Ribbit coming soon
I’ve been keeping an eye on Ribbit ever since reading about BT buying them and meeting the CEO at FOWA London last year. I’m getting excited about the use of the web with your mobile phone. Ribbit, Skydeck and Google Voice are all services which promise this, but Ribbit looks like the nicest UI by far at the moment. None of these are available in the Uk yet which is very dissapointing, so get your finger out guys!
As a teaser, here is Ribbit Mobile’s Called ID screenshot: just amazing that you can see someone’s latest flickr pics, blog posts etc when they ring. Love it! 
OfficePod
I’m in the market for a home office sometime this year. The command bunker is rather small and I can barely stand up to be honest. Not the best space for creative work. (I must not complain too much as I do love working from home and sure beats the “Dilbert” cubicle with people you would not give the time of day too outside of work) 
Having had a good look around for home office solutions, I was very excited to see the OfficePod this evening, picked up by the excellent twitturly (tracks links which are being tweeted).
Lets get the good news over with. It looks FAb. Great design, well thought out and the website is very nice indeed. Really focuses on both employee and emplyer benefits. In fact the site and company seem very geared up to encouraging working from home.
Ok, the bad news. Apparently they are rental only. Yep. How about £5K per year? Err. Nope. This is a real mistake IMHO. If priced well, these would sell like hot cakes. But 4 years at £5K, and you are in the realms of Garden Lodges and the Qube. SO back to square one.
What do I need? Well, space for one (the OfficePod is VERY small to be fair). Has to be well designed and a reasonable price. I really need to separate the home and the work life as they all too frequently merge into one. (Not too much to complain about though, as I love my work)
What do you think guys n gals? Any top tips for home / garden offices?!
Micro-sociology of Networks
This is a great presentation of how networks and networking are effecting our lives, and all driven by technology. (From David Armano).
Location Awareness – BBC Radio Lincolnshire
Last Monday I had another Radio session over at BBC Radio Lincolnshire on their tech slot. It’s starting to become a regular thing which is great, so a HUGE thanks to them for having me on!
This week we were talking about location awareness and how it is becoming more and more prevalent. Listen to the chat below!
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Personally, I’m a massive fan of this technology and looking forward to when it matures. At present there are a few competing services, such as
And also Google’s Latitude
If Google bring out an iPhone application for Latitude, it will undoubtedly take off in a big way. At the moment it is limited to using it via the web on your computer or on some phones:
Google Latitude is a feature of Google Maps for mobile on these phones:
- Android-powered devices, such as the T-Mobile G1
- iPhone and iPod touch devices (coming soon)
- most color BlackBerry devices
- most Windows Mobile 5.0+ devices
- most Symbian S60 devices (Nokia smartphones)
Personally, I’m using Brightkite every now and then and used to tinker with fire eagle, but not at the moment. Is anyone using these services regularly and what for? Having spoken with @nofont, he had some great ideas about situation awareness which I talk about on the radio clip – your phone knowing whether you are at home, or out and about, in front of the computer, or in the car. This could start to be VERY useful.
What also really intrigues me is the marketing aspect of this technology. The next level of permission marketing will be location orientated – so services, brands and companies can alert you to things that might interest you. Yes, nig brother really is here. We just need to make sure he has permission to be.
Neural Interface coming to iPhone
Well, who knows what they have planned!
New iphone from Muadib on Vimeo.
Twin desk lamps
Good taste in desk lamps – Stockholm and Hull.
