Siri is the voice assistant introduced with the iPhone 4S designed to make the user’s life easier. Through natural commands spoken into the phone, Siri jumps to provide assistance or information as required by the request. Siri isn’t able to do everything, nor to understand some requests, but the technology is imnpressive in how often it works as intended. I find myself using Siri more and more the longer I use the iPhone 4S, and have run across some useful things.

Reminders.
Siri works with the reminders in iOS5 to make sure you don’t forget to do something. These are the first thing that most iPhone 4S owners get familiar with, and the longer I use Siri the more use I get out of reminders. I use it all the time for simple things.

My wife asks me to repair an item before our guests arrive and I tell Siri to “remind me to repair the dishwasher in an hour”. Today I told Siri to “remind me to water the plants” She did, and the plants are grateful.

I am getting good at not just using Siri for timed actions like those above, but for lots of other functions. I often tell Siri to “remind me to note something I need to remember” for anything I would normally jot down on a post-it note. This is so easy to do I never forget simple things like this, now that I have a personal assistant.

Requests for Information.
Like most folks I have become dependent on web searches to get information I need. Siri has assumed a big role in my quest for information, both simple searches I used to manually type into Google and others that are less structured.

Sunday I wondered what Roger Federer’s schedule looked like for the rest of the year so I had said “Siri, show me Roger Federer’s schedule”. Siri delivered a Google serp that took me right to the schedule I needed. Lucky guess? Perhaps… Convenient? Hell yea!

These are very simple examples, but I am gradually coming to depend on Siri to get me more specific information through Apple’s integration with other services. Preceding a request with “wikipedia” instead of Siri tells Siri I want her to use that service to look for the information I am requesting. You can also preface a question with Bing or Yahoo, if you want those services to be used. Now, not a ingle day passes without at least 5 queries or Siri.

Sending text messages.
In the beginning I would tell Siri to “Send a text to person’s name” along with the line of text I wanted to send. As I used Siri, I realized she could learn how those who I text frequently are related to me. Now I simply tell Siri to “Text my wife I will be running late” and after once telling Siri which contact is my wife, Siri takes care of the rest. I’ve done the same thing with my assistant and a few of my best friends. Since getting the iPhone 4S I find I send more sms thn ever before often, due to how easy it is with Siri.

I also use Siri’s ability to send text messages to tweet occasionally. I set up Twitter to allow tweeting via SMS, and trained Siri what number that was. Now I tell Siri to “Send a text to Twitter” followed by a short tweet. Nice and simple and totally hands-free. You can also configure Google+ and Facebook to allow you to post updates using this method.

Making phone calls.
I use Siri more and more to initiate phone calls, especially in the car. It is so easy to tell Siri to “call my wife at home” and have the call initiated with no further action required from me.

The same method is good for getting contact information I need. Asking Siri “what is The address for Client X?” is a lot easier than manually finding it in the Address Book. I can even ask Siri what so-and-so’s birthday is and get the date. I’d be great if more apps like SalesForce.com were to support Siri, then such address queries would be much easier. Alas, SalesForce.com are not known for reacting quickly to such requests

Setting alarms.
I now use Siri to set alarms. This is as simple as “Wake me tomorrow at 5:30″ or “set an alarm for 6:30″. That gets the nagging iPhone alarm set to disturb me appropriately.

Scheduling.
Siri is especially good at scheduling meetings and events. “Meet with Peter today at 14:00 gets the appropriate event in my schedule. I really like the ability to ask Siri “What does my schedule look like on Friday?” and having it shown. This is where the natural language of Siri really shines.

Siri is far from perfect, but as I use it more and more I am getting better at figuring out what type of natural language commands work best. I can state confidently that I am using the iPhone 4S and Siri more than I have used any other smartphone, because I am finding more things Siri can do for me all the time. It’s also a lot of fun!

This is fabulous technology that one of our partners has come up with during the past years and now, it has reached a level of maturity where the start to finish cycle of initiation to delivery can be as tight as 3 weeks. The more desirable and considerably less stressful, planned implementation is a 5 to 6 week cycle. In order to deliver such a project, we need quite a bit of information, often local government approval and a firm commitment from each of our Clients and their sponsors but the end result is an audience gasping for breathe as they witness something 3D that defies explanation and gives fresh meaning to the phrase “you had to be there”. Today, not even Disney is doing this sort of thing but, we expect them to catch up very quickly.

Have a look for yourself,
It’s pretty amazing stuff.
Here is a collection of projects that our team Nuformer delivered.

If you are into marketing and still using the standard (and boring) business card that contains all your phone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses and mailing addresses and you hand them out willy nilly to anyone with fingers… you may want to do something a bit different next year.

For example, when we meet people that want to learn more about transforming a printed publication into an immersive mobile App, then it is really likely that they are marketers who know something about QR codes. If they don’t know what a QR code is or how to read one, then they probably shouldn’t be on our radar.

Hey, while you’ve got time, why not try on a QR code for size? Getting one is very easy, just go to this site or even this one and enter the requisite information and voila, you will be presented with a fully functional QR code that points smartphones to content that you would like them to view (or process).

I like to send my contacts to a page that is all about me since, IMHO.. that is the reason they requested the business card in the first place. I also enjoy making it more of a challenge for people to get in touch with me directly, since, let’s face it, not many of us can process more than 400 emails each day without having some sort of negative impact on our social lives (or sleep patterns).

One more thing, since QR codes can be URLs, text, phone numbers, google map location, an event announcement, a paypal buy now link or even SMS text messages… you might consider using multiple QR codes depending on your objective. Here are what a few of mine look like.

Here’s a simple recipe for QR code success.

