RELEASE: SPRING
Planet Share
Ever wonder if your AOL buddies are on the same planet? Now it's time to see. Using brightly colored space orbs, Ububu helps you organize bookmarks and share them with users far, far away. The desktop scheme populates your screen with planets, each of which links to Web sites and desktop applications; it's an interface with enough pizzazz to make Microsoft's Active Desktop feel very mundane. Ububu is even filling out its interplanetary vision by hiringStar Trekker Patrick Stewart as spokesperson.
To share your world with others, simply email a planet or a small constellation. The PC software - a Mac version is soon to follow - appears on a friend's computer after a short download.
Whether Web surfers will want to download a plug-in to redecorate their desktops is open to debate, but Ububu will keep the universe tidy for those who do.
Ububu:www.ububu.com.
RELEASE: SPRING
Marking Time
Many radio stations give out membership cards, but Smooth Jazz KKSF in San Francisco goes one step further: It issues iTags. The keychain devices let listeners bookmark the songs or ads they like by clicking a button. Later, they connect the iTag to their home computers to read up on or buy the songs they marked, or learn more about an advertiser.
Similar programs are rolling out in six cities, with more on the way. Because servers track statistics that quickly reveal what's popular and with whom, it's a music-industry dream come true - iTag maker Xenote even imagines adding athis song sucks button. The clickers have great potential for commercials as well, since advertisers can finally know how well the messages they scatter through the airwaves actually spark interest and drive sales. (If the iTags become popular, we might see fewer ads devoted to untrackable, brand-shaping cleverness and more based on direct-response haranguing: "To get this special one-time deal, click now! Click now!!")
iTags work by noting the exact time a user clicks on the button and then comparing these time stamps against the radio station's playlist logs. An ideal clicker, of course, would sync with any radio station, and this fall Xenote plans to introduce a multistation model that will determine which station you're tuned to. Technically, it will work by transmitting an inaudible, low-power signal over the entire breadth of the FM band, zooming up from 88 to 107 and detecting precisely when your radio responds. Meanwhile, Xenote is also developing a barcode-reading version, for bookmarking physical products.
The company motto, "Bookmark the Real World," reflects not just ambition but a basic change in our relationship to ephemera. With everything tagged, nothing interesting has to be lost.
Xenote:www.xenote.com.
RELEASE: APRIL
Eros by Air
Sometimes true feelings are more easily shared in writing than face-to-face. That's the prime mover of a kids' PDA called Cybiko. The Palm-sized gadget works as a portable instant messenger to send and receive confessions with other Cybikos up to 300 yards away. The mini QWERTY keyboard allows users to bang out mash notes with ease.
Invented by David Yang, a former Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology solid-state physics student, Cybiko has its own operating system, a personal organizer for children, and aDoom-like game that allows several units to play together wirelessly. There's even a romance enhancement function: Users who program in their interests can be silently alerted when someone with similar interests walks into range. More serious-minded young 'uns can try their hand at programming new games for the device.
The $149 Cybiko will vie for parents' money against the recently released $69.95 Lightning Mail from Hasbro. Lightning Mail has only a 50-foot range for instant messaging and fewer features, but it comes with a built-in modem and free access to Internet email through NetZero.
Cybiko:www.cybiko.com.
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