Trend: the rise of architecture
Comment: the future home of the Jedi archives ;)
Title: Norwegian Vennesla Library Designed As a Modern Retreat
http://freshome.com/2011/12/22/norwegian-vennesla-library-designed-as-a-modern-retreat/



Norwegian Vennesla Library Designed As a Modern Retreat
Comprising a library, a café, meeting places and administrative areas and linking an existing community house and a learning center, the Vennesla Library in Vennesla, Norway is quite a fantastic looking building. Helen and Hard Agency were the ones behind this creative library concept turned into reality. Here are a few words from the architects describing the library’s interior structure and architecture :”Supporting the idea of an inviting public space, all main public functions have been gathered into one generous space allowing the structure combined with furniture and multiple spatial interfaces to be visible in the interior and from the exterior. An integrated passage brings the city life into and through the building. Furthermore, the new building was open and easy accessible from the main city square, knitting together the existing urban fabric. This was achieved by a large glass facade and urban loggia providing a protected outdoor seating area.” Found on Muuuz, the library conveys a soothing intimate feeling. Underneath the wood structures, shelves containing the knowledge are formed in the alcoves. Some of the undulating shapes shelter folded wooden benches offering readers comfortable seating. If you get the chance to visit this part of the world, make sure you swing by this amazing library, just to enjoy the modern beauty of its design. And send us photos.

Trend: html5 as the next emerging standard
Comment: I'm not sure I agree with the ie10 prediction. The api, caching and the cross stuff seems a no brainer and the games thing is just plain cool.
Title: The Definitive Guide To HTML5: 14 Predictions For 2012
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/21/guide-to-html5-14-predictions-2012/

The Definitive Guide To HTML5: 14 Predictions For 2012
BEN SAVAGE
Wednesday, December 21st, 201140 Comments
Editor’s note: Guest contributor Ben Savage is the founder of Spaceport.io, a native Javascript and HTML5 platform for mobile game developers.

From tech titans like Zynga, Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Apple, to startups just launching, the battle lines of 2012 will be drawn across the landscape of HTML5. Below are 14 bold predictions for how HTML5 will evolve in 2012.

Welcome to a more interconnected web:

In 2012, HTML5 will be adding support for some really useful and cool APIs that allow one
website to connect to another.

For example, Zynga games on Facebook run inside of iframes. Using the new postMessage API these games will be able to communicate within the containing Facebook frame directly. Before HTML5, inter-window communication had to rely on a remote server – or use unreliable hacks.

Another exciting addition is CORS (Cross Origin Resource Sharing). This will make it much easier for different websites to share information with one another. For example, CORS will enable startups to create photo-editing services that download your photos from Facebook, let you modify them, and then re-upload them – again without having to resort to ugly hacks.

With all of the new semantic information (see Semantics and Microdata) available with HTML5, it will become much easier to create web tools that extract information from web pages. As a result, you can expect to see a plethora of new mashup services, as well as better browser modes (like readers and translators).

Web browsers will look more like iPhones

Everyone loves Apple’s iOS. Now it’s coming to the HTML5 web. In 2012 your browsers will start
sporting push notifications, geolocation, and offline capable applications. Some browsers will likely adopt a more iOS-like user interface that will make the comparison all the more apt.

More and more applications will just be built in HTML5 instead of downloadable apps

If you’re like me, you already use web apps for email, calendars, and photo-sharing, but in 2012 more classes of applications will be HTML5 enabled. Next up, you can expect to see content creation apps like Inkscape and Illustrator emerge for HTML5 and start to catch on.

Internet Explorer & Microsoft will dramatically improve in coolness.

Internet explorer’s reputation will stop being “the browser where nothing works right” and start being “the fast browser”. Microsoft has made major investments into improving HTML5 performance that will give IE 10 a huge performance lead over competing browsers. Its hardware accelerated “canvas” will blow away all the other browsers in any speed test. Microsoft is also adding interesting ways for the HTML5 web and the desktop to work together that will really spice up its operating system. Having good support from IE will be the impetus that will really turn the tide in favor of authoring HTML5 applications.

Browser manufacturers will get into the App Store business

Taking a cue from Apple, browser manufacturers will start to realize that they are missing out by not being in the app store business. Google Chrome already has an integrated app-store as its splash page. Expect many other browsers to follow. This is actually a good thing for HTML5 application developers – it means more distribution opportunities for apps, although platform specific payment systems and platform revenue-shares will follow later on.

At least one major console game released or re-released using WebGL

In 2012, at least one AAA console game company is going to make the leap and decide to launch a 3D title on the web using WebGL instead of (or in addition to) creating a downloadable client. It might be a re-release of a well-known title (Like “Team Fortress 2″ or “Assassins Creed”), or another way to play a popular MMO (like “Eve Online” or “World of Warcraft”), or it may be an entirely new title launching for the first time.

Many more applications will use offline cache and will work offline

The offline application cache will dramatically improve the usability and speed of HTML5 apps. Querying a local database will allow applications to avoid a round-trip to the server, eliminating that laggy web-app feel that makes us all prefer native apps today.

In 2012, expect to see a few issues arise from this extended usage. You’ll lose your work by clearing your cache at least once or twice. Also expect security vulnerabilities to keep showing up that allow malicious applications to access private files stored on your computer by another
website.

HTML5 ads will become prevalent and overtake Flash ads

Website owners keen to monetize the increasingly large amount of traffic coming from iOS devices will demand HTML5 ads (rather than Flash ads). Startups will emerge to serve this market. These startups will solve the sand boxing, security, and authoring tools issues that this new market will face. Now that HTML5 is capable of doing everything that flash ads commonly do, it’s just a matter of time before they take over.

