Sehr interessante Slides von Björn Eichstädt von Storymaker zum Thema mobiles Internet und dessen Einfluss auf die PR. ich denke auch, dass dies ein Thema ist, was in Zukunft noch mehr Bedeutung haben wird (edit: Und weswegen ich dann wohl auch irgendwann mehr Ahnung davon haben müssen werde... :-). Ein schriftliches Interview mit Björn dazu gibt es auf auf dem Blog von Cirquent.
Optimizing Your Business Website for Mobile Visitors
Mobile web usage is exploding. As smartphone ownership surges, more and more consumers are using devices like the iPhone to find information and access the web. More and more consumers buy products and do research from their phones than ever before. A great way to stand out from the crowd is to have a website that is fast, accessible and easy to use from a mobile phone.
Even just a few years ago, thinking about designing or optimizing your website for mobile devices was a risky proposition. So many different types of devices and mobile web browsers exist that picking and choosing what to optimize for could take up lots of resources for very little payoff. However, now that mobile devices are becoming more and more ubiquitous, it’s time to consider optimizing your business’s site for mobile visitors.
There’s a reason that companies like Google and Microsoft are investing lots of money into the mobile web and in making their products more accessible from the mobile web. Think about it, if a customer is doing research on her phone and comes across two sites, one that is hard to pull up and read and one that is elegant and attractive and makes it easy to call a number or send an e-mail directly from the page, which company has a better shot of getting the business?
Although there are still no “official” standards for mobile web development, more and more smartphones and smartphone operating systems are following the iPhone’s lead and using a technology called WebKit to render and display web pages. What this means is that a web page built to look good on an iPhone will look about the same on a Google Android device, a Palm webOS phone, and soon, BlackBerry devices.
Optimizing your website for mobile devices doesn’t have to be difficult. If you’re website runs on the popular WordPress CMS, there’s a great – and free – plugin called WPTouch that can quickly optimize your website for the iPhone and Android devices. Another good WordPress option is the Carrington Mobile theme. Both of these options are nice because they allow visitors to view the full site, without any mobile optimizations, if that is their preference, plus they load faster on mobile connections.
If you’re interested in really optimizing your site for better performance and features, check out Mobify. Mobify is a free service (premium options are also available) that makes it easy to create a mobile version of your website. It integrates well with WordPress, Drupal and ExpressionEngine, and really only requires CSS and HTML knowledge to customize. The results can be quite impressive, both in reduced page load and overall viewing experience.
Not convinced that a mobile website will really make much of a difference? Visit CSSiPhone for some excellent examples of terrific mobile optimized designs. Web designer Cameron Moll also wrote an excellent book, entitled “Mobile Web Design” that outlines tips and best practices, as well as practical reasons and examples of good mobile design.
After 10000 hours of hard work, more than 10 years from time to time in the garage and about 15000 Euros spent, the Snaefell was ready to ride!
As you can see, the result is really impressive for a work done by an amateur...
The vehicle is very neat and the finishing is astounding. The general design is quite beautiful, which is quite rare throughout the sidecar production.
While this is a very special vehicle, the Laverda touch is obvious. This is not only the triple engine which does that but probably a smart and hard work on the global design. The rear part recalls the RGS side panels. The glorious triple 1000cc seems magnified in this red dress...
Attention to details reveals thousands of great mods.Now this is what we can called a complete dashboard. Note the level of finishing... Note also the 3 exhausts!
This is a sidecar, right? So, have a look at this nice, well finished and comfortable interior. All hand made naturarly!
Headlight comes from a Kawasaki 1000 RX bike, the tail lights from a Citroën Xantia car.
Invitation to a nice road trip....... The work is signed with this special logo, a reversed F in a K, just like François Knorreck.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/16/technology/apple_tablet/
I made chicken and dumplings for Sunday dinner (which is something new I am trying to do at our house - cooking at least one meal a week from scratch). Cooking can be fun and so therapeutic.
Today, I took a social media twist on the meal. It's a mobile meal. I found the recipe on FoodNetwork.com and went paper-free; using just my iPhone in the kitchen. I then carefully took food pics throughout cooking to document the process. Just after dinner, I uploaded the photos using a Posterous image uploading app. It was quite easy... a lot easier than the cooking part!
