In 1961, Arthur C. Clarke said that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

In an age where devices with 160Gb and a colour screen can fit into the front pocket of a shirt and be taken in people’s stride as regular a day to day device, wireless internet connections are (to me) the area of technology where magic still exits. The fact that on the latest iPods, I can watch videos on a screen which takes up more of my field of vision than my TV but is thin enough to fit into a suit pocket without spoiling the lines impresses me- but it’s when I’m near an internet hotspot and I can instantly watch one of hundreds of thousands of YouTube videos that I’m still amazed; especially when considering that just 5 years ago, broadband internet penetration in the UK was at just 7%, and the restricted bandwidth meant that the idea of just streaming audio was difficult to take seriously- let alone streaming video.
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October 22nd, 2007 | Devices and User Interfaces, Mobile Web, Other Media, The Internet, WWW, Web Content | No comments

There have been a couple of stories recently that have got me thinking about mobile phone technology and where it’s heading.

The first one was the announcement of the iPod Touch; essentially an iPhone without the phone, or to look at it another way, a touchscreen iPod with wireless internet capabilities. This led to speculation about whether it would be able to connect to a microphone and run VOIP software like Skype, which allows telephone calls to be made over the internet. There are rumours that the iPod Touch has bluetooth capabilities, although whether the hardware is actually present as it is in the iPhone isn’t yet confirmed (it seems unlikely though.) However, even if it isn’t then it seems that there’s no technical reason that it couldn’t be able to pair up with a headset of some sort and be used to connect to the internet as a VOIP telephone.

Obviously, that sort of competition would be somewhat disappointing to the mobile telephone networks, as VOIP is much cheaper than using a land line to make calls, let alone mobile calls (especially long distance calls.) It would also significantly undermine the partnership between Apple and various cellular netoworks in selling the iPhone— announced earlier this week to be released in the UK in November on the O2 network. But, if speculation is to be believed, it seems that Steve Jobs wouldn’t be too bothered by ruffling some feathers. (more…)

September 20th, 2007 | Mobile Web, Uncategorized | 1 comment