JavaScript will get a lot faster with better memory management and typed arrays

JavaScript has gotten really, really fast – it’s already among the world’s fastest scripting languages – but there is room for improvement. Google Chrome has started pushing the envelope on better memory management and garbage collection algorithms. This, combined with typed arrays, will bring JavaScript performance closer to more mature languages like Java.

Canvas will get hardware acceleration in more browsers (but no major mobile browsers)

Other browser makers will follow Internet Explorer’s lead and add hardware acceleration to their canvas implementations. Those that don’t will suffer a severe loss in mind-share. Firefox is most at-risk in this regard. If Mozilla fails to accelerate their canvas it risks being portrayed as the new IE — slow and bloated and burdened down with legacy code.

However, in 2012, no major mobile browsers will successfully roll out a hardware-accelerated canvas. We will have to wait until 2013 to start seeing that catch on.

People will play popular HTML5 games on their mobile devices from Zynga and others, but they will be very simple games

You can expect to see your friends playing games like Zynga Poker, Words with Friends, and Mafia Wars on their mobile phones, running purely in HTML5. These games will be played on both destination websites and within native applications (like the Facebook app).

However, successful HTML5 games on mobile devices will be limited to menu-based games, card games, board games, turn-based multiplayer games, and avatar customizer games. More complex and visually intensive Zynga “Ville” style games with isometric worlds or hundreds of animating sprites will not yet strike gold in 2012.

Facebook will release improved HTML5-based APIs that allow for more seamless integration with external websites

In its continued quest to be the de facto social-graph of the web, Facebook Connect will grow and expand to take advantage of new HTML5 features. This will allow even deeper and richer integration of Facebook connect with external websites and services.

Facebook will get a lot more seamlessly integrated with your desktop

Think drag-and-drop, file system access, photo synching, and widgets on your desktop. All of these features (and more) will start to blur the line between desktop and browser, bringing your social graph more closely into contact with your traditional desktop experience.

Apple will NOT fix HTML5 sound in mobile Safari

HTML5 sound used to work well in mobile Safari, back in the days iOS3. However, Apple disabled most of the API in iOS 4 and 5. It just introduces competition for iTunes — both the music store, and the App Store. In its continued fight to maintain total control over the Apple ecosystem, they will refrain from fixing HTML5 sound in 2012.

Trend: tablet wars
Comment: Interesting, but kind of intuitive; people don't want to pay for 3g. I spent the extra dough for a 3g ipad and still haven't enabled mine.
Title: The tablet boom: Great for Wi-Fi, but not for carriers
http://gigaom.com/broadband/the-tablet-boom-great-for-wi-fi-but-not-for-carriers/


The tablet boom: Great for Wi-Fi, but not for carriers
By Kevin Fitchard Dec. 27, 2011, 12:29pm PT 6 Comments

This time of year, a lot of companies are issuing their “top predictions for 2012,” and most of the trends they forecast are hopelessly obvious: Smartphone sales will skyrocket! or Apple will launch a new iPhone! But Sandvine’s top 5 projections for the new year are always worth a glance; its status as one of the telecom industry’s biggest packet sniffers gives it unique insight into how consumers use their mobile and wireline broadband connections.

This year, Sandvine had a lot of interesting things to say about how tablets will intersect with the wacky world of mobile broadband as well as the continued deterioration of carrier services and the advent of live streamed video. Without further adieu ado, let’s drill into what Sandvine thinks is in store for us in 2012:

Mobile data pooling plans will become popular

Our own Kevin Tofel has been predicting this trend for some time, and Verizon Wireless has confirmed it will launch its first family data plan next year, so this hardly a breathtaking suggestion. But what makes Sandvine’s prediction more interesting is that it posits pooled plans will be the critical first step to luring tablet and other emerging device users onto mobile broadband. That brings us to Sandvine’s next prediction:

95 percent of tablet traffic will be on fixed access networks

That’s a shockingly high number, since tablets are first and foremost mobile computing devices, but as the emergence of new WiFi-only tablets such as the Kindle Fire show, consumers are much less interested than carriers had hoped in the “mobile” half of mobile broadband. Part of the reason is the higher cost of 3G and 4G connected tablets, as well as the higher fees and data caps associated with a mobile connection. But Sandvine said a primary factor is the lack of pooled data options: Consumers simply don’t want to buy separate plans from their tablets and smartphones.

You would think Sandvine’s prediction on the adoption of pooled plans would reverse this trend, but Sandvine thinks most tablet users will continue to look at Wi-Fi rather than expensive mobile broadband services. Consumers may take advantage of these shared data buckets to buy more 3G and 4G tablet and connect them to their operators’ networks, but that doesn’t mean they will use those connections extensively. Consumers may choose to self-police which networks they use to due to the high per-megabyte cost of mobile broadband. A tablet loaded down with video applications can eat through a 2 GB or 5 GB plan in a matter of days, if not hours.

This is good news and bad news for carriers. Pooled plans will encourage more consumers to hook their tablets into their HSPA and LTE networks, but they won’t make money off consumers closely monitoring their data meters. Carriers will get incremental data revenue from tablets, but they won’t suddenly start seeing customers paying $100 a month for data.

The potential for bill shock will increase

Then again, there will be those customers who accidentally spend $100, or even $1,000, in any given month precisely because they aren’t monitoring their data use closely. Tablets can suck down an enormous amount of bandwidth, so as more of those devices make it onto the wireless network, the greater chance more customers are going to complain to their operators about exorbitant bills.

Messaging apps will take a bigger bite of operator revenues

When AT&T removed all remaining tiers in its messaging plans, it practically started begging its customers to look for SMS alternatives. Faced with either committing $20 a month for an unlimited messaging plan or paying the astronomically high rate of 20 cents a message, many consumers have turned to smartphone services like WhatsApp, GroupMe and Beluga, as well as the proprietary platform texting systems iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger. They all use the phone’s data connection rather than the SMS signaling channel, and since a text message uses only the minutest amount of bandwidth, consumers can send thousands of them without making the smallest dent on even the most restrictive data plan.

