The Tech Wish List

2010-06-04T10:52:00.003-04:00

TechCrunch posted a great article today about the future of location based services. The author basically said that in a few years, all the (currently disconnected) location-based services will need to talk w each other.

My idea is that right now we could use a separate service that makes those connections for us.

Other companies are building their own version of this: basically making a bigger silo. An example of this approach is Apple's purchase (and upcoming implementation) of Siri. There will be a battle of the big guys for dominance and locking users into their system - sort of like facebook now.

My wish - is that somehow a separate 3rd party could track all my data, and give me insight / tips / help that the other services can't provide separately. Maybe Diaspora will have something like this...

Product Placement v2.0

2010-06-04T09:21:00.006-04:00

Just saying, someone should start a company that makes it possible to switch out product placement in streamed movies / TV shows. So this week Super-Actor-So-And-So is drinking a coke, but next week when you watch the movie - she's drinking a pepsi.
This could start easily, with billboard and poster placement in a movie. It's not hard to track a rectangle and overlay a new image on it. Hell, the movie could be FILMED w greenscreen posters, and have the ads inserted on the fly. This could be an ENTIRELY NEW ADVERTISING method.
For this idea, if someone starts this business - I want in. I want part of the ownership for this idea. It's just too big.

iWish

2010-01-27T13:25:00.002-05:00

I wish Apple would stop using the i-device naming. Also, "iPad" is a dumb name. Is Apple losing it's cool edge? Great products, but seriously, iSlate, iTab, are both better names. How about the "Apple Tablet"? That would work too. Maybe I'm just getting older, or possibly Apple is getting more professional. But iPad just doesn't seem to work for me. Maybe it'll grow on me. This is to say nothing about the device actually being useful, which is up for debate.

Selective Requirements for Password Protect

2010-01-19T13:58:00.006-05:00

Confusing title? Sound boring? Let me explain:

I want to be smart and password protect my laptop. I also want to save battery life and put the screen to sleep after a minute or two of sitting idle. However, I don't want to have to enter a password every time I stop to think!

So how about this: Let me set a time limit before it asks for my password again (5 - 10 minutes?). That way I can still be energy conscious, stop to think for a few moments or go grab a coffee, and I can be conveniently secure as well.

And want to make it even better? Use the tilt sensor in my computer to automatically require the password to unlock the screen if the computer has been moved, even if my normal time setting hasn't elapsed yet.

An Actual Widescreen Macbook Pro

2010-01-06T14:28:00.006-05:00

I just bought a new Macbook Pro. It's great, nice processor, decent RAM, excellent product design, etc. And in a shift from my previously adamant 15" or larger screen size opinion, I picked up a 13" version. Why? Because the real reason for the bigger screen is so it will fit toolbars from Adobe products (photoshop, etc.), while still allowing for screen space to see the actual image I'm working on. But the dimensions of the 15" MBP don't really help with that. It's mostly a taller screen, not much wider than the 13" version. So, Apple, will you please make an actual widescreen 15" MBP? I'd totally pick one up. A large part of your usergroup are designers, and we'd all benefit from that wider screen. Plus, it's nicer for viewing movies, seeing more row width in Garageband, iMovie, Excel, etc. Oh, also - make the touchpad the dimensions of the screen as well - a little wider please.

Vertical Fatigue

2009-12-28T10:39:00.002-05:00

This one's just a wish, with no solution. But here's the skinny: my eyes are really tired of vertical scrolling on long blog pages. I get scroll fatigue. There has to be a better way to view more content. Maybe a fade out/in from page to page (or blog post to post). Perhaps something I've never even imagined. But either way. I need a new way to view all this content. My eyes hurt.

A (more) useful LinkedIn

2009-12-01T14:21:00.004-05:00

I saw a tweet today that said: "Twitter: what I'm doing now. Facebook: Who am I? LinkedIn: where do I work?" And that got me thinking: "Why isn't LinkedIn more useful for work collaboration?" I'm sure there are a million posts about this already, and I could spend my time researching them. Or I could just say it myself. Here. Because I do wish for it. I spent most of the fall researching project management and task management and collaborative tools. There are SO many options out there. There are a lot of good solutions that exist already. But honestly, I had to do so much digging to find them. And LinkedIn OWNS the corner on my work identity. Seriously, LinkedIn should buy one of these existing collaboration tools, integrate it into LinkedIn, and make LinkedIn more of a tool than it currently is. Create lightweight extensions of LinkedIn for collaborating. Maybe they could stop requiring that I log in to see contact emails from people, etc. I'd use a LinkedIn project collab tool if: it was good, it had an iphone version for on-the-go use, and if it was easy to use. Maybe linked in doesn't want to get into this game. But seriously, they could have people using their site ALL DAY LONG to work collaboratively. That's gotta mean a significant boost in income for them...

