consultaglobal

“The $200 notebook is here. When a smart phone’s resources just don’t cut it but a traditional laptop is too much to lug around, the Asus Eee PC will do the job. Billed as the laptop that’s ‘easy to learn, easy to play, and easy to work’ this super durable sub-two pound notebook can go anywhere”. Laptop Magazine, August 07 issue.

• Small form factor: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.4 inch
• Lightweight: around 2 pounds
• Linux, just a 15 second bootup
• 7 inch screen with Intel UMA graphics (10 inch version available later in the year)
• Screen resolution: 800×480 pixels
• No moving parts, e.g. no hard disk, but durable solid-state flash memory, 2/8/16GB models.
• SC/MMC card reader
• 3 megapixel webcam and microphone
• WiFi, 802.11 b/g radio
• 10/100 Ethernet port
• 2 USB ports
• VGA output
• Four cell battery, lasting only 3 hours per charge

I would be really interested in getting an Asus Eee I could validate whether that laptop could leverage my phone as a 3G modem.

This machine appears to work well with “portable app versions” of full blown applications such as OpenOffice (compatible with Microsoft Office and Adobe’s PDF), Thunderbird (email client) and Firefox (Internet browser) as well as any Web 2.0 hosted apps that you can access from a browser (Google Apps, WordPress, etc.). Additionally, Asus has included Skype in the software bundle.

Needless to say, It would be great if Soonr (remote desktop access) and Mojopac (the so-called “PC on a stick”) came up with Linux versions of their software.

Via’s Nanobook is also interesting, but the price tag sets it in the upper $500 price range. Panasonic’s Wordgear has been priced below $500, it has been positioned as a multimedia eBook, rather than as a personal computer. See pictures below:

I cannot help wondering if all of this means I do not need to carry my laptop with me anymore, an achievement I would certainly add to my list of superseded gadgets:

• 1996 – I started using laptops and stopped using desktop PCs altogether.
• 1999 – I created my own paperless office: sharing project updates, insights and files with my peers by means of my personal site at work, behind the company’s firewall. Obviously… I had no clue that was going to be better known as “blogging” some years later. I got my self started by uploading and hyperlinking word documents saved as html files on a server, giving them the look an feel of a basic webpage.
• 2000 – My wrist watch required a new battery. I ditch it, relying on my phone for the time since.
• 2001 - My very last floppy this went to the garbage bin. I haven’t used one since.
• 2004 - Until this year, I was still carrying both a phone and a bulky PDA. Then I got a GPRS smartphone, SMT 5600, which enabled me to leave my PDA at home.
• Feb 2007 - I’ve been carrying a 3G phone in my pocket, a multimedia smartphone with a couple of 2GB micro-SD flash cards, complemented by a foldable Bluetooth keyboard and productivity software. I have managed to get a few things done which would otherwise have required a laptop.The phone also doubles as a 3G modem for my laptop, and as a music player. 
• July 2007 – Before taking a trip, I take some time sideloading Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF files I need by means of a USB sync-up between my laptop and my phone. At my destination, I can move the files to any available PC. When on the road, I use my 3G phone to connect back to my laptop (wherever that might be) being able to reach all of my folders, files, email, calendar, contact list… and Skype thanks to Soonr’s software… which only requires a browser running on my phone.
• August 2007 - I will start using Mojopack and portable apps, giving me the chance to use my smartphone: “MojoPac turns any USB storage device, such USB-enabled cell phones cell phones, into a portable computing environment.

In case you didn’t know, some hotels are now providing PC friendly TV sets:

“Hotel rooms are now welcoming a new kind of guest: your PC. Marriott’s Plug-In Rooms finally make the lowly hotel TV PC-friendly, turning it into a giant monitor for your DVDs, games, and YouTube videos, or just for getting work done”.

“The TV connects to a “jack pack” either behind the unit or on the room’s work desk, with VGA, composite audio/video, minijack audio, S-Video, HDMI, and USB inputs. Some rooms also have an iHome iPod dock/alarm clock by the bedside”. Sasha Segan on PCMag.