If you are going to implement a campaign using QR codes, be sure that the codes
- are displayed in locations that have reasonable cell phone reception
- are clear and easy to read using a variety of devices including low resolution cameras

Instead of linking directly to a youtube video, consider creating a mobile friendly site or web page with the video embedded and a backup option with text instructions and images in case the video refuses to load.

Be sure to track those clicks and put analytics on your landing page to gauge the effectiveness of the campaign and the browser / device breakdown of people pinging the QR code.

Remember to include a couple of simple social media sharing options and you have the makings of a great mobile & social media campaign without too much effort.

Yes, I’ve seen the future and it is a wave!
All you need is an hour and a half and you too will be able to peer into the crystal ball and see what’s coming down the pipes later this year and how this new technology from Google will impact our online lives in new and wonderful ways. Enjoy…

1. Why do we have to live with incompatible and inherently different types of communication — email versus chat, or conversations versus documents?
2. Could a single communications model span all or most of the systems in use on the web today, in one smooth continuum?
3. How simple could we make it?
4. What if we tried designing a communications system that took advantage of computers’ current abilities, rather than imitating non-electronic forms?

Google WAVE is the answer and if you’ve got an hour +++ and some refreshments, watch the video, give it some thought and then let us know what you might do with the wave… We’ve already started planning our collaborative extensions!

For those of you with less than an hour of available time and a bit of ADD, here is the 30’000 foot view:

A “wave” is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Here’s how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It’s concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use “playback” to rewind the wave and see how it evolved. That means that users of applications such as bug reporting, Customer support services, communication and decision making online just got a boost and companies that deliver collaboration platforms in this space are likely to get the boot.

Could Google Wave Redefine Email and Web Communication?  We think so but, let’s hear your thoughts.

I spent a good amount of time reviewing business opportunities in China both locally and from abroad in 2006/7. The overwhelming conclusion I drew was that there is enormous potential in almost every sector of the economy driven by both foreign demand and local consumption capacity. Some companies were not able to produce enough product to satisfy local and regional demand let alone national demand in China yet, as I stepped into the reality that is the China of today, I discovered that I needed to shed my preconceived ideas that China’s production capacity exists to serve foreign interests. Sure, international markets are of great importance to the Chinese manufacturing sector but, the number of companies I reviewed that produced product for export only were few and far between.

China is a gigantic market just getting ready to shift into a consumer oriented phase. So, what exactly was I doing in China? Well, I figured that if I could identify sectors with the strongest production growth this would give me some insight into a future global trend that helps to answer my number one question… what is going to be the next big thing? and… how can I come up with a best guess estimate before the world wakes up and smells the coffee?

So here is what I did. I reviewed the following industries and their largest manufacturing partners in China.
Lighting: including LEDs and Displays
Optics: lenses of all shapes and sizes including x-ray… yes, x-ray lenses!
Sensors: the kind that are able to sense 5 particles per million for security applications fighting potential terrorist threats
Actuators: MEMS, NEMS MOEMS and NOEMS… don’t even ask plus medical testing devices
Storage: mechanical HDDs are on their way out or are they? I had a 100 GB solid state drive in my hand
Semiconductors: What is the biggest obstacle to progress on Moore’s law these days… I found out!
Energy: Well, with the rising price of fossil fuels alternative is the only way and improving methods of harvesting energy were on the list of the coolest inventions I saw
Biotech or as it’s known today… life science – DNA manipulation seems to be all the rage but what caught my attention was the ability of some companies to grow skin and…

Ok, enough! if I haven’t bored you by now you are probably wondering what this article is all about.
Well, I thought that if I were able to analyze what is being produced today and get an idea of what is coming down the pipe to satisfy the needs of tomorrow then I could gain some valuable insight into who will manufacture the next big hit for tomorrow… for several different industries and kind of hedge my bet. I got lucky, I discovered something even more valuable.

In my research I analyzed all major players in the above industry sectors and put together something like a roadmap for each. Although the time lines vary as each company plans to move its invention from the R&D phase into production and no one is able to forecast consumer or business demand for 5 years from today, there were some very interesting correlations. One was size. Products will be getting smaller – fact. Another was that products will be influenced more by market need (pull) rather than an inventor’s desire to create a new market (push). Lastly, ROI is playing a greater role in how long a particular invention is allowed to cook in the R&D labs before it is forced out the door to an awaiting and already expectant consumer market.

How about a summary of my thoughts? OK, take the current products manufactured today, do research on where they are headed, look into the components that enhance or add value to each of these products and see if there are a few companies that produce the next generation of these components – then limit the study to less than 10 industries where these components are bound to have major impact.

Do you see where I am headed with this now? If I can identify companies that produce something really small on a micro or even nano scale that improves today’s products and will be integral in moving tomorrow’s products forward, I will have successfully identified a winner in not one but several industries.

In my most recent estimation, there are not a lot of these players out there but they do exist and I am hunting them down one by one. Did I mention that I am already in discussions with one?

Yes, I believe that I have identified the first of several of these core component providers. If you have read my article this far, then you may want to contact me to learn more because information this hot, can not yet be published in an open forum. Alas, the search continues and a new project is born to narrow down the hunt for the next big thing.

Each of us tends to see things from a different perspective. I recently discovered that I too can see things very differently from what I expected and thanks to the animation below – now, so can you.

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot… the dot will remain pink.

If you scroll down and stare at the plus sign in the center of the circle, you may notice that the moving dot changes to another color – for many people it becomes a moving green dot.

If you really concentrate on the plus sign you will probably notice that all the pink dots will disappear.

I can guarantee you that the pink dots are still there and that there is no green dot at all! I only created pink dots for this graphic!

This is positive proof that not everything we see actually exists.