• Nice review of @libox on @DownloadSquad http://bit.ly/26tUht #

Uncategorized

• Reading Carol Wilson's analysis of G.hn home networking standard on @LRLive. Good comments by @everywire http://bit.ly/T9SYr #
• Still looking for feedback on Libox media-sharing application – good for sharing original-quality images, etc. http://bit.ly/3KxFzK #

Uncategorized

• Please RT: Interested in feedback on this free "original-quality media sharing solution" from @libox http://bit.ly/1JXTPS #
• Good article by Glenn Fleishman @WiFiNetNews in @pcworld – Will new technologies change “everything?” http://bit.ly/4uFYYK #
• Reading "Smart Grid Gets $3.4B in DOE Stimulus" on @greentechmedia
  http://bit.ly/2Gvqqc #

Uncategorized

Yes, well I don’t know about changing everything, but a few days ago, Glenn Fleishman wrote about 3D TV, HTML5, video over Wi-Fi, superfast USB, and mobile augmented reality as being key breakthrough technologies emerging over the next few years. While there are certainly many such lists to be made, I think Glenn’s done a nice job detailing this particular set of five technologies for us.

He rightly dubs USB as one of the “least-sexy technologies” built into present-day computers and mobile devices, but speeding it up by an order of magnitude is a game changer. And in fact, USB 3.0 (a.k.a. SuperSpeed) should deliver more than 3.2 gbps of actual throughput. The results will introduce major changes in device connectivity, computer backup (coupled with coming advances in flash drives), and video (replacing HDMI?).

By 2012, two new WiFi protocols–802.11ac and 802.11ad–are expected to handle over-the-air data transmission at 1 gbps or faster. Glenn does a nice job of pointing out that the high speed transfers will work well “moving data across short distances between devices in the same room.” He quotes Allen Huotari, the technical leader at Cisco as saying “home networks won’t result from “any one single technology in the home, but rather a pairing of technologies or a trio of technologies–wired and/or wireless–for the backbone and the wireless on the edges.” With one foot firmly in the G.hn camp, Rainier concurs.

Then we come to 3D TV. Could the makers of the old red and blue cardboard eyeglasses ever have envisioned the coming active-shutter approach to 3D simulations? What Hollywood has historically called “depth enhanced movies” are now moving more toward the promise of real 3DTV, an immersive, true-to-life experience that’s nothing like anything we’ve seen before.

Augmented Reality?

My favorite part of Glenn’s article is his discussion of “augmented reality.” First of all, the phrase itself, with or without quotation marks, pulls us immediately into the philosophical domain. I personally think that until we can artificially stimulate our cranial neurons to have choreographed experiences, reality is still reality.

Technologies like heads-up displays, etc. are terrific tools for enhancing safety, efficiency, etc., but they are still tools (is a compass – once an exceedingly innovative high-tech device, “augmented reality?”)

Glenn’s final breakthrough, HTML5, sounds a little dull until you consider it might may do away with the need for audio, video, and interactive plug-ins, and will let designers create Websites that work essentially the same on every browser–whether on a desktop, a laptop, or a mobile device. Yeah, actually, that would be kind of awesome.

Read Glenn’s article in its entirety here.

Uncategorized broadband, G.hn, home networking, innovation, technology, tv, WiFi

• Just saw a GREAT Jonathan Edwards show at http://www.natickarts.org. What a timeless talent (Sunshine, Shanty)! #
• Wow. 46-yard field goal by sophomore at high school football game! Unfortunately, it was by the opposing team… #

Uncategorized

• Reading about BlackBerry-size “stethoscope of the 21st century” from @GEHealthcare http://bit.ly/1mmQ1w #health #

Uncategorized

At the Web 2.0 Summit  General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt  gave the first public viewing of GE’s new pocket-size Vscan  “ultra-smart ultrasound.”

About the size of a smart phone, theVscan houses powerful ultrasound technology that can potentially redefine the way doctors examine patients. By giving doctors a view into the body from the palm of a hand, GE says Vscan could one day become “as indispensable as the traditional physician’s stethoscope in patient exams.”

The company’s website says GE’s drive is to miniaturize technologies in order to make them more mobile, and GE has committed to developing 100 new innovations as part of its new $6 billion “healthymagination“  committment to developing 100 new medical innovations.

