For a number of years, I've made the argument that while there is plenty of cutting edge innovation and plenty of Web 2, 3, 4, and 5 dot oh stuff happening, we don't spend enough time trying to tackle the really basic oops type problems.
Consider the simple issue of you being in a meeting or giving a talk and your cell phone goes off. On a smart phone, it knows where you are and generally knows your schedule (esp. if you use a RIM device). So, why not have a simple feature (or app) that I can set which mutes the phone except for emergencies, etc?
Check out who your tier one customers could be by watching this video. Uh huh, there's a couple of bucks (pounds) a month customer.
My old Moto Q (Windows Mobile based) had a "Meeting" mode that basically did just that. When you set it to that mode it would automatically set the phone to vibrate whenever there was a mtg. in your sync'd schedule.
I don't believe it had the "emergency" override though but it was still a handy feature (except in impromptu mtgs, or sessions that ran long ;) ) - but yeah, don't get why every phone doesn't have that option.
- Ryan
Posted by: Ryan Coleman | January 31, 2009 at 11:23
In the same vein you would think that when you open a web page on a mobile phone that the web site would have the capability to know who, what and where you are in real time. Think about it for a moment, open up a Google search page in your mobile browser and type in Starbucks. Google has no idea who you are, what device capabilities you mobile phone has and where you are. If they did they might offer you a coupon to the local Starbucks which is 2 minutes from your "current" position. None of the search engines can do local search in the browser using location information coming from the phone in real time. Amazing when you think about it. So simple and yet so hard. (PS. One company has solved that problem).
Cheers,
Peter
Posted by: Peter Cranstone | January 31, 2009 at 11:24
Here's one more comment on yet another simple problem. Why can't your blog recognize me "without" having to sign in with a TypeKey or Type pad account. Why do I have to type in the capcha's before I can post. It's Me - and yet your web site has no real idea who I am, or even where I am. Why isn't the web contextually aware?
Now sure there are lots of mechanisms to automate this, but then I have to have all these different login's and passwords and different accounts. Any yet the one thing that doesn't change is "Me". The web doesn't recognize "Me" yet.
Peter
Posted by: Peter Cranstone | January 31, 2009 at 11:27
Someone has implemented that already. See Locale (it's one of the winners of the Android Developer Challenge actually):
http://www.localeandroid.com/
Posted by: Ken | January 31, 2009 at 13:56
I've been thinking about the phone ringer scheduler for years now as people's phones would always go off in class, I just did a google and found a patent on it:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7353047/description.html
Posted by: Ivan L | February 01, 2009 at 09:36