I Know By Experience » DesignI Know By Experience

Osnapz Chewy Goodness

Jonathan Firestone — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:23:32 +0000

I love getting things in my email that just make me smile, don’t you? Well for being just a regular social media geek, spending some time on Twitter, I’ve earned a ton of badges through the Osnapz site. Through a connection to Foursquare, you could earn badges for Osnapz by patching in your information and the badges you’ve earned there will connect up to your list of badges. Check out my latest badge:

1,000 Tweets

What’s impressive about this fun little service is the addicting way they get you to pursue more badges. They tell you what’s next and what you have to do in order to get there. Very cool. I’m expecting to see other social media activity badges. Wow, I just realized they’ve turned me back into a Boy Scout, earning achievement badges. Outstanding! As I mentioned, a similar badge system is in use at Foursquare.com, which encourages you to earn badges by earning points and competing with your friends to visit places (usually restaurants, but buildings are just fine) and you earn extra points for tasks and to-dos that get completed along the way that users generate. Foursquare is attempting to sweeten the deal by asking users for suggestions regarding new place-related badges with tasks for completion. You’re welcome to suggest alternate ideas and methods of acquisition. I ended up submitting my own idea for a series of badges geared toward people who love buffalo wings. I identified some restaurant chains they could track, and you could earn badges for progressive visits or the quantity of wings you could eat. i.e. “Wing Commander” badge if you reach 300 visits to restaurants that serve up wings of all kinds. At any rate, I’m impressed. Not only do they take us back to our youth (having just realized the connection as I write this) but it’s a fun way to share net-based, and real world accomplishments. I look forward to seeing how this service expands over the next year.

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Document Template for RFP Responses

Jonathan Firestone — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:05:37 +0000

Hi Folks.

A friend commenting on Social media blog asked if anyone knew of any templates that might be freely available for what I presumed was an interactive company responding to an RFP. I wanted to help him out, so I threw a template together based on some of my successful attempts at producing a workable RFP response. I don’t warrant the work or the results, but have at it. If you’re interested I provide you with: a Template for RFP Response, version 0.4A, off a page reserved for templates off my blog. I hope it’s worthy of praise or gentle criticism. Would love to get your feedback. I’ll update it and I will provide others at this location as I go. Also, feel free to tweet and retweet as necessary.

http://jonathanfirestone.com/document-templates/

Cheers.

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Apple’s going to release the iTablet… Which finish will you buy?

Jonathan Firestone — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:16:11 +0000

You’ve heard all the hype, but I’m not sure people have put together all the pieces. I think Apple’s got a whammy brewing. This is a visual accounting of the rumors that tgrblog.com (I’m linking to their new site at Tumblr) has graciously put together for your viewing pleasure.I believe the “Two finishes” mentioned are being offered are actually two different cases, and two different pricing points, offering two different types of tablets to provide support and competition in two different markets: iTablet – iTouch Style 10.1′ Display Multitouch OLED Screen P A Semi Chip 16GB Runs iPhoneOS iTunes & App Store Apple eReader Multitouch iWork (Downloadable from App Store) Front facing Camera Looks and Acts like an iTouch with new Tablet interaction UI, Gestures/Swipes, etc. 3G Network Connected, No monthly fees, available first at the Apple store then everywhere. WiFi & Bluetooth connectivity White or Black Plastic Finish. Audio Out, USB 2 and Mini Display Port Sync Port, capable of connecting directly to an iMac with new dockport $399, Competitive with Kindle 2. Available from the Apple store & Everywhere iPhones and iTouch are sold. Arrival: March iTablet Pro – Mac-Netbook Style 10.1′ Display Multitouch OLED Screen Intel Chip (Atom?) 2GB 32-64GB SSD Runs OSX iTunes & App Store, Also accepts typical Mac Apps. Apple eReader Multitouch iWork (Downloadable from App Store) Ability to stream apps used on your desktop (Photoshop, etc) to your tablet if connection is fast enough. 3G Network Connected, using AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, w/Data plan. WiFi & Bluetooth connectivity Front facing Camera Looks and Acts like a Mac with new Tablet interaction UI, Gestures/Swipes, etc. Aluminum Finish. Audio Out, USB 2 and Mini Display Port Sync Port, capable of connecting directly to an iMac with new dockport $699-799, Upper-end Netbook competitive, price will be less within 6-8 months as it will be subsidized. Available from the Apple store, or an authorized Mobile retailer. Arrival: March-June I’m going to enjoy seeing something come out, even if this isn’t it. I wasn’t wrong about the iPhone, now let’s see what happens with this launch.

