User Experience for Commercial Drones - an exercise in design

Over at UX Magazine, Dan Saffer writes:

Technology asks, “Can it be done?” Design asks, “Should it be done, and how?” I’ve thought about these questions frequently in the weeks following the 60 Minutes’ introduction of Amazon’s PrimeAir. While some were horrified by the prospect of commercial drones buzzing through the skies, I was amazed and intrigued at this vision of the future. But that’s all it is right now: a vision, and a somewhat crude one at that—one that leaves many questions unanswered.

Some of those questions are logistical and legal: Will this work and in what environments? What are the implications on a social level and where safety is concerned? These are all tremendously important questions, but let’s assume the issues surrounding them can be worked out. After all, there is plenty of money to be made (by Amazon and others like FedEx) by making it a reality. In fact, Ross McCullough, vice president of corporate strategy at UPS, recently said: “I believe these things will be part of the system in the future. I don’t know when.”

While consumer drones are very much a reality and a hot topic at this week’s CES 2014, the biggest question on the commercial side remains mostly unanswered: What’s it really going to be like to have a drone deliver packages to your house? In other words, what will the experience truly be like?

This is in reference to the Amazon video that purports to show a drone delivery service,which really is more of an advertisement for Amazon itself, than a proof-of-concept.

Read more here...

Being connected - people really like it

Regular readers know that I place a high value on communication, the essence of which is the transfer of information. Throughout history this has been a key element in the evolution of civilized societies, and is a requirement of organization and planning.
The advancement of communication technology has addressed unique aspects of information transfer:
- the speed and distance at which information can be transmitted,
- the permanency of the information, and
- the volume of information that can be transmitted.
Throughout history, technological innovations have allowed for the steady improvement of all three aspects. However, in the last three decades, advances and globalization has made complicated and convoluted these once unique qualities as factors that were once limiting began to disappear.
In the results of this Time Magazine poll, we can see that people are attached to their mobiles. Of course, humans evolved and came to dominate this planet because of our ability to communicate, coordinate, and negotiate.
Some interesting tidbits: around one in four people check their mobile phone at least once every half-hour. People ages 25-29 sleep with their phones. Seventy-six percent of Americans think that being constantly connected is a mostly good thing. This contrasts others around the world, where, in South Korea, for example, mobiles are considered a distraction from responsibility by over sixty percent.

Software-based Radio - mobile's next great leap forward

Imagine a mobile phone that works anywhere in the world -- including Antarctica. And is the size of your iPhone. How? By the software of the phone switching the range of signals from the radio spectrum it receives, auto-"magically".
This approach to mobile devices would enable an entire new breed of wireless devices, using the same chipset and antenna (think: economies of scale in production).
Per Vices has introduced software-defined radio gear that Ars Technica thinks will usher in this new era. E company's software radio can broadcast and receive nearly any radio signal on nearly any frequency at the same time. The Per Vices Phi is one of the first devices aimed at the mass hobbyist market to take advantage of this technology. Read more here...

Backups - just how many options are too many?

Bill French over at this blog is wondering about the value of over-the-air backup services for iPhone:
The idea that telco’s want to provide backup and sync services suggests Wirefly is on the right path. Typically large companies don’t white-label tools like this unless customers want them. And cloud services are emerging as the one thing every major tech company has in their sights. Apple’s forthcoming iCloud service features backup and synching capabilities and this is certainly a competitor as far as the iPhone backup market is concerned.
But Wirefly has some unique features – the biggest being the ability to backup over a 3G connection; not a feature in iCloud. This seems like an important one given the backup scenarios listed below. But it is also quite limited – it appears to only backup contacts, calendar, music, and photos, whereas Soonr backs up many document types – especially business documents.

Now is not the time to give up on the Internet

The opposite of liberal is, well, IMHO, the desire to inflict on others a reduction in 'adaptive potential'. I would suggest this means the ability to choose between a range of attractive opportunities. Barriers to social mobility, relentless mega-corporation dominance, endless growth of government, restrictions on human sexuality and freedom of expression all qualify as narrowing.

I find the Internet has proven to be a means to facilitate growth in adaptive potential. Opening markets globally for large and small businesses. Amplifying peoples' voices. Reducing cost of public service delivery.

Supply chain and e-commerce improvements are contributing to overall economic growth. With the size of the global market getting bigger, the rewards for uncovering lucrative new ideas grow -- a multiplier effect. Moreover, as new ideas flow across national boundaries faster and more easily, humans all benefit.

Public officials, potential laws, and other public policy issues are scrutinized and influenced by Internet-organized movements.

Public spending should focus on broad-based, pro-growth, pro-poor services like primary education, primary health care and infrastructure investment.

Are the airwaves saturated?

I've had an ongoing discussion (years, really, since I had one of these -->) with an associate about the limits of wireless bandwidth. Like the popular counterargument to Malthus, my position is, "Humans are smart, we'll come up with ways to expand capacity of a seemingly limited resource..."

It seems this approach might be one way to make sure we can eventually have the wireless cloud so many hope for... Rearden Companies (what a great name, IMHO) suggests a set of techniques and technologies to radically expand the capacity of the wireless spectrum.