Headworx

The progress is amazing. We have just got used to it, taking everything for granted. Even not noticing how things are really changing. Take the Google search. Most people think it has not changed at all in the recent years. Look, Apple has released iPhone 1, iPhone 2, iPhone 3, iPhone 3 GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S. And Google? The same old search page. So here is the story from just yesterday. The reality check. My son looked up a movie on our local website and we set off for the cinema. But when we approached the ticketing machine, the movie was not listed there. So we went to the human - operated ticket booth just to learn they do not play the movie. Bad luck. I checked up the website and the movie was still listed there. "There is an error in the database", I explained, and we drove to the next cinema. Same story again. It was getting late, so we decided to give up. I just could not understand how it happened. Two errors in a row? The site listing movies being played in our ...

Linear thinking tells us there is not much we can do about traffic in our crowded cities. But unsurprisingly city transport is just about to be revolutionized. And no, I do not mean flying cars or personal jetpacks. It will be revolutionized by smartphones. By the way, I do not feel comfortable calling smartphone a smartphone. Hey, what is the amount of time an iPhone user makes voice conversations versus all other activities involving the device? 10%/90%? Teleputer, the term coined by George Gilder back in 1990's is much more appropriate. A phone is no longer a phone. It is a personal, pocket, always connected computer. But back to the cities. The only way to improve traffic conditions in cities is to increase utilization of vehicles. Say good bye to private cars carrying one person each. Say good bye to taxis, carrying a single driver most of the time and a driver plus one passenger for the remaining half. OK public buses then and metro? Of course public transport is one ...

GPS needs a clear sky view to work. Every child knows that. Our navigation systems, particularly smartphones, with all these location - enabled apps do not work indoors. And while we know it, it has still been a disappointment to most. I am not even talking about Google maps guiding me through a shopping mall. I talk about even simpler things like being unable to "check in" at a conference room, a cinema or a concert hall. Or take an indoor geotagged snapshot with a GPS - equipped camera. Despite the issue being quite important, Ithought the solution had been very far away. Because there is no unified and agreed standard to equip all the buildings worldwide with some technology helping the devices calculate their position. So it was a surprise to me when at the Mobile World Congress last month I found two solutions that promise to solve the indoor location problem now. The first one was jointly presented by SiRF, CSR and ST. I mentioned Sirf here back in 2006 when it ...

The Mobile World Congress 2012 was extremely busy and fruitful for me. Over the coming weeks I will be releasing thoughts, inspirations and comments on what I saw there. So starting today is the news item #1. The Intel - powered Orange Android phone. Intel eventually getting into phones has been something rather obvious. But I was never sure how it will compare against the ARM world. And it seems we have a game changer. The Orange phone is nothing unusual. This basically is the exact "Santa Clara" Intel's reference design, just repackaged and labeled by Orange. Inside is the 32nm Medfeld chip running at 1.6GHz. But it flies. At the Intel stand I did several tests based on watching complex web pages to load, scroll, rotate. And my feeling is the Intel - powered device is 2-3 times FASTER than my Samsung Galaxy Note (which by no means is a slug, being powered by a dual core 1.4GHz A9 chip). But Intel beats it by a huge margin. And this is at 32nm geometry. So just i...