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Five Game Changing Gadgets you should expect to see in the next decade

Jonathan Firestone — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:41:01 +0000

Following up on my version of the Best Gadgets of the Decade, I’m providing a list of five game-changing gadgets you should expect to see in the next decade, along with a description of the likely impacts.

Apple Tablet / iSlate - I do believe this is arriving (or at least due to be announced) in January. The iSlate (I do believe it’ll be called that) will be a hybrid between the a Macbook and an iPhone. It’ll be capable of using iPhone apps as well as desktop apps, I believe the specs will be be something similar to what you see on the Macbook Air, but of course it won’t have a cover over the screen. Over time, this product blows away the netbook, laptop and desktop markets, encouraging people to slip their “iSlate” into a monitor, or sitting on a conduction pad connected to a wall screen) instead of having a box sitting on their desk. This product just gets more powerful as the decade goes on, and people like the idea less and less of being tied to a desk, and chunky equipment. Techies of all stripes are struck by the similarities to the Star Trek like “Pad” and shun the traditional thinking of what a computer has to look like or be altogether. Dell has a heart attack wondering how they’ll ever beat Apple without going thinner (attempts to find and purchase a company producing paper-computers and fails) and consequently loses enough stock value that Microsoft sees them as a worthy hardware partner for direct purchase.
SixSense Tech Context Bar – On a parallel path, it’s shaped like a candybar, and interfacing with or as your mobile device — it hangs around your neck. In it’s most miniature versions sits in a pocket like a pocket protecter (we’ll call it the Geekbar) in a shirt pocket, and for men or women, a necklace holding a few small boxes with pinhole cameras and a projector inside – this wearable device originally designed by Pranav Mistry at MIT will blow the doors off you can do with a computer. A wearable computer, interfacing constantly with the net and providing you with an information (and unfortunately advertisement) enhanced reality. This enhanced reality will come with a few different versions, one by Apple using a new version of OS X specifically for their “iBar” version (which replaces the outdated iPhone) using OS X 11ER2 (Enhanced Reality Version 2.0), a Linux and Android/Google OS versions delivered through Asus and other clone manufacturers, and another by Microsoft/Dell partership with a new OS by Microsoft called “Interpreter” (Which makes use of gesture control, or PUI — Perceptual User Interface). The SST C-Bar will be as Pranav has envisioned, something very cost effective (Under $300) and bridges the world between your online world and the real one. Complete, low-intensity gesture control is now standard. Instead of having to go find a surface to work on (a white wall or piece of paper) all work can be done in the air with small motions. Popular culture comically refers to people using earlier versions of the device as “Bats” due to the long nature of the original bar (4″) shaped like a baseball bat and the other aspect of people seen waving their arms around vigorously trying to get the early devices to work properly. This product is so revolutionary that it encourages Apple to outfit their mobile devices with SST Context technology wherever possible.
Untethered VR “Sunglasses” followed by Wearable VR Contact Lenses (closer to the end of 2019) - Complimenting the Context bar, you’ll see Wearable VR tools that will help you see what you’re working with, since complete gesture control is now standard. It’s not necessary any longer to wear a glove or tape on your hands. The cameras, tools and processors now support this tech cheaply. VR “glasses” come in prescription form at $29 a pair, while the contact lenses are $599 on the clone market. Before the end of the decade, you no longer have to have an iSlate, computer or any other computer to initiate VR activity with, you can simply look at a target point on a wall and interface with the local systems to get VR access. Coffee shop customers, no longer content with WiFi, encourage shops to double in size to support the “Batty” activities and arm-waving accompanying the new devices and needs of VR users.
Full-Body Med Scanning Platforms - Rounding out the end of the decade, and fueled by a push to keep the insurance industry in check is a government program to offer complete medical scanning of individuals, with the promise that you can’t be disqualified for insurance or denied low cost insurance for any condition) that will tell you everything about a body’s current status. The scanning also stops sort of full DNA testing, but provides after a quick scan an understanding of all the systems currently underperforming on a patient and aids the doctor with potential support for treatment. Actionable doctor visits are now much more rare, as trips to a Platform is as simple as going to a mall or a nearby facility and tests can be “run” by a registered nurse and monitored by a doctor on staff. The design of the product may possibly come from Switzerland where the Biomedical Scanning Center has been researched for some time. Scans are uploaded to your doctor’s office. The platform is comfortable and easy to use. The patient can be standing, sitting or laying down when the scan is administered, but this gadget revolutionizes disease control as well as providing a clear, up to date status on the overall health of the population. This is a moneymaker for everyone, including the insurance industry, who after having to conform to a partial socialization, have now shifted gears to the much more profitable methods of holistic medicine. Gone are the days of people getting sick all the time and complaints of alien probing are way down.
Greenshoes – Popularized by the green energy conservation movement and the fashion industry, many shoes, tight-fitting undershirts and a resurgence of long underpants called “Huggers” all come with micro-gyro-magnet-charging technology, allowing energy to be captured, stored and transferred to mobile devices, iSlates and other gadgetry as you move throughout the day. Stored energy is delivered to syphon pads that sit unobtrusively under a table, chair or desk. This product begins sealing the formerly broken “circle of conservation” which attempts to re-capture “lost” energy through the use of wind farms, lightning recovery systems, wave-action power plants, gratuitous use of solar panels and now magnets and cantilevers.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our little visit to the future and remember to consider those gadgets carefully when you see them. Version 1.0 is always a little “batty”… er… I mean buggy.

