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TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

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  • why have a separate e reader device?Posted on: 01-14-10 | By: Michele MWhy add yet another thing to carry around? I'm reading e-books from ereader.com on a vintage Palm Tungsten T3 with an SD card, and I love it. ereader.com e books also work with the i phone and the Blackberry, which will be great when I finally upgrade. Won't have to buy new e books, will just download the ones I already own. And will be buying one device, not two.
  • Economic Recovery Should HelpPosted on: 01-06-10 | By: Robert Colin JohnsonYou are right that new technology adoption depends on people having the disposable income to enjoy it. One odd thing i've notices is that some technology items, like cell phones, are considered important even by those down on there luck. I've even seen homeless people who somehow afford mobile phones! The $75 computer concept should maybe be extended to things like the $15 mobile phone service plan? Can you think of other examples of ultra-low cost technologies that could help those down on their luck?
  • Lots of Good Ideas HerePosted on: 01-06-10 | By: R. Colin JohnsonYou hit some very good points here, and your blog has many more. Thanks for the input. Does anybody else see near-term innovations for 2010 that I missed?
  • E-Readers Going Different DirectionsPosted on: 01-06-10 | By: Robert Colin JohnsonYes, there are lots of directions for e-Readers to go to address all peoples needs. For instance, both the Barnes and Noble Nook and the Spring Design Alex have separate color screens that could show those videos of steaming vegetables dishes in your cookbook example. What other features do you think eReaders should have?
  • Who will buy these? We need to correct 'economic ills' first.Posted on: 12-30-09 | By: Dale F Somers1 - E-books on Every body's Shelf, not likely to happen so fast, too many unemployed, too many licking their wounds from the economic debacle of the past year, money is tight, the consumer is frugal, the general population is still financially anemic and the markets are artificially pumped up by the stimulus money that was let to be grabbed up by the wealthy few. You just don't get it do you? Without job and career activities that put a surplus of funds into the hands of the masses the wealthy few simply cannot trigger the buying frenzies needed for new gadgets to take off. Manipulating the retail and recovery stats might make you THINK that these new gadgets will burst into the marketplace... but, beware, without an abundance of buyers there cannot quickly be a new gadget sales success party. 2 - Touch Screens and Touch Panels on Everything; This has already happened, that is, to the extent that there is any money in the hands of the masses to generate the demand for it. Revert to item 1 comment 'till it begins to sink in. 3 - Printable Electronics Get Flexible; This is all very nice and it is one key to greener living. It's also the cornerstone technology for design, development and production of apparatus that could get most of us substantially 'off the power grid' and even allow the entrepreneurial spirited folks to find ways to independently buy, sell and trade power for home and transportation use. Could be a building block for a real financial recovery that actually puts money into the hands of the masses. BUT, ooops, one little catch, will the greedy and wealthy few that are living high on the hog with the current power grid structure let go of a portion of their 'cash cow'? I really don't think so. This will all be slowwww to happen. Reread item 1 until it begins to sink in fully. 4 - Picoprojectors Displacing Direct Displays; Sound like some really neat toys. In a healthy economy many consumers would say "I want one of those" Reflect upon item #1 again. Are you beginning to get the drift? 5 - Solid-State Lighting Replacing Fluorescent; Very cute sounding innovation. Will it be low enough of a cost for the weary and broken consumer to snap up a few such enhanced products, or, will this be as elusive as the faulty link that you pointed to in the article for introducing it? Knowing how the henchmen at GE operate, for huge profit, more profit and mega profit partly at the expense of annually slashing the bottom 10% of their crew and thereby driving some of the other 90% to near meltdown or at least verrry psychotic behavior, I don't think so! Not to mention their track record of pumping acquisitions to enormously false profit stratospheres before dumping them and moving on to chew up another enterprise like a locust infestation of biblical proportion. Finally, will a corporate demon like this do anything at all for the good of the economy or to create a new breed of independent 'off the grid' entrepreneur? I don't think so. Better re-read item #1 again for some clues about this. TO WRAP UP THE #5 ITEM and #2 and #3 ITEMS AS WELL, there is a bigger picture to ponder here; Can we depend upon corporations that just happen to announce their upper hand with so many exciting new gadgets to do the right thing and put these new technologies to work for the wealth building independence of the masses... and thus promote the real economic recovery that will propagate to everyone's betterment? Can we really expect the transference of mega corporate wealth, like with the power producing utilities, oil, gas and coal fuel czars, to take place along with the random profiteering of these new technologies? I don't think so. There had better be a whole lot more guidance from our government leaders, or a new breed of leaders, that realize the vital need for new technologies to be steered toward use for "the greater good" and the development of wealth building enterprises for the masses. Will corporate profiteering choose to do this, I don't think so. Capitalism has no conscience, corporations act like reckless children wanting only more candy (profit). The old profile of rampant directionless capitalism needs to be coached and directed for specific results before we see robust and balanced economic activity again. Then I'll get excited about these new technological advancements, when they are actually directed toward our best use for economic and climatic condition corrections. Dale F. Somers a realist, a micro business owner, not necessarily a skeptic.
