Besides being an unexpected surprise in receiving them with my X6, they tend to fit in just right with almost every matter of need for headphones or a headset.

Now, if I were given the option of redesigning them, I’d love to extend some of the solid decisions done here.

Addressing the Stylus-Driven UI

Here’s another one of my posts from the archives (so-to-speak) – Addressing the Stylus Driven UI at the Tablet UI Blog. I stumbled across this when going back towards some of the history of Nokia’s Internet Tablet series of devices (770, N800, N810, N810 WE) and a conversation at Brighthand asking where Nokia has been in regards to the tablet conversation.

Unfortunately, it was open questions like this idea of stylus-driven UIs that weren’t given enough clear vision to see other realities for the Internet Tablet. Though, the MS Courier Concept seemed to pick up on things just fine. Oh to what could have been.

VR & Octopi: More Reflections on You Are Not A Gadget

Have just finished reading You Are Not A Gadget and am totally amped because of how it ends, how it threw me up against the wall in the middle, and did nothing to set me up in the beginning for the convictions that have become more solidified. Suffice to say that this is recommended reading material, but for more reasons than what Lainer proposes – you have no choice after reding this to end up thinking of computing differently.

Monetizing A Mobile Web Server

Am in the midst of reading You Are Not A Gadget still and I think that I have been poked. There is a value to the mobile web server in respect to owning your web creative space, but it has been very hard to monetize. Maybe this can work.

Experience Shouldn’t Be A Surprise Benefit

I was on Twitter recently talking to a friend about Border’s booksellers and how they are closing 200+ superstores due to bankruptcy. She mentioned that she will miss the experience of going into the store, rummaging through pages of books, and having a nice coffee drink. That experience was something she valued as much, if not more than the product. Unfortunately, for Borders’s, the experience that she and many others (including myself) had wasn’t the primary aim of their stores, but it was a surprise benefit. When economics dictated that they had to change course, they stayed towards their primary goals (being a book seller) and not towards the experience that – while good – was something that they more or less stumbled upon.

Smarter Devices and Networks, and Smarter Behaviors

While a lot of the conversation in mobile has been about what Symbian hasn’t been able to do, over at their now archived Symbian Ideas website, there was an idea that I posted that started some good discussion, and for a little while, had people thinking a bit more about what is and isn’t smart about today’s smartphones. What follows is that piece, Revamp the Behavior of Communicating.

The Best Connection Is Where You Are

I could probably be called one of those guys who is a bit too passionate about mobile. Really, I have had a li that has revolved around some aspect of it for the better part of a decade. But, it has been only when the aspect of whatever mobile does connect you immediately to what your already looking for that it makes sense beyond “yea, and…” Ironically, it’s has taken the lack of usable Wi-Fi in the coffeeshop that I am sitting in as I type this for me to get it.

Have the Mobile Elite Conceded or Transferred Expectations

And here-in lies some of the vitriol, negative critique, or whatever you want to call it, against the “mobile elite” – those who hold some amount of sway towards the opinions that an industry adopts towards mobility. Does the failing of Palm, Symbian, Windows Mobile, etc. platforms mean that you have conceded your imaginations towards mobile-as-PC type living, or that you have simply transferred your expectations for iOS, Android, etc. to make right the expectations that you keep?