My friend Mark has a really interesting blog post about how your iPhone (or other handheld) is quickly becoming the remote control to your life. He doesn't say it exactly that way, but what he said sparked this idea in me, which I think is a really interesting one. Ubiquitous computing, it's often called. We used to dream of this and do funky demos of imagined software that could, for instance, automatically add milk to the shopping list when the last of the milk is taken out of the refrigerator (or when the last swig is left swirling at the bottom. That's got to be user-configurable, right?)
That was 13 years ago. Where are we today? In many ways we're way beyond that. Back then everyone was just starting to carry cell phones, they were just becoming portable instead of those monstrous luggable ones. But I still don't have a computer on my refrigerator. Of course there are and have been some models, but let's be honest, I don't want to replace a $2500 appliance just so I can make sure I have milk in the fridge when I want it. Come to think of it, I don't get milk from the grocery store anyway - it's delivered from the local dairy that doesn't do GMOs and antibiotics and growth hormones and stuff. And when I want to change my order, I call the helpfully memorable number (1-888-Milk-to-u) and ask the nice person on the phone to change my order. They can make a permanent change to my standing every 2-weeks order, or they can make a one-time change (helpful when pies are on sale...)
But enough about my positive customer-service digression, point is - I think that maybe back in the 90s we were thinking about it wrong. We were thinking about inserting all these devices *into* existing appliances. Instead, it looks to me like the technology horizon is an augmentation one. Add Apple TV to the home network. Use your iPhone in new ways through apps (iPhone developers - here's an idea: use the input from the camera to scan bar codes...or even just photograph and search peapod's database. Actually, peapod take note - you could make me a customer just by giving me that cool feature. I've wanted to be a peapod customer for a long time but somehow haven't managed to yet...) Augment your home technology system instead of replacing non-wired devices. Add wifi speakers. Sure, when things crap out, replace them, but otherwise our portable devices are going to open up more opportunities for us than I think anyone was dreaming about back in the 90s.
