Connected Cars

Have you ever had the feeling: "Hey! Cool, I thought about this!". Perhaps common sense or a combination of technical / market knowledge and life's reality, sometimes you think of something and a while later you hear there's innovation happening there. By someone else, ofcourse :-)

So this is a concept I really like and think could go ways: Intelligent cars. Actually, this is a private case of a larger thread of 'Integration'. And what it is, is that you see smaller consumer gadgets first being introduced in their independent form, and then usually, once the interest and the money equation make sense, they get integrated into larger, existing computing systems.

That trend is true for mobile: take the obvious case of music integration onto the phone: people would buy a certain phone if it has MP3 playing feature integrated instead of buying a separate MP3 player.
It is true for PCs, now having TV connectivity and control modules.
And last, it is definitely true for vehicles, getting all kinds of gadgets on the dashboard that you know, will be integrated into the vehicles capabilities.

So it only makes sense for car manufacturers to "simply throw" an off-the shelve PC onto the car to manage informational data, entertainment center, vehicle condition etc. People can install more applications like in facebook, they can download content, surf the web. Anormal connected PC can be upgraded.

You also want to make sure that PC is completely disconnected from the driving functions that affect safety. I was once told by a product manager at Trimble: "Vehicle manufacturers are used to 100% quality products, and software just isn't there yet. They trust their breaks more than they trust the onboard computer".

So I came across Popular Mechanics 2007 Breakthrough list and one of them is Ford's Sync:

"Ford has elegantly and inexpensively leap-frogged the competition when it comes to in-car infotainment systems. Ford’s $395 Sync is essentially a small computer running the Microsoft Auto operating system that wirelessly integrates all of your mobile gadgets. It enables hands-free phone use and has a universal music player that pulls songs from virtually any MP3 player. The voice-recognition control is simply the best we’ve ever tried. So far, the most impressive trick Sync offers is its ability to receive text messages and then read them to you. And Sync’s flexible software platform means it should be easily upgradable in the future. Sync will be available in 12 models by the end of the year and on nearly all Ford vehicles within two years."

Few comments I'd like to make:

• the term "Microsoft Auto operating system" causes me to shiver...blue screen while driving 60 MPH...
• It's cool that they have thought of the ability to upgrade (don't we do it every day on our PCs? why not on the onboard PC?)
• It's cool that the PC is connected to the wireless networks as well as to mobile devices in its proximity

Here's my addition:

• Allow car (passengers) to connect to each other: you have a connected PC onboard, why not connect cars to each other. Create a "facebook" network of moving cars, sharing real time road information, fun recommendations, people can talk, share content and much more
• Allow seamless web connectivity in the car so that passengers can provide feedback, for example, dictate to their blog or listen to radio and tag/comment/share their interests / play lists etc., just like Bijan in his blog talks about Radio 2.0

Overall, cool stuff. There will be some safety concerns but you know more is coming. Did anyone mention location-aware advertising?

New Mobile Tech Reviews & tidbits

A couple of interesting posts reviewing new mobile technologies:

• (From MobHappy) Strand Consulting is one of the analysts who really get mobile, so it was interesting to read over at 160 Characters their take on the current 7 most overhyped mobile technologies. I found the comments on UMA, mobile advertising, mobile interenet really interesting. Further isn't it interesting that IMS didn't make it to the list? is it not overhyped anymore or was it never overhyped (back in 2004?) :-)
  

• Check out this LinkedIn survey on "The next 'Killer App' in the Cellular World". It is by no means a comprehensive survey, but many people there think that location aware services are a good candidate. I personally think that like UMA and other services it is still too complex for developers and subscribers and people would still rather get the dashboard GPS unit than figure out the on-phone service
  

