Monday, January 26, 2009

Palm Pre and the Instinctive Web

One of the tech blogs that I follow is jkontherun.com run by James Kendrick. It's a great blog because although he's a gadget freak, he's also a pragmatic user first and foremost. The insights on using the device in his day to day personal and professional life is unique among the popular tech blogs. 

One of last week's article stood out. I know I've gone on record to say that Palm's impact on the market will be an upward climb in light of the iPhone. I may need to revise this stance as more about the Palm comes to life. JK's stance is the Pre will deliver the 'Instinctive Web' [blog post] in a way never seen before and more along the lines of 'Minority Report.' 

The Instinctive Web knows where you are and senses (or learns) what needs to happen before it takes place. One great example JK uses is if you are going to a meeting at 4pm, the Pre senses it is on your calendar and gathers all the relevant information automatically – wiki profiles, sales data, relevant contracts, etc. If you are late for a meeting, your phone's GPS estimates how far away you are, projects your ETA, and alerts the party you are meeting. 

How Palm is able to do this I am not sure but I imagine the rules behind it are relatively simple. If they are able to pull it off, it will revolutionize task management/GTD. 

I also wonder how Apple will answer this. One obstacle is Steve Jobs is a privacy freak. He added 'Private Browsing' to Safari early in the browser's history, putting a mainstream face on something that people added on after the fact. In the introduction to the iPhone 3G, he made sure to not that GPS is off unless switched on by users and it is done on a case-by-case basis. I actually appreciate not being tracked every minute, at least by GPS. 

Would I be willing to accept surveillance if the benefit is productivity nirvana? I imagine I will but I'm not entirely happy about it. 

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