Operators make bank off of SMS and so any threat to their messaging services is bound to have impact on revenues and profits. That tide has already shifted, according to Sandvine. Its latest study of IP messaging trends in Asia-Pacific markets shows a full 8 percent of consumers in that region are using WhatsApp to bypass operator SMS fees.

Live video will explode

Saying video will be a critical application in 2012 is obvious, but Sandvine believes next year will be the breakout year for live video, seeing it penetrate beyond the broadcast airwaves and cable boxes to Internet-connected TVs, game consoles, smartphones and tablets. Sandvine pointed toward Bell Canada and Rogers, which jointly bought controlling interest in the NBA’s Toronto Raptors and NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. The barriers between live sports content and live IP streaming are rapidly deteriorating.

Of course, live streaming places a whole new set of expectations on operators, who can no longer even out the bumps in a stream through extensive buffering. The problem will become particularly acute on mobile networks, which are already cantankerous beasts when it comes to streaming. Solving problems with latency, packet loss and jitter will become all the more crucia

Trend: mobile OS wars and the advance of open source
Comment: it's the last line. iOS isn't even in the testing phase.. ;)

Title: Pentagon Okays Android … Sort Of
http://allthingsd.com/20111227/pentagon-sanctions-android-sort-of/

Pentagon Okays Android … Sort Of
Published on December 27, 2011
by John Paczkowski
Android has made its first inroad into the Department of Defense. And while it’s not much of one, it is a start.

In its latest Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG), the Pentagon okayed Android 2.2 for use on Defense Department computer networks, but with a number of caveats and limitations.

First, Pentagon approval doesn’t extend to all devices running Android 2.2. In truth, it covers just one: Dell’s Venue smartphone (it would have covered the Streak tablet, as well, had the company not binned it). Second, classified information cannot be transmitted to or from it. Third, any Web browsing done on the device must be conducted via a DOD proxy server. And finally, access to Android Market has been restricted.

So, if you’re a DOD employee hoping to kill some off-hours time with a game or two of Modern Combat on your work-issued Venue, you’re out of luck. And if you happen to own a different-model Android phone, you have no hope of getting it on the DOD’s network — for now, anyway. Devices manufactured by HTC, Motorola, et al, aren’t covered by the STIG.

So, as I said, this isn’t much of a step forward for Android, though it’s a step just the same. One version of the OS is now okay for use by DOD employees, which is more than you can say for Apple’s iOS operating system, which has, so far, been approved only for testing and pilot projects.

Trend: the changing nature of work
Comment: Some not bad Personal strategy advice
Title: Top five career investments for 2012
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/career-tips/top-five-career-investments-for-2012/article2284973/

Top five career investments for 2012
Glenn Llopis
Forbes.com
Published Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011 8:21AM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011 8:29AM EST
It’s almost New Year’s, and it’s time to get serious about investing in yourself, your career and your immediate future. January is just around the corner and that’s reason enough to take action and hold yourself accountable for a fresh beginning.

As you reflect upon 2011, here are a few questions to get you started:

1. Did you get better at your work?

2. Did you help advance those around you? Are you a better leader?

3. Are you more influential? Did you advance your organization’s goals?

4. Did you improve your skill set and your mindset?

5. Did your networking generate a positive ROI?

6. Did your perspectives change about what you should be doing for a living?

7. Did the industry you serve discover your unique talent?

8. Were you asked to give a keynote and/or contribute to a blog?

9. Did you “package yourself (your brand)” better for success?

10. Are you making more money? Do you feel more successful and significant?

If you answered “yes” to 80 per cent or more of these questions, your momentum is strong and your 2012 looks bright. If not, hear are a few investments you must strongly consider to ensure that your 2012 gets started on the right track:

1. Smaller networks of influential people

Invest in a smaller, more focused network of people that can add value to your career and help give you the insights you need to broaden your perspective. Making the right choices in people will save you time, money and frustration.

Unlike the stock market, when people you invest in aren’t adding value, it is unlikely they will change. Remember your time is your most precious resource. Know that your network values your time and what you bring to the table. Avoid spending time with leeches and loafers.

2. Improve your speaking and negotiation skills

Speaking and writing represent two of the most important skills for career success. Mastering the art of communication is more important than ever at a time when trust and relationship building is at a premium.

One of the wisest investments I’ve made is taking an improvisational course. Whether you are shy or not, this class makes you think on your feet and keeps you on your toes. Learning to talk about something you don’t know much about is a powerful skill. This is a non-traditional approach of improving your speaking and negotiation abilities. It’s also a great way to broaden your network.

Another step I recommend is to become familiar with the work of Nick Morgan. He is the most effective communications coach in America and his books and blog deliver immediate benefits.

3. Develop your wealth in resources

Entrepreneurship isn’t just a business term any more; it’s a way of life. You don’t need to be an entrepreneur to be entrepreneurial. In fact, entrepreneurship isn’t just about making money but rather about creating the wealth in resources that authentic relationships can bring.

Resources can have just as much value as money if you know what you are looking for.

4. Play a more active role in the industry you serve

If you want to advance in your career, give back to your industry. You may be a hero inside the corporate walls, but what do you mean to the industry that your company is serving? Do people know who you are because of the company you represent or because your talent is extraordinary and could help to develop the future generation of industry leaders?

Make a mark and leave your legacy on your industry. Be active, contribute and earn respect from your peers. Down the road they may help your career.

Also, use this opportunity to connect with the leaders in your industry. Know who they are, what they represent and get to know their back stories. Learn how the industry allowed them to succeed.

