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Wired on December 31st published an article called "The Mobile Decade: Greatest Gadgets From 10 years of Innovation". Personally I think they've missed some things — They were basically trying to establish a top ten, and I understand that. They're also trying to demonstrate a progression, which I see too. However, I think it's important to look at things from the end of the decade, establish who actually changed the game, not just standards that really didn't innovate. Here's what was great about the last decade of gadgetry from Wired's and then from my perspective:

Wired's list in short:

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Now this is user experience. Quite literally. This is brilliant. Watch as Pranav Mistry takes you through the concept of using a paper “laptop” (and any surface really.) His goal is to bridge the machine and the information we want and crave into the physical world. This will blow your mind. This work is the #1 reason why TED was created. This system is cost effective — $300.00 And you can bridge the worlds. This folks, is the future.

It’s things like this that make me stop in my tracks and think further down the particular path of this technology and hundreds of ideas come to my mind that could be done with it. I am stunned and awash with ideas. This is beyond Minority Report’s darkened room and special gloves, and I really want to be working with this tech right now. What also comes to mind is the “Holoband” tech described in the first episode of “Caprica”, where people interact with a virtual world through a holo-band that goes over the eyes like glasses but allow you to visually participate in a holographic world while sitting completely still.

Check out the video at 6:26 in the video for Caprica, and watch how she accesses the holo-world. She pulls out a piece of paper and dials her way in. Sound familiar compared with the tech you’ve just seen above?

Now you’ve seen two steps into the future. (Nevermind the fact Pattie Maes mentioned a brain implant with this kind of tech. Who needs an external device if you have one in your brain? ;D Okay…three steps…)

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Nathan Bowers, a fellow UX Hero for Hire, posted this video about his experience at the Lego Store. First, You hold a box in front of the "Digital Box" kiosk. moving the box around, you're presented with an image of you holding the box, and the constructed Lego set moving with you as you move the box so you can see the constructed toy in action. Amazing. He's also absolutely right — this tech should be in use everywhere.

Can you imagine holding a suit up to a mirror (or holding it in your hand) and seeing the suit on you virtually? Wow, now that would be wild.

Check out the details of his experience here.

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I am pleased by Posterous.

The general user experience for this Web Application/Blogging/Posting tool is really very, very good. I have always urged app makers to tie their sites more closely to email when it made sense to do so — intranets, or extranets for example. I would argue that usability-wise, if you want to produce a blog post, or post media of some kind it makes a lot of sense to go no further than your email app for preparing it, since

A) Almost all email programs or web-based services out there support rich formatting, with linking and upload capabilities. Formatting, spell checking and all sorts of features exist in your email program and generally they do it all quite well. Even Gmail. So, this makes posting correctly  real easy.
B) You also spend a good chunk of your online life in email right? I think it makes all the sense in the world for your blogging access to be close by.

I'll have to add more as I have thoughts on the subject. Now, all I have to do is fix it so if I'm sending a post out, it's not including my signature line.

So Far:

• The Good: Very quick setup. They're absolutely right. And it ties into multiple services easily.
• The Bad: I'm not always fond of the interface layouts, but it appears every effort is made to give you the power to make changes. And of course it helps if you know what you are doing with with HTML and CSS (which I do, but haven't mucked around with yet.)

Next Steps:
Next steps are to consider adding other features.

The Posterous.com Bottom Line:

Way cool, more to come.

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I decided to put together a wishlist for the new iPhone “2″, which MacRumors.com is reporting is likely to be on the way. They feel this way for a few reasons.

• Code in the 2.x firmware, where you can see a version designation for the Next generation iphone:  “iPhone2,1″. This is found in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist, which is unencrypted.
• Pinchmedia Ad Serving reports also identify a Device Name of of iPhone2,1  with 2 unique users. This would mean these phones are in alpha or beta testing.
• Imagination Technologies is also likely to be a part of any processor upgrades in the near future, possibly providing multiple GPU’s for these new units (or so it’s rumored)

At any rate, if all these things are true, we’re probably looking at a new iPhone with multiple GPUs, more storage space and probably some other upgrades as well.

I’d like to see a few serious hardware & software upgrades of my own for the new iPhone. Some are things everyone wants and I’ve included a few of my own that I’d find particularly useful. Here’s my wishlist if a new iteration is available in June:

1. Increased battery life
2. Replaceable battery
3. Better Speaker(s)
4. Integrated/detachable wireless bluetooth earphone co-engineered by Apple and Aliph, using the same tech as in the Jawbone.
5. Faster Processors that suck less power.
6. Audio commands for iPhone, allowing the user with the click of a tactile “listen” button to have the phone listen to your command, then autodial, or any number of other commands so you can conduct a call while trying to drive without worrying about the button you’re hitting. Either that or just have the phone listen for your commands when you’re in “wireless earpiece mode”.
7. Turn-by-Turn GPS with AUDIO Directions, and voice command responses
8. Multi-pointer Google Map Directions, where you can select more than one midpoint to establish a route or detour. I’m damn sick of having to re-configure my path based on current location when I had to take a detour, or not being able to set up a different route to take based on my desires for travel.
9. Improved Safari & Mail compatibility support, permitting actual selection of iCal invitations through either Apple Mail or Safari (if you happen to be looking at Gmail or some other calendar), where if the .ics  file is selected, you can actually RESPOND to the event.
10. Better yet, you could try and integrate Mail and iCal so it’s seamless, with Reoccuring ToDo’s (NOT EVENTS).
11. Set up some filesharing services and allow a user to attach files to emails from a holding space without special programming or apps.
12. A better camera that doesn’t turn my pictures green or require that I attach an iclarify case to the phone.
13. An onscreen switch in Safari (or command bar with specific commands) that allows me to temporarily deactivate WiFi so I can use Edge or 3G without being interrupted by locked WiFi networks I can’t use.
14. Auto Dictation. I’d love to see this integrated, or made a part of Mobile Me if it has to have an online component to it, similar to Google’s audio search.
15. Flash Plugin
16. If no Flash Plugin: .FLA file conversion services, so Flash Developers can have a version of their Flash app produced for the iPhone in a compatable manner, with minimal re-authoring for a different code base.
17. Mini-mobile versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote for use on the iPhone when you purchase the latest versions of iLife and iWork.

Okay that’s it for now. I’ll be back with some more ideas after I think this over a bit. This is what came to mind on short notice.

In the United States, people hate their phones. I know that you know this. But it’s kind of like your phone bill, where you know you’re stuck with whatever has been charged to you, and it’ll be a few years before that mess is over with (or so you tell yourself) so you keep paying.

And paying. And you are feeling more pain as you go.

The pain may soon be a little more tolerable because of Google’s “Android” operating system for phones. Google’s always been about simplicity, ease of use, but with tremendous power under the hood of the car. But Google has found a way to bridge one of the critical gaps in the mobile market.

The critical gaps are overall experience things like:

“I can’t go to another carrier, I’d have to change my phone and lose all the numbers and ringtones I’ve kept on it”

“I can’t expand my phone with cool programs, that kind of behavior is for smart phone junkies.”

“I can’t really show people my phone, it’s ugly as sin. I want to be stylish but…this is a Nextel… whoever heard of a sexy Nextel?”

“I wanted to try out the phone in the store but it’s got plastic innards, I have no idea how it’ll run and work for me until AFTER I bought it, and then I’m stuck for a few years.”

Most of the above statements are factors that cover everything from people wanting style in their lives, they want knowledge and cool tools at their fingertips, and they want portability.

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