Jason Rosado

Round 2 of Exciting vs. Frightening covers the inevitable blending of technology and organisms. Yeah, we all know where this will eventually go but in the meantime, we can watch it all evolve slowly and inevitably.

In this corner: The Skinput project coming from Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft promises to turn your body into a touchscreen. Who needs an iPod Touch when you have your own forearm as an input device?

Skinput makes use of a microchip-sized pico projector embedded in an armband to beam an image onto a user’s forearm or hand. When the user taps a menu item or other control icon on the skin, an acoustic detector also in the armband analyzes the ultralow-frequency sound to determine which region of the display has been activated.

I’ve long wondered why at the very least no one’s come up with a simple device holder that fits around the forearm. Actually, Ameya Mhatre did this at ITP last year. Not sure where he’s at with that… but this concept goes one step beyond and throws out the device entirely. You make the call: Exciting or Frightening?

In the other corner, coming from Japan. World renowned home of weird organic integration with technology, comes the “Hana Sukkiri Melody” ringtone which promises to clear your sinuses just by placing the phone near your nose when your phone rings. Now, as a sufferer of sinus allergies and the like, this seems interesting and would certainly diminish my need for Sinex, but then again, this begs the question: how the hell did they think of this? And more, how did they test this ringtone? More from the article here

The Japan Ring Tone Laboratory has some much more sensible-sounding ringtones in the pipeline, including “sleep-promoting ringtone,” “ringtone makes your date,” “crow scarer ringtone,” “ringtone makes your skin beautiful,” and more.

So, whaddya think… which one’s exciting and which one’s frightening. Let me know!

Here’s a new kind of post on recent technological innovations in our wonderfully delightful future-as-present reality. To reflect upon this current day, wherein we finally live most of the future that our ancestors warned us of (1984, for example) I’ll post one thing that’s innovative (and frightening) versus another that’s innovative (and exciting).

Readers can opine on which is better, interesting, etc. I should give credit in advance to my peers at ITP, who often introduce these new finds on our wonderful student email list. These two items come from Ms. Emily Ryan of NoTrustFund fame and Mr. Ari Joseph, of NotTwoMuch.

First up, coming in the Frightening Category. A major reason to find a significant other who simply doesn’t suck, steal your money, or curse at your family members and marry him/her NOW, so as not to engage in what might be the Dating Scene of the near-term future. Because, if you are “single and ready to mingle,” think again, especially if your date has the DateCheck app for your mobile device.

Not only does this harken me back to my days as an undergrad at Wesleyan University, where the DateCheck of choice at the time (rumor had it) were the stalls in the Women’s Bathrooms in the Student Center. It was here that women posted handwritten lists of men to stay away from. Names were added on occasion, some were scratched out. Others were defended or substantiated. Now, a young woman need look no further than their own iPhone to get the “goods” on their potential Mr. Right. Is this exciting or frightening?

And now for our feature in the Exciting category, we have an innovation by those crazy kids (what’ll they think of next) at MIT. The Flyfire is the next generation of multidimensional graphical presentation and they utilize (wait for it…) flying LED helicopters (three words I never even thought of to put together in one sentence).

That’s right, coordinated arrays of little LED lights flying in mid-air to illustrate oh, maybe the Mona Lisa or your next Pepsi ad… Hmm… The possibilities are endless. This is where Lightbrite meets Zero Gravity. Right now, the flying LED helicopters are about the size of a golf-ball. Will they get smaller? The answer, undoubtedly is, yes, of course they will.

But could they get so small that they become the re-animation of a normal display upon which one would watch their video (or video game) entertainment?  Will this technology let me decide where I want my screen to be at any given time?  Like on the ceiling when I’m lying flat on my back or against the walls when I’m walking around the house?  Will it introduce the z-axis in a new as yet physically unaccomplished way for what we know to be 3D imagery today? Is this exciting or frightening?

I would love to hear someone (anyone’s!) thoughts on these matters. Please feel free to post a comment!

So, I’ve been consulting a good friend of mine on the development of a blog, Green Eggs and Glam that focuses on the intersections of her passion for fashion with being a mother and educator. Another friend and fellow classmate at ITP, Ruxy Staicutt also shared some thoughts recently on designing and building an iPhone app for the shopping experience for her Thesis.

This led me to research and think about particular iPhone apps that cater to fashion and shopping. Here are some articles and thoughts about the topic:

Here’s a cool write-up in Styleist on Tommy Hilfiger’s iPhone App (here). From the article, below:

Let’s say you’re in a store and there’s a Tommy item you just can’t live without. But, alas, your size is sold out. Don’t fret! You can immediately check availability with the app and place an order from your Apple device. If something’s out of stock, you have the option of being alerted when it becomes available again. And if you start shopping from your computer, but need to run out mid-spree, your cart will show up on your iPhone and vice versa.

Norma Kamali has been getting a lot of on-line press for her App too (here). But for the most part, the app is not very interactive, in
the sense that you can’t purchase apparel through the app itself. It focuses for the most part on images, press clippings, and a mobile web version of her blog.