5. Evaluate your investment and your own progress each month

Always work to improve yourself by evaluating your own performance. Write your career goals down, and the steps needed to get there. Evaluate the outcomes each month and course-correct as needed. While getting feedback from your peers and your boss is extremely important, over time you must learn how to evaluate yourself. If you believe that you need to improve your self-discipline – hire a coach.

In the end, you’ll always know if you are making progress and if your investments are paying off. Others can have an opinion, but your gut will tell you if you are making the right investment decisions. Too often people focus on what others want them to be rather than following their own passions. 2012 will be your year if you focus, invest, and stick to your plan!

Trend: the changing nature of work
Comment: a screening process, interesting. Looking for those individuals who are capable of flourishing in a “work from home” environment. Also a nice commentary on the need for this kind of change to be driven from above.

Title: When should a company allow its employees to work from home?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-managing/human-resources/when-should-a-company-allow-its-employees-to-work-from-home/article2282384/

Small businesses should make sure that every worker, either at home or in the office, has equal access to technology, supervisors and, of course, promotions.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

out of office
When should a firm allow employees to work from home?
CHRISTOPHER HANN
Entrepreneur.com
Published Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011 5:00AM EST
Last updated Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011 11:19AM EST
It's not as easy as giving everybody a laptop and sending them on their way. But when a company's leadership creates the right workplace culture, says Jim Ball, co-founder of Alpine Access, a Denver-based virtual call-centre company and a pioneer in the delicate art of telecommuting, the arrangement can benefit workers, management and the bottom line.

“You have to have it in your DNA – the fact that you don't have workers coming into an office space,” says Mr. Ball, whose 4,500 employees – spread across 45 states – all work from home.

Creating that culture, he adds, means planning ahead to prevent the chaos that can result if you don't. You'll need to take into account, for example, training, security and communication issues. In most organizations, Mr. Ball says, the direction should come from the top.

“There needs to be a person at a level of responsibility who absolutely embraces the model and ensures that the model is put into place correctly,” he says. “For a small company, that needs to be the CEO. The CEO needs to say, ‘We're going to embrace this. We're going to get it done the way it needs to be done.’”

A key part of getting it done is making sure that every worker – at home or in the office – has equal access to technology, supervisors and, of course, promotions. What you don't want to do, Mr. Ball says, is create an us vs. them scenario.

“You can end up with people who feel isolated, limited in their ability to move up the corporate ladder, frustrated if the technology does not work,” Mr. Ball says. “There's a whole list of things that need to be considered when you're putting together a work-at-home operation.”

That starts during the hiring process. It's vital to screen your employees carefully, Mr. Ball says, to determine who among them can prosper working away from the office. At Alpine Access, prospective employees go through a battery of tests, including a personality test, to identify those who are most comfortable operating on their own (each test is given online or over the phone, rather than in person). “We can tell these are folks who don't need face-to-face interaction,” Mr. Ball says, “who don't feel threatened by not being physically seen.”

As Mr. Ball sees it, telecommuting just makes good business sense. It's clear that many other employers agree. Nearly three million Americans work principally from home (not including those who are self-employed), according to a study released earlier this year by the Telework Research Network. Another study, by WorldatWork, an organization of HR professionals, showed the proportion of American employers offering work-at-home options grew from 30 per cent in 2007 to 42 per cent in 2008.

“This is going to become more of an expectation with [younger workers],” Mr. Ball says. “Preparing for that is really going to give your company access to what's really going to make you successful, and that's high-quality talent.”

Trend: encroachment on traditional pay models
Comment: I see plans within plans.
Title: NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank found consortium to support global NFC standards in Japan
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/22/ntt-docomo-kddi-and-softbank-found-consortium-to-support-global/



Mobile payments are nothing new to the people of Japan, who've used NTT DoCoMo's Osaifu-Keitai as the de facto standard for years. Based on Sony's FeliCa smart card, the system is incompatible with the NFC Type A and B technologies that are spreading across the globe. Hence, there's a growing concern for interoperability in the Land of the Rising Sun, prompting NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank to establish the Japan Mobile NFC Consortium in an effort to keep pace. Moving forward, the three carriers will work with suppliers and manufacturers to guarantee a smooth transition to the Type A and B standards, ensuring that future handsets will speak the proper NFC lingo throughout the world. Full PR is just after the break.

Trend: changing media content distribution models
Comment: fascinating. Ability to run android apps on any OS.. Including iPad. Hmmmm write once run anywhere.
Title: Myriad Alien Vue will bring Google TV apps to cable boxes
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/22/2652032/myriad-alien-vue-google-tv-apps-cable-boxes

Myriad Alien Vue will bring Google TV apps to cable boxes
By Nathan Ingraham on December 22, 2011 03:54 am 3COMMENTS

Myriad's Alien Dalvik technology already lets you run Android apps on a variety of platforms, and the newest version lets cable providers support Google TV apps on their set top boxes. This release, known as Alien Vue, is powered by the same virtual Android environment that Myriad showed off on the iPad and will support HTML5 apps along with Google TV offerings. The usual suspects like Netflix, YouTube, and Twitter were mentioned, but there's also less typical apps supported as well, like RSS reader Pulse. Android device owners will see the extra benefit of using their devices as remotes, but there doesn't appear to be any other integration at the moment.

Myriad's also giving service providers the option to run their own, fully skinned app store experience by means of AppCarousel, so users might be at the mercy of their cable company's app selection. So far there's been no announcement on any cable companies picking this up, and consumers can't install this software on their own — we'll see if Myriad convinces anyone at CES.

