I think this sums up the defining economic growth story of our generation. Business models are being built around the loss of privacy, the exchange of privacy for convenience and free services. Note that this is only a concern when there is an understanding by the user that their actions are private by default: Google searches, Facebook posts to friends only, and everything in Gmail and Google Docs. This isn’t a concern when the user assumes publicness: Tumblr posts, Tweets, etc. Monetization can’t come from an exploitation of privacy when there is no privacy.
“Yet the phone number remains stubbornly fixed with a single carrier and single device, even as consumers begin to move every other aspect of their lives to the cloud. And the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it seems: Why can’t I open a desktop app and use my wireless minutes to make VoIP calls? Why can’t I check and respond to my text messages online? Why can’t I pick up any phone from any carrier, enter my phone service information, and be on my way, just as with email or IM or Skype? Why are we still pretending that phone service is at all different from any other type of data? The answer to almost all of these questions is carrier lock-in — your phone number is a set of handcuffs that prevents you from easily jumping ship, and they know it.”
iMessage, Skype, Google Voice, and the death of the phone number
Best thing I’ve read in months. Read that headline again: the death of the phone number.
“Where Google’s services represented things I care about — discovery, curiosity, and transparency — Facebook represents that I don’t care about — narrowing, nattering, tribalism, etc. More than not caring, these are mostly things for which I have active contempt, as they represent the antithesis of curiosity and openness, things that Google (mostly) facilitates, and that Facebook (mostly) doesn’t.”
Android voice recognition Demo Slam
“Let me propose a total grassy-knoll/two-shooter conspiracy theory so you can talk me out of it. What if Google agreed to Verizon’s stance on wireless net neutrality in order to keep Verizon from making a deal with Apple for the iPhone?”
I was extremely impressed by what the Microsoft Live Labs/Seadragon/Photosynth team had cooked up in cooperation with the Bing Maps team that Blaise Aguera y Arcas demoed at TED2010 (live video feed over 4G overlayed onto indoor Bing Maps “street view” in realtime + integration of worldwide telescope/”astronomically complete representation of the sky”).
It’s great to see that they haven’t slowed down. The video above, via /., is a demo of Street Slide with some details on how it works and why it’s a massive improvement over Google’s Street View. I also found it interesting that this Microsoft demo mentions porting Street Slide to only one mobile device, the iPhone. The manager of the Windows Phone 7 division can’t be pleased (or surprised).
