this needed to be added though- it’s pretty rare for me to get excited about much on the internet these days but coming from a mapping background this ted talk by Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ blew me away. like everyone else, i was amazed when Google Street View came out as it really changed the way we consume maps online and on our mobile. now, it looks like microsoft is going to use their photosynth technology (which is wow-oh-so-cool, and i encourage you to check it out) to allow you to not only go to street-view level, but then explore inside buildings using crowd-sourced images from sites like flickr. this i can see could be useful exploring shopping centers etc, but they then demonstrate a live video overlay which, kudos to them is pretty cool technology-wise- i’m just at a loss as to how i would use it. maybe if it was hooked into a web-cam, i could see how busy a restaurant/shopping center/carpark is? i dont know- but i’m sure i will find a use for it!

there was something very voyeuristic about street-view when it was released, with countries like germany actually taking a stand and banning it. but this development goes far beyond that. i think we may see other countries joining germany, which would be a shame. but how would it work with peoples homes? could i take you on a tour inside a house? imagine the potential for real estate- doing virtual-tours (which, appreciated, have been done before- but this would be user-generated, not done by lazy real-estate agents).

bring it on, i say!

this is one of those.

now, the reason why i’m so excited is that again, this appears to be a solid piece of hardware
running what is becoming a pretty solid OS. i wouldnt say this handset will directly steal marketshare from apple as they have an amazingly effective marketing/brand loyalty campaigns and they would have tied up most of the potential smartphone users up with 3gs contracts. however, i do think this will bring android into the mainstream marketplace because it has the creditable backers of motorola and verizon. we are pretty sheltered here in australia, and it seems that whatever mobile phone phenomenon occurs in the US we seem to follow suit- and this could be the same. americas are very american-centric, they love buying from their own kind. they drive their GM cars, they buy their iphones and nikes, hell the vast majority only holiday within the US- so with the backing of true-blue-and-white-striped companies like motorola and verizon this handset should get a bit of airtime and hopefully cause a
few waves.

lets just hope it just isnt another palm pre fiasco!

we need more of these..

nokia have announced their latest and greatest phone, the n900. what separates this from the “super-hype” of the n97 (and the subsequent let down as well) is that they have come out and said that this a computer first, and a mobile phone second. which, when you think about it, is a massive shift for nokia who have always prided themselves on being a phone rather than a computer. the iphone is a computer first and a phone second, allowing it to deliver amazing transitions and awesome gaming experiences. hopefully, the n900 is able to match the iphone in this regard, but im not excited by games. im excited by the internet. the n97 gives a pretty good experience of the web with in-browser flash and tabbed browsing (in opera 5 at least) – the n900 brings the power of a mozilla browser to the handset which i am very excited to see. you can have a squiz here. another thing you should be excited to see is the new generation of maemo which is an opensource linux operating system- what does this mean? put simply, heaps of nerds will be able to build heaps of cool things for this device. the issue that i have with apple is the limitations it puts on its users and developers (still no google voice on the app store!? WHY!?) and i think that the open platform of symbian/maemo/android will be embraced and possible spell the demise of the iphones stranglehold on the mobile phone industry. now, dont misquote me, i didnt say the death of the iphone, but the end of the stranglehold that iphones have on mobile internet traffic today. but that is getting very off topic and will need to be discussed another day. anyhow, you can find out more about the n900 and the exciting new generation of maemo platform at nokia’s official site..

specs: Maemo 5 OS 3.5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) resistive touchscreen display 110.9 × 59.8 × 18mm, 181g Portrait-orientation sliding QWERTY Mozilla-based browser, full Adobe Flash support ARM cortex A8 processor 32GB internal memory w MicroSDHC support (up to 16GB) 5.0 MP Carl Zeiss camera with dual-LED flash, auto-focus and sliding cover FM transmitter Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WCDMA 900/1700/2100, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP GPS 1500 mAh battery

bring it on..