EchoDitto - Gadgets

TacTables offer a glimpse into a socially-interfaced future - posted by Ben Buckman

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:39:24 -0700

Last Friday, we went on an office field trip to explore the tactile-interface technology developed by a local company called TacTable. Located in Cambridge a few minutes from the EchoDitto office and in business since 2001, they are pioneers in the field of interactive, tactile, multi-touch, social interfaces. Their demo TacTable, made of wood and about the size of a ping-pong table, contains a PC running Windows XP and a thick translucent glass cover, under which invisible projectors and wide-angle cameras create the image and detect contact. Distance sensors around the table add user awareness, and speakers somewhere in the mix add sound.

The interface is extremely intuitive. On an exhibit made for Sprint's flagship store, users tap on floating "orbs" or place uniquely marked coasters on the table to open games, music, or video clips. Tapping a music orb opens albums which can be dragged, rotated or thrown around the table. Tap the controls and music starts playing, mixed into whatever everyone else around the table is playing. To emphasize the social experience, the table won't help you politely ask the person across from you to pause their music - you have to do that the old-fashioned way. Tap an envelope floating around and a cartoonish keyboard pops out to write an email. A DJ orb lets you spin tracks on a virtual turntable.

TacTables are perfect for museums. The company's first product was a vertical "touchwall" for the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry in 2001, and an 18-foot "open ocean" wall operates in the Georgia Aquarium. On one exhibit, you roll a high-resolution scroll of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics across the table and translations and stories pop out. On another, you can clutter the table with colonial-era legal documents, as John Adams might have done, and read about the Puritans banning Christmas or about the Constitution. The possibilities seem endless, and one gets the sense that every computer in a few years will work like this.

The company fully expects that, in fact, which is why they emphasize their expertise in interface design - creating what they call "socially engaging multi-user experiences in public spaces" - over the "invisible" technology inside the tables, which already faces competition from huge players like Microsoft (with its Surface). "In theory," they suggest, "we could still create experiences using MS Surface as well." The particular technology they've developed becomes incidental; their hope is that "people will remember whether they enjoyed using the table because it was fun, aesthetic, and intuitive (and perhaps even magical)."

Of course, the prospect of every tabletop becoming a digital interface has its drawbacks. As a parody of MS Surface advertises to bar-hoppers moving tumblers around their digital table, "instead of interacting with actual human beings, you could just order the food right at your table." Like self-checkout kiosks at supermarkets, the thrill of gee-wiz interfaces and the desire to cut labor costs could produce some unfortunate gimmicks. But there's no doubt this kind of interface is going to be huge in a few years. The more I think about it, the more the single-point mouse cursor still used in every standard operating system seems very old-school. The iPhone figured this out for handheld devices (and created standards which people now expect for similar products), so it's only a matter of time before every flat screen has this kind of social, interactive potential built in, and TacTable is well positioned to take advantage of that trend.

Say What? Send Voicemails via Facebook - posted by Maytak Chin

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:40:34 -0700

I think it’s fair to say that social networking has become the blackhole of online organizing. Everyone from political campaigns to fashion advertisers to indie rock bands are trying to get their foot in the door and participate in the mass movement of social energy. New gadgets and functionalities have emerged as the front-runner to bridle the unruly social network power.

Facebook has evolved from being a mere online directory of users to a platform for online organizing. Recently, Jeff Pulver announced that the Free World Dialup (FWD) has developed an application to allow users to integrate and send Voicemail via Facebook. The application allows you to give a voicemail or send a text message. However, you must be registered and maintain an active FWD account to use the application. Jeff Pulver states, “In a world where Internet Communications is not just about “voice” but rather connecting people with people.”

Skeptical that this could be a useful online organizing tool? Well, a recent study by the New Voter Project showed that:

-Across the board, text message reminders increased the likelihood of an individual voting by 4.2 percentage points.

That's a pretty large margin.
For more Text Messaging stats, Check out: http://www.newvotersproject.org/text-messaging

In Praise of a Crappy Phone - posted by Chris Jones

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:59:03 -0700

For two years now, my trusty Nokia 3220 has been at my side. Well, in my pocket. A belt clip is a fashion faux pas, right? Right. Anyway, we are very faithful partners.

