OK, so MIT's Pranav Mistry doesn't exactly inspire the same kind of fear that Arnie's Terminator (or, for that matter, actor Christian Bale on the set of the new Terminator movie) does. Then again, Mistry's not trying to. Mistry works in something called the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab. The group as a whole is working on a set of amazing projects that are trying to bridge the current gaps that they feel exist between the real and virtual worlds. Now, if you're one of those people who has watched one too many Terminator films and doesn't want to see the real and virtual worlds melded any further, then by all means do not go the Fluid Interfaces Group website. If, however, you like the idea of a wearable interface system that allows you to check your email against an airport wall, then Pranav and crew have just the thing. It's called SixthSense, an "always-on" wearable interface that is designed to determine who and what you're interacting with, and then proactively go out, scour the web, and find relevant information for you.
OK, so it's true that mobile telecom giant Vodafone knows a thing or two about making money. The company currently operates in more than 25 countries, and has more than 250 million customers. Many of these millions are in developing countries, where things like infectious diseases and sudden natural disasters take heavy tolls. Well, the Vodafone Americas Foundation, a non-profit arm of the company, is looking for ways to help. It just ran what it calls the Wireless Innovation Project. One hundred applicants submitted ideas that harnessed new and existing wireless technologies in pursuit of social good. The idea was to show not only great use of technology, but also a clear sense of how these products could, and would, make it to market. The three winners were recently announced at the Global Philanthropy Forum in Washington, DC.
The mobile phone is the top piece of technology in many parts of the world, but especially in Africa. In fact, a recent report put the number of mobile users in Africa nearing the 300 million mark. And when I say users, I'm not just talking about people making phone calls. I'm talking about text messaging, snapping photos, taking video, doing banking, and accessing the Internet -- the full spectrum of what the mobile phone is capable of these days. And if you really want to see what a cell phone can do, then a good place to look to is Africa. Johannesburg is therefore a fitting spot for a 3-day conference called MobileActive08.
The event has been co-organized by a group called MobileActive, and the Southern African NGO Network (SANGONet). The theme is "Unlocking the Potential of Mobile Technology for Social Impact." In brief:
Participants will include NGO/nonprofit practitioners using mobile phones in innovative and creative ways; mobile technologists; researchers studying the use of mobile phones; government officials; donors, and representatives from the telecommunications industry.
At MobileActive08 participants will explore how mobile phones are used to advance civil society work, assess the current state of knowledge in the use and effectiveness of mobile technology to advance social action, and investigate trends, needs and investment opportunities.
Looking down the agenda, I'm kicking myself for not booking a ticket to Joburg. The use of mobiles in the developing world is a big part of what I cover. A few things just from today really caught my eye. Check out Learning about Living, which is using mobile phones to teach young Nigerians about HIV/AIDS prevention. I'd also love to learn more about Hello Citizen!, a free text-messaging service offered to low-income communities in Brazil. The idea here is send out information on things like job postings, free health campaigns, etc. directly via SMS. And then there was a session about how mobile phones are being used in all the border areas around Burma to not only document human rights abuses inside the country, but also to coordinate activist response. This is similar to another project called Ushahidi, which I first reported on in Tech Podcast 180.
Yesterday, I was busy banging out a story about Google. No, not about Chrome. No, not about Android, or Google Apps. Instead, it was about satellites. Well, and in a roundabout way, about all those things I didn't write about too. Let me explain.
Yesterday, it was announced that Google, along with some other big investors, was ponying up $60 million (chump change for Google, I know) to invest in a small start-up called O3b Networks. O-3-b, as in the "other three billion" people that need fast, reliable internet service. O3b wants to put 16 satellites, "birds" if you want to sound know-it-all cool, up in low orbit. The idea is that these sats would bring Internet access to farthest flung, most remote places in the developing world. And not just access. High speed access.
I spoke with David Hartshorn, General Secretary of a non-profit association called The Global VSAT Forum -- essentially folks who work in the satellite biz. He told me that five years ago, this would have been a non-starter. Satellites were just too pricey, and the technology just wouldn't allow for broadband speed Internet access. But in recent years, he noted, the cell phone industry has used satellites extensively for what's called backhaul, which is essentially getting signal back from the back of beyond to national and international switches.
Fine, but broadband speed data access? Greg Wyler, founder of O3b, says these sats will fly lower, which will reduce the latency, the lag time between when you click, and when you get the webpage. Now, to be clear, O3b is not selling service directly. Instead, it's going to sell wholesale to local WiMax, 3G, and eventually 4G providers. So, not just for data, but for some of that cell phone backhaul.
Glenn Strachan, an independent IT consultant with extensive experience in rolling out wireless broadband in the developing world, sees some real sticking points. He notes that while some countries like Kenya and Rwanda have liberalized their ISP and cell phone provider markets, the same does not hold true for many African countries. "In Senegal," he told me, "the controlling monopoly is Sonatel. And they're not about to disperse, at low cost, this new Internet access. There's no regulatory environement in Senegal that would allow alternative ISPs to gain access."
I was also fortunate enough to get seasoned tech blogger Om Malik on the line. He brought it back to Google, and Google's interest in this, far beyond the "We Are the World" kind of stuff. Think about it, he told me. Google's developing its own cell phone handset. It's developing all kinds of mobile applications, including its own browser. If these satellites provided, first and foremost, better cell phone service into remote corners, wouldn't it make sense that Google could sell the handsets, loaded with Google applications? Indeed.