I hope you enjoy these images and it inspires you to hit the kitchen more often. (It's difficult for me, but fun experiences like today help encourage me to do it more often.) Speaking of fun, I found that the mobile computing and ultimate sharing of my cooking experience definitely increased the fun factor.
I'm no Pioneer Woman, but dinner and this mobile album turned out pretty delish – to the palette and the eyes. If you're interested in trying this recipe, I recommend increasing the garlic a touch and using about 30 percent more flour in the rue (it makes for a thicker sauce).
So, what are you cooking this week?
Congratulations to Bell for both throwing the switch and for the decidedly non-Bell landing page.
Last week, I covered a list of 20 items from The Futurist magazine’s Outlook 2010 (Nov-Dec 09 issue http://bit.ly/xFR5C) that will shape 21st c cities. http://bit.ly/154x84 Now I am adding other trends, ideas, and forecasts beyond their list. The first article outlined three comprehensive topics, The Great Urban Divide, Megacities, and Poly-Centric Region http://bit.ly/2CZkcS, and the second one focused on water and cities. http://bit.ly/4Cmu32 This article will cover robotics and cities, which, like water, deserves an entire article.
Extensions of Humans
Marshall McLuhan, renowned for “The media is the message,” also invented the notion of technology as extensions of humans. Every technology extends our bodies or minds. Therefore, the hammer extends our hands, the car extends our legs, and the computer extends our minds.
The robot promises to extend our capacity in continuously surprising ways. Furthermore, robots threaten us because unlike other machines, they act autonomously. Their potential raises significant questions: Will robots someday replace, harm, or even overthrow us?
Sixty years ago, in anticipation of the potential threat, Isaac Asimov created the three laws of robots: 1) They must not harm us. 2) They must obey us, except where they do us harm. 3) They must protect their own existence unless it conflicts with laws 1 or 2. http://bit.ly/3VKhF0 With great foresight, Asimov framed our moral dilemma when robots were still just an idea. Yet his laws have been broken already in the field of military weapons, spurring debate by robot-ethicists. http://bit.ly/HkQLO
These questions become increasingly complex with the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), also called singularity. http://bit.ly/oxKV1 Ray Kurzweil anticipates that we will see robots with human intelligence in the next few decades. The singularity moment is defined by the Turing test. Can a machine engage in natural conversation? http://bit.ly/xVoh6
As robots invade every aspect of living and working, its definition evolves. The University of Texas Robotics Research Group defines a robot as: "An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a machine in the form of a human." http://bit.ly/3VKhF0 Which begs the question, when is a machine a robot? For example, is a car a robot?
I would make the distinction that a machine becomes a robot when it is able to perform its primary function – such as transportation – without human interaction. For example, the Lexus car that self-parks is operating in that function as a robot car. http://bit.ly/1Xihx6
I consider robots and cities in three areas: construction, mobility, and daily functions.
1. Constructing Cities and Buildings
While cars have been built with robots since the 1980s, retooling manufacturing plants and labor practices has taken three decades. Building cities with robots will even more complex. The first step is constructing buildings as prefabricated mass-produced buildings. Making parts or entire modular sections in a shop or factory lend itself to stationary industrial robots, which has been in practice for decades. http://bit.ly/2kFqGW More interesting are robots that function on site, such as for improving safety. Or for aiding carpenters. http://bit.ly/3AQA2l Small caterpillar-like robots climb tall poles and perform checks, thereby protecting workers from dangerous tasks. http://bit.ly/1FeUGj At some point, I believe that workers will demand robots on-site, just as I imagine that soldiers look to drones as first responders to bomb threats. In the future, robots will build many portions of buildings at construction sites, such as this demonstration model that builds walls. http://bit.ly/11Xyf6