It functions excellently as a phone and little else. It has a camera! but you wouldn't want to photograph anything with it. It has a browser! but who reads WAP pages? It does not have a QWERTY keyboard. You must will your texts.

It gets fantastic reception. I have had one dropped call ever. The battery lasts five days between charges, and I bet an extra day could be squeezed out in a pinch. It has survived countless drops, including being fallen on by my clumsy ass when I've fallen off my bike. Every time it gets soaked, it's up and running again within an hour. It is one resilient little duder.

It has a name too: Disco Phone. Here it is in all its glory:

Why is it called Disco Phone? Behold. If you can name the ringtone, you are a huge dork.

Beyond being tough and charismatic, I've recently learned that Disco Phone is actually magic. It has a power I have not seen in any other phone. When Disco Phone is being called, it can hear what the caller is saying before the call is accepted. It provides free incoming ~10 second calls! Clearly this is evidence of supernatural components, considering the business practices of cell phone providers.

Disco Phone is functional. Disco Phone is beautiful. Disco Phone is magical. Disco Phone is out there for the little guy.

I love you, Disco Phone.

No iPhones in Vermont - posted by Scott Bulua

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:19:43 -0700

Vermonters have long resisted their membership in the United States, and some rebel separatists are still calling for an independent Green Mountain Republic. Furthermore, the international focus of my alma mater, Middlebury College, certainly adds to the international image. But Apple, and their iPhone partner AT&T, have abused Vermont's desire for independence: iPhones, which are only available in the United States, cannot be purchased or used by Vermonters. In fact, iPhone users who make more than forty percent of their calls in Vermont will be booted from their contracts. The real reason is that Vermont is the only state without AT&T cell service, so the company is forced to cover roaming charges, but the situation smacks of discrimination.

While this may upset Vermont's Apple fanatics, the state, which has been rapidly losing its young, can certainly use this discrimination to their advantage. By courting AT&T users who want out of their contracts, everybody wins. The winters may be cold, but the Verizon reception is excellent.

Yes, I'm one of those people with an iPhone .. and I love it! - posted by Harish Rao

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:26:10 -0700

It's been a bit over a month now, and I have to say that I love my iPhone. It's small--thinner than a Motorola Q, which I think used to be the thinnest smartphone on the market--and lightweight. It works a lot better than my Treo 650, even though the virtual keyboard took a little getting used to. I find that I'm using my mobile email a lot more often than on my Treo, probably because of my iPhone's ability to work well with IMAP folders. The iPod and phone features all work very well.

Much to a co-workers chagrin, the transfer of my phone number to my iPhone from Sprint, including the activation process, took all of 8 minutes. Smoothest phone activation that I've experienced.

Problems have been minimal so far. Aside from the obvious things that are left out (including copy and paste), it does crash sometimes when loading a particularly large webpage. Not enough to worry me though: I'm certain that Apple will continue to release software updates to resolve most of these issues. I find the speaker phone to be quite weak as well. I also dropped the darn thing down a metal staircase within a couple of days (clanging down all 12 stairs!), but it still works well, with nothing but a superficial scratch on the aluminum case. .

I'm now on the quest for accessories. And I know what I want for my birthday (hint): a wood case for my iPhone. In Padouk please.

In defense of "Sent from my Blackberry-Treo-Sidekick wireless handheld." - posted by Michael Silberman

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 18:05:45 -0700

I'd love to know what percentage Blackberry, Treo, and Sidekick users are aware that they can edit or disable this obnoxious signature from appearing on their emails. My bet is that most people, if presented with the choice, would and DO actually leave the tag on. Sadly, I speak from personal experience.

Why do we continue to willingly muck up our own communiqués with this free advertising? What does this say about us! Surely we'd protest if our mobile providers inserted a similar ad at the beginning or end of our phone calls: "This conversation powered by the Sprint Wireless Network." Totally unacceptable.

