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Idea: The ultimate connected device

Fred Oliveira on November 27, 2006

We need a device that’s connected, and open. We need it to be online at all times, to connect us to the people we care about, to let us work on the things we are interested in, to let us communicate, be productive, manage. We need it to be clear an concise, we need the interface to be simple, front and center - helpful, not hopeful. We need it to be modular, because although I might care about using it for music and photos, people next to me may want to use it for news, or as a phone.

We need to be able to extend it. In fact, we need it to be open to being extended by anyone - open source. If anyone wants to make it a gaming machine, great. If instead of games, I want RSS feeds, podcasts, and calling functionalities, fantastic. It doesn’t need big bells and whistles - these days, hardware is powerful enough to run everything we’d need in a mobile device, cheaply. All it needs is to exist, the community would grow out of the possibilities.

Why are we building platforms for User Generated Content, and aren’t building the platform for any content?

If you care about these problems, we want to hear from you. Drop us an email at hello@webreakstuff.com and speak your mind. We’re listening, and we’d love to work with people and companies tackling these problems. And we so want a chumby to get experimenting!


Comments on this post

evan

This devices already exists. It’s the “NOKIA 770″. It can do all the above things you mentioned. It has an open source operating system thus anyone can make applications or games and it runs Opera 8. It can connect to the Internet with any wireless Internet connection or BlueTooth. You can even control your Mac or PC remotely. What more could you need. O and it fits in your back pocket.

Here is the link on Nokia’s website:
http://www.nokiausa.com/770

thanks

Fred

You have a point with the 770, but it has a few problems - most importantly, distribution. Apparently nokia is working on an update model (which I’m desperately waiting for), and the Apple tablet plan is making my mouth water. I guess we’ll be where I want us to be in a while (undoubtedly), but I wonder how much time it’ll take for a manufacturer to understand how much openness a system needs to have.

Antonio Pratas

That device is something we are all waiting for. Everyday I look at my tv and I think that I should turn it on, and have an application that shows me the latest news (regional, national, global, etc) from the providers that I subscribed, my mp3 player, something that shows me the weather for today, the traffic report, etc.

All this is possible by grouping a lot of docklets and rss feeds and software, but I agree that there should be only one (as you said) modular device and application. I should go to the kitchen and have a tiny lcd there showing me the same updated info. The same goes for when im in my car, and in the one device that you talk about. I don’t really know how to call it, because it can’t be called a cellphone, it can’t be called a laptop, mp3 player, tablet, pda, because it has to be all that and more, it has to be a personal device that we carry with us all day, online all the time, synchronizing with my Gmail, my calendar application, my podcasts, my feeds, and to be able to connect to every personal device around me for sharing of information and data.

I believe that our mobile phones are going to evolve that way, in some years from now, because we can look back and count the number of features, and with my first cell phone I was able to make calls and send text messages, maybe set an alarm, but no more than that. Now, with a 100€ cellphone, I have video-conference, mp3 player, bluetooth connectivity, calendar, java applications, well, the normal features of a cellphone now.

And I believe that it’s just a matter of time, but unfortunately we are always depending on others, like any other product, we can’t have something very evolved, because then the more weak products won’t sell and won’t make profits for the large industries.

Robert

I’ve written about this also. Check it out here:

http://www.53miles.com/archives/why-we-need-a-mobile-revolution

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