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.
We're positively e-bookish in this week's Technology Podcast (WTP 241). First, we discuss the merits, and demerits, of Google's Book Search project, which wants nothing more of less than to digitize every book on the planet (Google's not good at thinking small, we've noticed). Needless to say, Google's little scheme has its critics, and also its competitors. UNESCO has recently launched a little digitization project of its own, called The World Digital Library. We'll give you a little peek, and a listen, to some of what the United Nations is offering up, and not just in English. All of this talk about digitization got us to thinking: do traditional paper books have a future? Or, will more and more of us migrate to e-readers like Amazon's Kindle, Sony's e-reader, or...Apple's iPhone? It's a question worthy of discussion, and so we've got an in-depth report on what lies ahead for e-publishing. You'll be shocked to learn that some people think paper will vanish as a medium for publishing in the next 50 years, which others scoff and say that our attachment to the printed page is too strong for that to happen. One question sent in by podcast listener John Kapitzky struck me as pertinent here: "Will the e-book reader I have in 30 years be capable of reading the e-book I buy today, or will I have to keep buying new e-editions of books that I like?" It's a good question for a future podcast, methinks.
Moving on, we also take a look at some very cool software designed to help folks get around Internet filtering technologies. It's called Psiphon, and its brought to you by the same people who track online censorship around the world, the OpenNet Initiative, which WTP has covered before, most recently here and here. We have an interview with one of Psiphon's engineers, Nart Villeneuve.
And we end with Yahoo's Purple Pedals project. Take a look at what happens when you outfit some purple bikes with a webcam and geo-location software, and then let them loose in the world:
Oh, that pesky brain. If only we understood it better, right? If only we understood other people's brains, maybe even could read their thoughts, their dreams, no? Well, I'm not sure that's such a good idea. I'd hate to see what my 2 1/2 year old daughter's dreaming about, for example, after I've read the scary parts of Sleeping Beauty to her (the dragon, remember?) for the 4, 256th time. Anyway, make of this what you will. Researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Labs in Kyoto, Japan say they've succeeded in processing and displaying images directly from the human brain. The study is written up in the latest edition of the journal Neuron. And we've got a bit of cold water to throw on the notion that this research means we can now read people's minds. It's only one part of this week's Technology Podcast (WTP 223).
We also hear a report on Internet addiction in one of the world's most wired countries, South Korea. The problem isn't a new one in South Korea. Jason Strother looks into efforts to help Korean youngsters get offline...at least for a while.
Then, it's on to Egypt, where we hear about how the Apple iPhone is making its debut, but without one of its most popular features -- GPS. Turns out the Egyptian government doesn't much care for its citizens having access to GPS-enabled devices. The fear, officials say, is that terrorists might use the service to pinpoint government buildings. We get the skinny on the ban, and how much it will matter to Egyptians, from blogger Wael Abbas.
We then head over to the West African nation of Ghana, to take a look at how one US company is trying to turn the country into a hot place to set up telephone call centers. From there, we head south to South Africa, where we switch gears a bit. Adequate housing -- well, a lack of housing -- is a critical issue in South Africa. But now, some smart folks have come up with what may prove to be a cheap and effective solution -- houses made of sand, well sandbags really:
Cool, huh?
And, since it's that time of year when everyone wants to take a stab at predicting what will happen in 2009, we run an extended interview with Michael Brook, editor of the technology magazine T3. Brook looks back at some of the worst tech predictions ever made. My favorites: a Brit tech big-wig's 2005 prediction that the iPod would never catch on, and a US postmaster who quipped in 1959: "We stand on the threshold of rocketmail."
Wow, if only...then I could really save writing those holiday cards until the last possible moment.
(Image, and actual brain, courtesy of Genesis 12 on Wikimedia Commons. Sandbag home courtesy of MMA website).
Norway's consumer rights watchdog has got an ongoing beef with Apple, and particularly with the company's online music store, iTunes. The beef? The company's Digital Rights Management (DRM).
Turns out that some Norwegians (not to mention Danes, Germans, Dutch, Finns and some French) do not like the fact that music purchased from iTunes can only be played on an iPod, and not on other mp3 players. Likewise, they argue, most music bought from other vendors won't play on iPods.
Norway's Consumer Ombudsman, Bjoern Erik Thon, is dead serious about this. He's announced that he will soon start legal action against Apple in Norway, and said that he hopes it serves as a test case that would allow other European nations to follow suit.
"This could have international consequences," Thon told the Associated Press. "It's a consumer's right to transfer and play digital content bought and downloaded from the Internet to the music device he himself chooses to use. iTunes makes this impossible, or at least difficult, and hence, they act in breach of Norwegian law."
No comment so far from Apple, which has until November 3 to respond. At that point, Thon said, he'll take the case to Norway's Market Council, a government agency that serves as a court for these kinds of complaints.
When I first covered this story back in August of 2006, the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman's Office was just gearing up to lead a campaign against Apple's DRM. It seemed like it had secured some promises from Apple to open things up a bit. But clearly, not open enough, and not fast enough.
The worst case scenario could see Apple fined, or even asked to close down its iTunes service in Norway. Who knows (he asks tongue firmly in cheek) how Apple will manage to pay the fine, or deal with the loss of the, ahem, lucrative Norwegian online music market...
(Screen grab from iTunes Norway, doctored by yours truly)
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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