Trend: html5 as the next emerging standard.
Comment: another nail in the coffin, now if you could only get canned apps we'd be all set. (p.s. I also want my mixed tape back, the one I made you. You know the one I mean.)
Title: BBC moves towards HTML5 for websites, tells Flash it'll still be friends
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/22/bbc-moves-towards-html5-for-websites-tells-flash-itll-still-be/

BBC moves towards HTML5 for websites, tells Flash it'll still be friends
By Chris Barylick posted Dec 22nd 2011 2:21AM

Even the British occasionally have to change with the times. Following a study stating that 80 percent of all web video is now compatible with HTML5, the BBC has formally adopted the standard for videos on the desktop and mobile versions of its website. The full roll-out across BBC.com follows a pilot program in which the broadcaster tested HTML5 on the Health section of the site. According to Electronista, the BBC has been working with HTML5 delivery systems throughout 2011 to build its iPlayer apps for the iOS. In other news, the BBC has just texted Flash and said it's totally open to staying friends and meeting up for coffee sometime.

Trend: mobile
Comment: ok, ok, I”ll shut off my cellphone..jeeeez. Whats hilarious besides it being baldwin, is that its a word puzzle game that got him in trouble.
Title: Nonsense and Paranoia at 35,000 Feet: Why Are Electronics Still Banned on Flights?
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/alec-baldwin-syndrome-electronics-banned-flights/story?id=15214006


Nonsense and Paranoia at 35,000 Feet: Why Are Electronics Still Banned on Flights?
By JOHN NANCE, ABC News Aviation Consultant
Dec. 22, 2011—
go.com
There you sit on a modern jetliner with a million things to do, your laptop, Kindle, smartphone and iPad at the ready, and in an act of massive hostility to the ethos of American productivity, the flight crew orders you to shut everything down for takeoff or landing.

Is this irritating inconvenience really necessary?

As far as obeying the instructions of your flight crew, the answer is YES.

As far as having any basis whatsoever in fact or science (that the electronic signals from all your equipment might interfere with anything on the aircraft's systems), the answer is a resounding NO.

Confused? So is the FAA, which has essentially refused to undertake the appropriate research on this issue since cell phones popped up in the mid-80's.

Back then, when handheld cell phones were as big as a brick and put out a whopping five watts of analog power, the FAA turned to the Federal Communications Commission and asked whether such devices were safe. "Does it look like we have wings?" was the unofficial response of one FCC staffer at the time -- an individual who helped draft the letter back to FAA pointing out none too delicately that things that flew were the FAA's responsibility, not the FCC's.

The FAA disagreed, of course, and after more than a quarter century, both federal agencies are still in a standoff with neither willing to put forth the funds and the time to determine once and for all whether passenger electronics have any scientifically-proven potential of disrupting an airliner's equipment to the degree of compromising safety.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. In the absence of the government answering the question -- and with personal electronics proliferating -- the airline industry threw up their collective hands in collective disgust and decided they were honor-bound to take the most conservative course of action: If personal electronics weren't certified safe, they wouldn't be allowed on during the most critical portions of flight, which are takeoff and landing (when accuracy of cockpit instruments is critical).

Meanwhile, the FAA -- still sidestepping the responsibility of doing the appropriate research -- recognized that the numbers and types of personal electronics were accelerating so significantly that if they undertook the task to individually certify each type, the agency would be doing little else. Worse, if they ever got it wrong and something bad happened, there would be hell to pay in public and Congressional criticism (federal agencies are, at heart, paranoically risk-averse).

So the FAA consecrated in regulations what the airlines had already done and walked away from the issue. Meanwhile, totally unconfirmed anecdotal reports from pilots, incomplete or totally inconclusive university studies, and other attempts to bring clarity to the issue have failed utterly to prove that there either is or is not a threat. In fact, despite thousands of pages written on the subject, there has never been a single U.S. incident of interference investigated and scientifically confirmed beyond question. Not one.

On every commercial flight, every hour of every day, there is at least one cell phone still on during takeoff and landing. People forget, they refuse or they just don't know how to turn the things off. How do we know? The devices ring!

There are 32,000 commercial flights per day over the U.S. alone. That means we test the hypothesis that personal electronics can interfere with aircraft systems 32,000 times per day just over the U.S., and yet we have not a single, solitary confirmed instance.

But here's the outrageous part: If there was even a slight chance that personal electronics could be dangerous -- and knowing that people don't turn all of them off in flight -- why would any sane regulator or airline allow even one device aboard with the battery attached?

Trend: changing media content distribution models
Comment: interesting that something we thought of as an afterthought is becoming a core driver. Who remembers VCR's being marketed as something that allowed you the luxury of watching your programs when you wanted? :)
Title: Top Trends of 2011: Content Shifting
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_trends_of_2011_content_shifting.php



Top Trends of 2011: Content Shifting
We wind down the top trends of 2011 with one that's perfect for the holidays. Just as the frantic, real-time nature of the social Web hit fever pitch, the market trends this year made way for "content shifting." It's the simple idea of saving your articles, videos and podcasts for later.

With the rise of the smartphone and tablet, all kinds of content can be saved until after work or school. Content shifting helps us concentrate on the tasks at hand. It also reformats it for more enjoyable experiences. Now that the Web is no longer limited to our desks, content shifting allows new media to take their rightful place on the couch.



The Rise of Leisure Devices

Podcasting has been the content-shifted future of radio since the early days of the iPod. But its growth was limited by the barriers of regularly syncing via USB. The era of the smartphone and tablet has freed users from that constraint.

The tablet in particular has made leisure reading and viewing of Web content a reality. Sales of the iPad have smashed expectations. Amazon's Kindle Fire, which is specialized for leisure content, has found mass appeal as well.

We've seen some great studies from Google and BBC.com this year showing that consumers love the tactile, personal tablet experience. They use tablets as leisure devices, allowing them to separate the fun stuff from the work stuff they do on their PCs.



