Realtà Aumentata – Augmented Reality from soryn on Vimeo.

One of our distinct human characteristics is how organized our species has become (or at least we try to be).

Let’s shelf the natural movements of the atoms and molecules that make up our being, because when it comes to people – and our “stuff“, we like to name it, sort it, categorize it and make it easy to locate.

We organize our cultural stuff too – from words, books and knowledge – we’ve watched this information collect around the world on the Internet.

Google turned eleven years old last week and since the dawn of the Net they have built an unprecedented Internet resource that sorts information by words.

From the Dewey Decimal system to keyword searches, we’re still using letters to organize our data. We enter a word into a box and presto – we all have the history of our planet at our finger tips.

There’s a new idea surfacing on the horizon called “Augmented Reality” (AR) that blends GPS technology, smart phones, mobile software and all the information on the Internet. Instead of sorting by text, AR augments this data by location – bringing about new technologies both novel and mind-boggling.

Wikipedia defines augmented reality as “a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with-, or augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality.”

Augmented Reality has been emerging for several years now, but it’s really starting to gain traction now on smart phones.

Basically, you use your mobile device or web cam to enhance (or add to) a real-world experience. Sounds very science fiction. It’s becoming very real.

The idea evolved from main frames, the desktop, laptop and now the little computers we carry in our pocket that shoot video, photos, collects email, plays thousands of songs and maps information or weather wherever we stand. It just so happens this device also makes telephone calls. The funny thing is that we still call it a “phone?”

At present, the smart-phone market share, according to Nielsen is approaching a 20% consumption rate in the United States. Italy has the highest rate of usage with numbers approaching 30% of the population.

As wireless services have improved, one of the latest introductions on our phones is GPS technology. Add a digital camera and now you have a computer that can present an image anywhere on the planet, know where it’s located and associate information related to that image in a handheld screen.

If your phone knows where it’s located and can orient itself and determine whether it’s tilted left, right, upside down or 23% – then it can position itself and relate to data in the same way.

Imagine for a moment you’re visiting a metropolitan city and you are trying to the find a subway.

With AR, you can look through your smart phone’s camera at the street scene in front of you with people and cars buzzing around you in real-time. As you move the camera around, little graphics appear within the screen and point your way to the subway – or for that matter, a pizza parlor.

For a history buff, you could visit the American landscape in Boston and hold your smart phone up on the street corner and watch a Wikipedia icon pop-up on the screen and click the link to read about the historical site that stands in front of you.

Wikitude is ready to roll out this free app right now on your Iphone.

By adding the GPS coordinates into the mix and the smart-phone’s ability to know it’s orientation. You can stand in a spot, the phone calculates your latitude and longitude and matches that to other information around you that match the two points on the planet.

How about a game? Pacman could take on a whole new level if you could play it in a park.

The graphics are still a bit crude and who wants to look at world with virtual billboards and cheesy avatars. After all, if you remember Second Life, this idea of a virtual world is nothing new. One of my favorite early presentations about Augmented Reality is from 2004.

What intrigues me though is the idea that all of a sudden, information has a new indexing method.

A lot of people enjoy Google Maps and the ability to zoom into locations all across the planet. Sprinkle that idea with a little Augmented Reality and you can walk streets and see all kinds of information and for the most part – experience a virtual world.

Let’s fast forward into the future a bit and bring this closer to home.

We’re walking on Broad Street in Downtown Kingsport. The handheld Iphone has given way to a pair of sunglasses or contact lens. As we explore the streets, we see pictures that were taken over the past twenty years of people, places, businesses, videos, news stories, sound files all mapped to where we stand.

If you’re looking to stay slightly ahead of the digital marketing curve, Augmented Reality could well be “what’s next” and a huge skip past virtual worlds.

The early apps are looking for marketing solutions and I bet the gaming world is taking note of this tech too, but there are some apps that might be extremely useful and invasive by the same measure.

How about a reality app that let’s you walk into a room and see business cards floating over the attendees?

Perhaps an app for the single guy walking into a nightclub and seeing the status of who’s single or married?

There are already ideas forming about how to us AR and Twitter like this new proposed app by TwitAround.

What if the AR app could track negative comments about businesses or for that matter track criminals in a way that even the idea of looking down a street would expose volumes of information about the place or people that surround you?

Sounds a bit too much I know, but keep in mind the ways technology could augment our world and keep us safe.

It’s a crazy place and if you don’t believe me, turn on the news. Last week Al-Queda terrorists are adopting drum smuggling tactics and embedding bombs inside human bodies. Airport security will either have to go to strip searches or develop some new tech that helps keep us safe and even though I admit that it’s all moving too fast – I still like to see us keep an edge over those who seek to do harm.

Besides, we all are watching as the world suffers from a inflating attention deficit disorder.