At first, I thought it was our vanity. It's tacky, yes, but some part of us wants everyone else to know that we've got the latest and greatest smartphone on the planet -- that we're part of that glorious techno-future enjoying seamless connectivity everywhere... ubiquitous computing! We can easily turn a blind eye to that signature setting and let our phone do the bragging on our behalf: "Note: You should know that the message above was sent to you from this hip dude who strapped a Blackberry Wireless Handheld to his belt. This guy's going places."

Then, of course, there's the theory that we're so important to our colleagues and to the success of our respective operations that our input might be needed at the drop of a hat any second that we're away from the desk. That "sent from" tag reminds folks exactly what type of person they're dealing with.

I'm happy to announce that both of the above theories can now be debunked, despite any truth that you may have seen in them. In fact, there are two highly rational reasons for keeping the cute little "Sent from my ___" message around:

First and foremost, it's our much-needed disclaimer. We require sort of cover for those curt, SMS-like notes we might shoot back in response to your thoughtful, well-articulated, multi-paragraph messages. It's not easy typing on those little keys, you know.

Second, it's our subtle little way of saying, "we care about you" (and we'd like some extra credit for that please). If we're responding to you from our phone or blackberry, it generally means that we're going out of our way to respond under some inconvenient circumstances. It's not like we took our phone to the cafe to catch up on email. We're risking our life to respond to you while walking, eating, drinking, traveling, or juggling. You can thank us later.

Let no smartphone user ever again feel the shame of using his/her phone's default signature.

--
Sent from my Treo

MobileActive Convergence - posted by Michael Silberman

Sun, 12 Mar 2006 12:11:30 -0800

Toronto -- I'm here for MobileActive, which is shaping up to be one of the best conferences i've ever attended -- billed as "the first global strategy meeting of activists using mobile phones in campaigns and public interest work." No boring panels, just good old-fashioned knowledge-sharing and collaboration among an impressive group of 30-odd practitioners from the Congo, Philippines, Argentina, the U.S., South Africa, the U.K., among other places.

I had a vague sense prior to arriving that this was going to be a unique experience, and that's turning out to be true Marty Kearns's endorsement was all i needed beforehand, knowing that he has a knack for avoiding the fluff and getting straight to the heart of some critical issues surrounding network-centric organizing and the environmental movement, two shared interests of ours. (I later learned that this entire event was Marty's brainchild, from his home at Green Media Toolshed).

Some of my major interests here are...
-- Figuring out how to measure/track the viral, p2p spread of information over a mobile network
-- Overcoming global interoperability re carriers, short-numbers, and photo sharing
-- Improving understanding of society/individuals' natural behavior and use of mobile medium compared to internet

We're lucky enough to be working with some quality event facilitators from Aspiration -- Katrin and Gunner are an eccentric, energetic, and appropriately confident pair who have done an incredible job managing logistics and setting the right tone for these 3 days.

Some fascinating people doing incredible things here. More on that later, but i'll note now that our friend, Eric, of DevelopmentSeed is here as well as Emily from WorldChanging and Ben from MobileVoter.

Two more very full days ahead of us, so if you want to follow along...
• Proceedings and meetings notes
• Photos
• Blog posts
• Technorati tag

(probably less than) Six Million Stories - posted by Tim Jones

Wed, 06 Apr 2005 11:05:05 -0700

A few days ago, The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that 6,000,000 Americans have listened to podcasts-- a figure which I then called "surprising", but should now more accurately call "surprisingly WRONG".

Pew is the primary source for most of what we think we know about how Americans use the internet, so it's bizarre that their own research director doesn't appear to stand behind their methodology or conclusions.

Engadget's Peter Rojas puts it aptly:

"Not that podcasting as a phenomenon isn't growing rapidly or anything, but there's no reason to overinflate its importance, you know?"

Pew should respond officially to the controversy, or they risk damaging their credibility. Meanwhile, I've learned to read the fine print on a survey before I believe it. (Thanks, Reed.)

