October 4
Wish List for 2008
We just started the last quarter of the year and I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to see in 2008. My criteria are simple, I only have one: spend less time in front of a computer. So here we go:
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Give me one network of friends and let me manage it. I don’t want to spend days recreating all my linkedin connections on facebook (and viceversa). I just want the <add_your_favorite_social_network> to tell me “Hey Riccardo, you have 25 friends on this network, do you want to connect with them?”. And when I come back a week later “Hey Riccardo, 3 friends of yours have joined this network since you last visited, do you want to connect with them?”. 2007 has been the year of Facebook but I don’t particularly care nor want to put all my information on FB. I want to do my movie reviews on Netflix, I want to update my professional profile on linkedin and talk about my motorcycle trips on AdventureRider. A few people are putting some thoughts on this social graph, and I’m really looking forward to see Google enter this race. While we are at it, please also consider instant messaging as just another node of this graph and enable me to email my IM connections, after all we live in a connected world don’t we?
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Google, show me my search! Yes, I use google to search for anything on the web and I’m usually pretty happy (Feeling lucky anybody?) with the search results. But when I search for “serialization of generics in c#” and the search result page is a pretty long page of text it would be wonderful if the words I searched for would be highlighted. Pretty simple. And I don’t have to read the whole page to just find the information I need.
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Cell phone carriers, open your networks. Dear cell phone carriers (ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.), it’s time to listen to your customers and stop overwhelming them with plans that don’t make any sense. We want to be connected and use our mobile phones to connect to the internet (if we so choose) but you are scaring us with all these data plan overcharges. We want just one flat fee, no matter where we are, or when, just one.
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Apple, I want a 16GB iPod nano. I’ve been waiting 2 years hoping that you would upgrade your 8GB nano to a 16GB nano. All I got was the same 8GB nano where I can watch videos… No I am not going to watch a video on a nano, (nice try … but useless) I just want to listen to all my music and 8GB are not enough. Finally since we are talking about Apple, should I even mention the ability to write applications for the iPhone? uhmm… that’s dreaming!
What’s in your wish list?
Craig Andrews said on October 4th, 2007
2. The google thing sounds like what ask.com does - which is *really* cool. I really wish that google’s algorithm could be combined with ask’s interface.
3. Any carrier that did this would be my hero. I already refuse to use Verizon because of their ridiculous closed network rules (no sim cards [sim-like cards do exist for CDMA technologies], locked down bluetooth, insane data charges) despite their having pretty consistent better coverage in the areas I care about.
It seems that VZW and Sprint/Nextel are really fighting against openness, though, so I’m not holding my breath. Check out this article (there are many others): http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070913-verizon-unhappy-with-700mhz-open-access-requirements-sues-fcc.html
4. I’m still wondering what people do with 16gb of music! Of course… I only listen to NPR and other talk shows… so I’m not a good representative of the music listening population. The way I see it is that at 256kbps (which is good quality music, I can’t tell the difference above 128kbps), you get over 3 days of music in that storage size.I have no idea where to *get* that music, never mind what I’d pick. But that’s just my 2 cents.
What I really want is an open cell phone that I can do what I want with (like in your 3rd point), such as the FIC NEO1973. And I want more music stores to drop DRM (go Amazon!). I want point 1 to come true - and more importantly, I want to add a condition: I want it to be managed by a non-profit. And I want to have total control of my data. And I want a good, solid privacy policy. Sure, Facebook, myspace, et al can access it - if I give them permission. And they can’t archive it - they only get it for as long as I like them.
I also want more… but enough dreaming for now.