Telepresence

Maybe you are fortunate enough to work for a company that offer a telepresense room.  And if you do, you know what it does and love to hear what your experiences are like.

Basically, pretend you're the captain of a starship and you're sitting in your chair staring back at a Romulan, or regional VP, and you're just chatting about intergalactic matters.  But on Earth it's a conference room with very expensive video conferencing equipment, like Cisco.

According to CNN Money, a room like this can cost up to $150,000.  Can this catch on?  Well, with some business meetings and tasks, it's entirely doable and saves your executive staff from having to travel across the country or around the world just to have a face-to-face meeting.

By no means is telepresence setups going to replace delicate meetings that require that special personal interaction.  Steve Jobs' reality distortion field likely isn't going to be as effective as its been in person.

Nevertheless, Cisco and others are hoping this will ground some mobile corporate drones as they'll have to travel less.  Still $150K is a lot of money for just one room.  You get the equipment plus three or more large monitors for viewing. 

However, I see other uses for telepresence technology.  Games.  Video gamers would love just such a setup.  Imagine entertainment value of having a greater field of vision and cameras that track your the movement of your body.  Holodeck it is not but actually doing battle in first-person shooter with full range motions is entirely different from pressing buttons on keyboards.  And the be able to see your teammates and opponents on screen as events unfold will bring real life experience that much closer.

Another use is training.  And the range of training application can only be limited by the imagination of the course matters and instructors.  One-on-one or a professor giving a lecture to graduate students in another part of the world.  Pilots can be trained in this manner as well. 

What other uses can you think a telepresense room can be used for?  My hope is already pretty high for this.  As adoption continues, this will only drive the price down over time.  Wouldn't you want one in your home or office if it eventually becomes affordable?

Source:  CNN Money

OLPC, Mac OS, Windows, And Security

When I named this blog, it was mainly to generate  interest and focus on the OLPC.  Alas, there really has not been as much progress as I would have liked.  A lot has changed in the two years since the XO was unveiled and much has happened between the first shipping of the XO and today.

What has happened?  Netbooks has made great in road into the hearts and minds of consumers in economic trouble, Intel's Atom chips, Apple's Macbook rise, and lower priced but powerful mainstream Windows laptops.  And so, I changed focused a bit for "On XO". 

I started talking about general wireless issues, mobile gadgets and smartphones, and editorials on where I think our wireless society will evolve into. 

So, when I stumpled across this post at Appleinsider, a traditionally pro-Apple and rumor site, about Apple's hiring of a OLPC insider, Ivan Krstic, his criticism of the OLPC project (must read), his work on security, and hints of what his work may be with Apple, it really brought me back to think about why the XO isn't as big as it should be, broken promises, and squandered opportunities.

Along with the AI article and Krstic's critical post of the XO development, we gain a good idea of good intentions that went bad, where things stand today in OS and security development, and where we are headed. 

Both posts are recommended reads.  At the end of the day, I hope OLPC's 2nd generation XO works as advertised and continue to drive mobile innovation for children all over the world.

Note:  Krstic, after years of using open source software, has switched to OS X.  His contribution to Apple will bring new innovations in security not just for Macs and the iPhone platform but others as well.  Innovation.  Competition.  Great combo, don't you think?  And at the end of the day, we mobile warriors win.

Mobile Payment

All that has happened in the smartphone market in the last couple of years, there has yet to be anything new as far as mobile payment goes.

For the rest of 2009 and probably 2010, we'll continue to see more changes in the mobile hardware segment and some changes in mobile access due to competitive pressure.

However, my dream of living my wallet at home will have to way a little longer I'm afraid.  One of the biggest news in the last week was Paypal's entry into the Android app market.  However, when we look back on this, it'll be a small blip, hardly noticeable, in the grand scheme of mobile trade.

Yes, mobile trade.  Not simply mobile payment.  I think the mobile market should evolve sufficiently enough where even trading systems from equities, bonds, and physical goods can be exchanged mobilely.  That's still a way off but it's on the way.

For now, I'm satisfied with logging into my bank accounts on my mobile devices to pay my utilities.  Even that was not possible from most banks a year ago.

Note:  In science fiction movies, literatures, and even games now, "credits" of various denominations are used instead of currencies.  We're generations off still.  Old habits die hard and even if the Chinese are trying to supplement the US dollar as the global reserve currently, no one has yet to come up with a credible substitute.  When that day comes, mobile payment and trade will explode onto the scene.

Another Note:  Coupons.  Not everyone accepts coupons displayed on scenes of smartphones.  A few months ago, I received Souplantation coupon on my iPhone.  I printed out a copy but I decided to test and see if the cashier would be willing to accept the digital copy.  No go.  I'll probably go again when I get another coupon.  I'll try it with a different cashier and see if he or she will accept a digital imprint.