2. Mobility or Where’s My Flying Car?
We have used elevators for over 100 years, and escalators and moving walkways are nothing new. Trains and planes have autopilot functions. Imagine if our cars could be automated at that level, especially without tracks. London Heathrow Airport is building a personal rapid transportation system to open in 2010 with whiz-bang futuristic cabs. http://bit.ly/1BTP6Q The privacy unavailable in public transit or safety problems of private cars is solved with electric zero-carbon system. Completely autonomous vehicles are being tested. http://bit.ly/4APQZN Beyond the self-parking Lexus, the next step for these vehicles is sensing devices that monitor speeds and space cars properly, or stop accidents. Automated highway systems or intelligent highways would work with the cars to control traffic. http://bit.ly/35mQ0T
The Segway promised to revolutionize mobility, a highly over-estimated claim that merely demonstrates the difficulties of transforming transportation. New tech is just the first step; widespread adoption means changing regulations, urban design, and ultimately behaviors. This year, the company teamed with GM to add a Segway car, which promises to raise similar issues. Where do these vehicles belong - with cars, bikes, or pedestrians? http://bit.ly/avzDu It is a beautiful little vehicle that operates more like a golf cart than a car and seemingly would be at home in slower paced districts without congestion to minimize conflicts.
Flying cars already exist, the Moller being the closest to a true example http://bit.ly/22rAXQ. Much like the Segway, they lack a good fit in cities. We have to ask: How do we create order in the air to enable wayfinding and minimize crashes? How do we keep them out of commercial fly zones? Furthermore if you have mechanical failure, you have a crash landing instead of simply a stalled car. The safety and congestion problems of thousands if not millions of personal flying vehicles require far higher technology, training, and attention than we put on automobiles.
Finally, some of the most intriguing mobility devices are in eko-skeleton concepts. Strap them on and traversing a mile becomes a far simpler matter, both faster and easier. http://bit.ly/wuyUb Pedestrian distances to conveniences could be revolutionized by these various robots and transform how we use cities.
Here are a number of robots that we may see in coming decades. http://bit.ly/8jEcx
3. Daily Functions Using Buildings and Cities
You have probably heard of refrigerators that track your food and place grocery orders, or appliances that respond remotely such as digital recordings or coffee machines. Robotic vacuum cleaners (roombas) have been in use for over a decade, and lawn mowing for the past few years. (Today HuffPo imagines these seemingly tame devices may try to kill us. http://bit.ly/4pPWLY - a joke or too close for comfort?) Maintenance technology is expanding to street cleaning with the Scarab, a sort of Wall-E for streets. http://bit.ly/1j2W8Y
Swarming robots the size of a finger nail can carry small solar films and supply power on-demand. http://bit.ly/2DrFn They may sense room comfort, provide light, heat, air flow, or convey images from one space to another. Why go visit the boss when you can send a swarm? Furniture also looks to be smart and flexible, such as modular parts that re-assemble for chairs or tables. http://bit.ly/oWsmf Smart technology which uses reading sensors, codes objects with rfids and can automate our energy grid or transportation system is related automation on a massive scale. Robots and the Internet of Things http://bit.ly/XfDIw will do for cities and buildings what Gameboy did for board games.
Furthermore, how we use buildings and how we assemble and make things can be made easier with robots. Industry is constantly finding new ways to use robots, such as this Gap warehouse. http://bit.ly/19WpHr Cleaning, organizing, maintaining a house will become ever more automated. Robot, read me the headlines now.
Looking Ahead
Robots will immerse our cities with automation and change how we live and work, no doubt, even who we are. For example, I might say I am not a robot, but my arm is, or my eye is. Transhumanism is reshaping how we define machine and human. http://bit.ly/41qWQs We will work with robots, and yes, I think even grow attached to them. Some will emulate humans or animals, and others will be strange forms or geometric shapes suited to some particular task. Robot as a term has been useful as a machine of the future; at some point, we will need far more specific descriptions. Building them, maintaining, updating, using, and teaching robotics are specialized career paths. Eventually, Robots 101 will be a basic course.
You can find more robot references on my delicious site (cindyfw). http://bit.ly/21qCK0
Next I focus on more technology that will shape 21st century cities: geo-engineering and nanotechnology.
photo credit: Hallucigenia Project, IATSS Research 28.1 (2004) by Shunji Yamanaka, Automotive Transportation Gallery, U of California Library, Berkeley
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/nokia-sues-apple-jealous-much
Or, as CrunchBase says, "if you can't beat 'em, sue 'em."
Yes, that network code means that Bell/Telus have hung the hardware. It's been a long time coming, but saying goodbye to CDMA is going to be sweet.
