Touch the Network

Apple rolls out the new iPod. Watch the guided tour.

One feature / partnership jumped out at me. Apple has partnered with Starbucks and will begin piloting a system that includes the ability to preview and purchase the last 10 songs played at the Starbucks you are sitting in. This is just the start of the kind of wireless interaction we will be having with our physical environments.

GPS technology, combined with your camera phone, will allow you to take a picture of the bar code on a product and find the lowest price on the item in a 5 mile radius.

Your future wireless device will always be on (like your cell phone today) so the network will reach out to you. Retailers will send coupons to your cell phone as you pass their store front. News sources and other services will send video, text and audio filtered using your preferences - some preferences that you declare, others that software agents in the network have learned about you. And the network will know if you are home or away, sending the media to your computer, your television, or to your mobile wireless unit.

I'm optimistic, and excited to use and create some of these services. However, in the interest of equal time, I point you to the ACLU who created a really cool simulation to caution us about a possible dark future of ubiquitous connectivity.

Finally, back on the topic of touching your technology, check out this series of very inpiring touch interface experiments.