160 http://www.idea77.com/160/ Frangino Lucarini on mobiles, internet and new media. it http://www.idea77.com/ http://www.idea77.com/160/images/160rssbanner.jpg 160 by Frangino Lucarini 200 80 Copyright 2008 Frangino Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:35:21 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss Movable Type 4.1 franginolucarini@gmail.com (Frangino) franginolucarini@gmail.com (Frangino) Reboot 10, impressions and thoughts This year i had the chance to attend Reboot 10 in Copenhagen. This was my first time there and i have to say that the conference is good and the people, from speakers to the audience, were nice and friendly.

Now, since this blog is supposed to be devoted to mobiles and new media, let me pinpoint some impressions i had during the 2 days conference:


1) Twitter is a serious competitors of SMS: i was the only one in the audience without a notebook (damn battery!) and i was checking others people monitors: almost everyone had a tab on Twitter and another one on Summize. There was a parallel conversation between peers in the audience: comments on the speech in real time, jokes, schedule of meetings. Twitter is a real community alternative to SMS.

2) iPhone, iTouch: lots of them, nobody's calling, lots of surfing, photo shooting and mailing. So it's like a confirmation: the iPhone more than "a phone with an iPod" is "an iPod with the Internet" which is radically different. I wonder if the same consideration applies to the real market (Reboot is a Geek Adunanza): the real user will surf more the Web because of the device?
Lot of Mac fans in Italy were "surprised/upset" because of a rumored tariff that includes only 1 Giga of data for a monthly fee of 110€ with a 900 minute included. Lots of talking and little Internet: is this the italian way to sell the iPhone? Tim Iphone Plans.
In US things are a little bit different: At&t iPhone plans.
I look forward to understand how the market react in Europe and in particular in Italy

3) Notebooks: lots of Apple Computers, not big news in this kind of meetings. What surprised me is a little but significant presence of eeePC. They are tiny and well connected and full featured for the digital life on the road: they are the swiss knife of the internet. Not so stylish like the iPhone but real Computer with all the application running natively at a decent price.
What's missing (for the EU at least) is an integrated Hi-Speed module but maybe the Acer One will fullfill also this segment: Video Review.

4) This point could be called "Usb Dongle is the best friend of you laptop" or "Wifi is free, but sometimes Hi-Speed is better".
During the conference i saw a lot of USB dongles gently floating in the air from a lots of notebooks. although there was a decent wifi coverage some people preferred to use Hi-Speed. Why? My guess is that sometimes the QoS matters: when you really need to be online you don't want a dropped connection every 5 minutes. Or in general if you have a flat fee why bother to change your standard configuration: plug and play!
Working in a mobile operator i know all the efforts made to guarantee the QoS of the services and the mobile data market has a strong competitor in the free Wi-fi, so the strategy is simple : Operators should provide easy services with high quality at a decent price. Simple uh?

5) Free was the topic of this session of Reebot and the chat with Marko Ahtisaari was really inspiring:

Living off free - Learnings from designing Blyk - the free mobile network

I was familiar with the proposition of Blyk but what really surprised me was their approach to the mobile advertising market:
They accept as customers young people from 16 to 24 years only, not a day less, not a day more. What's interesting is that once you are in you can stay within the network while aging. Their ambitions is to create a sort of MTV generation as a customer base.
When you join Blyk you get a free SIM with 217 free texts and 43 free minutes,every month Blyk refills this SIM.
So Blyk is almost free but they are avoiding standard advertising based on the concept of "free" (where all traditional telcos advertised different "sort" of free plans) and they preferred to use unconventional marketing and an invitation only strategy. Good idea because they have now more than 150.000 subscribers which is an interesting number.
Also the subscribers are liking the ads because are tailored on their interest and some people is asking for more.
Here come another interesting fact: some people asked for a functionality where they can retrieve advertising on demand. I guess this is the dream of every media agency or advertiser: people saying that they are ready to read/watch/play an advertisement. How much is worth this on-demand-ad? I guess a lot.
In conclusion Blyk has a radically new approach to the telco market, will they succeed?
I think so because their business model is a smart mobile version of Google elements of success: easy and useful service, free, advertising and smart technology.

6) To conclude some fun while networking at Reebot:

"Hi, I'm Frangino and i work for a Mobile Telecom Operator", possible reaction list:

- Ah, Voip is free!
- The iPhone, bla bla bla
- How can i switch between application using symbian?
- You have expensive plan!!
- I have roaming issues..
- I don't like calling
- Why that midlet is not working?
- Nobody calls me, sigh sigh

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=481 http://www.idea77.com/160/2008/07/reboot_10_impressions_and_thou.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:35:21 GMT Olivetti Quaderno Vs Asus Eeepc


Quaderno Vs Eeepc, inserito originariamente da Tecnoetica.

Olivetti Quaderno, 1992, Italy.

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=477 http://www.idea77.com/160/2008/05/olivetti_quaderno_vs_asus_eeep.html Thu, 08 May 2008 16:15:39 GMT New values in the digital/real world Kevin Kelly pointed out some interesting ideas on how to face an economy (not only digital) where everything can come to consumer for free.
The essay is really interesting and try to answer this crucial question:

When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied. Well, what can't be copied?

Read online Kevin Kelly's "Better than Free" essay.

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=472 http://www.idea77.com/160/2008/03/new_values_in_the_digitalreal.html Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:37:40 GMT I hope i die before i get old A kid talking about the Internet. A must see if you are seriously working with the Net.