Daniel Sanchez-Crespo, a project leader at the Barcelona firm, Novarama, had this to say about Augmented Reality – “The real world is too boring for many people. By making the real world a playground for the virtual world, we can make the real world much more interesting”.

Just between friends – the older I get, the more I embrace the heart of a Luddite. I miss the old days of three channels of television and plenty of free time. I’ll admit that since the introduction of the Net, I find myself chained to a screen either on a desktop, my lap or in my pocket.

It’s hard to ignore though. Like many of you, I love new toys. Augmented Reality has some remarkable possibilities and although it probably will not help us get any closer to the true meaning of life, it’s certainly going to make it more entertaining.

AR has been called “the opportunity that’s going to blow the lid off everything,” as Denise Gershbein of frog design put it at Mobilize 09, adding, “That’s the moment when you stop looking down at a device and hold the lens up to the world.”

I’m sure that some people will think that we’re going to far shaping our realities, but TV and video games have been doing that for years and Augmented Reality could be the natural evolution of our species – merging the machines with the humans, but that’s another sci-fi flick altogether.

It’s been a long time since my computer broke down and my absence online has been gut-wrenching. Seems like everything around me is breaking down too – must be something in the air.

My Mac server has been spinning its little hard discs now for a couple of years at this domain name. From spam attacks, lightning and regular power outages from American Electric, the little box has kept on clicking – until sometime around mid-October.

That’s when I checked my blog and saw the ugly – “page cannot be found” scenario that shows up when there’s a problem.

I called in the troops too. Danny and I replaced the hard drives, the video cards, the memory and various cables to no avail. I was worried the hard drives were burned up, but after several trips to various locations to A/B the parts to the old G4, we finally assumed it was either a power supply or a motherboard.

Now there were plenty of hours troubleshooting already and instead of diving even deeper into the technical matrix, I decided to go ahead and buy a new computer from eBay and it arrived today. Fortunately, old G4 computers sell for less than $200 and FedEx brought the box today with free shipping.

When I got home, I removed the packaged, put my old hard drives in the computer, replaced the video card and plugged everything in and shazam – here we are again and it’s good to give my fat fingers a place to pontificate, vent and act like there’s an audience – for those that wondered – it’s good to be back.

Here’s a few pics from the surgery too.

It’s worth noting though that I’m seriously considering getting out of the server business and moving to the cloud. There’s no reason for me to chase after hardware maintence anymore and the prices for managed hosting and upgrades continue to get cheaper. Besides, I’ve figured out that I can buy lifetime hosting too. After all, if I fizzle out this week due to some brain hemorage, it would be nice to know that someone kept the lights on. Details to follow…

Yesterday afternoon Ted Como sent me an email with the subject heading ‘Don’t they piss you off?” They did.

For the first time ever, I was offended by Apple. After evangelizing their products for more than 20 years now, I thought…albeit a moment, to never buy another product again.

It’s been several weeks since I got my new iPhone and Ted Como mentioned me in Times News Article. I remember the day he called to read his critique of the new cell phone from Apple hyped around the world. I had a hard time listening to his criticism as his laughter gurgled on the phone, but when he finished, I paused and told him…”I’ll let you hold it.”

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Ted was fascinated by the screen and the user interface. That didn’t change his mind – his article still published with a good dose of scrutiny and mild sarcasm, but Ted missed the point. He argues in his column that he already has a cell phone, a camera, an Internet connection, an Mp3 player and a television. What he didn’t connect with was that way Apple has created a device that includes so many things in your pocket and every thing works…as advertised.

My first weekend with the new iPhone was a bit frustrating, but now that the dust has settled, I’m enjoying the heck out of this latest device from Apple that is certainly going to disrupt the cell phone marketplace. There’s finally a single device that handles telephone calls, music, videos, contacts, notes and surfs the Internet with ease and the darn thing is cool.

After waiting in the summer heat outside the AT&T store last Friday, wrestling with the activation troubles over the weekend and losing all cellphone connections for three days, my iPhone finally came to life on Sunday and it’s truly a device of outstanding technological acheivement.

Across the country, loyal Apple users are still waiting to use their new iphones, despite the fact some of them waited for hours in long lines just to get their hands on the most anticipated new phone on the market.

Sure, we expect glitches, but not like this one. Evidently someone bungled the activation process and a lot of people who bought phones Friday simply can’t use them while waiting for ATT to activate their accounts. Sure, patience is a virtue, but the geeks that bought these phones had no idea they would have to wait to use them, otherwise they would have waited themselves.

I’ve run into the same problem as hundreds of people here on Apples support forums.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1016349&tstart=0

Evidently, there is a glitch in the activation process and I’m curious if Apple will ignore this issue like ATT and simply sweep it under the table. I’d love to think they would recognize their errors, but so far, nothing but heated banner and frustrated customers. Maybe this will work its way out tomorrow.

Allright. I fall into a couple of categories now. Some would say stupid while others might say early-adopter. I already know I’m an obsessed Apple fanatic since 1987, but I still don’t have Steve Jobs tattoed on my forearm…yet.