• Throwing tidbits, I was really happy for RIM with this recent ABI Research that reported RIM's Blackberry Smartphone market share increased to 44%. To those who were quick a year or so ago to call the Blackjack, Moto Q and others 'Blackberry killers', I said (and still do): the Canadian folks are just so talented, they will leave everyone else in the dust. Just think of the recent devices: the dual-mode 8830 that does so well to the US operators with business users who so far had to exchange phones on travel; the WiFi enabled consumer-features-loaded 8820, and soon to come Pearl 2 ('Komet')...BTW, knowing RIM from when their stock was in the one-digit range, I can only congratulate my friends over there on the unbelievable stock performance

Mobile Code Scanning stuff:

• Gregory Ng, writer of iPhone Matters, has an interesting post on iPhone Mobile Code Scanning. I wonder where this could go: iPhone does not exactly follow all other vendors rules in that it could set the tone for which technology to use, and what might be good use cases. I suppose Apple started receiving emails from code scanning players :-) Good luck Apple!
  

• Last tidbit, the pondering primate reports a new player in the mobile code scanning scene named Mova Media. It wasn't apparent immediately what is the symbology they've chosen to use (I admit I've not spent too much time researching) but what I like about their approach is that it seems to be services-oriented rather than technology oriented. I very much support the approach that useful, valuable services drive adoption as opposed to technology
  

ConnexTo loves Wiffiti!

During the previous Mobile Monday Boston, Stephen Randall from Locamoda presented their "writing on the wall" product suite: A series of fun interactive games, or interaction sessions where you stand in front of an electronic display and send SMSs to play games or interact.
"Our platform enables any phone to interact with screens connected to out-of-home networks, combining the power and reach of the web with the immediacy of the mobile phone"

One of their coolest applications is Wiffiti (Wireless Graffiti): these are virtual text boards that you can place on a real LCD in, say, a bar, on your site, blog, whatever. people can SMS to your Wiffiti to interact with you and/or others. This is really cool!!! I got an invitation to have one for myself today (Thanks Jayne!) and started using it. setup is easy and the first message was there in 5 minutes. See at the bottom right corner of my blog on this page, this is mine. You can send me a msg by sending @020406 (Space) your-message to 25622. OR, you can scan this code with ConnexTo and fill in your message:

Here's my Wiffiti itself: send me a msg and you'll see it here




Looking a bit closer, I think Stephen and his team made some good decisions with this product. For a start, Stephen was a founder of Symbian: he knows exactly the pain of creating a client application, getting that reach on enough phones/audience (Does phone xy support JSR-123 blah blah?), and then getting it on people's phones. So the waffiti thing doesn't require any client, no installation, no reach issues, none of that. Everyone has SMS, everyone know to use it. If I recall correctly Stephen still has non-gray hair on, and that's probably (in part) why.
Second, its a cool interesting, simple application. its engaging: the minute Stephen pulled it on the screen at the event, people started playing. He needed not say a word. This could go big.

The Economist is writing: "Between double espressos, patrons send text messages to the 50-inch screens...In March one woman received a marriage proposal via the Wiffiti screen at Toscanini's café (ooh...too geeky for me-AR)"


And if games, interaction, promotions aren't enough, why not reduce restaurant wait time?

VERY COOL!

Google@Work

Following a post on Mark's Guide (Thanks Mark!) me and a couple of friends went to hear the Google@work seminar they had today in Boston.
I have to admit, I am amazed at how Google are doing things. To me, they are really good at everything they do, which is a paradox in itself. But it's true: how many people aren't Gmail users these days?
And they had a number of winning points: Web search is something we see as obvious these days. information is at our fingertips in a fraction of a second. when people were asked to rate web search between good/moderate/bad, almost everyone raised their hands at good or moderate. but enterprise information? documents? painful sigh...
I actually took down a couple of their mantras for development:

• FAST is better than SLOW: Develop iteratively instead of big bang ('cos your product, build to 2-year-old requirements, is gonna stay orphan)
• SIMPLE is better than COMPLEX: self explanatory. Complex doesn't fly period.
• And this one I really liked: ASSUME CHAOS AND DEAL WITH IT. Oh how true.
  