Apple & Amazon's End-to-End Content

The big end-to-end consumer tech companies have tried to keep this all under their umbrellas. With iOS 5, Lion and iCloud, Apple proposes a vision of content shifting that happens unconsciously. Music, videos, documents and bookmarks are all just there when users look for them, no matter which device they're on.

Apple added a feature called Reading List to its Safari browser, which lets users create temporary bookmarks for Web articles. It also expanded Safari's Reader mode to the mobile versions. Safari Reader pops up a clean version of an article, without navigation or ads, to make reading on the Web more sane. The combination of Reading List and Reader mode makes for a basic but pleasant content-shifted reading experience.

None of it works perfectly, of course, but Apple would like it to.

iPad Is A Product, Kindle Is A Service

For Apple, content is more like a feature. Apple's in the device business, and it offers content to support users of its devices. The iPhone, the iPad, the iPod and the Mac are the products. Amazon does things the other way around. Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet rounds out its line of inexpensive, less powerful devices that give users access to Kindle content, which is where Amazon makes its money.

Kindle is a service, not a product. The devices are just windows into Amazon's store of content, which is streamed or whisper-synced down to them. Amazon uses its powerful cloud to keep the latest content on each Kindle device, and even on iOS and Android devices running the Kindle app. For Kindle books and magazines, content shifting is as simple as syncing your page number.



Content Shifting In the Consumer Cloud

There's still plenty of room for content shifting solutions from Web companies that aren't tied to particular platforms.

Evernote, a company working on many different problems in the consumer cloud, has built Clearly, an article-saving service. It's a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that creates a cleaned-up article view, similar to Safari Reader mode, but it also allows saving of the clean version to one's Evernote account with one click. The article can then be read later via the Evernote app on a tablet or smartphone, as well as on the desktop.



Instapaper has an established presence in the iTunes App Store as a dedicated read-later service. Using a browser bookmarklet or connecting to the many RSS readers and Twitter clients that allow fast link saving to Instapaper, readers can save clean versions of Web articles they want to read with just one click.

When you launch the Instapaper app, it caches the articles, so you can even read offline. This is a solution to the attention problems posed by the real-time Web. If you see an article you want to read, you don't have to be distracted. Just send to Instapaper and get back to work. Check out our interview with Instapaper creator Marco Arment for his perspective on how content shifting is changing reading.

There's also Read It Later, an Instapaper competitor that's going for cross-platform presence rather than focus on two devices. Its creator used Read It Later data to publish a fascinating blog post at the beginning of the year demonstrating the content shifting trend. It compared desktop, smartphone and tablet users' reading habits, and the iPad users are clearly shifting their content to the evening, with a little bit of reading over breakfast.



Content shifting of articles is happening, and it's getting started with Web-based video, too. The Internet TV service Boxee offers an iPad app and bookmarklet that allows saving of Web videos for later, whether on your TV or your iPad (if you've got the gadgets). It takes a bit of work to get it going, but Richard MacManus wrote a how-to guide for content-shifting video with Boxee.

Some of the sharpest minds in the industry are thinking about content shifting, and we had some great interviews about it from this year. Tech investor extraordinaire Fred Wilson talked about content shifting at our 2Way Summit this year. We discussed the iPad and the future of reading with Instapaper's Marco Arment. And we talked to Jori Lallo, creator of a link-saving service called Kippt, about the practice of saving Web links on your digital bookshelf.

Trend: mobile OS wars
Comment: hmmm. But I play angry birds on both...
Title: iPhone is for games; Android is for other apps
http://gigaom.com/2011/12/22/iphone-is-for-games-android-is-for-other-apps/


iPhone is for games; Android is for other apps
By Ryan Kim Dec. 22, 2011, 11:00am PT 11 Comments

IPhone and Android phones are two different platforms, and app search firm Xyologic is bringing that point home again with an analysis of the top apps on both platforms. Xyologic found that of the top 150 apps downloaded on each platform in 2011, 85 of the 150 on Android leaned toward non-gaming apps, while 100 of the top 150 apps on the iPhone were games.

Non-gaming apps on Android generated 91.5 million downloads in November compared to 33.4 million for games. Meanwhile on the iPhone, games in November generated 71.6 million downloads while other apps received 25.6 million downloads.

Android was actually even more tilted in favor of apps in 2010, with 116 of the top 150 apps being non-games. The iPhone used to be more balanced with 79 of the top apps being games compared to 71 percent for non-gaming apps.

Now, all but one of the top downloaded publishers on iPhone are gamemakers except for Instagram maker Burbn. On Android, the top 25 developers on Android were a mix of gaming and non-gaming publishers with Google at the head of the class. Google only had two apps on Android Market in 2010, Google Maps and Google Sky, but now the company has many more available on Android.

Here’s the list of the top 25 downloaded publishers on Android in 2011 according to Xyologic:
Google, Facebook, Rovio, Adobe, DroidHen Casual, Outfit7, Magma Mobile, Glu Mobile, Go Dev Team, Kittehface Software, Skype, Notes, Nikolay Ananiev, Swiss Codemonkeys, NHN Corporation, Yahoo, Handcent, Pandora, Al Factory Limited, Kaufcom Games Apps Widgets, Verizon Wireless, Runnergames, Backflip Studios, Polarbit.

And here’s the list of the top 25 downloaded publishers on the iPhone in 2011:

Glu Mobile, Gameloft, Big Fish Games, Rovio, Capcom, Chilingo Storm8/(TeamLava), Outfit7, Electronic Arts/Electronic Arts BV, Gamevil, Halfbrick Studios, DeNa/(Backflip Studios/Ngmoco), Zynga/Newtoy, NaturalMotion, Pocket Gem/(Streetview Labs), Tencent, NimbleBit, PopCap, Playforge, Clickgamer, Com2uS, Burbn, Orangenose Studios.