Link: sevenload.com


(via Sotto Rete)

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=466 http://www.idea77.com/160/2008/02/i_hope_i_die_before_i_get_old.html Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:07:31 GMT Understanding art for geeks artgeek.jpg

The great work of paulthewineguy.

(via Quasi.dot)

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=463 http://www.idea77.com/160/2008/01/understanding_art_for_geeks.html Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:20:55 GMT 2008 Trends /2 wiiLL be bigger? The Wii is best sellers of the 2007 console war. But the games that take advantages of the new and unique peculiarity of the system are very few. Nintendo knows very well how to create great experiences rather than games (watch the video) but the question is: are 3rd parties developers good enough to transform the 2008 in the "Year of the great Wii Games"? Time will tell.

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=462 http://www.idea77.com/160/2008/01/2008_trends_2_wiill_be_bigger.html Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:42:54 GMT 2008 Trends /1 Music on streets Let's sing and dance (and share) on the streets: mobile devices will be the next big thing in music sharing. Will the music industry will be happy?

The Belkin RockStar is real product and a good metaphor of the trend:

belkin.jpg

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=460 http://www.idea77.com/160/2008/01/2008_trends_1_music_on_the_str.html Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:11:57 GMT Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
This is something bigger than the iPhone. I hope. Google introduces the Open Handset Alliance.

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=454 http://www.idea77.com/160/2007/11/do_androids_dream_of_electric.html Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:01:23 GMT U Can't Touch This... The iPhone is a success, period.
Today I've just read two news that confirm that the market is changing consequently to the shipment of the iPhone: Nokia is presenting at Symbian Smartphone Show a new touch interface for the S60 operating system while Motorola and SonyEricsson are working together to improve the UIQ User Interface.

S60 Touch

YouTube Video: S60 Touch.

My comment on this 2 news:

Nokia's concept video is ok, it's a reaction the iPhone phenomenon but there's a stylus in the concept? Are they crazy? The palm/stylus user experience is the worst thing that Nokia can put in place to answer to the iPhone designers. Everything on the iPhone is designed to be touched by fingers and also there are no physical buttons to mess up the user paradigm: everything that matter to users happens on the screens. Simple as that.

UIQ: well Motorola isn't known for his "great" user interface and SonyEricsson is changing the core UI aspects of their phones accordingly to other brands experiences like CyberShot and PSP. Let's wait and see the results. Only one suggestion: be fast and be perfect, we know that is a pretty tough job.

UPDATE:

seems that touch is not the only way to innovate: the brand new Nokia Internet Table comes with a full (physical) QWERTY keyboard.

PS

The title comes from an old MC Hammer song!

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=447 http://www.idea77.com/160/2007/10/cant_touch_this.html Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:36:35 GMT I guess that you can't exchange music over Wi-Fi Apple just released a bunch of new iPods, one with Wi-Fi. Nice thing but i guess that users won't be able to exchange music over the air: Microsoft, are you reading?

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=444 http://www.idea77.com/160/2007/09/i_guess_that_you_cant_exchange.html Wed, 05 Sep 2007 22:16:18 GMT I'm not posting while Nokia is expanding his business Long time since the last post but the summer is over and i promise that i'll post more frequently in the future. Anyway let me link 3 resources that indicates how Nokia is preparing his future:

Mosh: online file sharing for Mobiles
OVI: online web 2.0 digital aggregator for Mobiles
Go Play: online music store for both pc and mobiles (be carefull Apple!).

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=442 http://www.idea77.com/160/2007/08/im_not_posting_while_nokia_is.html Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:33:18 GMT Apple misunderstanding SMS appletext.gif Gizmodo reports that Apple recently patented a Text To Speech system to use SMS with voice commands. We all know that only a small percentage of patents become a service (or part of it). In this case i see a huge misunderstanding of the SMS market if Apple thinks that user will appreciate this kind of VoiceSMS. Usually Sms are used when you can actually speak a message and the reasons may vary: you are in a meeting, you don't want to be heard or simply you are playing with your Inbox while waiting the bus. The same scenarios applies to receiving messages: sms are simple like emails, you read them when you want and in complete privacy.
Probably Apple knows something that i don't...but just in case they wanna surprised the market with a voiceSMS system i suggest to do some market research or focus group before the next "One more thing"

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=439 http://www.idea77.com/160/2007/07/apple_misunderstanding_sms.html Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:16:19 GMT Stay away from your desktop http://www.jealouscomputers.com/

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=438 http://www.idea77.com/160/2007/07/stay_away_from_your_desktop.html Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:58:33 GMT Russ is back While i apologize for the long hiatus i'm glad to annouce that Russell Beattie is back bloggin. Since is "the father of all Mobile Bloggers" this is quite a news. So check him out at his brand new blog.

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=437 http://www.idea77.com/160/2007/07/russ_is_back.html Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:13:37 GMT The scroll wheel is...uh...ehm...sucks One of the most overrated feature of the iPod is (was) the scrollwheel. UX experts have been telling for ages that the neverending circle is the best way to browse a large list of items. In my opinion that was true in theory but in the real life moving the fingers is such manner is too difficult (or less precise) especially when you are on the move. Now with the iPod 6th gen (formerly known as iPhone) things are different because only one (natural) vertical move let you browse your large multimedia list. Well rest in peace ScrollWheel since i predict that is going to end like the good ol' Clippy.

]]> approfondisci su Technorati: http://www.idea77.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=436 http://www.idea77.com/160/2007/07/the_scroll_wheel_isuhehmsucks.html Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:37:51 GMT