Here’s a great overview of different fashion apps as well.
This article led me to find Ralph Lauren’s make-your-own-rugby app. Now that’s creative! I think I’ll be seeing a couple of self styled rugby shirts in my wardrobe soon.

What most interests me in this space, beyond migrating what amounts to “brochure-ware” to the iPhone for viewing on a smaller, albeit touch-enabled screen are the models that allow the user to initiate and execute transactions right through the device. This facilitates the retail experience and adds additional value to the fun (sometimes pain) that can be retail shopping. Here’s a good article from the Times on how mobile commerce facilitated Holiday Shopping this past season. The article also introduces ShopSavvy:

With ShopSavvy™ users can scan the barcode of any product using their phone’s built-in camera. Once scanned, it will search for all the best prices on the internet.

The Lucky iPhone App is billing itself as:

the first-ever digital shopping concierge. Shop Lucky’s favorite products from your iPhone, and we’ll track them down at a store near you, check availability, and even put them on hold for same-day pickup!

Check out the screen shots from their iPhone app below. This business model makes a lot of sense since it ties the retail, catalog and mobile experience together. It is a free app, although I’m willing to bet for the value (and saved time) it provides to a consumer, one could argue it could be a pay-app.

More to come on this topic, as I come across it myself. In the meantime, Happy Shopping!

I thought you might find some of this research regarding Mobile Commerce interesting:

Key facts from this article regarding Mobile Commerce:
– Nine million Americans have already made at least one m-commerce purchase
– 125 million Americans are willing to make a purchase in the near future.
– Many merchants are utilizing alternative Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for their websites to be activated when their customers access their websites via mobile devices

And per this article, the Tower Group estimates:
– by the beginning of 2009, between 150-300 banks and credit unions will sign contracts for mobile banking solutions
– Mobile banking will reach close to 6 million users by the end of 2009
– 42 million active users of mobile banking solutions by 2012

According to this article:
– More smart phones will be purchased than PCs in 2011

And interesting developments per global giving/donations, in this article:
– Donations via mobile devices are outpacing commercial payments
– $11 million in 3 days were raised for Haiti’s disaster relief efforts via text messaged initiated payments

Here’s another article that supports my long-held hypothesis that mobile philanthropy will drive mobile commerce in the United States. The article posits that the crisis in Haiti will be the turning point for adoption of mobile commerce.

… and this article discusses the opportunity for mobile remittances addressing un-banked and migrant worker customer bases

Update: Could Microsoft be reading my blog? Doubt it, but check out this short article on this very topic. Microsoft is first out of the gate! How often do you get to say that?

In the news today, is the announcement that the storied New York Times will be introducing a for-pay model for their web information. Information on their new “metered model” is here and in the video below:

In my humble opinion, the metered model shouldn’t be necessary. What the New York Times should do is to finally acquiesce to the changing times. It’s 2010 and their delivery methods are still somewhat the same. Sure, they have a great looking newspaper and a great-looking web site, but how do the two platforms meet and support one another? The answer: They don’t.

Here’s my suggestion: The New York Times should implement QR or bar codes for all advertisements in their paper version such that simple micropayment transactions can be executed with mobile devices. See a good blog post here and another video below for how they’re widely used in Asia.

They can use the QR codes to integrate their online media (ex: David Pogue videos) with their paper version so that a scan of the codes in the paper version would bring up the video in iTunes (on either the iPhone or the iTablet) for purchase at a reasonable price somewhere between $0.10 – $0.25. They can do the same for other digital media like music, video, e-books, etc.

They can then take a cut on the transaction (and or just increase advertising rates, since they can argue that advertising within the Times is more conducive to revenue-enablement to the advertisers).

They should also change the dimensions of the printed version to tabloid size to reduce paper costs and or work to develop some sort of for-pay printable (and delivered) version for people who still want to read on the train/have tangible version in their hands. The for-pay printable version should also enable customer-specific advertising (based on associative recommendations, like Amazon) that also allows for quick and easy transaction execution.

In this way, they keep a cost-effective paper version of their news that will satisfy the traditionalists yet can actually be read easier, but also offer a hybrid style of media that is more executable and brings greater value to both readers and advertisers.

Perhaps they’ve explored these options, my assumption is that they haven’t. Happy to hear anyone’s comments on these ideas.

One of the unexpected pearls of knowledge and wisdom I’ve come across since being at ITP are all the new alternative music controllers/creators being developed out there.

Some part of it certainly has to do with the Program’s NIME class which is very popular and downright entertaining (mindblowing, even).

Lots of fellow students are playing with the Monome (see below) which is a much cheaper version/concept of the Tenori-On also below. Check out the alt. guitar type devices, one of which was created for the NIME class by Paul Rothman.

Then, of course, to top it all off is Nullsleep, at forefront of the vanguard for new music controllers and musicianship. One of the fathers(?) of 8 bit music (also known as ChipTunes), NullSleep (aka Jeremiah Johnson) hacks into the sound cards of old Nintendo Gameboys in order to create new music. Check it out!