This might not be news to some developers, who are aware of the relative strengths of each platform. But it’s interesting to again see how each platform differs, where the trends are going and where the opportunities lie. The iPhone is really becoming a powerful gaming device, but Android is more of a broad provider of utilities and services.

Trend: mobile OS wars
Comment: seriously.. Does anybody want to lease qnx.. We got like 10 apps..
Title: RIM purportedly shopped by Microsoft and Nokia, talked with Samsung / HTC about licensing
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/20/rim-purportedly-shopped-by-microsoft-and-nokia-talked-with-sams/

Trend: mobile OS wars
Comment: approaching tipping point. Keep your eyes on the market. It will be android, iphone, and everyone else.
Title: Android: Could 700,000 Daily Activations Be Just the Start?
http://allthingsd.com/20111221/android-could-700000-daily-activations-be-just-the-start/

Trend: energy
Comment: extremely cool. All those hoarders of newspapers are sitting on a kilowatts!!
Title: Sony's bio battery turns waste paper into electricity
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16288107

21 December 2011 Last updated at 11:42 ET
Sony's bio battery turns waste paper into electricity



Sony has unveiled a paper-powered battery prototype in Japan.
The technology generates electricity by turning shredded paper into sugar which in turn is used as fuel.
If brought to market, the innovation could allow the public to top up the power of their mobile devices using waste material.
The team behind the project said such bio-batteries are environmentally friendly as they did not use harmful chemicals or metals.
The Japanese electronics giant showed off its invention at the Eco-Products exhibition in Tokyo last week.
Employees invited children to drop piece of paper and cardboard into a liquid made up of water and enzymes, and then to shake it. The equipment was connected to a small fan which began spinning a few minutes later.
Learning from nature
The process works by using the enzyme cellulase to decompose the materials into glucose sugar. These were then combined with oxygen and further enzymes which turned the material into electrons and hydrogen ions.
The electrons were used by the battery to generate electricity. Water and the acid gluconolactone, which is commonly used in cosmetics, were created as by-products.
Researchers involved in the project likened the mechanism to the one used by white ants and termites to digest wood and turn it into energy.
Their work builds on a previous project in which they used fruit juice to power a Walkman music player.
"Using a 'fuel' as simple as old greetings cards - the sort of cards that millions of us will be receiving this Christmas - the bio battery can deliver enough energy to power a small fan," said Yuichi Tokita, senior researcher at Sony's Advanced Material Research Lab.
"Of course, this is still at the very early stages of its development, but when you imagine the possibilities that this technology could deliver, it becomes very exciting indeed."
Eco-friendly
While the battery is already powerful enough to run basic music players, it is still falls far short of commercially sold batteries.
The environmental campaign group Greenpeace welcomed the development.
"The issue that we always have with battery technology is the toxic chemicals that go into making them and recycling batteries is also complicated," John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK told the BBC.
"Any way to provide a greener technology could be a potential magic bullet. So from that point of view this is interesting, and I think it's fantastic that companies like Sony are looking to make the generation of energy more environmentally friendly."
Sony's engineers are not the only ones exploring the concept of paper-based batteries.
In 2009 a team of Stanford University scientists revealed they were working on a battery created by coating sheets of paper with ink made of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires. They said their work might ultimately lead to a device capable of lasting through 40,000 charge-discharge cycles.

Trend: mobile
Comment: look at the "use the Internet" numbers vs the "send texts".. Fascinating
Title: 75% of Worldwide Cellphone Users Send Text Messages
http://mashable.com/2011/12/21/global-mobile-paterns/


75% of Worldwide Cellphone Users Send Text Messages
Mobile phones are universally popular — and so is text messaging. Cellphone users in 21 countries were surveyed on their mobile habits and 75% replied they send text messages.

A Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project study, published Tuesday, examined worldwide use of digital communication tools such as mobile and social networks. Not surprisingly, the research found the young and well-educated are the most likely to adopt new technologies. Those under 30 who hold college degrees are most likely to use many mobile functions and social networks.

Only one-half of the respondents send photos or videos, and just 23% use the Internet.



While these behaviors may be assumed most popular in wealthy countries, texting is most popular in Kenya and Indonesia, the two poorest nations included in the study. Sending photos or videos is most popular in Japan (72% reported the behavior), followed by Mexico (61%), Spain (59%) and Egypt (58%). Using mobile data still seems to be a behavior of wealthier countries, most popular in Israel (47%), Japan (47%) and the U.S. (43%). You can see the complete results in the table below.


The study also looked at the popularity of social networking, which corresponds with wealthy nations where Internet access is more common. Social networking is most popular in Israel (53%) and the U.S. (50%), trailed slightly by Britain (43%), Russia (43%) and Spain (42%). However, Internet users in poorer nations use social networks at equal if not higher rates than those in richer countries.



The study, conducted between March 21 and May 15, surveyed between 700 and 4,029 mobile users per country by telephone or in person in the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, China, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Mexico and Kenya.

Do you text, send photos and videos, or use the Internet from your mobile phone? Do your behaviors reflect those of your country?

