Orient Expression

Less than 6 months after I posted my EFTPOS meets the Wellington public transport idea Snapper is now on the hook. Snapper is the Wellington take on the EZLink card with RFID payments for transport and micro payments. After seeing the first on-bus terminal on Tuesday today I witnessed the ANZ branded snapper keyring being used by a customer to buy their lunch. Back to the drawing board.

Ideas on how buttons can be replaced by voice interfaces. Read my posting on the PhoneTalk blog.

During some research for a submission on the Techdirt Insight Community , on the use of camera phones, I stumbled across ShotCode . The basic idea is to use your camera and Bluetooth connection to read a simple circular barcode on a poster or object. The code is interpreted and further information is sent back to the handset for you to read. Some usage examples: History of maintenance in a server room, a code on each rack or machine Further information on an object, great use to get kids interested in museums Advert context, show times for a film I was also talking to a family member about how to make the London Underground more user friendly for foreign visitors. I like the idea of using ShotCodes on the station that could give visitors an idea on what is available near this station (shops, sights etc) and potentially how to get there IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE. A different code for German, Chinese, Thai etc. The use of this concept could finally allow camera phones to jump into the ave...

Location based services are set to be one of the growth areas for mobile devices through 2008. Previous posts here on the general subject of LBS and usage and contributions to the Techdirt Insight Community on GPS and personal navigation discuss the combination of LBS with franchises or focus usage. On example was a potential partnership with The Lonely Planet inspired by Loki, see the Loki Plant Guide . Engadget today posted on Google's cell site location service (I'm making an assumption that it uses cell triangulation in lieu of GPS). For general use location based services don't, in my opinion, need to be metre level sensitive. Google's neighbourhood level approach should be enough for the average user. The evolution would be targeted ad, mobile location context adsense. So expect to see small (Mom and Pop) businesses using the service to increase publicity.

I have just read an interesting post at the Register on soe recent announcements for GPS in the UK. This comes close to me completing a challenge question on the Techdirt Insight Community on the future of personal navigation devices. I do believe that, with the number of mobile handsets now sporting GPS and a handful of Bluetooth GPS device available that you can connect to your mobile, GPS and Location Based Services are ready for large scale adoption. You can read my insights from here: PNDs for Pedestrians PNDs for Vehicles Telmap has an interesting spin on the collaborative and community aspects that I mentioned. And it will be interesting to see how the Vodafone & TomTom deal evolves. If you are a Jeteye user you can also access my Jetpak .

The internet is adapting faster than ever before. Web 2.0 is seeing innovation at an increasing rate and social networking platforms, mashups, online collaboration and Software as a Service (SaaS) is showing what can be achieved and still have customer service as a core value. Telco's are renowned for over engineering seeking the elusive 5 9's (99.999%) when in reality less is more. Skype can suffer lower voice quality but generally the quality is more than adequate for the average user. Compare this to mobile call quality from a network centric operator and where the results can be shocking. The Web 2.0 is driving customers into new levels of collaboration and the Generation Me subscriber expects more from their services. Increasingly the need to immediate response and low cost means that the Telco's have a real challenge, despite the impact [or not] of Skype, Jajah, Gizmo and Vonage, the reality is that the Telco style of service is not good enough for the average Joe...

Almost one year ago I wrote up an idea on how distributors, like Blockbuster, could stay in touch with the speed of innovation that technology and internet usage is experiencing. This was an idea about how Blockbuster could use WiMax as a distribution platform. Yesterday Lionsgate announced that Blockbuster are due to start a download service similar to the recent announcement that iTunes will start a movies download service. The timing comes just after a wrote an insight for Techdirt on how TV is up for disruption in the light of TV and film distribution that is being driven by web TV services like Kyte and Joost. You can download the insight from here .

Software as a Service (SaaS) has been disrupting traditional software business models for a few years with providers such as Salesforce.com providing enterprise level systems through a hosted service. The mobile market is ripe for the same treatment, the early example was Blackberry, but how else will the SaaS model evolve cellular communications as we understand it today? You might like to read the insight that I wrote for the Techdirt Insight Community, you can download it here .

I recently signed up to join the Techdirt Insight Community , and was selected. The community is a distributed think tank like blob of bloggers that can work on items that interest them. Companies hire Techdirt to get analysis and feedback on key challenges. One example that I filed some insight on was "Adapt a Telco to Survive". I was lucky enough to have my thoughts highlighted as one of the top three and received my first payment through PayPal. Having just finished reading Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams' book Wikinomics it's very refreshing to see an outlet, an ideagora, where I can contribute within the same domain and have the possible benefit of being paid for your efforts. Many of the subjects are open so that I can circulate the insight so I might start uploading summaries here.