MK 1 MIDI Guitar at ITP NIME 2009 from Aaron Cael on Vimeo.

Here is my all time favorite Salsa jam. This song, “Lloraras” by Oscar D’Leon of Venezuela is sure to pull me to the dance floor every time the first few few bars play through the speakers… Written in 1975, the brass section of this song has been a formidable influence in the history of my salsa dancing. But it’s the lyrics, without a doubt, that have been just as compelling to my enjoyment.

por tu mal comportamiento te vas a arrepentir
y en vano tendras que pagar todo mi sufrimiento
lloraras y lloraras sin nadie que te consuele
asi te daras de cuenta que si te engañan duele

This song is replete with the self confident braggadocio of a man telling a woman how she is going to cry when she realizes what she had, how she is going to regret her bad behavior and her deceipt. “Lloraras” literally means “you are going to cry,” and D’Leon clearly is reminding his woman of his resolute belief that what goes around comes around. D’Leon’s lyrics exclaim his current worth as a man and the darkness of this woman’s future without him. “Lloraras” is the good Latin man’s version of “I Will Survive.” Check it below.

Here are some more of my favorite salsa jams in YouTube format for your viewing and dancing pleasure!

I thought I’d share some tips/tricks that I’ve acquired as a result of the mobile web development classes I’ve participated in for my Master’s Program at NYU. I’ve built a couple of mobile web sites by now, and these lines of code and URLs for frameworks and tutorials have been very useful. For the most part the code here is open source and freely available on the web. Leave me some comments if you find these useful!

The php code below can be included in the index page of your website. It is intended to identify whether/not the visitor is accessing your site using either an iPhone, iPod Touch or an Android. If it is one of those devices, the script will re-direct the user to what can be your mobile-optimized website. Otherwise it will do nothing.

<?php
if((strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], ‘iPhone’) !== FALSE || strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], ‘iPod’) !== FALSE || strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],’Android’) !== FALSE) && !isset($_GET['noiphone'])) {header(‘Location: http://putyourwebsiteaddresshere.com’);}
php>

Adding this code below between the <head></head> section of the HTML for your mobile website will assist in optimizing the website for display in iPhone/Android/webkit resolution:

<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=320; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;” />

<meta name=”apple-mobile-web-app-capable” content=”yes” />

Adding this code below between the <head></head> section of the HTML for your mobile web site will allow you to add an icon to the iPhone home screen such that access to the website can be obtained through the home screen of the iPhone.

<link rel=”apple-touch-icon” href=”http://yourdomainhere.com />

This tutorial shows how to make and the save the icon and the appropriate size and file type (45×45 and .png)

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_to_create_custom_apple_iphone_website_icon.html

Adding this code below between the <head></head> section of the HTML for your mobile web site will hide the web browser bar from the screen and thus, make it appear even more like a native app:

<script type=”text/javascript”>
<!– <![CDATA[/*http://ajaxian.com/archives/iphone-web-development-tips-and-official-documentation-released */
window.onload = function() { setTimeout(function(){window.scrollTo(0, 1);}, 100);}
// ]]> –> </script>

The link below provides an easy-to-use open source CSS framework that offers the ability to stylize a mobile website to look and feel like an iPhone/Android App. I’ve used it for a couple of projects in my Master’s Program at NYU. There are a few others out there, but this one has been the easiest I’ve found.

http://iwebkit.net/

To boot, there are now open source development kits that allow you to build an app using traditional web languages such as HTML, Javascrip, CSS and then port that site into the development kit which will wrap the other necessary layers around it to function as a iPhone app that can be submitted to Apple for approval in their App store. Here are examples of two available

http://phonegap.com/
http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321604555

The internets bring us yet another fascinating yet completely useless gadget that I wish I could have.. The Euricase Ring Box. Essentially, take your average Engagement Ring Box and merge it with a digital picture frame and voila – the product you thought you never needed.

If only I had heard of this in September when I proposed to my beloved – I would have been the talk of the restaurant Stanton Social where it all went down! Instead of some measly Tiffany’s Box like the one below I could have had a “2-inch LCD display with a clock, alarm, calendar and photo album. The box also has LED perimeter lighting to make the ring stand out. There is enough onboard memory for storing up to 500 pictures or up to 60 minutes of video.”

Oh well, maybe when we renew our vows?  What Anniversary Year do you give LED screens?

This iSlate hysteria is ridiculous… The Execs at Apple must be laughing at all the free press and marketing they’re getting. They haven’t said one word about a tablet computer… not even an official hint that it’s possible and yet the internets, not just blogs but major financial reporting media are treating it as a fait accompli…

For their sake, I sure hope it’s coming because if not Apple stock takes a deeeeep nose dive (good time to buy). Actually, I take that back – $10 says that Apple stock ends low on the day of the announcement since there’s no way Apple will satisfy everyone with the first version of the iSlate.

So a good question may be what will it lack that it should already have?