Skype is a powerful tool because it’s found its way into the hands of people who need it most — ordinary folk. Now it and the companies that make devices to use Skype on need to understand that it’s not about telephony anymore, if it ever was. It’s about two or more people sharing each… Read More »
Is it a design fault, or is there some malice afoot in the Bollards War? The UK city of Manchester has introduced something called ‘retractable bollards’ (non UK folk may call them posts) that sink into the ground when an approved vehicle approaches. (Sensors trigger the bollard’s retraction.) Great idea, right, since it means that buses… Read More »
Are the days of the wet hand over? A few months ago I wrote in the WSJ about the Mitsubishi Jet Towel (subscription only; I did a version of the piece for the BBC World Service which you can download as a podcast here), which has been drying hands effectively around Asia for some time, now… Read More »
A new Loose Wire blog feature, collecting some links that aren’t necessarily new, but worth pointing out in case you missed them: Discussion at WSJ.com between jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and Dale Hoiberg, editor-in-chief of Britannica, on the future of encyclopedias, which quickly deteriorates into name calling. Business 2.0 piece by Om Malik on widgets:… Read More »
Another day, another new Nokia, but I think the N93 might be the shape of things to come. The clamshell swivel has several positions, but this one I think offers a way forward for all smartphones: More pix here. Perhaps other manufacturers have already adopted the manoeuver conveyed above; apologies if I missed it. But… Read More »