It certainly feels like we are entering a serious renaissance in the portability of medical instrumentation. In just the past year, I’ve met with numerous companies whose sole purpose is to use technology to do in the field what once could only be done in the laboratory. From infectious-disease detection to blood-flow monitoring, the cost-reduced portability of such devices could not come at a better time as our debate continues to rage around how to get our arms around skyrocketing medical expenses.

Uncategorized innovation, medical devices, medicine, portable, technology

• RT @Everywire Story in @SUPERCOMM2009 show daily: "CopperGate sees major changes" http://bit.ly/25mLry #
• Reading report from @NicoleFerraro about #Mobile Internet – "The Next Major Computing Cycle" http://bit.ly/Kabyc #
• Well, so TechInsights is now EE Times Group. Clearly hanging their brand hat on the flagship, but… http://bit.ly/8rwcs #
• RT @bfuller9 More signs of recovery in #semiconductors; Semico lifts forecasts, sees shortages http://bit.ly/3UlFEh #
• RT @Everywire: "Chip Firms Prepare for Home Networking Faceoff" http://bit.ly/3Jsa6x #
• Reading "Beyond 'I’ve fallen and I can’t get up'” by @DanaBlankenhorn @cbssmartplanet http://bit.ly/1XxWgS #

Uncategorized

Internet Evolution site editor Nicole Ferraro shares a compelling story from the floor of the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Nicole reports that Morgan Stanley’s managing director, Mary Meeker says that over the next few years the mobile Web will be “bigger than most people think.” In fact, she’s calling it “the next major computing cycle,” and says mobile-related technology shifts will change all the dynamics between incumbents and attackers, and will create a wide range of winners and losers.

Meeker presented 68 slides, starting with an economy update / dashboard. Included were positive leading indicators like rebounding global stock markets, narrowing credit spreads, reduced market volatility, and rising earnings estimates.

The technology sector (as has been previously noted in this blog), Meeker says, is leading the charge back to financial health as the largest sector measured by S&P 500 market capitalization (19%). She also showed how global technology revenue estimates mimic the 2002 recovery that followed the tech nadir of 2001.

Now granted, when Meeker turns to domestic GDP and consumption, she is only able to call the trends “less bad,” and she does say that low capacity utilization in manufacturing, horribly low home sales, rising consumer credit and mortgage defaults, and high unemployment all imply economic weakness.

But unemployment peaks are typically key for economic turnarounds, Meeker says, and global GDP growth forecasts, led by China and India, are positive for 2010. Advertising spending, too, should grow in 2010, and consumer confidence seems to have bottomed out in February and has been heading up all year.

Then Meeker turned to the promise of the mobile Internet. And Meeker is bullish like crazy about mobile Internet! Driven, she says, by unprecedented next-generation-platform-induced changes in communication and commerce, mobile-related share shifts will “create/destroy material shareholder wealth.” YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are well noted. And not shockingly, the poster child for the uptake of mobile devices on IP-based networks is iPhone/iTouch usage (“fastest hardware user growth in consumer history” ).

The next big thing in computing follows a logical evolution, Meeker illustrates by slide 32. Increasing levels of integration will provide an incredible opportunity in semiconductors, hardware, software, and services as the rate of mobile Internet adoption makes desktop Internet adoption look so last-century. This statement I particularly loved: “Mobile devices will evolve as remote controls for ever expanding types of real-time cloud-based services…empowering consumers in unprecedented and transformative ways.”

Quoting from Mathew Honan in Wired magazine’s January issue, Meeker shares this: “Millions of people are now walking around with a gizmo in their pocket that not only knows where they are, but also plugs into the Internet.” Heavy mobile data users will triple to more than 1 billion by the end of 2013 (AT&T alone has had a 50x increase in mobile data traffic in the past 3 years).

These are exciting times for technology makers, marketers, and users. My passion for, and faith in technology has kept me bullish throughout the downturn, and I can hardly contain my enthusiasm for what’s coming as we turn this innovation economy skyward once again.

The full set of slides from Meeker’s presentation are available here, and are worth going through in their entirety.

Uncategorized consumer, economy, innovation, marketing, mobile, network equipment, semiconductors, social media, technology, telecom

• Just landed in Chicago for Supercomm… #
• According to @gartner, tech spending will grow by 3.3% in 2010 led by #BI, #virtualization, & social media http://bit.ly/303rt #

Uncategorized