Voice, he told me, is the still the killer app in the developing world. "This is all about connecting cell phones in rural areas. My mother in India, all she wants to do is talk for cheap. She doesn't want to check her email or surf the web on her mobile phone."
But, he noted, someday she and millions like her just might. And that makes Google's move a real nod to the potential future of communication in the developing world.
Apple's been navigating some rougher waters these days, at least from a public relations point of view. Here at The World, we've been tracking some that have international angles to them. There was news today that the Brits have put a stop to a TV advertisement Apple was running for the iPhone 3G in the UK, claiming that the ad was "misleading" when it claimed that "all the parts of the Internet are on the iPhone." Not so, said consumers, considering the iPhone doesn't come with Flash or Java, programs that, it was argued, were essential for accessing "all the parts of the Internet." The ad is not allowed to run anymore in its current form. Apple had no comment.
In China, Apple's iTunes is running into trouble over the on-again, off-again availability of an album called Songs for Tibet. Some are crying foul, saying Apple is bowing to the whims of the Chinese government when it comes to censoring material that deals with human rights issues the Chinese find, well, troublesome. Apple says -- wait for it -- "no comment."
And now, let's talk about "iPhone Girl," pictured. Her story manages to combine Apple, China and Britain -- not to mention Taiwan -- all in one strange package. See, here's how it seems to shake down. A gentleman in Kingston-Upon-Hull in Britain unboxed his new iPhone 3G, hooked it up to iTunes, and...whoops, there were already three pictures on the phone! Yep, of the girl above. The new iPhone owner was intrigued, and so he uploaded the photos to a popular Mac website and forum.
Is this normal, he asked, for iPhones to come preloaded with photos of the people who presumably assembled them?
In true Internet fashion, iPhone Girl became something of an item almost immediately. Responses and questions flooded into the site. Who is she? Where is she from? Does she still have a job?
"She is so fired," read one post on the site.
Well, we still don't know who she is. But she works (no, she hasn't been fired) for a Taiwan-based contractor called Foxconn, which has an iPhone assembly facility in Shenzen, China. An unidentified spokesman for Foxconn also told a local newspaper in China that the photos were most likely test photos, left on the phone "accidentally."
But in the wake of the Olympics controversy over the lip-synching of the Chinese national anthem during the opening ceremonies by a young girl deemed "prettier" than the girl who actually sang the song, I think the discerning journalist has to ask...is "iPhone Girl" nothing but a stand-in for the woman who really put the phone together?
Ah, by now the madness has already begun. The lines in Tokyo, full of Apple iPhone fans, are already moving. In Auckland, New Zealand too, and Hong Kong, and Sydney. Listen closely and you can almost hear the Yen, the Yuan, and the Dollars flying out of pockets. Soon, Europe will wake up and join the global Apple-gasm of 3G delight. And then Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
So much ink has been spilled on this story, so much TV and radio airtime devoted to this device, that I hardly know what to add. The 22 lucky countries in the first wave of iPhone 3G sales will soon be joined by other, perhaps more interesting markets. Estonia, where they really know how to use a mobile phone, even for banking and paying for parking. The second wave is also set to see a number of African countries get the chance to buy an official version of the phone. Kenya should be especially interesting. In the unrest of recent months, cell phones have been used to monitor unrest. Cell phone credit even became a kind of currency there, and many cell phone users in Africa are used to doing banking and transfer of funds via cell phone. No, in many ways, the second wave will be more interesting. There's an argument to be made that those markets that Apple has targeted as secondary will actually be much pickier, much savvier, and much more concerned about value for money than the legions of fanboys in Europe and North America.
Price will pay a huge role in these countries. Here in the United States, if you buy the new iPhone with the AT&T rate plan, you can get it for as little as $199. But then figure in the cost of the data plan now that it's 3G, etc. Gizmodo figures the new iPhone will end up costing you $160 more over two years. Don't go north of the border looking for bargains. And whatever you do, don't go to Belgium (at least not for the iPhone 3G). Some quirky Belgian laws put the price at about four times the cost of an iPhone in the United States, around $1,000 in fact. I'm not sure how you say "My God" in Flemish, but for the other parts of Belgium, let me offer a hearty Mon Dieu!
Still, if you're headed down to Mexico to buy your cheap gas anyway, you could always try to pick up an iPhone 3G down there for around $75. Of course, that's with a plan that will only work in Mexico.
And, in case you were wondering -- all the countries not listed in Apple's first cut, or second cut, are ready to get a healthy black-market cooking ASAP. In Bangkok, a phone dealer told Reuters: "I'm taking orders this weekend and you'll get [the iPhone 3G] by the end of July." The price? About $860.
Now, I've written before about how any mobile phone that generates this much excitement for both mobile technology, and especially 3G, is exciting to me. The iPhone 3G is a consumer's dream, and it will doubtless help to push the design and elegance and the functionality of handsets forward. It's already pushing the development of handset applications forward. I hope that all of this will, in turn, push faster roll-out of 3G networks, too.
But once those networks are built out, do you really think that the next billion or two billion mobile phone users are going to pay the Apple price for their phone? I doubt it. Many of those billions live on less than two dollars a day. If Apple can find a way to bring its elegance and functionality to that market, then it will truly have created a world-class smartphone.
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