June 25, 2004
"A Remote Control For Your Life"
The plan will go into gear this summer, when DoCoMo introduces a new and radically more versatile type of phone. Like a regular cell phone, it will make and receive telephone calls. Like a regular i-mode device, it will let you send and receive e-mail, play online games, and access any one of the 78,000 i-mode-compatible websites around the world. And like other DoCoMo phones, it will take photographs, read bar codes, and play downloaded music over headphones or tiny but surprisingly good speakers. But it will also contain a special chip made by Sony that lets it pay for groceries, serve as personal identification, unlock doors, operate appliances, buy movie and subway tickets, and perform dozens of other tasks.
A Remote Control For Your Life
PDF of the article here.
Posted by sfisher at June 25, 2004 09:53 AMComments
YESSS!!!! That's what I think phones should be doing all over the world, right this minute. Can't see that article link though, have to be a subscriber... :(
Posted by: Mike at June 25, 2004 04:10 PM
Sure sounds good, but my concerns would be security.
"The flip side of DoCoMo’s control is that the company also controls the records of users’ behavior—not only what phone calls they make, but what e-mails they send, where they go (subway fares), what they buy (FeliCa purchases), and a host of other things. If the phones are successful, the personal information compiled by DoCoMo will grow to volumes guaranteed to alarm civil libertarians."
Having a device, like an augmented wallet, would be great but that it can send and read transmissions is a little scary. Allowing tech theives to raid valuable data from my life doesn't sound thrilling!
On the other hand Natsuno says “By having the phone with you, you shouldn’t need anything else but your clothes.” This would be ideal. A secure system for identification, multimedia recording (logging) , entertainment, and commerce which uses ubiquitous computing to connect you to your customized world could be incredible, given a certain level of security.
p.s. subscribe, it's worth it!
Posted by: SEDinehart at June 26, 2004 12:31 PM
Thanks Scott. Great article!
Posted by: Mike at June 28, 2004 12:58 PM
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