Central Smart Inbox for iphone

2009-11-23T13:15:00.004-05:00

I have five email accounts set up on my iphone. When I get a new email, the mail app icon shows one number indicating total unread messages in all accounts. You know the one, that little red alert circle that you almost have to address immediately. But when I go to look at the email, if I'm not in the right account, I have to click twice to get back to the list of all accounts, then click twice to get to the inbox of the account with the new email. Please Apple, give me an option to view all new email in one list, a smart inbox. Maybe there's a setting to include only unread emails, or maybe all of today's emails, etc. But honestly, all this shuffling around is really unnecessary and bulky (and kind of microsofty).

Useful location based features for my iphone.

2009-11-22T18:46:00.003-05:00

Do you use your phone differently while at work than you do while at home? I do. At work it plays music, let's me check facebook or FML occasionally, and I use it to get my personal email. At home it's a remote control for Boxee, IM manager, and my home phone. What if I could change default (phone and app) settings for different locations? Then I could get growl notifications on my iphone while watching TV shows at home, but not while I'm at work. My phone could automatically push some calls to voicemail if I have "meeting" turned on, but still ring through if I just have "work" on. There are probably a TON of useful configurations that I could do. Eventually, you could even have apps and status that are available only in certain profiles. Facebook and AIM signed in and ready to chat when at home? Have a home security system that interfaces with your phone? How about you set your phone to home to let you into your house? Maybe that's a bit out there. But not impossible. I envision that these settings would be accessed by a simple menu, like I've mocked up in the photo above. Getting to this menu could be easy (double click the home button) or a gesture or app icon. And with GPS turned on, my phone could automatically change profiles (if I set it to auto-update). What setting would you use?

My Virtual Butler (aka: Hal v1.0)

2009-11-16T11:53:00.004-05:00

For a while now, I've wanted some sort of personal virtual butler. The challenge is that I want to be able to interact with this butler w/out using a device like my iphone or computer keyboard/screen. So what I have decide to wish for is this: I want a microphone/speaker combo in every room in my house. Make it small, hidden and easy to install. Network all the mic/speakers to one computer (wirelessly?). When I'm in a room, I just ask "Hal, what is the capitol of Wyoming?" and the computer answers me. Think about the questions for which you spend time searching answers, when you could just ask: Where is my UPS package, the one I ordered last week? What day is Christmas on this year? Did I pay my electric bill this month? What is the balance on my checking account? When did I schedule the "amazing idea brainstorm" session? And so forth... It would need to learn, and the first few months would be difficult (learn how I ask questions, what I mean by phrases, etc.), but this could be very helpful over time. This could seriously just be a different Human / Computer interface for Google or Yahoo. The challenge would be getting the computer to narrow down results verbally. That's why I think it would need to learn from past history. With google, you can already search by voice instead of typing on their mobile app. I just need to figure out how to get the computer to filter the multiple results into one. Google also has done this pretty well with their free 411 service (800-466-4411). I don't think it's too far a stretch to get to where I'm wanting to go with this.

Netbook w/ PicoProjector built in as 2nd Monitor

2009-08-28T08:09:00.003-04:00

I love the idea of netbooks. They are portable, task-focused and cheap. And I have a tech wish for making them just a little bit better. Why not include a built in Pico Projector? When I'm at home (or on vacation, or pretty much anywhere that I can set the laptop down and point it at a wall) I can have a larger screen. If you can somehow manage to make a netbook support two screens, it would be even better to have the option to use the projector as a second monitor.

The GRAND Mobile Computing Idea

2008-05-30T09:56:00.001-04:00

Apple iTunes movie rental on the horizon

2007-12-27T14:17:00.000-05:00

So, this is 1/2 tech wish and 1/2 apple rumor (sorry for the rumor half). Rumor part: Apple to offer movie downloads as RENTALs You can read a Wall Street Journal article about it (HERE). Now, the good WISH part: WISH 1: Please, please, please let us pay $20 a month for unlimited rentals. Be the digital netflix and everyone will love it. If I have to pay 1.99 per rental (and especially if it's more) I'll use it occassionally, and apple would maybe make $100 off me during the year. BUT - if I could pay $20 a month for unlimited rentals, I'd sign up right away and apple would have $240 of my cash. No problem. WISH 2: Sync this to the freakin iPhone and iPodTouch. If I rent a movie, let me do it wirelessly via my iPhone too. Particularly if I'm paying 1.99 per rental (which is just a price I've made up - btw), I want iTunes to remember that I rented it on my desktop, and let me also download it to my handheld device/whatever without paying for it again (and vice versa). If you make iTunes remember where I stopped watching it on my machine, and then let me download it to my iPhone while I'm at the coffee shop & it remembers where I left off - well, hell, you'd almost have my faith in Apple won back over again.