Trend: tablet OS wars
Comment: who’d a thunk it.. its not just content, its ad sales too.
Title: Kindle Fire On Track For Hundreds Of Millions Of Monthly Ad Impressions; Growing Faster Than The iPad In Early 2010
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/20/kindle-fire-on-track-for-hundreds-of-millions-of-monthly-ad-impressions-growing-faster-than-the-ipad-in-early-2010/

Trend: changing media content distribution models
Comment: now if only we could get it here with a canadian IP address.. sigh.
Title: Finally! HBO Go will be available pretty much everywhere
http://gigaom.com/video/hbo-go-time-warner-cable-cablevision/

Trend: html5 as the next emerging standard
Comment: apparently there was also a codec war going on. :) For those of you following this for a while.. the fact that flash to h.264 conversion utility hit sourceforge should be enough for you.
Title: 4 out of 5 videos are encoded in H.264
http://gigaom.com/video/h264-80-percent-of-videos/

Trend: Tablet wars
Comment: its fascinating that its not just about content, its about ad sales.
Title: Kindle Fire On Track For Hundreds Of Millions Of Monthly Ad Impressions; Growing Faster Than The iPad In Early 2010
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/20/kindle-fire-on-track-for-hundreds-of-millions-of-monthly-ad-impressions-growing-faster-than-the-ipad-in-early-2010/

Trend: mobile OS wars
Comment: money money money money, money
Title: Distimo’s Year-End Report Shows Why Developers Love iOS: iPhone 4x Android Revenue, iPad 2x
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/20/distimos-year-end-report-shows-why-developers-love-ios-iphone-4x-android-revenue-ipad-2x/

Trend: mobile
Comment: yet another lovely infographic. Have I said lately how much I love them?
Title: A visual history of mobiles: Past, present and future
http://gigaom.com/mobile/a-visual-history-of-mobiles-past-present-and-future/

Trend: social
Comment: and another infographic. Love it..
Title: How to Influence Purchasing Decisions On The Web
http://mashable.com/2011/12/18/social-consumers-infographic/

Trend: energy
Comment: a chicken in every pot, a solar panel on every roof.
Title: Scientists create first solar cell with over 100 percent quantum efficiency
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/19/scientists-create-first-solar-cell-with-over-100-percent-quantum/


Trend: the rise of the human interface
Comment: kinect, and touch, and smart everything. Could this be the death of fights over the tv remote?
Title: Touchless smartphones and TVs could be on sale in 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15970019

Trend: innovation
Comment: something we all struggle with, a good idea is not enough..commercialization and knowing how to explain the true opportunity... While maddening, is vital
Title: The Perils Of Creating Companies That Matter
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678993/the-perils-of-entrepreneurship-that-matters

Trend: tablet wars
Comment: there is a joke here about playing playing angry birds.. interesting article. I'm wondering if they are also bound by the “no electonic devices” during takeoff and landing rule.. :)
Title: American Airlines First To Be Granted FAA Approval For Pilot iPads
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/13/american-airlines-first-to-be-granted-faa-approval-for-pilot-ipads/

Trend: Trend Mobile computing economy
Comment: NFC in everything.
Title: Intel gets serious about NFC, signs deal for chip technology
http://gigaom.com/2011/12/14/intel-gets-serious-about-nfc-signs-deal-for-chip-technology/

Trend: mobile OS wars
Comment: a good little article. I don't agree with it all, but there is something to be said for the perils of resting on your laurels.
Title: How Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android Left BlackBerry in the Dust
http://moneyland.time.com/2011/12/15/how-apples-iphone-and-googles-android-left-blackberry-in-the-dust/

Trend: Changing nature of work
Comment: I remember “co-ops” being a big deal in university. At the time a number of us pooh-poohed it as too hands on. My BA preparing me for an early career waiting tables. :)
Title: German apprenticeships: A model for Europe?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16159943

Trend: social
Comment: a single unified api for all social websites? Thats crazy talk.
Title: One API for the Web, Oh the Possibilities
http://blog.programmableweb.com/2011/12/14/one-api-for-the-web-oh-the-possibilities/

Trend: the changing nature of work
Comment: good ideas hold up.
Title: Work Smart: Strive For Creative Meritocracy
http://www.fastcompany.com/1799666/work-smart-strive-for-creative-meritocracy


Trend: mobile
Comment: I learned 2 new words.. mobile-pickpocketing and malvertising.
Title: 6 Mobile Malware Trends For 2012
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/6_mobile_malware_predictions_for_2012.php


Trend: innovation
Title: Are You Ready for the 21st Century ? on Vimeo
Comment: ok, so technically not innovation, I struggled how to categorize this one. Its very good, and talks about our time in light of a larger timeline, and attempts to predict the future, which is really what I try to do daily. Regardless, watch it. There is some lovely stuff on the future.. Based on the past and what we see happening now. Very interesting both the content and the delivery
http://vimeo.com/8622635

Trend: the rise of the human interface
Comment: there are no new ideas :)
Title: New Apple Patent Describes Kinect-Style Control System | TechCrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/08/new-apple-patent-describes-kinect-style-control-system/


Trend: energy
Comment: Lets hope that the reactors don't need rebooting once a month. :)
Title: Bill Gates's Nuke Startup Flirting With More Than Just China
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2011/12/10/bill-gatess-nuke-startup-flirting-with-more-than-just-china/

Trend: social
Comment: a twitter sparked run on the bank?
Title: Latvian bank run sparked by Twitter rumors
http://gigaom.com/2011/12/12/latvian-bank-run-sparked-by-twitter-rumors/

Trend: mobile OS wars
Comment: may be some life in that old girl yet. We'll see.
Title: HP WebOS Mobile Operating System Going Open Source
http://www.forbes.com/sites/siliconangle/2011/12/09/breaking-news-hp-webos-mobile-operating-system-going-open-source/

Trend: mobile OS wars
Comment: 10 billion...throw me a bone here people.. Hello, hello?
Title: Google’s 10 Billion Android App Downloads: By the Numbers
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/10-billion-apps-detailed/

Trend: energy
Comment: ok, i've been watching solar since the 80's. The fact that buffet has piled on rings a bell. We're just past the “early adopters” part of the curve I think.
Title: Buffett Buys Big Solar Farm
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2011/12/07/buffet-buys-big-solar-farm/

Trend: energy
Comment: and crocodiles
Title: Gainesville, Florida: An Unlikely World Capital Of Solar Power
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678949/gainesville-florida-an-unlikely-world-capital-of-solar-power