So Google are after enterprises, this is good news in itself. It contains a suite of docs+excel solutions, calendar (including collaboration, which I thought was pretty useful), Email (including your company email address, but Gmail-like interface), and others. Difficult to see how larger organizations would turn over, but bigger changes happened. Google have a free version that lacks some of the APIs, and a premier version that's $50/skull/year. Compare to any of your desktop applications: how much do those cost?
Here's a couple of notes I made to myself during the seminar:

1. As a vision, fantastic for startups: Do you really have time and $$ for an IT staff and equipment (Exchange/backup/code control/Spam/Anti Virus...) ? (BTW, the Google guy quoted $8 of every $10 in IT budget goes on "keeping the lights on". I thinks that's not far from being true. If this Google product does well, my heart goes to the IT people...
   
2. "Always connected": Well, Google are betting on this horse. Honestly, "always connected" is probably true for, if I had to guess, 85% of the workforce. But- there's those 15%. If you go into that prospect in Asia, who takes away your blackberry and puts it in a red-striped plastic bag, as you go up the elevator you realize your PPT is on Google Docs and you're unlikely to get access to the web, you're feeling kinda stupid. I'm not against the "always connected" approach, but they have to think of an additional comfortable feature that will allow you to "pack to go" the critical & backup documents you may need for the trip.
3. Backup: I think I clearly heard it in the room: "Storage is free". Well, I got to tell you, I am far more worried about automated backup solutions than sharing excel sheets online. Show me a startup whose not scrambling for sensible backup solution. that should be a trivial task for Google
4. And last, code (+documents) configuration management systems: Now here's one I have strong feelings about. Every software organizations either has huge mess in their code (AKA Spaghetti) because they have no configuration management systems, OR, they have a large server somewhere with 3-4 people trying to configure the heck out of it. Here's an exercise: your customer calls you because they found a bug in the (Latest-2) version software you released them. They won't take the latest code because they just spent 2 weeks integrating their stuff into it. If you don't have a configuration management system, good luck! What's my point? My point is that this is a painful issue for EVERY SW company. For those familiar with those systems (P4, VCS,...) they are done anyway on the intranet from a central server. So why not make that server a Google server??? Hey Google, I think this is a selling product, send me a check anytime :-)

To summarize, it was nice to see these things coming from Google. Not quite there for me but certainly on their way. I recommend for people to have a look at their free version, it's pretty cool.
As a small prize, some good networking awaited at the end of the seminar. I met with a couple of people and quickly demoed ConnexTo. Two of the guys were Japanese, knew the world about code scanning in Japan and had good ideas of how code scanning could be widely used in everyday life. But what I liked best is the spark in their eyes when they saw ConnexTo performing. Then they said "we gotta talk!"
That felt good :-)

Next MoMoBoston event: WVOIP

For those in the mobile space, one of the currently hottest subjects in the industry is how VOIP will play in the wireless space. Matt and his friends the organizers make another must-attend Mobile Monday Boston event featuring WVOIP. It will take place on March 5th @ 7PM EST.
See event details and sign up here
Great panel, good networking, highly recommended!

Next Gen Mobile Instant Messaging

Try this:

Got it?
try this:


The mobile instant messaging, to me, is the obvious interaction solution for any teenage on the move. and there's a lot of them.
I came across the Zlango language by referal from a friend, and I love it. Zlango is "revolutionary, simple and practical language...learning the language is unbelievably fast and amusing...always generates a good and playful mood". It's exactly what it is.
Here's why I think it will take off: It took my rusty brain 2 seconds to understand the messages. because they are graphic, and if you don't get it, there's the text below.
Heck, my 7 year old can't get away from their site!
If you're Russian, Polish, Japanese or Hebrew speaking, it makes no difference: This is mobile Esperanto that everyone will get. took me a couple good minutes to figure out what on earth another friend meant when they IM'd me "TTYL" the other day, Zlango make all that go away.
Having graphic, funny, rich messages is a great recipe to drive adoption. But if that's not enough, the guys at Zlango are open to suggestions and new ideas.
And best of all, you can go on the web, create your own messages and do whatever you want with them: get them on your site/blog, email and much more.
I certainly would watch Zlango closely, I think they will make a difference.