Facebook segregation

2007-12-17T11:56:00.000-05:00

Every social group is defined as much by who it Excludes as it is by who it Includes. And all of us know that we have multiple social circles that we are connected to, but might not want all of them to mix. Facebook needs to allow me to segregate my friends. I have work friends, family friends, "I knew you a long time ago" friends, and current friend friends - all looking at the same account. And I'm getting the same level of updates from all of them! Please, Facebook - you keep saying it is coming. Please stop spending all your time trying to monetize your site by focusing too much on business pages, and focus a little bit again on your users for our benefit. My only other option at this point - is to create separate accounts for work and family/friends. This isn't ideal for many reasons - but it's the best option at the moment. Facebook - get your act together. Make your site model this aspect of real life social circles. Let me segregate my friends. NOTE: I chose "segregate" because it is a strong word. You could call this feature "sorting" "arranging" "labeling" "organizing" "personalizing" etc.

del.icio.us my Favorite Pictures

2007-12-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

What I Want is to be able to save photos I like to a del.icio.us style bookmarking utility, that saves the link to the photos I like online, and is available from any computer with an internet connection. Why? I find cool pictures online all the time. Flickr, photoblogs, news sites, art sites, they're everywhere! So what do I do? Right now I have to create a folder on my desktop that I can drag pictures into, and use them as screensavers or desktop backgrounds. On my mac, the background changes every minute to display a new photo. If I could save these photos online, I could subscribe to an RSS feed of them to use as screensavers, desktop backgrounds (maybe), etc. Maybe my cell phone could update the background once an hour with a new image from my list. Plus, this would hopefully avoid copyright infringement, because it would only be saving the path to the photo - not the actual photo itself. As for HOW to save the exact photo - maybe right clicking would give a "save to..." option, or perhaps there could be an actual folder on my desktop that I could drag the photo into and it would send the info to my online photoRSS account. etc. etc., I'm sure there are plenty of good easy ways to make this happen.

Wireless Battery Charging

2007-11-29T23:29:00.000-05:00

It's coming soon. But just to paint a picture of what I'm hoping for...

Imagine your ipod has a plain black iPod shaped "pad" that it can be laid flat on - just like when you set it down on a desk or table. Ok - now imagine that the iPod battery recharges through a proximity transfer of energy from this pad (which would obviously need to be plugged into an outlet). Now no more wires & plugs to connect / disconnect.

If the iPod connects to the computer wirelessly to transfer data - then no more need for a connector!

You can see something sort-of like this (prototyped for a car) on cnet here:

http://www.cnettv.com/9742-1_53-31323.html

In-line links

2007-11-28T18:54:00.000-05:00

Everyone's been there: you're reading a paragraph on a website and
it's SO full of underlined words (links) that you find it difficult
to just read the text.

You should be able to toggle those on/off.

Banner Ads

2007-11-27T22:41:00.000-05:00

So everyone agrees that banner ads are annoying. And yes, I agree with everyone. BUT (and hear me out please) - wouldn't it be cool if you could click / slideshow through banner ads like photos in flickr?!

So here's the scenario: I'm on a site that I like. Google is serving up banners related to the content that I like. But I don't care about the product in the banner. I MIGHT like something else though. Maybe I'm interested in finding a sale. Or perhaps I feel lucky (and bored). I click on a "next" arrow (or something similar) at the bottom of the banner ad box, and in slides a new ad.

Ideally, these would be quick loading, and simple. Let me scan quickly and do a cursory yes/no decision. I'd me MUCH more likely to click through if I sorted through 10 ads and suddenly thought "oh, I like that one." Plus it might become a lazy / curious way to travel between sites (and find deals)...

First off...

2007-11-27T22:11:00.000-05:00

Often, I wish there were things, things that don't exist yet. Most of them could, just no one has put them together yet. Since I won't do much to make them happen, I'm going to start putting the ideas down here. Please feel free to steal. Just let me know how it works out. And if you make millions - maybe throw me a bone (no obligation - and you probably won't make millions off my ideas. but just in case :).