Technology Futures

Internet radio dropped off the radar years ago because of royalty issues. Start up Internet radio stations streaming music were not always paying royalties, and the record companies responded by imposing absurdly expensive royalties that put most Internet radio stations out of business.

But the grudging acceptance of digital music by the record companies has led to more reasonable royalty rates, and a radio start-up called Slacker is trying to make a go of it by introducing yet another portable music player that is half iPod and half radio. The Slacker Portable, when connected to your computer, downloads an ever changing selection of tunes, based on your own preferences. You can listen to them anytime, in the same way you would listen to your own music on an iPod or other MP3 player.

Slacker's niche is that you are not stuck with your own, unchanging playlists; Slacker updates and changes the playlists automatically when you plug your Slacker Portable in to your computer.

It is a neat idea, and is likely to be popular if they can break the link between the service and the requirement for yet another specialized device. There are only so many gadgets people want to carry around.

I was in another meeting with economic developers, and there was a growing recognition that broadband and power are the new water and sewer. In the Manufacturing Economy, it was water and sewer capacity that often made the difference when trying to attract manufacturing plants to a region.

Today, it is redundant broadband cable routes, multiple broadband service providers, redundant electric service, and reliable backup electric power that is driving relocation decisions. Medium and large companies are decentralizing their back office and server farm operations, moving them into more rural areas with good quality of life and a lower cost of living. But they are looking for business parks with electric power coming from two different substations, so one electric line could go down and there would still be power available. A single medium-sized server farm building may require 30 megawatts of power, and needs a substantial backup diesel or natural gas generator.

Companies also want broadband access not just from two or three different firms but also two or even three different cable routes. And they want all these facilities in place--they can't wait twelve to eighteen months while they are built. Relocation decisions are often made in as little as two to three months.

Can your economic developers answer all these questions? Does your region have an economic development strategy to address the broadband and power needs of Knowledge Economy businesses?

USA Today and many other papers and news outlets are carrying stories on Google's gPhone, which will be an open source software-powered cell phone. Sort of. The phone will use a variant of Linux, and users will be able to load non-Google software on it.

But the exact business model is still under wraps. It will probably be free or very low fee, but Google is in the business of making money. The company already intends to put many of its own applications and services on the phone, and one has to wonder if you will be able to remove them or use competing software.

You also have to wonder what role ads will play. Will you have to scroll through a bunch of ads every time you want to make a phone call? Will you have to watch a 30 second ad video to make a call?

Finally, you have to wonder about privacy. Google has a terrible track record with privacy, and in return for using this cheap or free phone, Google will probably get to capture all your phone numbers and contacts. And if there is email and Web browsing supported on the phone, as there almost certainly is, Google will likely be capturing every email address and will be storing every Web site you visit.

But the phone is free! While the phone may have widespread appeal to college kids and people on a budget, I suspect a lot of people will look at the terms of service and pass.

The iPhone has broken all customer satisfaction records, with 82% of iPhone owners saying they are "Very satisfied" with the device. This is the highest rating that any cellphone has ever received, and an indication that Apple once again has raised the bar for a market.

If you have not had a chance to try out an iPhone or an iPod touch, stop in an Apple store or an AT&T and store and play with it, especially the Web browser. Browsing the Web on cellphones, even phones with relatively large screens like the Treo, has always been an exercise in frustration. But on the iPhone or iPod touch, it is effortless to navigate and easy to read. Apple's multi-touch interface makes it simple to move around a Web page, scroll down as you read, and make the text bigger or smaller.

The iPhone is not just a better cellular phone, it is an entirely new device that, like the iPod, is going to change the entire marketplace for portable devices.