The quarter tank dilemma, and startups funding

I've been reading a lot about startup financing. Its never enough, there's plenty of online resources and books. But this one seems to be a repeating subject: To VC or not VC? and when?

Here's a scenario: you're driving the highway, exits are flying by one after the other. You have another quarter tank, so why not look for a nicer exit?
So you go: No, not this one, nope, not this one too.
Before you know it, that nasty red light and beep goes off. THAT'S when the kids start screaming they're hungry and want that ice cream you promised. THAT's when you see the exit without even a gas/food sign and in small fonts: "Next Exit 12 miles"

I'm no CFO, know nothing about financing, other than being officially nominated as the family bill payer.
But I'll say this: You better plan your finance strategy a couple steps ahead. the next 'fancy exit' is ALWAYS farther than you think. Whether its a break you get from closing a deal on your last drops, or some divine supervision will draw another investment for you without them knowing you're choked.
PLAN AHEAD and get that investment if you need to: You know better: doing business cost money: whether its a ticket to the other side of the world for a warm-ish prospect, getting that extra developer in, or a pass into the show where your prospects are. Its one thing to select a hotel that's not as fancy. Its another thing when you can't afford to get out there.
If you start running short, you won't be visible, you'll find it hard to get in front of prospects and convince them that sweat under your suite is from the heat when its -20F.
End of financially novice transmission -<

About Launch dates, Shows, Demos and planning (Or lack of it)

We've all been there: the big Launch date/show/demo/... comes close, travelers get their travel plans ready, clever ones set meetings in place and plan for what they want to achieve, and developers do the mainstream development stuff.
And then lightning hits the bright manager: I've got to have a demo! it's got to dazzle, sparkle, whistle, pour wine and dance! So what if there's two days to the show?
I've been fortunate to work with several managers in my life. Only few actually set down in advance and planned this stuff: What do you want the impression to be? what are the most important features that are relevant to whom you're about to meet? How much off-mainstream development will this take? are there confidentiality concerns?
After a couple of good runs against time, into crazy hours, I've made myself this optimistic habit: I go and remind the relevant manager twice ahead of time to sit down and think. AND THINK. Nope, that doesn't help.
So I'm left asking myself: what's the story? Why is this so difficult? Why is spending the SAME if not less time in advance, saving efforts, resources, getting a better demo, not worth it?
I don't know the answer, and I'll be happy to learn.
All I can say is that I view PLANNING as a part of QUALITY. if you don't plan, you won't get as good demo/product/meeting/impression as you could have. You'll use more resources than you would have otherwise. And worst: your team will get used to work without planning. Ever heard of the term SPAGHETTI CODE?!
One last point: Some people underestimate the value of planning and executing to a timely deliverable in the eyes of the customer. The time factor is as critical to your credibility as the hours you spent developing and testing your deliverable, double. think of all the resource planning on their end: do you expect them to notify their customers that they're "going to be late"? Would their development staff sit on their hands on their budget?

For those of you out there who are going on meetings, demos, shows, whatever. Do yourselves a huge favor: plan your demos well in advance. the other option's price is too high

Mobile Monday Boston

I've attended yesterday's Mobile Monday event. Mobile Monday is a worldwide organization of players in the mobile space that gather on (I guess) the first Monday of each month for a panel on various related subjects. Its such a great setup: The mix of interesting people, hot subjects (in the wireless space) and the entrepreneurship spirit.
Another group discussing entrepreneurship in the wireless space is the wireless interest group (SIG) of the local TiE chapter. My personal impression is that the latter tends to draw more of the executive/VC level suites & tie types, whereas MOMOBoston draws everyone from students, developers, management to executives.