Six Million Stories - posted by Tim Jones

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 08:41:37 -0700

Yesterday, The Pew Internet & American Life Project published a report on podcasting. Their numbers are a little surprising:

22,000,000 Americans own iPods (or other MP3 players), and 6,000,000 Americans use them to listen to podcasts or internet radio broadcasts. (So more Americans listen to podcasts than own reptiles.)
Nearly half of those who own iPods/MP3 players between the ages of 18-28 have downloaded podcasts.

Read the whole thing for details, but the main take-away is that the numbers seem to back up the hype. (!!)

Pew has no hard data on how often people listen or what kind of material they listen to. But I'll add some rough data of our own to the mix: Examining the EchoRadio Apache logs reveals that only about a third of our MP3 downloads are made by podcast-aggregators like Doppler or iPodder. The majority of downloads are made by web browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox.

I'm no statistician, but this suggests to me that podcast-aggregator software is still too immature to have been widely adopted. Instead, most podcast listeners are either copying podcasts onto their iPod manually or- more likely IMHO- just listening from their computers, iPod-free.

So podcasting is big, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Basically, internet radio is about to grow up and kick ass.

If you want to hop on the trend, yesterday's Washington Post has a good article: Create Your Own Podcasts

Like an iPod for the TIVO for your iPod - posted by Tim Jones

Mon, 03 Jan 2005 09:10:06 -0800

This week's "looks like a spaceship" award goes to the "iRoamer". ILoveRadio says:

In a couple of weeks, Australian company Torian will unveil launch its "iRoamer" radio technology. Their InFusion Radio will use this technology -- it tunes into Internet radio stations using the same kind of wireless Internet as in people's homes and offices.
"People can now take their favourite radio stations with them wherever they go," a company official said. "Whether they are sitting in a café in Paris, or dining out in New York, the Infusion brings their home town radio with them."

The picture looks like it came from ~~1979~~ 1982 and is the size of a city block. Maybe it doubles as a DDR-interface or BopIt.

How does it work? We don't know. I don't think cellular coverage is solid enough to reliably stream live high-quality audio, so hopefully the iRoamer uses some new unfathomed mobile-net-access technology. I guess we won't find out until it is unveil launched.

If it is cheap (<$50) and small (like altoids-sized) and actually works, it could RULE THE WORLD.

Media Revolution! One buzzword at a time. - posted by Tim Jones

Wed, 22 Dec 2004 08:03:24 -0800

I've been trying to make Podcasting work. It is a mixed bag.

First off: For all the starry-eyed "TIVO for your iPod" buzz, "podcasting" is nothing new. MP3 blogs have been around for years, and sharing music on your webpage is as old as broadband. "Podcasting" is just a silly new buzzword for some simple RSS/Applescript automation tricks.

For podcasting to be useful to me, music hardware and podcast-aggregator software needs to be built way smarter. I've only used iPodder, but here's what it needs to do differently:

Learn to treat ordinary MP3 blog feeds as podcast feeds. Just search the body of my RSS feed for links to MP3s, then download them. Don't wait for every good MP3 blog on the net to install their own platform-specific podcasting-plugin. It won't happen.

Better yet, let me point iPodder at a static HTML page and have it alert me when new links to MP3s appear there! Because some of my favorite mp3blogs still dont even have RSS feeds-- they ain't gonna start podcasting.
Allow me to filter and change ID3 tags. "ID3 tags" are an MP3's meta-data. They're what tell iTunes an MP3's Artist, Album, Track Number, and so forth. Here's how it would help with podcasting:

Right now, iPodder throws a couple of gigantic hour-long (60MB!) MP3s into my iTunes every morning-- but there's no simple way for me to find them and delete them back out of iTunes. That means I'm losing disk space to MP3s that I don't want to keep and have no simple way to find and delete!

