All-you-can-eat 3G
The UK
mobile operator 3 launched
X-Series today, which is basically a flat rate for unlimited mobile
3G service (like broadband for your phone). I've been waiting for this to happen for a long time - so many of the best services that we concept and already offer in
Nokia devices require a fat and constant internet connection for the ideal experience. Unfortunately data connections are usually frighteningly expensive
even if you were to use even occasionally.
X-series comes bundled with Skype for free calls, Windows Live Messenger for free instant messaging, and most interesting(!), a partnership with
SlingMedia allows you to stream your TV to your mobile phone wherever you are (
it all starts to make a lot of sense).
It's
only available in the UK (come December) for now, with more European and Asian countries to follow in 2007. Hopefully this kind of thing really starts to catch on...
Labels: mobile phones, mobile services, trends
One Laptop Per Child out of the box
Ten years from now, the Wii's and PS3's will mostly be a memory. But
this, this is going to change the world.
Follow
the link for a gallery of photos of the first
OLPC off the production line being unpacked.
Payback is a mother, honey
This is a
fantastic description of a
Wii first impression. I can't wait to get one (I'm holding out until the Christmas credit card bills are paid)
I wasn't going to let the fact that I was her father get in the way of my chance to get revenge. I pounded away furiously, sending a jab to her head that knocked her to the ground. The referee started counting, but she was out cold. I finally won a game against her! The simplicity and intuitiveness of the controller had leveled the playing field between my daughter and me. Her days of treating me like one of those TV commercial idiot dads were over.
Link
BusinessWeek's D-school list
A recent BusinessWeek article lists their top design & "innovation" schools around the world. As can be expected a lot of U.S. schools make the list, but almost half are overseas. Two nice things about the article: they didn't try give a number ranking to each school, and the articles describe the kind of education prospective design students should be looking for by describing the 'innovation' skills that employers are looking for (very much
Tim Brown's
T people). Nice to see that
Umea made the list.
Top Innovation & Design Schools (collection of articles)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/06_41/B40040641dschool.htmThe Talent Hunt (article)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_41/b4004401.htmD-schools list (in alphabetical order)
http://bwnt.businessweek.com/dschools/2006/"To gather our list, we created a 24-person advisory board. They include people from corporations such as Whirlpool, Siemens, and BMW who hire the new design thinking talent; faculty at both D-schools and B-schools such as Art Center, IIT, Northwestern, and Stanford; recruiters such as RitaSue Siegel; and design and innovation consultants such as Yves Béhar at fuseproject and Tamara Giltsoff at London-based Live/Work. They recommended programs from which they hire and where they referred students. We then conducted 200-plus interviews to narrow our picks to the best 60 global programs."
The members are of the advisory board are listed here:
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2006/id20061005_756744.htm