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pleased by posterous

Jonathan Firestone — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:53:07 +0000

I am pleased by Posterous. The general user experience for this Web Application/Blogging/Posting tool is really very, very good. I have always urged app makers to tie their sites more closely to email when it made sense to do so — intranets, or extranets for example. I would argue that usability-wise, if you want to produce a blog post, or post media of some kind it makes a lot of sense to go no further than your email app for preparing it, since A) Almost all email programs or web-based services out there support rich formatting, with linking and upload capabilities. Formatting, spell checking and all sorts of features exist in your email program and generally they do it all quite well. Even Gmail. So, this makes posting correctly real easy. B) You also spend a good chunk of your online life in email right? I think it makes all the sense in the world for your blogging access to be close by. I’ll have to add more as I have thoughts on the subject. Now, all I have to do is fix it so if I’m sending a post out, it’s not including my signature line. So Far:

The Good: Very quick setup. They’re absolutely right. And it ties into multiple services easily.
The Bad: I’m not always fond of the interface layouts, but it appears every effort is made to give you the power to make changes. And of course it helps if you know what you are doing with with HTML and CSS (which I do, but haven’t mucked around with yet.)

Next Steps: Next steps are to consider adding other features. The Posterous.com Bottom Line: Way cool, more to come.

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Inspired User Experience: Enable people to have fun, and they will

Jonathan Firestone — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:02:04 +0000

Can you encourage people to have fun with something so basic as taking a flight of stairs versus the escalator? Volkswagon believes it’s possible and proves it in this great video. You can’t help but smile along with this fantastic idea. (A special thank you to @berkun for posting this on Twitter and to @jmspool passing it on with a Re-Tweet. ) What I particularly like about this experience is the relationship to immersion gaming. If you want someone to do a task, make it fun to do. Make them totally lose themselves in the act of doing it and make the task painless. Take careful notice in the video — people actually took their time on the stairs. Some people got involved enough to try and play songs on the piano. The video even points out that 66% more people took the stairs than the escalator. Could you imagine this experiment being done on the steps (or several pianos spread across multiple flights) of a Washington, DC Metro station? Maybe we’ll see this done at the stairs for Chinatown/F-Street/Verizon Center?

My Wishlist for the iPhone 2

Jonathan Firestone — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:58:17 +0000

I decided to put together a wishlist for the new iPhone “2″, which MacRumors.com is reporting is likely to be on the way. They feel this way for a few reasons.

Code in the 2.x firmware, where you can see a version designation for the Next generation iphone: “iPhone2,1″. This is found in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist, which is unencrypted.
Pinchmedia Ad Serving reports also identify a Device Name of of iPhone2,1 with 2 unique users. This would mean these phones are in alpha or beta testing.
Imagination Technologies is also likely to be a part of any processor upgrades in the near future, possibly providing multiple GPU’s for these new units (or so it’s rumored)

At any rate, if all these things are true, we’re probably looking at a new iPhone with multiple GPUs, more storage space and probably some other upgrades as well. I’d like to see a few serious hardware & software upgrades of my own for the new iPhone. Some are things everyone wants and I’ve included a few of my own that I’d find particularly useful. Here’s my wishlist if a new iteration is available in June:

Increased battery life
Replaceable battery
Better Speaker(s)
Integrated/detachable wireless bluetooth earphone co-engineered by Apple and Aliph, using the same tech as in the Jawbone.
Faster Processors that suck less power.
Audio commands for iPhone, allowing the user with the click of a tactile “listen” button to have the phone listen to your command, then autodial, or any number of other commands so you can conduct a call while trying to drive without worrying about the button you’re hitting. Either that or just have the phone listen for your commands when you’re in “wireless earpiece mode”.
Turn-by-Turn GPS with AUDIO Directions, and voice command responses
Multi-pointer Google Map Directions, where you can select more than one midpoint to establish a route or detour. I’m damn sick of having to re-configure my path based on current location when I had to take a detour, or not being able to set up a different route to take based on my desires for travel.
Improved Safari & Mail compatibility support, permitting actual selection of iCal invitations through either Apple Mail or Safari (if you happen to be looking at Gmail or some other calendar), where if the .ics file is selected, you can actually RESPOND to the event.
Better yet, you could try and integrate Mail and iCal so it’s seamless, with Reoccuring ToDo’s (NOT EVENTS).
Set up some filesharing services and allow a user to attach files to emails from a holding space without special programming or apps.
A better camera that doesn’t turn my pictures green or require that I attach an iclarify case to the phone.
An onscreen switch in Safari (or command bar with specific commands) that allows me to temporarily deactivate WiFi so I can use Edge or 3G without being interrupted by locked WiFi networks I can’t use.
Auto Dictation. I’d love to see this integrated, or made a part of Mobile Me if it has to have an online component to it, similar to Google’s audio search.
Flash Plugin
If no Flash Plugin: .FLA file conversion services, so Flash Developers can have a version of their Flash app produced for the iPhone in a compatable manner, with minimal re-authoring for a different code base.
Mini-mobile versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote for use on the iPhone when you purchase the latest versions of iLife and iWork.

Okay that’s it for now. I’ll be back with some more ideas after I think this over a bit. This is what came to mind on short notice.

Google’s Android and the promise of a better mobile experience

Jonathan Firestone — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:45:56 +0000

In the United States, people hate their phones. I know that you know this. But it’s kind of like your phone bill, where you know you’re stuck with whatever has been charged to you, and it’ll be a few years before that mess is over with (or so you tell yourself) so you keep paying. And paying. And you are feeling more pain as you go. The pain may soon be a little more tolerable because of Google’s “Android” operating system for phones. Google’s always been about simplicity, ease of use, but with tremendous power under the hood of the car. But Google has found a way to bridge one of the critical gaps in the mobile market. The critical gaps are overall experience things like: “I can’t go to another carrier, I’d have to change my phone and lose all the numbers and ringtones I’ve kept on it” “I can’t expand my phone with cool programs, that kind of behavior is for smart phone junkies.” “I can’t really show people my phone, it’s ugly as sin. I want to be stylish but…this is a Nextel… whoever heard of a sexy Nextel?” “I wanted to try out the phone in the store but it’s got plastic innards, I have no idea how it’ll run and work for me until AFTER I bought it, and then I’m stuck for a few years.” Most of the above statements are factors that cover everything from people wanting style in their lives, they want knowledge and cool tools at their fingertips, and they want portability. Even the hope provided by the concept of swapping your SIM back and forth between phones is a dream in the US and many carriers don’t even let you swap SIMS between their own phones let alone one sold to you over eBay or Amazon. Heck, Verizon won’t even give you easy access to the SIM. In many cases a SIM isn’t so much as hidden it’s inaccessible. Need a solution? So let’s talk environment, not hardware — because if you’re Google, life is all about the software you run it on. Meet ‘Android’ a brand new operating system to build a phone on. Google established the “Open Handset Alliance Project” or OHA with a variety of phone makers (Nokia, LG, Apple, and many more) as well as the phone service carriers that sell the phones. In Google’s words:

“Welcome to the Open Handset Alliance™, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies who have come together to accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience. Together we have developed Android™, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform.”

If this environment is seen everywhere and used on most mobile phones, any software made for android can run on any Android phone. This is like using Windows Mobile on a phone, if the phone has windows mobile, you can add new software for it. The software can communicate to the phone (and the phone network, the carrier’s internet connection if you have a data plan, etc) through an API provided by Google. In fact anything can be changed out, replaced, etc. For example, want to change out your dialer? If you don’t like the look of your onscreen dialing keys and sounds, you can easily replace the entire thing. Want a different “home page” for your phone? Just get a new one. What I find especially interesting is the ability to “mash-up” within the phone environment. You can literally combine information from the web with data on the phone. If your phone as GPS capability, we could potentially harness that to alter your dialing directory based on your geographical location, to create a special list of all your nearby friends, and have it available at your fingertips in a dialing directory made available for the purpose of calling your friends for a quick lunch. At any rate, Google has the SDK available right now, and it won’t be long before Android enabled phones will be around to make use of all the cool little applications being developed. I look forward to being able to solve many of the gripes mentioned above (other than changing my mobile provider) once this project really gets rolling. It’ll work because it’s about the software, not the hardware (which we’ll never be able to 100% agree on as far as everyone getting the same type of hardware anyway ;D) . One of the best things about it — if I call my friend asking her to look at over something I just developed, they’ll be able to look at it too, and have a similar experience. Thanks to Google. Things are just getting started. It’s gonna be a blast.