iPodder could, for instance, tag each MP3's comments field with the word "podcast" and maybe even the name and URL of the blog it was downloaded from. Then, presto, I could find all my podcast MP3s with a simple keyword search, and sort my MP3s by which blog they originally came from. iPodder tries to handle this right now using playlists, but keywords are better than folders.
Give MP3s a history. An added bonus of ID3-filtering is that an MP3's comments field could turn into an annotated history of its travels. Once we get BlogTorrent working right, bandwidth and hosting won't be an issue, because we'll be trading small pointers-to-MP3s instead of the giant MP3s themselves. The result is that MP3s will start slinging from feed to feed as fast as any other meme. I want to be able to look at an MP3's history-- where did it start, and whose blogs has it passed through to get to me? Then receiving and rebroadcasting an MP3 will be like participating in a ForwardTrack petition- I'll get to check out the web of community surrounding your music as I listen to it.
iPods should connect to the internet. Yup. You want to bet that the first live-audio iPods handle will be some DRM'd massmedia-managed satellite radio type thing? And that everyday humans wont be able to broadcast over it until some uClinux-weilding geek squad hacks the system? Because you would lose that bet.

This is all small beans though, in the scope of podcasting's ultimate goal-- opening up the media landscape to everyday humans without zillions of dollars or esoteric tech knol.

ILoveRadio.org sums it all up well:

Yes, podcasting is off to a great start. But we need to keep focused on advancing the technology as a platform, not just a cool way to make little radio shows for our friends. We're at a dangerous moment here -- if we choose to keep pushing the envelope, this could be a huge Internet development. Or tomorrow's "flash mob." It's up to us to pick which.

Bonus links: An MP3 Blog Aggregator and Woebot's indispensible best MP3 blogs roundup. Find me podcast feeds this good and I'll start to believe the hype.

Becoming a Pod Person? - posted by Terrance Heath

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:30:51 -0800

I've been sitting here at work enjoying several of my coworker's music collections via shared music on iTunes. I coworker asked me where my collection was, but alas, my MP3 player does not interface with the iBook. I tried, and it just didn't work.

I've written about this before, but our office is totally a Mac environment, for the most part. When I started working there, I was one of a handful still using Windows machines. I toted my laptop to and from work. Then came the day I had to make the switch to working on an iBook.

I've also written about my purchase of a Creative Nomad Zen, and my experiences with it. Lately, I've been thinkinking about getting a new MP3 player, and—I have to be honest—I've been thinking about getting an iPod. Maybe people have been slipping me the "Mac Kool-Aid" at work, but there it is. I'm thinking about getting an iPod.

Herein lies the problem. If I get an iPod (and that's still something of a big "if") I have to make a choice. Do I use it with my PC or with the iBook I use for work? As far as I know I can't use it with both.

There's just one more wrinkle. A certain percentage of iPod users who are not Mac users end up switching to Mac.

The research found that 6 percent of iPod users have made the switch. An additional 7 percent said they are planning to dump their old PC for an Apple machine, according to the survey.

Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray senior research analyst, said the iPod halo effect will make a difference to Apple for a while to come.

And according to some sources, the percentage is even higher.

Earlier this week Munster almost doubled his estimates for Apple's stock based on a survey that found 13 per cent of iPod users who were formerly PC users had purchased a Mac (6 per cent) or are planning to buy a Mac within 12 months (7 per cent).

Combine that with the reality that our new office space is dangerously close to a Mac Store, and you can see there's cause for serious concern here. I'm beginning to think there's some sort of conspiracy afoot.

If I get an iPod, will I find myself standing, with eyes-glazed over, at a Mac Store counter, shelling out dough for a new Mac of my own? And if I do, what will happen to my collection of computer games?

Pod People in the Closet? - posted by Terrance Heath

Mon, 27 Dec 2004 09:38:28 -0800

I'm forever running across news about trends that I wasn't aware of, and that I'm usually the last to know about. The latest comes from Wired News. Since I work in such a Mac-centric environment, I thought it would be fun to post here.

I'm probaby gonna hear about this one, but here goes.

What's interesting about it is that the Mac users I know are usually "out, loud, and proud." So why are iPod users going into the closet?

Author and speaker Seth Godin is on his fifth iPod, but he's never once worn the telltale white earbuds.

Why not? Because Godin doesn't want to be recognized as an iPod owner.

Godin is a closet iPod user, one of a small cadre of iPod lovers loath to be identified as an iPod lover.

For closet users like Godin, it's the way the earbuds scream, "Woo hoo, look at me, I've got an iPod!"

