TechCrunch is reporting that Google may have closed the deal on acquiring GrandCentral. As TC mentions, GrandCentral provides technology for consumers and businesses to have “one phone number for all your phones, for life.†This is right in the sweetspot for whitepages companies attempting to combine information and newer methods of access. But in Google’s hands it starts to remind me a little of a people-based Googlezon script. A monolithic worldwide telco to rule them all..
Archive for June, 2007
Why does this one scare me more than the others?
Published by June 25th, 2007 in Strategy. 0 CommentsNiche Worlds
Published by June 19th, 2007 in Uncategorized, Gaming, Virtual Worlds, Australia, Consumer Generated and Second Life. 0 Comments
Social networking sites are now so many that the term is nearly obselete. As result of the collective success of Facebook, Bebo, Orkut (if you’re Brazilian) and the ‘Space, a generation of people are heading online having never seen the internet without these experience. So interactions like adding buddies, shooting an IM, joining groups and um.. ‘poking’ Facebookers come to them as naturally as sending an email or performing a search. We used to browse content: now we aggregate, rate and tag it.
Now we’re starting to virtual worlds heading the same way. With a 3D game-like user interface, there is a very low barrier to entry for the younguns in attempting to navigate their avatar around a new environment. Of course there are still lag, rendering and other technical issues to resolve in these alpha experiences, but it’s really not a big leap for the Playstation generation to adopt the basic mechanics. So it stands to reason, that as the basics begin to be ingrained, providers of these worlds can start to tailor and personalise these experience to specific segments.
A great example of this is the recently announced (somewhat released) Virtual Lower East Side (think Vice Magazine meets Second Life). Of course there is value in a massively horizontal, user-generated platform of virtual content. But we’re starting to see virtual worlds translated into targeted editions for all sorts of demo- and psychographic audiences. VLES is the realistic virtual depiction of just one corner of Manhattan. When an area has such distinguishable characteristics that define it - live music, seedy past, grungy cafes - it has real potential to come alive in a game-like world. Clearly this is something Rockstar are trading off. But for these immersive, connected spaces, this is just the beginning.
Australians: maybe a virtual Maroubra could be an interesting place to explore from the safety of your own Macbook..
Last night in the US, new Apple iPhone ads aired on TV showing off its slick interface, ease of use and, more importantly, the official release date: June 29. Understandably the aesthetics of the device have been getting much of the attention from prospective punters, given all we have so far is video and imagery online. But one of the more intriguing aspects of the iPhone is its ‘widget’ environment. Of course the images on the phone could just be application icons, and no more widgets than any of the software found in Nokia, Blackberry or Motorola operating systems. Or even if they are widgets like we find in OS X and Vista, when the iPhone was announced Steve Jobs told the New York Times that there would be absolutely no chance of third party applications being allowed. This would mean every software addition to the device would need to come directly from Apple, not loaded on by the people who’d paid $US700 to take one home.
But last week Jobs mentioned that Apple ‘might’ open up the iPhone to third-party applications. This is an interesting step forward in Apple’s approach (if he means it), and may significantly affect the usefulness of the device. Most people realise that technically, apart from the touch interface, the iPhone is not a major leap forward in capability. But if the thousands of widgets already available for OS X are suddenly made available for their phone, Apple could successfully introduce the mobile internet to a wider, more mainstream, audience. There a masses of people who will not try new technology until it is truly plug-n-play.
If it’s as easy to add apps to your iPhone as it easy to add songs to your iPod, this crazy mobile internet thing could finally take off.
UPDATE: Apple may be announcing iPhone Developer Kits next week at WWDC.
UPDATE 2: Nope - no developer kit. Overnight Australian time, Steve Jobs delivered the WWDC keynote and talked about developer applications on the iPhone. From Macrumors.com:Â “Also announced was that Apple was making it possible for developers to write small, Widget-like programs for the iPhone. A demonstration was given showing a corporate LDAP directory lookup application. All such applications will run within Safari to maintain the security of the iPhone.”
This is a bit of a let down. It doesn’t achieve the type of simplicity of experience discussed in the post above. True integration of mobile widgets into the device’s OS would have allowed people drag-and-drop applications onto their device. But accessing them in Safari is not quite there the same thing.
An aside: Have you ever seen a press release with so many mentions of 2.0?
