from nick gaydos:
- request: take pictures and have them automatically posted into online albums
- status: much software, no extensible meta data standards yet
- see EXIF and IPTC: "EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format, and is a standard for storing interchange information in image files, especially those using JPEG compression. Most digital cameras now use the EXIF format. The format is part of the DCF standard created by JEIDA to encourage interoperability between imaging devices. "
- request: jabber a thought into my mobile phone and have it recorded and archived into an mp3, posted on my weblog
- status: see audblog
- see Phone Blogger: "PhoneBlogger is a VoiceXML application. It uses speech recognition and text to speech to collect information from you over the phone concerning the blog to which you want to post."
- request: record what sites I visit, applications i use, and keep them tabulated by date
- status: Edict's Helios technology does this, but for the whole world, it might need to be peer to peer, instead of client server
- Sites visited are in your browser's history - with OS X that's an XML file that's easy to import into other programs. Safari and Firebird (at least) organise history by date. Record the applications you use? I don't really understand this.
- request: nab the titles of the songs that I’m currently listening to
- status: see currently hearing, etc
- Etc including AMIP, Kung-Tunes and Audioscrobbler
- request: embed events into a syndicated feed
- status: alf eaton has his ics event file generator - there is some oddness between apple's implementation of timezones, and microsoft's. I've promised him my time for a web interface and I'll get to that.
- Basically, iCal uses US/Western (with a slash) and Outlook uses US-Western (with a dash). You can define timezones within the event file, but it's a pain. As they say in the RFC: "Note: This document does not define a naming convention for time zone identifiers. Implementers may want to use the naming conventions defined in existing time zone specifications such as the public-domain Olson database [TZ]. The specification of globally unique time zone identifiers is not addressed by this document and is left for future study." For cross-compatibility you have to use Universal Time (date-time format that ends with a Z). If you send timezone=UTC to my generator, you'll get results in this format.
- request: track my location over time with the gps in my phone and pda
- status: my pda does this, but developers are more worried about trip routing than passing data along to a web service
- Your PDA does this ;)
from marc canter:
- request: record a song in the car, and download it onto my home system
- status: more and more mp3 players offer recording ( but most companies view it as a voice recorder), but there is a whole untapped populus waiting for the replacement for a DAT recorder. Attention wardware developers: we want something small, but that records cd-quality audio with a line in and a built in microphone and tack in enough memory to record for at least three hours straight. Most lowend minidisc recorders don't offer analog line in - just digital / usb.
- See, for example, the PoGo RipFlash: "2hr MP3 record time (128MB memory), stereo line-in MP3 recording, memory expansion slot, USB cable for PC interface."
- request: coordinate my pick-up and drop-off schedule with my wife, via cell phones
- status: kids, parents, teachers, instructors and coaches have access to computers and can publish iCalendar files. These are pushed through some sort of syndication, and use SMS, RSS, email, or instant messaging as a transport. The trick is making the interfaces easy enough to use across all devices with a standard for event data. This is every parent's dream... and a cash cow waiting to be tapped. What Marc doesn't say is that he'd probably like to locate them with a gps so he knows where to pick them up.
- Don't phones carry voice calls nowadays?
- request: connect on-line social networks together with my family
- status: foaf. need some clarity here marc...
- That's that granularity of FOAF thing. Need to make a self-hosted FOAF network browser, where you can divide people into different groups. Spring almost does this, though I don't think it shows the other people's networks: "If you see a FOAF button on a web page, drag it in to Spring." Chandler probably will.
- request: have a central media library - for ALL my music, photos and videos - accessible anywhere in my digital lifestyle
- status: big hard drives, web servers and streaming, check out alf's "shareable playlists with smil" post from a few days ago
- You'll be wanting a UNIX media server then, running in a cupboard somewhere in your house. For example.
I have to say I really like these SMIL playlists: they're simple XML, and can act like an RSS feed - I add new tracks to mine whenever I find them and whoever requests the playlist gets the 10 most recent items. It's easy to add images to accompany each track, and if you wanted this can be made much more elaborate. It's also a standard format so plays in both RealPlayer and QuickTime Player (and any other player that supports it, obviously). Imagine lots of these playlists/feeds aggregated in a central player...
- request: collect my RSS feeds, reviews, recipes, conversations and topics - in one place
- status: need a better way to deal with the information glut. in one place is great, but not in one list. need search, collaborative human review, ai, all rolled into one.
- No thanks. There's plenty of good software that works just fine at doing these things individually. It might be useful to be able to sort your RSS items into buckets though, like POPFile does for email.