"I'm not looking forward to being identified on the street," Godin said. "I don't know why. I don't like it." (Curiously, Godin said he's "proud" of his laptop's Apple logo when he gives presentations to thousands of people, but dislikes the idea of getting the iPod nod on the subway).

To others, using non-white headphones is a reaction to the growing hordes of iPod fans clogging the sidewalks and subways. Others don't like wearing corporate logos, even earbuds.

…Closet iPod use is particularly acute among early adopters, said consumer behaviorist Tom O'Guinn, because they don't want to be identified with the Johnny-come-latelies.

"The phenomenon in question is 'desired marginality,'" he said. O'Guinn said for some Mac users, for example, Apple's marginal status and low market share is a "source of pride." And as the iPod goes mainstream, some early adopters are affronted by its lack of exclusivity.

Michael Bull, a lecturer in media and culture at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, concurred.

"As iPods become more popular, so their cultural cachet is reduced," Bull said. "Quite a few U.S. users note with alarm the increase in numbers of iPods they see in the streets. Before there was a kind of specialness in recognizing another early adopter, a recognition of cultural superiority." [emphasis mine]

As a non-iPod user, I watch somewhat amused from the sidelines. I mean, I've heard Mac-heads deride and proselytize others to choose Mac. I find it funny that when the unwashed masses actually do adopt a Mac product that the Mac-heads suddenly want nothing to do with them.

The message seems to be "You should be more like us, so long as it doesn't make us more like you.

Just an observation.

red | blue - posted by Tim Jones

Mon, 04 Oct 2004 11:32:58 -0700

Earlier in the year, Eyebeam Research launched Fundrace.org. This website will let you type in your zipcode and find out what political campaigns your neighbors have been donating to.

Now, Gravity Monkey has GPS-mapped the data and built a simple PDA application called red | blue:

red|blue transposes the experience of looking up individual campaign contributions onto a Java-enabled phone. With a GPS-enabled phone, the application will take your current location and figure out if you're in a Democratic area or Republican area. The app will also take this information and plot it around you -- in a compass -- to show which direction the money comes from. It's fun to walk or ride about the city, and see how the money changes -- and see how that's reflected in nature of the neighborhood or your surroundings.

Whether this is a cute gimmick or an awesome GOtV tool remains to be seen. I want to hear ideas, people-- how could this or similar technology be put to good use?

(found via Eyebeam ReBlog.)

Something's Going on in India - posted by Harish Rao

Mon, 27 Sep 2004 09:07:08 -0700

This Barbie Doll or here that's being retailed in India has an actual, working cellular phone that users can SMS text message (disclaimer - the veracity of this story is still being verified).

Indeed, Rs. 1100 (USD 26) is waaaay out of the reach of most Indians. I won't dispute that. So, why should we/they care?

It's not about the Barbie Doll itself. Hey, honestly, I hate Barbie dolls. I was in the Toys-R-Us in Times Square last night and I came across a whole section pontificating buying Barbie (the color scheme was a garish purple and pink mix...yuck!) that made me want to puke. Sending it over the top was the fact it was spread across two floors designed to kinda look like a little princess castle. Anyways...

What's amazing here is that technology is taking hold in a place like India. It's too easy to dismiss this as the elite Capitalists in India taking advantage of a burgeoning group of rich people in India who can afford such excess (which is quite true). What's amazing to me is that the idea is being promoted in a place like India, versus a place like New York or let’s says Hong Kong. And the idea just might work over there. I think there's something brewing in India -- the world largest democracy -- and it transcends stupid Barbie Dolls. Technology is rapidly transforming that country--I remember when I was in India last March, my empirical observation was the number of cellular phones outnumbered landlines. Nothing short of amazing, because when I was in India in 1999, not many people had cell phones at all. In just 4 years!

India has a lot of problems to work out -- endemic violence, a less than stable political system, and major infrastructure problems -- but there's something brewing over there. And it's amazing and revolutionary and brilliant and I can't quite express myself articulately here, but wow.

And this Barbie with a cell phone, it's just part of what's going on.