  • Wrong on e-book readersPosted on: 12-29-09 | By: RicI do not see the current crop of e-book readers as "the future" of reading. I've owned a Sony 700 for a year and a bit, happily read more than 30 novels on it, and am frustrated by it. The e-ink technology is easy on the eyes and stupid-slow on page turns. What I want and what I think is inevitable is a multifunction device with e-book reading capability. Today's e-book readers are a bit like the early "brick" cellphones from Motorola: large, nasty, one-trick devices. Just as those have morphed into iPhones and Blackberries, so the e-book reader needs to become part of a multifunction device. I don't want to carry multiple devices around; I do want my reader to be always connected and capable of a lot more than grey text. My cookbooks should have streaming videos; my travel guides need to interact with GPS and maps; my novel needs an audio option and bluetooth so I can continue the story on my commute. Put a pico projector in my smartphone so I can project my book onto a large surface for reading. Let me bookmark my place in the book and continue reading on a different device. I've been in publishing for 40 years. Unlike some of my cohort I like the idea of e-books; I don't like the current implementation, which I see as a kludgy effort to make an e-book resemble a p-book. If more kids today are using YouTube rather than Google to research homework, we need to re-imagine the book itself (and the magazine).
  • I can think of 5 other technologies in 2010Posted on: 12-29-09 | By: Len RosenR. Colin Johnson's article is an interesting read. It's always fascinating to crystal ball about technology and its impact. I would argue that many of the items described here will not have a significant impact in 2010 but should become part of our everyday use within 3 to 5 years. The Kindle and its competitors are still pretty much infancy technologies. In "Second Foundation," Isaac Asimov described a scene with youngsters at the beach reading from an electronic book. I think Asimov probably had the sand, water and electronics mix problem pretty much licked in his mind but I highly doubt that these current technologies have the ability to replace a paper book form factor when on vacation and going to the beach. Ever tried to read an electronic screen outside on a sunny day? Kindle and its ilk have a long way to go to displace paper. We have had a run of touch screen technology generational PC tools over the years and have yet to see the technology become ubiquitous. Touch screens are a highly desirable concept but it is interesting to watch them in use. The iPhone and its imitators have got a pretty good handle on the use of this type of technology in a small form factor. Where touch can replace a mouse or other pointing device we have yet to see a product become a must have platform. I think we will see touch panels on electronic devices like thermostats, LCD-specialty displays on appliances but in 2010 beyond mobile phones I don't suspect this technology will have a big impact in the short term. LED should arrive in 2010 in a big way, from TVs to lighting fixtures, driven by demand for lower energy cost and the pollution issues associated with disposal of fluorescent fixtures. 3D printing needs to get down to a very economical unit cost before it will become ubiquitous. Currently 3D ink-jet technologies are not priced for home users (around $5K at my last look). I see this as a 2 to 5 year item. I don't see picoprojection technology having a huge impact in 2010 either. But here are my choices for 2010 in terms of technology that will impact us as consumers. 1. Ever cheaper notebook technology will make computing more and more affordable for all. We will see notebook computer pricing drop dramatically in 2010 with pricing approaching $150 to $200 on entry level systems (not netbooks but notebooks). By 2012 I expect we will see the $100 to sub-$100 notebook. See the article http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/22/tablet-computer-negroponte-technology-cio-n etwork-olpc.html. 2. WiFi / MiFi will be huge in 2010, almost ubiquitous. Not as sexy to talk about as the stuff in Johnson's article but definitely the phenomenon we will all benefit from globally in the coming year. 3. 3D will enter the living and rec rooms of homes through gaming devices and TV in 2010. In addition we will see, as in the popularity of Wii games, significant growth in interactive gaming that includes full body movement integration. See the article http://www.physorg.com/news180766475.html. 4. In-the-cloud computing applications with HTML5 will bring a significant change to the applications we use on computers in 2010. I am convinced that Office 2010 may be Microsoft's last kick at the can in creating a desktop office tool. The Chrome Operating System will have a significant impact on computing platforms as we strive to see the OS on our PCs become as simple to use as dial-tone is on telephones. Apps running in the cloud will run on our desktops whether we are Internet-connected or not. 5. Google-Wave is a big question mark for me in 2010. I so want to see this type of tool begin to create a homogeneous communication environment that replaces our present silos of communication like email, video conferencing, chat and instant messaging. Wave has the potential to do this. I'm not sure if the general public is ready however. We do get used to our tools and forget that computers are all about facilitating work and our lives, not about dictating to us the way we have to work. Most of my prognostications on my WordPress blog (http://lenrosen4.wordpress.com <http://lenrosen4.wordpress.com/> ) are more futuristic than the year 2010 but it is fun to look at the year ahead and try and get a feel for immediate trends. I invite you to read my blog to look at the overall advances we will make in the 21st century as technology and humanity become forever entwined.