Earlier today, I stood in the heat of the summer sun to be one of the first in line to pick up a new Apple iphone. Unlike some of the others, I wasn’t in line to make a few bucks on eBay, but I had to have one of these phones and after all the hype – couldn’t stand to go through the weekend without the newest phenomonen from Apple.

All AT&T stores closed at 4.30 today, reopening at six to begin sales of the new iphone. At lunch, there were four people in line at the North Eastman Road store in Kingsport and by 6, there were about 15 people standing outside. Here’s a side note for AT&T – you guys blew it today on customer service! Your people were nice, but considering the sweltering 90 degree heat and the fact you had people lined up at your door to buy the most expensive phone on the block – you could have at least let us wait inside and offered cold water to your new customers. Things like this go a long way for customer loyalty.

Nevertheless, when I arrived, my friend Jeff Rainey was in line. He was number 14. I arrived a few minutes before six and Erica Yoong from the Times-News was on the scene taking photos of the small crowd outside. The guys that were first in line (from lunch) kept talking about how they were headed home to put the device on eBay and I didn’t have the heart to tell them about my fascination with owning the new phone.

I waited for about 40 minutes before getting into the store and once inside someone just asked me…”what size?” In a moment, there was a little box coming up from the back storeroom and the 8gb iphone box was neatly packed in the snazzy Apple box that resembles the iPod packaging. Their AT&T rep scoured over my drivers license, set up an activation code, tried to sell me accessories and extra text messaging services and in a few moments, my credit swiped was swiped again for $650 tax and all.

It didn’t take long before I had opened the box and pulled out the thinline iphone and was comparing it to my old beatup Treo. It was certainly sleek, but I couldn’t get it turned on until I got home and connected the USB connector to my computer, updated to the latest version of Itunes (which has to be used to activate the phone) and filled out the activation screens online. One additional point, noone in the store explained their was a one-time activation fee for new AT&T customers (add another $35.00 – total $690.00). Once the screens were finished – let down – I had to wait 24 hours for the activation to complete…tick, tock. I can’t stand it. Even the phones other software was unaccessible while I waited for an email to notify me of the activation.

So…I wait…the screen looks cool.

I was in Dan Strickler’s office at the Kingsport Times-News earlier this week waiting around the catacombs of IT so we could go to lunch and there it was…abandoned, dull with dust and pushed to the side like a junkyard relic. It surprised me to recognize my first personal laptop computer I used to carry around as an advertising rep for the newspaper in the mid-nineties.

Blackbird was the code name of this computer and back in 1994, Keith Wilson, publisher of the Times put this laptop in the budget for the sales department. I had been obsessed with Apple computers from my first experience in the late eighties and was thrilled to be the first one on the streets with this trendy machine. It was the very best that money could buy too. I remember Dan telling me he got the best money could buy when he turned in the order – almost $5800.00 some thirteen years ago.

The BBC recently reported that laptop computers will become the dominant form of computer by 2011. Before my new MacBook I would have thought that impossible, but after a few weeks blogging, composing, recording, surfing, editing video, recordings CDs and DVDs, there’s no reason for me to consider keeping that big old desktop around unless I just like having a big bulky screen to work on.

Several weeks ago, I bought a new laptop to replace the old titanium G4 Apple that is almost four years old. I’ve been using Apple notebooks since my first 540c several years ago. Since then my home and office are laptop museums with the 540 (it still works fine), a 5300c, a G3 and the G4. They all still boot up perfectly and other than wrestling with the slower speeds these computers are still functional.

I fretted about the issue for several weeks, because it’s usually my desire to have the top of the line, but over the holidays, I was exploring some of the new laptops at Best Buy and fell in love with the slimmed down notebooks with small screens. I like the small size, because big laptops are too bulky. They get in the way in presentations and their cases are not that practical either. That’s why I decided on the Mac Book.

There are a number of ‘must-have’ tech gadgets on the market, but lately, I’ve come to appreciate my TiVO box and service more than any other electronic box other than my computer.

Say so long to the broadcast schedule! That’s the main difference between my TV behavior today versus the BT (Before TIVO) era. My TIVO series 2 box is a great assistant for all of the programs now on cable and a couple of great new features are in the works too.

The first service is already here. I just realized this evening that I can program my TIVO box in my living room from the website at http://www.tivo.com. That’s pretty cool and from what they tell me now, TIVO will soon unroll a new service that allows me to take the recorded shows along with me on my video Ipod.

Don’t you love a product that delivers more than they promise and each month promises more new features? If you don’t have a TIVO yet….be sure to check into this device for your home entertainment system. The box is cheap, the service…yep…you’ve got fork out $12.95 per month or go ahead an pay the lifetime service @ $295, but this box is worth every bit of the luxury and I look forward to what’s next for this company now that Yahoo is getting involved.