This last meeting was about typical issues that young startups face, with an emphasis on HR issues: Who to hire, when, CEO vs. VC hiring decisions etc. it was a great panel including a CEO, Director of HR, VC and Executive-level search firm. (BTW, a stream of the panel can be viewed here).
I guess a few thoughts crossed my mind as the panel made its way through the event:

"Shallow pool of handset talent in the Boston area": everyone on the panel agreed that there's an issue around locating handset talent in the area. The immediate resolution, they mentioned, was attempting to relocate talent.

Here's my version of this one: I'm a handset guy, and, (I think) a good one. Without even knowing me, I'm receiving the following mix into my inbox on a daily basis: 4-5 different great job offers from the west coast and in addition, the same 2.5 local jobs (I won't mention names) that vaguely mention handset experience (coming from 10 different recruiters).
In fact, as the panel members were saying this, I got another offer for "Job Title: Senior Product Manager, Mobile Handset Products" email...from the west coast. Any questions as to WHY THE LOCAL HANDSET TALENT POOL IS SHALLOW??

If anyone question my talent specifically, I invite them to see how long it took for a very large, talented group of handset developers, recently jumping off a local sinking ship (no names mentioned) to find themselves again. Unfortunately I believe some of those great guys are still on the limbo.

Allow me to propose a different way, perhaps more useful way to look at this:
There are a number of examples for centers of technology in the worlds that had risen from almost anonymity. And I'm saying this with a lot of respect. What made the difference, making those cities now technology centers, attracting everyone from entrepreneurs to Microsoft and Analog Devices?? My guess is as good as anyone else, so I'll take a shot: The university: A good professor teaching the right stuff, attracting other academic figures and then a breed of young talent.
won't make that overnight difference, but it will make a world of difference over time.
Something to think about.

Who to hire? great question: How do you identify the right talent and attitude: the rain maker. It is unbelievably critical to bring in those people who share the fire in their heart and dream the dream. My take on this: look at the spark in their eyes. That thing that will keep them working under the crunch the extra time, the extra effort, knowing that its about team effort. Knowing that you're there with them, even if you've got better things to do at 4AM, you respect and value their efforts.
The worst candidate to recruit is the one who will drop the pen at 5 no matter what.
Here's an easy tip: If a candidate answer to the question 'why are you looking to leave?' by 'I don't get enough of it' then make an offer on the spot. They're the people who can see the bigger picture and care far more about the success of the team, company and product, then anything else. They are the people who will turn on their laptop at home after getting the kids to bed and deliver the goods.

CEO & VC: A little off topic but two friends (or so it seems) sat next to each other. One is the VC guy and the other is the CEO. At one point discussing hypothetical conflicts between VC and CEO on hiring issues. And they seemed great friends. I could only wish that if I became a CEO one day, I'll have those relations too. Good luck to those two!

The VC guy: Finally, a breezy thought: Why am I enjoying so much hearing and being around VC guys? because they're enjoying it, and that's contagious.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying entrepreneurs aren't, and neither are engineers working the lab till dawn. But still, this is different: They are really projecting a calm, confident feel. They will offer you their highly valuable advice (See Jeff Bussgang fabulous Blog on "VC Perspective from A Former Entrepreneur". BTW, his picture in Terry Francona's office makes him a legend in my book :-)).
Reminds me of one-of-many post-super bowl comments I've heard the other day about Manning: He's done it. Everyone who told him he can't, they can eat their hats. Now, with that ring, he can really enjoy himself at a different level during the post season.
VC guys are, to me, a bit like that: they've done it, and they just have a different perspective of the game.

The next MoMoBoston event will be on March 5th. The topic will be a hot one: Wireless VOIP. For location and updates sign up on MoMoBoston site. Great speakers, good networking...I can't wait!