So, the next step is to connect your 3G smartphone to the hotel’s TV screen, or any other monitor or projector available wherever you go, saving you from having to carry expensive laptops with you as well as having to go through the trouble ol locating a WiFi hotspot:

“Gartner predicts a future of mobile ‘ambient business’, where consumers explore their environment to find relevant value propositions.Data will be selectively pushed to the user based on context, matching the users’ needs, interests, mood, location and even recent behavior.Location, combined with personal presence, creates transient communities, which offers an opportunity for better use of [wireless] time or marketing”. Nick Jones, Gartner Says Corporate Mobility Becomes Mainstream and Outlines the Shape of the Future with Mobile Business 2.0, April 3, 2006

Web 2.0 / Mobile 2.0 end up becoming key enabling trends as all kind of devices equipped with AJAX browsers should be able to deliver a good application experience provided adequate broadband access. This is in sync with Bill Gates view on cradles for phones to connect to other devices and concepts such as “Network as Platform” and “Cloud Computing“, which have been traditionally been positioned by companies such as Sun Microsystems and, most recently, Google:

“Google’s CEO, Schmidt, embraces ‘an emergent new model’: It starts with the premise that the data services and architecture should be on servers. We call it cloud computing – they should be in a ‘cloud’ somewhere. And that if you have the right kind of browser or the right kind of access, it doesn’t matter whether you have a PC or a Mac or a mobile phone or a BlackBerry or what have you – or new devices still to be developed – you can get access to the cloud…”. Google CEO Eric Schmidt as reported by Dona Bogabatin, ZDNet blogger.

“Broadband To Go”, Vodafone’s HK and NZ commercials featuring ubiquitous broadband access:

Recursion Software claims that “applications can transcend the traditional client-server model so that each device is intelligent, transactional and communicates peer-to-peer and peer-to-group without the need for centralized servers”. Meaning, smartphones can behave like mobile servers, communicating with other smartphones and other network resources in a P2P or server like fashion.

“Is it time to close the lid on that notebook when you travel? The answer depends not only on your primary needs, but also on which phone and accompanying third-party programs you choose. For many users, the answer increasingly is, “Yes!”. Ditch Your Notebook For A Smartphone? PCToday, January 2007.

Most importantly, user generated application mashups (e.g. blending features from different applications to come up with a customized service) will be common place, further contributing to the benefits of a freer mobile environment.

The following is just an example of humorous advertising featuring smartphone users being attacked by upset laptops, courtesy of Nokia: http://www.jealouscomputers.com/ 

Video clips worth watching and all related to this subject:

• VIDEO 1 – PALM FOLEO With 3G Phone (or) WiFi
• VIDEO 2 – MICROSOFT SIDESHOW + WINDOWS PC
• VIDEO 3 - SMARTPHONE + SOONR
• VIDEO 4 - SMARTPHONE + SLINGBOX
• VIDEO 5- OLPC + WIRELESS PC:
• VIDEO 6 – PORTABLE APPS ON FLASH USB:
• VIDEO 7 – MOJOPAC PORTABLE DESKTOP ON FLASH USB:

José de Francisco  Chicago, 05 August 07

Click here to display my most recent blogs or here for my newsfeed.

This blog’s Long Tail:

• Welcome to 2015
• Web 2.0 vs. Renaissance II
• Mobile Applications 2
• Mobile Applications 1
• User your phone as a 3G modem
• Mashup tools, now mobile
• Moblogging from Chicago
• My view of the world back in 1991: Project Ergofuturo + Ergotrans
• Consultaglobal Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0
• Sun’s Blackbox: Shippping Web 2.0
• Nokia’s design research for everyone
• Ergofuturo: Project Cosm
• Innovation and boundariless design
• QoE – immersive scenarios and experiential marketing
• QoE – defining and studying personas
• 3G-4G LivingLab
• PC Phones
• Mobile phone concepts
• Augmented reality, now mobile
• Innovative mobile phones: objects of desire

Consultaglobal’s Innovation Search Engine